Like the cars driving around the country taking pictures, they will have 3D street view for the oceans. So you can look at other boats. Or maybe for cartography below the water for better viewing? That would be cool if I used Google for anything.
I support anyone who finds a use for the seventeen gazillion (some sources say up to nineteen gazillion) shipping containers that are sitting disused and rusting in massive mountains around the world. My city has several such mountains! What a waste.
There are actually many uses for these containers. Here are a couple of suggestions:
Storm shelter if buried in the ground. Cheap and quick though I'm not sure how long the will last.
Same as the above but buried in a concrete tomb would make for a nice bomb shelter. This might be very useful as we move close to a full scale nuclear war in the Middle East.
Work shops that are portable. It is interesting, the Army puts a CNC mill, a satellite communications rig, a 3D printer and some plasma / welding equipment in these containers and ships the world wide to support our troops. It is an idea that craftsman could use to build their own shops or at least segregate off the messy stuff to a small container.
They are actually decent sheds.
If you are a Morman, prepper, survivalist, or just concerned about surviving the next natural disaster they are great storage supplements for your K-rations, Ammo, gas, solar panels, generators and what have you. The difference here is that sheds are there for daily use, these would be long term installations.
If you are into ham radio they can make for great radio shacks. Again the potential for portability should not be ignored.
With a little work they can be turned into nice dog kennels. Think teams of dogs here, or one very much loved dog.
Test platform for exploring floating data centers?
The version in those photos doesn’t strike me as a long-term or permanent solution, nor a good year-round platform. Way too top-heavy, for one. The first sign of heavy seas would wreak havoc on that “barge"...
You can’t fit a whole lot of servers into a platform that size, along with employees. Who would want to live/work on that thing anyway??
It's just more google crap that will slide of the wall just like undercooked spaghetti. In this case it will serve the world better as a wonderful artificial reef than whatever nonsense they have conjured up.
Lets see%u2026%u2026 would a giant water heater running 24/7 have any environmental impact on the the surrounding water temperature and marine life...
If they use their patent to use ocean waves as the energy generation source, it's a closed loop, so it's thermal impact would be nearly zero (obviously there no such perfect closed loop).
If parked in the bay sucking power off the grid... different story, but then likely below tolerances for a industrified bay.
Test platform for exploring floating data centers?
The version in those photos doesn’t strike me as a long-term or permanent solution, nor a good year-round platform. Way too top-heavy, for one. The first sign of heavy seas would wreak havoc on that “barge"...
You can’t fit a whole lot of servers into a platform that size, along with employees. Who would want to live/work on that thing anyway??
err, 48,000 servers: see -->
Probably a decent server farm.
top heavy? Not if the bilges are filled, and the lower compartments are lead acid batteries and power generation equipment
How many employees are needed in a Google data Center... they are almost fully automated to the point of any failure is routed around (it's famously noted that Google data centers they don't fix broken components... as it costs more to to fix than to just wait until most of a rack is dead, then just replace the entire rack)
Like an oil rig... you'll helo in a crew every week... a Captain (with root access), a couple mates to help keep the thing pointed into the wind, and a cook.
My guess is once a data center fails down to around 60%... they just scuttle the boat, and file an insurance claim;-)
Comments
Floating data centers free from the prying eyes and dictates of our out-of-control government? I'm all for it.
If they are seven miles offshore, they will still be within U.S. territorial waters. They will have to go farther out.
Let's hope it, too, doesn't fall prey to
fragmentation.
@samplehead
each deck is 4 containers wide by 4 containers deep
there are 3 decks
48 total containers
(James Garner joke)
Running Wild as in I could give a ****
I thought the horn of Massachusetts was New England’s erection…
If they are seven miles offshore, they will still be within U.S. territorial waters. They will have to go farther out.
If you remember, Larry Page was the one who mused about Google starting their own island government.
There are actually many uses for these containers. Here are a couple of suggestions:
Everything you ever wanted to know: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermodal_container
News Headline:
Google releases 23,040 Inch Nexus Tablet range.
Initial supplies reported to be constrained
The version in those photos doesn’t strike me as a long-term or permanent solution, nor a good year-round platform. Way too top-heavy, for one. The first sign of heavy seas would wreak havoc on that “barge"...
You can’t fit a whole lot of servers into a platform that size, along with employees. Who would want to live/work on that thing anyway??
Taking that barge down to Mavericks WOULD be a gamble… have you seen those waves??
So Google built a couple of Arks
Stuart
Lets see%u2026%u2026 would a giant water heater running 24/7 have any environmental impact on the the surrounding water temperature and marine life...
If they use their patent to use ocean waves as the energy generation source, it's a closed loop, so it's thermal impact would be nearly zero (obviously there no such perfect closed loop).
If parked in the bay sucking power off the grid... different story, but then likely below tolerances for a industrified bay.
Test platform for exploring floating data centers?
The version in those photos doesn’t strike me as a long-term or permanent solution, nor a good year-round platform. Way too top-heavy, for one. The first sign of heavy seas would wreak havoc on that “barge"...
You can’t fit a whole lot of servers into a platform that size, along with employees. Who would want to live/work on that thing anyway??
err, 48,000 servers: see -->
Probably a decent server farm.
top heavy? Not if the bilges are filled, and the lower compartments are lead acid batteries and power generation equipment
How many employees are needed in a Google data Center... they are almost fully automated to the point of any failure is routed around (it's famously noted that Google data centers they don't fix broken components... as it costs more to to fix than to just wait until most of a rack is dead, then just replace the entire rack)
Like an oil rig... you'll helo in a crew every week... a Captain (with root access), a couple mates to help keep the thing pointed into the wind, and a cook.
My guess is once a data center fails down to around 60%... they just scuttle the boat, and file an insurance claim;-)
My thought, exactly. They intend to assimilate us.