Interesting - Thank You
That was great Simon. At first I was expecting video but a sequence of still pictures gives better quality images and better resolution. I hope El Reg can do some more of this type of article in the future.
Chances are this story was brought to you by a submarine cable, the world-girdling network of optic fibres that just about make the internet possible. Which is why The Register jumped at the chance to visit the Geo Resolution, a survey ship that plans the routes for new cables. Geo Resolution is a rare craft. It started life …
Agree wholeheartedly. It's also nice to know that a perfectly serviceable vessel is serving a useful purpose after the role for which it was built came to an end.
It's also nice to be reminded that behind all the hype of the internet there are people doing real work in conditions that from time to time will be rather unpleasant and even hostile. It's a pity that more people don't appreciate that as they consume more and more cat videos and post ever more mindless crap on social media.
</meldrew>
In principle, this is a good idea, but not useful for the hearing-impaired - whilst I may be able to hear the commentary with earbuds (no Cyberman-style headphones connected to my phone!), it would still mean taking my hearing-aids out (which I don't like doing). Glad to read that you are looking at how to add text, Simon - thanks for that.
Very interesting article, but I presume it's El Reg's publishing format that prevented this from being comments + large batch of good picture?
The ever present issue with video is that it forces you to watch for the full duration. Granted, 4'19" isn't that much, but most of us are as a consequence of our job usually very good at quick scanning information, and I'm sure I would have "read" this article in 10..50% of the time it takes to go through the video with the added benefit of controlling the pace myself so I can focus or defocus depending on content.
That said, it *was* informative, just curious about the motivation behind using video :)
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Motivation? Twofold.
IMHO telling the story with images and sound makes it more interesting. Reg writers get the opportunity to see some cool stuff. I think (hope?) it serves readers well to share those experiences in the most visceral way we can muster.
Second, we like to play with new storytelling ideas and techniques. And it's probably important we do so to keep the team and site evolving.
I've said it before and I'll say it again; connecting submarines to ships by cable so they can get internet is a foolish thing. The ship is a dead giveaway, negating all that taxpayer-funded stealth-tech in the quest for cat videos and tweets.
Why can't these submariners make do with books, films and cold showers like they did in Ice Station Zebra?
Just a heads up - there's nothing "novel" about the equipment mountings. Those "coiled wire rope" things are standard naval shock mountings. Example supplier here
I recall <cough> decades ago as a young apprentice seeing videos on what they do when a submarine (which is what we were building back then) is depth charged. All I'll say is that they take on shapes that you'd not imagine them capable of - and then (more or less) return to normal !
Of course, you have to make sure there's enough free length in the cables to allow that movement between vessel and equipment. If not, then the equipment survives but is no longer connected to anything which rather defeats the object.