12月26日:网络时代的海啸


新年{dy}篇专栏就迟到显然不是一件好事,不过这一次大概可以借助"不可抗力"条款而得到谅解,因为去年12月26日台湾南部发生强烈地y震,导致连接东南亚和外部世界的主要海底通信光缆严重损坏,并且,很不幸的是,{zx1}调查发现情况比预计的还要严重,海底光缆恢复正常运作的最快时间从原来所说的一星期推迟到刚刚宣布的一个月。结果呢,在2004年12月26日印尼海啸两周年这{yt},如同国际先驱论坛报记者所说,亚洲人民开始体会到什么是"网络时代的海啸",通过网络传递的稿件也要像碰运气一样多试几次才能发送出去。

      事实上,国际先驱论坛报记者跟读者一样,当天晚上发生地y震之后并未觉察不妥,只知道伤亡轻微,并且没有太大的引发海啸的可能。直到第二天早上,也就是27日,东南亚地区迎来新的工作日,大家陆续上班,而许多人上班{dy}个动作就是上网,这才意识到出了问题。

      以下选取的三条稿子都在八九千英文字的篇幅,并且恰巧大致形成一个渐进的灾难事故报道系列,从"灾情"到"调查"到"重建",{zh1}附上一条只有200多字的新闻,提出中国地区网络恢复正常的预计日期。

      

      12月28日

      xxxx:Asia wakes up to a life without modern technology.这样一个高度概括的标题哪怕够不上"耸人听闻"的程度,也还是相当吸引眼球。{dy}段话开门见山加以说明:

      It was a tsunami for the digital age, a collapse of the virtual world that radiated through much of Asia and beyond after an undersea earthquake late Tuesday off the coast of Taiwan.

      然后,经过只有一句话那么简洁的场景描述,直奔主题,将两年前的海啸跟当前的网络时代的海啸联系起来,说明我们的世界在越来越依赖网络技术的同时,实际上也变得越来越容易出现漏洞。

      People woke Wednesday to find themselves without e-mail or the Internet and, in some cases, without telephone connections, cut off from the real world around them. The earthquake, which triggered a tsunami alert and some physical damage, ruptured two of the undersea cables that are part of a communications fretwork that circles the globe. Coming on the second anniversary of the Asian tsunami that killed 230,000 people, it was a reminder of the world's increasing dependence on communications technology. Financial companies and technology services suffered most directly, with banking services and securities trading all but crippled. Operations from travel agencies to newspapers to schools were struggling to maintain their routines.

      不过,那天记者知道的光缆损坏数目只有两条,不是后来发现的一组。看过一条电视新闻,当中单是举例说明就提到6条光缆的代码。

      第三段指出我们的问题所在:

      "You don't realize until you miss it how much you rely heavily on technology," said Andrew Clarke, a sales trader in Hong Kong. "Stuff you took for granted has been taken away and you realize, 'Ah, back to the old way, using mobiles'" - an old way that itself is not so old. In this time of rapid change, it is easy to forget how quickly innovations have become necessities, from mobile phones to the Internet to e-mail to instant messaging on both the computer and telephone.

      想想也是,谁能说清楚网络从什么时候起成为生活习惯的一部分,我们又从什么时候起无法回头?

      

      12月29日

      美联社:Taiwan quake highlights fragility of telecoms network, room for investment.xx不同风格的标题,预示着xx不同的报道重点。{dy}段是这样的:

      SINGAPORE (AP) - A few seconds of undersea quaking was all it took to cause massive telecommunications disruptions throughout tech-savvy Asia, where Internet services slowed or stopped, phone lines went dead and financial transactions ground to a halt.

      看来记者试图通过技术分析,探讨这样的网络瘫痪背后到底发生了什么。

      有意思的信息包括:

      In a similar event, a magnitude-6.8 earthquake in Algeria in 2003 damaged cables in the Mediterranean, cutting links to France and slowing down Internet access across the Middle East.

      原来这样的事情不是{dy}次发生,而且光缆也相应做了特别的环路设计以防万一,

      Breaks in the undersea cables are not uncommon - the culprits include earthquakes, volcanos, fishing trawlers, ship anchors and nibbling sharks. For this reason, fiber links are generally built as loops. For instance, FLAG Telecom's North Asia Loop runs undersea from Hong Kong to Taiwan to Korea to Japan, then takes another route back to Hong Kong. If one link in the loop breaks, data will automatically be switched to flow the other way around the ring, and customers would ideally not even notice a change.

      由于没能找到光缆的主人,最终也只能停留在采访技术专家的水平,估计问题出在台南对开海域的光缆过于集中,尤其是环路设计的光缆刚好两个方向都经过这里,结果同样受到地y震损坏,因此不能正常发挥备用功能。

      

      亚洲华尔街日报:Asian telecom firms scramble to restore services - Impact of quake on business is curbed by timing, tactics.终于说到电信公司如何努力恢复服务,引用电信公司主管的话,而他们不约而同地在说完自己的损失情况之后,就通过直接或间接的方式,指出当时正值许多国家的圣诞节假期的事实应该有助于减轻给用户造成的经济损失。当然,记者也没有忘记指出,许多需要通过网络给用户提供内容服务的公司,比如路透社、道琼斯和彭博社,纷纷发出通告,说明有关服务可能受到影响。

      

      12月31日

      美联社:China's Internet expected to be back to normal by Jan. 15.这个标题以及这条短新闻的依据源于中国电信当天发布的一份新闻通告,至于情况到底是不是这样,且让我们拭目以待。