AllThingsD » FLAG http://allthingsd.com Sat, 11 Feb 2012 06:53:43 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://allthingsd.com/theme/images/logo-rss.jpg All Things Digital http://allthingsd.com/ 144 22 Viral Video: It Gets Better (With an Assist from Yahoo, Google, Facebook and Microsoft) http://allthingsd.com/20110119/viral-video-it-gets-better-with-an-assist-from-yahoo-google-facebook-and-microsoft/ http://allthingsd.com/20110119/viral-video-it-gets-better-with-an-assist-from-yahoo-google-facebook-and-microsoft/#comments Wed, 19 Jan 2011 09:09:49 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=39742

In reaction to recent tragic bullying incidents related to gay youth late last year, the It Gets Better Project began soliciting Web videos of encouragement from all over.

The heartening collection of online video messages also includes company-organized ones from a bunch of Internet giants, featuring mostly LGBT, but also straight, staffers telling their poignant stories.

The latest addition is from Yahoo, but Google, Facebook, Microsoft and many others in tech have done them.

(In geek inside jokes, I love the search giant’s little Android mascot with a rainbow flag, as well as some software-making Microsoft folks joking that there are rainbows “in the cloud.”)

As an added plus, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz appears at the end of its video below, and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg is at the end of the social networking site’s effort.

Truly worth your time:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110119/viral-video-it-gets-better-with-an-assist-from-yahoo-google-facebook-and-microsoft/feed/ 3 Damn Undersea Cable's Gone Out AGAIN! http://allthingsd.com/20081219/damn-undersea-cables-gone-out-again/ http://allthingsd.com/20081219/damn-undersea-cables-gone-out-again/#comments Fri, 19 Dec 2008 22:50:07 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=10044 Has Architeuthis TCP/IP struck again? Internet and telephone communications between the Middle East and Europe were severely disrupted today when three major undersea data cables running under the Mediterranean between southern Italy and Egypt were severed. Managed by France Telecom, the affected cable systems–Sea Me We 3, Sea Me We 4 and FLAG–carry more than 75 percent of traffic between the Middle East, Europe and the United States, so the potential impact of an outage like this could be enormous. Like severing a major artery. “If there was just one cable down we could have used the other two,” France Telecom spokesman Louis-Michel Aymard told the AFP. “But all three are down so this puts us in a very difficult situation.” A ship has been dispatched to fix the lines, but it won’t arrive until Monday, and it could take until Dec. 31 to repair them. In the meantime, data traffic that would have traveled over the lines is being rerouted through the United States.

The incident comes less than a year after four undersea communications cables were damaged in a single week by what was believed to be a wayward boat anchor. That’s likely the same culprit here.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20081219/damn-undersea-cables-gone-out-again/feed/ 1 Damn Undersea Cable's Gone Out AGAIN! http://allthingsd.com/20081219/damn-undersea-cables-gone-out-again-2/ http://allthingsd.com/20081219/damn-undersea-cables-gone-out-again-2/#comments Fri, 19 Dec 2008 22:50:07 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=10044 Has Architeuthis TCP/IP struck again? Internet and telephone communications between the Middle East and Europe were severely disrupted today when three major undersea data cables running under the Mediterranean between southern Italy and Egypt were severed. Managed by France Telecom, the affected cable systems–Sea Me We 3, Sea Me We 4 and FLAG–carry more than 75 percent of traffic between the Middle East, Europe and the United States, so the potential impact of an outage like this could be enormous. Like severing a major artery. “If there was just one cable down we could have used the other two,” France Telecom spokesman Louis-Michel Aymard told the AFP. “But all three are down so this puts us in a very difficult situation.” A ship has been dispatched to fix the lines, but it won’t arrive until Monday, and it could take until Dec. 31 to repair them. In the meantime, data traffic that would have traveled over the lines is being rerouted through the United States.

The incident comes less than a year after four undersea communications cables were damaged in a single week by what was believed to be a wayward boat anchor. That’s likely the same culprit here.

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