Abstract: A facility is described for providing shared telepointers and for enabling hosts and participants to highlight portions of documents or applications using the shared telepointers. In various embodiments, the facility establishes a sharing session wherein an application executing on a host computing device is shared with a participant computing device, receives at the host computing device an indication from a participant computing device to identify a region to users in the sharing session, draws the identified region on a display device associated with the host computing device, and causes the identified region to be drawn on a display device associated with the participant computing device. In various embodiments, the region is a spot region or a highlighted region that is drawn in a color associated with a user of the participant computing device.

Abstract: An optical fiber preform is assembled by inserting core rod segments axially end to end inside of a first glass overclad tube having a first, relatively low concentration of a given impurity that contributes to signal attenuation in an optical fiber to be drawn from the preform. The first overclad tube with the contained core rod segments are inserted in a second glass tube having a second concentration of the given impurity which is higher than the first concentration. The wall thickness of the first overclad tube is preferably less than that of the second overclad tube, thus reducing the amount of high purity glass needed to form the first overclad tube and attendant manufacturing costs. The core rod segments may include salvageable remnants from a single long core rod produced, for example, by vapor axial deposition (VAD).

Abstract: Embodiments of the invention include an optical fiber preform assembly and a method for making optical fiber using the preform assembly. The assembly includes a preform core rod, at least one overclad tube formed around the preform core rod, a handle attached to one end of the overclad tube, and a refractory material positioned in the overclad tube between the preform core rod and the handle. The refractory material reduces if not prevents movement of the preform core rod into the handle during the fiber draw process. Preferably, the refractory material is made of, e.g., magnesium oxide and/or aluminum oxide, and has a melting point, e.g., greater than approximately 2000 degrees Celsius. Embodiments of the invention also include a method for making optical fiber using this preform assembly.