
Google Reportedly Building More Floating Structures Outside Bay Area - adventured
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/10/28/google-reportedly-building-more-floating-structures-outside-bay-area/
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kposehn
While the fact that they are apparently building structures in several places
is interesting, I find the notion that they will be "used to market google
glass" rather odd.

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Synthetase
Building a marketing center out on a barge makes no sense.

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notatoad
not only does it seem strange to make a marketing center on a barge, but it's
absolutely huge. at a conservative rough count, it's about 8 8-foot-wide
shipping containers wide, and about 6 20-foot-long shipping containers long.
and four storeys high. that's 30000 square feet. for a showroom.

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lnanek2
I agree, data center seems more likely, but there are strong hints already
that Google Glass sales will need extra space. Google has been having fitting
events so far with large areas of buildings dedicated to it and they are only
servicing small batches of testers and conference goers so far. You can Google
the Google Glass pickup experience and see pictures of the Chelsea office area
and MV area, etc., people bragging about the champagne, ice cream, valet
parking, etc..

As someone who has worked for smartphone OEMs, it is entirely possible a
reduced return rate would be worth having extensive pickup experience options
like this. Return rate was a huge consideration. If you have a high return
rate, carriers won't even carry your device in their stores. Similarly,
Samsung is having a big issue with Galaxy Gear watch returns right now.

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ffrryuu
It's for workers with no visa to work in the USA. No need for H-1B anymore.

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mitchty
They'd have to move outside the exclusion zone, which is what, 200 miles?

Somehow I doubt this is to employ people. If it is though, then its very Deus
Ex Machina in some ways (the video game, specifically the last dlc).

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ffrryuu
It's hard to tell the Onion from reality nowadays. It's pretty sad.

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saraid216
You know, this is popular to say, but it's an incredibly stupid statement.

The Onion is about absurdist humor. Absurdism makes some sense as political
satire, but it's also anti-progress satire.

The inability to differentiate the absurd from reality is just as likely to be
due to the fact that we've achieved something previously thought, and still
popularly held, to be absurd.

"What's next? You'll let women vote?"

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mmaunder
They're data centers with some innovation in water cooled servers. They
incorporate a heat exchanger system similar to coastal nuclear power stations
to avoid running corrosive seawater through the system. They have the added
advantage of being able to run fiber to/from the DC along the entire coast.

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ChuckMcM
Perhaps you would be surprised, or not, to discover that dumping heat into the
Bay is regulated just like other pollutants.

"Power plants may be located in any area where they do not interfere with and
are not incompatible with residential, recreational, or other public uses of
the Bay and shoreline, provided that any pollution problems resulting from the
discharge of large amounts of heated brine into Bay waters, and water vapor
into the atmosphere, can be _precluded_."

\--
[http://www.bcdc.ca.gov/laws_plans/plans/sfbay_plan#8](http://www.bcdc.ca.gov/laws_plans/plans/sfbay_plan#8)

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Symmetry
The engines of a large ship are going to release on the order 10 MW of heat
into the ocean, and I'd expect a datacenter that could fit on that ship to
release within an order of magnitude of that. By contrast, power plants can
release tens of GW of heat.

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ChuckMcM
True, the ships move though and much of its heat dump occurs in deep water.
Power plants and datacenters create a 'warm spot' which persists. This alters
the environment around their heat dump (generally in a tidal zone) and that
changes the things that live there (or can live there).

You point is a valid, and I don't defend the BCNC, just note that they try to
regulate everything.

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th0ma5
My guess: They've had a breakthrough in through-the-ground radio and will soon
be offering broadband globally with kilowatt transceivers attached to the sea
floor.

If we're speculating, why not shoot for the moon? :D

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ck2
So is this to avoid filing building permits for competitors to snoop on?
Earthquake-proof?

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rz2k
Confidentiality sounds like one of the more reasonable explanations, but it
looks like the Coast Guard has its own set of approvals
[http://www.uscg.mil/hq/cg5/cg521/](http://www.uscg.mil/hq/cg5/cg521/)

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pivo
Seems like it could be a good idea WRT to cooling costs. Pumping cool, free
seawater though exchangers would only require electricity for fans and pumps.

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dsl
They originally had this plan with The Dalles datacenter. Pump the year around
cold water from the Columbia river, cool with it, and return it.

The EPA shut that down right quick because even a degree temperature change
has dramatic effects on the wildlife population.

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brownbat
Not really the same, but floating nuclear reactors don't primarily float for
the cooling, they primarily float for the mobility. What are the chances
people are focusing on the wrong perk here?

Then again, I'm not sure what the mobility advantages of a datacenter are...
maybe they're going to park it halfway between London and NY and load it up
with high frequency trading bots?

That's a little fantastical though. Any more mundane reasons you might want
mobile datacenters?

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twiceaday
Power requirements alone rule out this thing being far from land. Maybe its
just that they want to construct a handful of big building in california
without jumping through onerous regulations.

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famousactress
Clearly very large, floating Laser Tag arenas. Presumably a new employee perk.

[Edit: Also plausibly used for some sort of Hunger-Games style interview
process]

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nercury
Are we speculating? They are going to announce their floating things another
Nation. Think about it: no taxes, no patent laws, no NSA crap.

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ZanyProgrammer
Sounds like a libertarian wank fest.

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nercury
Entertaining one. Should not be downvoted. :D

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BrandonMarc
This quote from a local official sums it up: taxes. Or, lack thereof.

 _" We shouldn't use the Bay as a lost opportunity for that which can be done
on land. We need to ensure that whatever this permit is applied for actually
fits into what the Bay should be used for."_

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mtviewdave
>taxes. Or, lack thereof.

Your quote doesn't support that at all.

My interpretation is it's about environmental concerns. There's a long history
of people expanding the city of San Francisco into the bay via fill,
structures, even ships. Eventually there was a backlash, and most of that
behavior is now banned by laws, requirements for environmental impact reports,
etc. I would expect attempts by Google to get around, or just ignore, such
laws would provoke a strong negative reaction by the local government.

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raldi
> Eventually there was a backlash

Mostly by people with beachfront property who didn't want anyone getting in
the way of their expensive view.

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saraid216
Clearly, they're preparing to lay California under siege.

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VladRussian2
now they just need to lease a nuclear submarine to power the barges
datacenters.

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evacuationdrill
Their patent describes use of wave energy.

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VladRussian2
yes, the submarine screws will generate waves on a lull day

