LASERS! && Freemont Street LED array (was Re: Cray J932SE (was Re: Straight 8 up on Ebay just now))

[Swift Griggs]

On Tue, 19 Jul 2016, Mark Green wrote:
> In my day job I work on computational holography and other forms of 
> esoteric 3D displays, so I can give you some insight in how these things 
> work.

Holography is amazing. Do you know much about so-called "free space 
optical" data transmission? I worked with some gear a few years ago that 
could transmit & receive using multiple lasers at 1Gbit. I was fascinated 
with that stuff, but the vendor had their folks do all the alignment and 
installation. So, I didn't get to work with it much.

I wonder if you've seen faster speeds than that. I also wonder what the 
power levels look like for those lasers and what distances the really 
serious ones can reach. Can they still work in bad weather? It seemed like 
the ones that I mentioned, still worked in the rain.

-Swift

PS: It was the May 1984 National Geographic cover that blew me away and 
made me forever respect holography. :-)