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How an Older TV Screwed Up an Entire Village’s Internet



It took experts months to figure out what was causing outages for a small town in Wales. Here’s what they did to solve it.

© Jeffrey Coolidge – Getty Images
It took experts months to figure out what was causing outages for a small town in Wales. Here’s what they did to solve it.
  • A TV in Wales took down the local internet, making it a lesson about interference.
  • Shielded cabling and other tech helps protect signals, but this interference is unpredictable.
  • The ISP worked for months to figure out what regularly took down this network.

An embarrassed villager in Aberhosan, Wales, has learned their old TV has been messing up the entire village broadband connection. The cause—discovered by an engineering team from Openreach—is a burst of electrical activity called SHINE: single high-level impulse noise.

Older TVs, likely limited to only CRTs and prior unless something’s wrong with your wiring, experience an intense concentration of energy when you first power them on—you’d notice more resistance and an indescribable noise when you powered on these

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IdeaTek awarded $13.7 million to extend internet access – News – The Hutchinson News

A grant announcement made Thursday afternoon brings new meaning to the phrase “high-speed internet.”

Buhler-based IdeaTek will receive $13.71 million from four Connectivity Emergency Response Grants (CERG) awarded by the state in response to the novel coronavirus to extend its fiber-optic network to unserved and underserved areas in parts of more than a dozen area counties .

The company is teaming up with several local and state nonprofit agencies in new ways to leverage the state funding and qualify for the grant.

The challenge, however, is that the company must spend the millions going toward installing some 300 miles of new line and related wireless equipment within the next 80-some days.

That’s because of a federal government requirement attached to money, which flowed from the federal CARES Act, that it be spent before the end of the year or it will have to be repaid.

To put the challenge in

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Shaky internet access across Michigan poses problems for online schooling

With many Michigan school districts opting for at least some online instruction this fall, a trusty internet connection and a laptop is often a student’s only link to their teachers and classrooms.

But for thousands of kids in rural and urban communities alike, access to reliable internet and a device suitable for learning isn’t a guarantee.

And while local districts, nonprofits, technology experts and others have worked to address long-standing, systemic gaps in technology access to get students set up for online learning, significant challenges remain to fully address Michigan’s “digital divide.”

“When you boil it down, rural areas need infrastructure, and all areas need devices and affordable connections,” said Eric Frederick, executive director for Connect Michigan, a nonprofit that tracks broadband access around the state.

According to a statewide survey conducted in mid-April by the Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators, 29.3 percent of Michigan students statewide did not

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Akamai CTO discusses the impact of AI on Internet performance

James Kretchmar, CTO of Akamai, spoke to Information Age about how AI and machine learning impact Internet performance Akamai CTO discusses the impact of AI on Internet performance image

Akamai CTO James Kretchmar discussed the company’s background, current work on Internet performance, and future AI trends.

Intelligent edge platform Akamai was born out of a conversation between Sir Tim Berners-Lee and the company’s CEO, Dr. Tom Leighton, at MIT. CTO of Akamai, James Kretchmar, explained how this led to the idea of a decentralised model for the Internet, that’s now deployed in over 1,500 networks today in an aim to better performance.

James Kretchmar, CTO of Akamai

“Dr. Berners-Lee understood that there were going to be these future difficulties in getting good performance for content on the web, and that the architecture was going to have bottlenecks and congestion overload of servers,” said Kretchmar. “Dr. Berners-Lee posed the challenge to Tom, who is a well-renowned expert in algorithms to find algorithmic

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Nxivm Had a Cult Leader Made for the Internet

There is a scene early in “The Vow,” HBO’s documentary series on Nxivm, where an eager recruit meets the group’s mysterious leader for the first time. After being described in near-godlike terms by his acolytes in Albany — who rhapsodize about his supposed world-record I.Q., Judo mastery and concert-level piano skills — Keith Raniere finally emerges at an intimate gathering. He is revealed to be a squat man with a dweebish presentation. In a home video, he stalks artlessly around the room, flipping his feathered, center-parted hair and pecking everyone on the lips. “There was a part of me that was like, This is the dude?” said the recruit, a filmmaker named Mark Vicente, after leaving the organization. “But you never know where wisdom comes from. You know?”

