Re: [OT] Re: Fiber cut in SF area

[Christopher Morrow <morrowc.lists () gmail com>]

On Sat, Apr 11, 2009 at 2:43 PM, Joe Greco <jgreco () ns sol net> wrote:
> > On Saturday 11 April 2009 08:31:55 Joe Greco wrote:
> > > Speaking of that, a manhole cover is
> > > typically protecting some hole, accessway, or vault that's made out of
> > > concrete.
> >
> > An oxyacetylene torch or a plasma cutter will slice through regular steel
> > manhole covers in minutes.
>
> Yes, but we were discussing locked covers, which (given the underlying
> assumptions of this discussion) might be a bit heavier.  Further, it would
> be vaguely suspicious and more noticeable for a "road crew" or "power
> company" truck to be deploying such gear, might draw more attention.

Cop: 'What are you fellows doing there with the torch?"
Me: "Us? Oh yea.... some dipstick plugged up our lock here with epoxy,
our quick solution cause of the outage is to cut the lock/blah off
with a torch, bummer, eh? I hate dipsticks..."
Cop: "Cool, have a good night!"

:(

> > The locking covers I have seen here put the lock(s) on the inside cover cam
> > jackscrew (holes through the jackscrew close to the inside cover seal rod
> > nut), rather than on the outside cover, thus keeping the padlocks out of the
> > weather.
>
> More expense.  :-)

and complexity
and parts to lose
and people to have away during normal outage repairs
and ... :( fail.

> > Requires a certain atmosphere of distrust, unfortunately.  And slows repairs
> > way down, especially if the 833's key is lost....
>
>
> Certainly it is *possible* to do it, but given the other variables, does
> it make *sense*?
>
> Consider what I was saying about just going to town with a backhoe.  You
> have a lot to protect.

and I also would ask.. what's the cost/risk here? 'We' lost at best
~1day for some folks in the outage, nothing  global and nothing
earth-shattering... This has happened (this sort of thing) 1 time in
how many years? Expending $$ and time and people to go 'put padlocks
on manhole covers' seems like spending in the wrong place...

(yes, I agree also that simply dropping into a manhole with an
axe/hacksaw is pretty simple to do, it's also just about impossible to
realisitcally protect against)

-Chris