[ih] Internet without entrenched factions?

[Karl Auerbach]

Thanks, I had not known that the real-life non-glass filled fiber had a 
gas filler instead.

One under-explored aspect of Internet history are the opportunities that 
have existed for fake or useless products (as jokes.)

John Romkey did a Brain Wave Transfer Protocol - and I don't think it 
was an April 1 thing.  And our Internet toasters were real (and worked!)

And one of the joys of a bogus catalog is that I don't actually have to 
build the stuff or make it work.

I think one of the things that helped the Internet take off was that 
most of us seem to have a sense of humor - something notably absent from 
some other networking communities.

One of the claimed benefits of my hypothetical vacuum filled fiber was 
that one could introduce a bit of neon, apply enough voltage, and get a 
very visual form - Las Vegas mode - of cable tracing.  ;-)

(In real life I've spent too many days and nights crawling around 
through unpleasant spaces [particularly in damp and wet vaults under the 
streets of downtown San Francisco] trying to figure out which cable is 
which and were they go.  But I'll chose to work in a damp/cold tunnel 
rather than on top of a very tall, shaking snorkel lift.)

One of my other bogus products, the Maximum Momentum Router, winds up 
outgoing packets to speeds that could blow a hole in an unprotected wall.

      https://www.cavebear.com/cb_catalog/current/maxmoment/

         --karl--

On 5/15/26 3:03 PM, John Levine wrote:
> It appears that Karl Auerbach via Internet-history <karl at iwl.com> said:
>> I've had vacuum filled fiber on my catalog of bogus network products for
>> several years.
> I wouldn't disagree, but the core of hollow core fiber usually
> contains air or an inert gas, so I don't see how it's relevant. The
> refractive index of air is 1.0003 so the speed difference vs vacuum is
> insignificant.
>
> R's,
> John