# For people who like tech porn.... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 17, 2012, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-people-who-like-tech-porn/638035 "2012-10-17T17:54:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2012, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-people-who-like-tech-porn/638035/1 "2012-10-17T17:54:36Z")
> **[Data centers – Google Data centers](https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/gallery/#/all)** > > Take a look inside Google’s data centers around the world. See photos of the technology, people and places that keep our products online. _drool_ ---
**Author:** ![FlyByNight512](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/82dd89/32.png) [@FlyByNight512](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyByNight512)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2012, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-people-who-like-tech-porn/638035/2 "2012-10-17T20:08:36Z")
_drool_ indeed. Wow. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2012, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-people-who-like-tech-porn/638035/3 "2012-10-17T20:10:22Z")
I read somewhere recently that 5 or 10 percent of all the electricity in the world is basically used to run the Internet. I think I see why now. ---
**Author:** ![Gukumatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/74df32/32.png) [@Gukumatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gukumatz)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-people-who-like-tech-porn/638035/4 "2012-10-18T08:27:44Z")
… It appears to run on some form of electricity… ---
**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-people-who-like-tech-porn/638035/5 "2012-10-18T08:50:14Z")
Many of those pictures look like Ted Stevens’ idea of what the internet looks like. ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-people-who-like-tech-porn/638035/6 "2012-10-18T10:38:13Z")
It’s true! The Internet IS a series of tubes! ---
**Author:** ![Bartman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@Bartman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bartman)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-people-who-like-tech-porn/638035/7 "2012-10-18T13:35:28Z")
> [@Gukumatz](#): > > … It appears to run on some form of electricity… Well, you’re not wrong. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-people-who-like-tech-porn/638035/8 "2012-10-18T15:38:18Z")
And it all appears to involve a lot of noise, judging by how many people in those pictures were wearing hearing protection. This is actually a problem that seems to have gotten worse as servers shrank. They went from something like a 3" diameter cooling fan running at 1800 RPM to four 1" fans at 3600 RPM. A full rack of 1U (a standard size, not quite 2 inches high) servers shrieks like a box full of banshees. I can’t imagine how horrible a room full of those would be. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-people-who-like-tech-porn/638035/9 "2012-10-18T15:45:42Z")
my write head is about to spew data. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2012, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-people-who-like-tech-porn/638035/10 "2012-10-20T02:25:50Z")
I’ve seen this [somewhere before](http://www.umich.edu/~umfandsf/film/promise/forbidden-krell-space.html). ---
**Author:** ![Enkel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/df705f/32.png) [@Enkel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enkel)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2012, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-people-who-like-tech-porn/638035/11 "2012-10-20T03:24:35Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > my write head is about to spew data. _golf clap_ ---
**Author:** ![Enkel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/df705f/32.png) [@Enkel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enkel)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2012, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-people-who-like-tech-porn/638035/12 "2012-10-20T03:27:11Z")
Okay… I hate to admit it… but some of those pictures were… well, porn is a good term for it. If the zombies attack, I want to be trapped in those rooms. ---
**Author:** ![Enkel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/df705f/32.png) [@Enkel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enkel)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2012, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-people-who-like-tech-porn/638035/13 "2012-10-20T03:36:03Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > A full rack of 1U (a standard size, not quite 2 inches high) servers shrieks like a box full of banshees. I can’t imagine how horrible a room full of those would be. Remember when hard drives were like 3x5 and 4 or 6 platters and you could hear the write heads beating away like some insane band? We used to set up data transfers trying to see who could make them “sing” the best. Some of the backups against the RAIDS were amazing to listen to. Then headbanger\* came out and our managers weren’t so fond of our musical efforts and made us quit. - A virus that physically rammed the heads back and forth until the write head broke free and the system crashed. ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2012, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-people-who-like-tech-porn/638035/14 "2012-10-20T15:17:50Z")
On an environmental note, couldn’t we save a lot of power if servers were made to run 10C hotter and we just cooled them with surrounding air? Or nearby bodies of water? ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2012, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-people-who-like-tech-porn/638035/15 "2012-10-20T21:35:32Z")
> [@AaronX](#): > > On an environmental note, couldn’t we save a lot of power if servers were made to run 10C hotter and we just cooled them with surrounding air? Or nearby bodies of water? I’m not sure about the ‘10C hotter’ part, but they do use environmental cooling, at least in some cases. See this picture [http://www.google.com/about/datacenters/gallery/#/all/13](http://www.google.com/about/datacenters/gallery/#/all/13) The caption: “An overhead view of one of our cooling plants, where seawater from the Gulf of Finland entirely cools the data center there.” ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2012, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-people-who-like-tech-porn/638035/16 "2012-10-20T21:47:33Z")
They could also use waste heat to run their sauna in Finland. ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2012, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-people-who-like-tech-porn/638035/17 "2012-10-21T05:24:20Z")
> [@Suburban\_Plankton](#): > > I’m not sure about the ‘10C hotter’ part, but they do use environmental cooling, at least in some cases. See this picture > > [Photo gallery – Google Data Centers](http://www.google.com/about/datacenters/gallery/#/all/13) > > The caption: “An overhead view of one of our cooling plants, where seawater from the Gulf of Finland entirely cools the data center there.” Oh ya, I should read pages before posting. But at least the higher temp part is new.