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Is Google building a hulking floating data center in SF Bay?

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Re: Is Google building a hulking floating data center in SF Bay?

#91

So it appears as though Google is looking towards a future where they are an independent country, or at the very least free from regulation, visa-a-vis Seasteading. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasteading

Consistent with this, too:

http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/15/4334356/larry-page-wants-t...

Re: Is Google building a hulking floating data center in SF Bay?

#92
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you mapreduce the Pirate search. Send out 100 workers to check on the nearby ports and see which ones come back. You need to think at Google scale.

Or you can be sneaky. Put out some irresistable, yet covert job offers for pirates in the necessary ports, and see where the applications come from.

Or put a "Report a Pirate" bounty and crowdsource it.

Re: Is Google building a hulking floating data center in SF Bay?

#93
post #57
post #20

Great article. It's nice to see journalists do actual investigative work, even if it is for something like this. Today's "journalism" seems to be all link-bait opinion pieces mixed in with copy-pastes from twitter.

True, although it certainly seems like Google was half-assing it with the security. If you don't want something to be tied back to your company, don't have company employees work on it.

Sure worked for the NSA, didn't it?

Re: Is Google building a hulking floating data center in SF Bay?

#94
post #37

I hope they fit it with sub-surface portholes and webcams. The article keeps saying "huge", but really that's tiny for a ship. Google could buy an old cruise liner and fit several of those inside. Or maybe Google is going to buy more little ships and plonk one of these in each? I hope that they have adequate security, because all that gold and copper is worth stealing for some people.

I guess they'd better make the first one not too ambitious and ramp up later.

It's still in beta.

Re: Is Google building a hulking floating data center in SF Bay?

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think wave power is deployed successfully yet[1]. The cooling would not be a leap of technology though. [1] Its under development http://www.pelamiswave.com/ but I don't think its finished yet.

Yeah, that's why I was trying to figure out how they would power it. Diesel generators seem... unGoogley.

The article's patent diagram reminded me of an Arthur C. Clarke short story (I can't remember the name) about generating power from the temperature differential between the surface of the ocean and cold depths.

Re: Is Google building a hulking floating data center in SF Bay?

#98
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Submit it to USPTO and other national or trans-national (e.g. EU) patent registries like any other patent. This one's included in the article: https://www.google.com/patents/US7525207

Satire aside. My point was the ridiculousness of it. What's next, patents covering putting data centers in space, under the sea or under stairs etc..

There's a Chinese patent on putting a data center in space [0], and a US patent for a partially submerged data center [1], but I can't find anything for putting a data center under the stairs... you should patent it!

[0] https://www.google.com/patents/CN103186179A?cl=en

[1] https://www.google.com/patents/US20130044426

Re: Is Google building a hulking floating data center in SF Bay?

#99
post #90

The middle of the ocean could be a a very high margin location for IaaS hosting. Due to speed-of-light delays, some of the ideal locations for hosting high-speed trading arbitrages are in the middle of the ocean. Being half way between two exchanges would allow you to notice a small difference in price of some commodity in two different exchanges and buy and sell microseconds before your competitors on the mainland k…

If this actually worked, there would be boats sitting in the middle of the Atlantic and Pacific with computers on them. I have no idea if they are sitting there, but I'm pretty sure if it was an idea that worked, it would be done by now.

Re: Is Google building a hulking floating data center in SF Bay?

#100

Can somebody explain the point behind the secrecy? What does Google have to gain by taking all these steps to hide they're the ones building it?

So that the reveal can be done on their own timing, only when things are ready, for maximum desired effect.

Trickling details out about something still taking shape leads to expectation problems, and perhaps less favorable coverage (in magnitude and tone) at intended launch time.

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