What did so many people see in Raniere, the founder of a professional development and women’s empowerment organization that former members

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Chinese internet companies have less to lose when it comes to U.S. threats

Sheldon Cooper | LightRocket | Getty Images

SINGAPORE — China’s internet companies may be more insulated from a fallout between the U.S. and China than telecommunication equipment companies like Huawei, a CLSA tech analyst told CNBC on Monday.

That’s because they do not rely on international suppliers for parts and technology to make their products — unlike telecom companies in the mainland, Elinor Leung, China internet analyst at the brokerage firm, said on “Squawk Box Asia.” 

“The impact for the Chinese internet companies … is going to be smaller compared to the telecom equipment industry because there’s no value chain overseas. Over 80% to 90% of their revenue is in China, so, it’s relatively difficult to affect,” Leung said. “They rely on their own technologies.”

Some of China’s top internet companies are publicly listed in the U.S. — including Alibaba, JD.com and NetEase. In recent months, they have launched secondary

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The Internet challenge – The Hindu

Confined inside home, we try to break the monotony by taking up tough viral tasks on social media.

Every day is a challenge in this pandemic time. Even previously simple “no brainer” chores like buying vegetables from a supermarket has become a daunting challenge now. Now, for buying groceries in the local shop, I had to reasonably distance myself from the elbowing shoppers, organise vegetables in specific wrappers, religiously clean them in chlorinated solution and dry them in the sunlight; and for sure, this pestilence has thrown a spanner in our everyday previously mundane works. Seeking medical help, utilising the services of house maids, attending a family function, visiting the nearby temple, dining out or even the early morning walk where I had to rub shoulders with other fitness freaks — all activities which we took for granted so far, have become mounting challenges now. However, I am more troubled

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The Internet of Things in construction: what are the pros and cons?

Imagine a construction worker has stayed two hours longer than his normal shift, perhaps he is covering for a friend. He’s stressed and tired, his heart rate is up, and his alertness is reduced. It is potentially an accident waiting to happen. Fortunately, your company has invested in the Internet of Things (IoT). An automatic alert has already been sent from the device he wearing to his shift manager, who can pinpoint his exact location and quickly intervene.

This is just one of the many potential uses that the IoT could bring to construction. Interventions like this could prevent mistakes and even save lives. That is why the Internet of Things is one of the most exciting new innovations in construction technology. Consultants at McKinsey believe it could have a global economic impact of nearly $1 trillion on worksites worldwide by 2025. Already, $8 billion has been invested in IoT

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Most affordable home internet plans

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woman working on laptop computer with kitty



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  • Many internet service providers (ISPs) offer specially discounted plans for households receiving economic assistance from the government, such as the National Student Lunch Program (NSLP).
  • Many of these plans cost less than $20/month and include networking equipment.
  • The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) also has a program to help defray the cost of internet service for low-income households.
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No matter who you are, picking out a home internet plan is tricky. You’ll be faced with the decision of what speeds you need on the plan, whether you need to rent a modem and router, how much data you think you might need, and (if you’re lucky enough to live somewhere with multiple options) which internet service provider (ISP)

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LPSS offering free in-home internet assistance program for qualified residents

The Lafayette Parish School System is offering free in-home internet assistance for residents who qualify for the program.

This service provides academic-filtered internet access for LPSS students only (limited/restrictive access to certain websites) and will be provided through either Cox Communications or LUS Fiber.

Parents/guardians in need of assistance for internet access are encouraged to visit https://www.lpssonline.com/Smarts to fill out and submit the In-home Internet Assistance Application by the deadline of October 30, 2020.

Love Our Schools partnered with the Lafayette Parish School System, Pugh Family Foundation, William C. Schumacher Family Foundation, One Acadiana, and many others to address the digital divide in the community, working toward ensuring that all students have access to the internet.

“As educators, we always keep at the forefront of our minds the vital importance of making sure our students have a safe, quality environment conducive for learning and growth; since many of our students

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