| From: | Chuck McKenzie <kilroy@**.WISC.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: The Crash |
| Date: | Wed, 4 Mar 1998 13:15:03 -0600 |
> Okay, that's a _bit_ more like it. Of course, the "technology" to tap an
> ordinary fiber optic line _not_ the sort of thing that can't be rederived
> easily. Make a bend in the wire of the right radius to get Brewster's Angle
> effects on the outer surface of the waveguide, sand off the insulation and
> align with the right optics, and *presto*. Of course, that's the way standard
> fiber works; there have been schemes proposed that use quantum effects that
> would make it _impossible_ to eavesdrop on conversations due to quantum
> effects (the bad guys look at the transmission and the connection simply gets
> broken)...
I think that the big deal about the technology was that it didn't require
direct access to the fiber, but I don't remember the details. A bit like
reading what's on a monitor by scanning the field around it, but probably
even harder.
Chuck McKenzie kilroy@***.cs.wisc.edu
http://www.upl.cs.wisc.edu/~kilroy/ charlesm@**.wisc.edu
"Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under Communism, it's just the
opposite." -- John Kenneth Galbraith
