Google Loon balloon crashes near Yakima • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Loon balloon crashes near Yakima

#31

Post by robin_reala » Tue, Jun 03, 2014, 4:55 PM UTC

jgrahamc wrote: post #28

robin_reala wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh god, I’d blocked from my mind the pain of ring dropping. We had MAUs for the servers, but for some reason ran the rest of the office on CAT-5 TR gear from Madge without any MAUs. Just took someone to unplug and that section of the office would lose network connectivity.

:-) I used to work for Madge. Why were you running without MAUs?

Possibly the more important question is ‘Why were you running a token ring network in 1999?’! I have no idea why our network was structured like that, this was my first job in the industry and I was a lowly PC tech at the time. If I had to guess, the word that springs to mind is ‘legacy’.

Re: Google Loon balloon crashes near Yakima

#32

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jun 03, 2014, 4:57 PM UTC

gregholmberg wrote: post #16

kordless wrote: post #15

The word 'crashes' could easily be substituted with 'drifted into'.

Dropping at 2000 feet per minute is not quite free fall, but it's a long way from a drifting dandelion seed. I wonder if the balloon payload left a crater.

[deleted]

Re: Google Loon balloon crashes near Yakima

#33

Post by incision » Tue, Jun 03, 2014, 5:20 PM UTC

robin_reala wrote: post #31

jgrahamc wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

:-) I used to work for Madge. Why were you running without MAUs?

Possibly the more important question is ‘Why were you running a token ring network in 1999?’! I have no idea why our network was structured like that, this was my first job in the industry and I was a lowly PC tech at the time. If I had to guess, the word that springs to mind is ‘legacy’.

>'Possibly the more important question is ‘Why were you running a token ring network in 1999?’!'

I've worked on a token ring network as recently as 2006. Thankfully, part of the project was migrating off of it.

Re: Google Loon balloon crashes near Yakima

#34

Post by lotsofmangos » Tue, Jun 03, 2014, 5:35 PM UTC

There is something almost poetic in this. The perils of accidental infrastructural intercourse.

Re: Google Loon balloon crashes near Yakima

#35

Post by ibrad » Tue, Jun 03, 2014, 6:34 PM UTC

I would still go for cables on the ground ... or underground.

Re: Google Loon balloon crashes near Yakima

#36

Post by trhway » Tue, Jun 03, 2014, 6:55 PM UTC

gregholmberg wrote: post #6

In the 90s, I would sometimes trip over ethernet cables that had been strung between server racks, across an aisle. Will this be the decade where I get to experience being struck by falling routers and switches, far from any data center? (EDIT: Simply remarking on novelty of problem and upward growth of network. No criticism of any firm implied or intended.)

>Will this be the decade where I get to experience being struck by falling routers and switches,

especially if the falling equipment identifies you as the softest landing spot in the vicinity (thus providing for lesser damage to / higher chances of the equipment survival :)

> far from any data center?

until off course it is the air borne (near-space) datacenter itself.