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A worker supervises a copper pipe spool at NEC's OCC's plant in Kitakyushu, Japan, where cable for the Google-backed FASTER transpacific Internet cable is being manufactured.  Credit:  Tim Hornyak By  Tim Hornyak   IDG News Service   |   Jul 14, 2015  Undersea cables carry virtually all transoceanic Internet data these days, replacing satellites as the preferred medium. Google and some telecom companies have invested in one of them, called FASTER, that will stretch 9,000 kilometers (5,592 miles) between the U.S. and Japan and is due to go into operation next year. With six fiber-pairs in the cable, each carrying 100 wavelengths at 100 gigabits per second, it will have a peak capacity of 60 terabits per second (Tbps). That's about  10 million times faster than a standard cable modem . Here are some facts about undersea cables -- and about the FASTER system in particular. 1. About 99% of all transoceanic Int...

STICK IT TO THE MAN By  Alexandra Ossola DIY HDTV Antenna Photograph by Jonathon Kambouris This fractal antenna can be assembled in an hour or less. Frustrated by years of expensive cable bills, Norm Sutaria ditched his set-top box and used  online instructions  to build a homemade HDTV antenna. Then the education specialist shared his newfound expertise with a class at Brooklyn Brainery, a crowd-sourced education space in New York City. Popular Science  sat in to learn how to nab affordable, high-resolution television. Design Students in Sutaria’s class built either a 32-inch “bow tie antenna,” reminiscent of the classic rabbit ears, or an eight-inch “fractal antenna,” pictured here, which is more compact and slightly harder to make. Assembly Both designs were simple: a few pieces of copper wire arranged on a block of wood using nails and washers. The wires pick up HDTV signals and send them to the television via a matching t...