This picture was taken at the site of field maintenance work in support of the Flickr mission. A motley crew from the Western Regional Base was high in the hills, stringing metal optic cable (leading edge technology) that is used to carry images and data to surfers to remote areas when microwave systems are too expensive or impractical.

Although the cable is a technological marvel in terms of bandwidth, it is rather fragile and requires very careful handling to ensure its integrity. Standard operating procedure is to unroll it from a huge spool in a sustained, deliberate manner, minimizing bending of the material. This ensures that the maximum amount of surfers can use the line simultaneously. The workers who mis-handled this cable were appropriately punished: their broadband connections at home were downgraded to dial-up (with rotary dial phones on a party line).