Google barges or prison ships?

[RedSoxandAKs]

I have been looking into the supposed Google barges and they seem to make less and less sense. The popular story is they are going to be floating showrooms/date centers for Google Glass...but here is what makes me doubt that.


1. they are horrible ugly. Everything Google does, especially when it comes to marketing is about aesthetics. Look at their corporate HQ.


Is this a company that is going to use these to promote it's biggest product launch ever?


2. Why don't they match?

Wouldn't you think they would match...or at least share a theme? they look nothing alike, but are going to serve the same purpose for Google on each coast? This leads to the third point...what they do look like...

3. This looks a lot like the "Google" barges...


This is an NYC prison barge...used to house the overflow from Rikers Prison... Does it look like something you would want to buy Computer goods out of?

Just tossing it out...sorry if it's a Dupe, but at least I used lots of pictures...haha

 

[dennism]

Holy tinfoil batman. They aren't using the barges for advertising they sound like a server warehouse. No need to be pretty.

 

[goodzilla]

Tinfoil hat engaged....

...wasn't there a promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison...but states wouldn't take the prisoners??? Great place for CIA prisoners in general.

It wouldn't be the first time that Washington used high profile, cash rich companies...I'm thinking of the Howard Hughes Glomar Explorer ship to retreive Russian sub nukes.

 

[not new guy]

Maybe they haven't put the siding on them yet.

 

[atilla]

i've been to one. i see the light now. did you hear the anointed one is speaking today prior to the baseballs?

hail 'bama.

 

[mac1911]

maybe google is expanded into the dtention centers, jump on the money to be made there.

 

[rjh200]

I think these would be beta models to test out the theory for practicality and the finish product would be much more elaborate. It is certainly possible that these are for something else entirely, but prisons would not be my first conspiracy theory. Think more along the lines of google earth and gps position tracking.

 

[not new guy]

Do these look like they'd be built to survive indefinitely out in international waters, or are these more likely to spend their lives hanging out at port?

 

[hminsky]

I think you're onto something. What is the biggest problem with data centers? That's right, power consumption for electricity and cooling.

And what is the biggest problem in the US? That's right, obesity, and prison overcrowding due to stupid drug laws.

The solution? You put the prisoners in a "Google galley slave" barge, where they peddle bicycles to power the servers. Three big problems, solved!

 

[wiryone1]

My theory at the moment is to reduce the corporate tax burden by moving some of the "biz" offshore so to speak.

The NSA offices will be located under the water line.

Boston strong...
hail 'bama.

 

[calsdad]

When I first heard about that barge that is getting built out in San Fran harbor ( I think that was the first one that got mentioned) - the articles that described it said it was being built out of old containers. Hard to tell from the pics whether that is true or not - but I can't see something built out of old containers being a very good building to house a data center.

I work in a data center. I've seen a bunch of other data centers. They don't usually divide them all up into little rooms like a building made out of old shipping containers would be - it would be a nightmare to cool and run cabling and all sorts of other stuff.

So that part alone - at least to me - just didn't seem to make sense.

Plus - data centers require BIG data pipes. How the hell are they going to get all the data back and forth from these "data centers"

Where's the electricity coming from? The claim is that they're going to use wave action to drive generators or some such thing. What happens if there's no wave action? Does the whole thing shut down? That also doesn't make any sense.

And lastly - a data center is an expensive operation. Something as big as one of those barges would hold many millions of dollars worth of hardware. They're going to put that on a barge - and put it out in the middle of the ocean? Seriously? Ever seen a barge in a storm? You know where you usually find them after a big storm? At the bottom of the ocean - so that also makes no sense.

 

[Scarecrow]

...or they are server barges with cooling towers inverted on the bottom to allow better processor power? It seems to me that it would be more energy efficient to build the cooling towers IN the water rather than pump the water in.

...or they are prison/slave ships. I, for one, welcome our new Google overlords!

 

[RedSoxandAKs]

Tinfoil hat engaged....

...wasn't there a promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison...but states wouldn't take the prisoners??? Great place for CIA prisoners in general.

It wouldn't be the first time that Washington used high profile, cash rich companies...I'm thinking of the Howard Hughes Glomar Explorer ship to retreive Russian sub nukes.

tinfoil hat indeed...that was exactly what I had in mind when I was reading up on these.

 

[drgrant]

Dupeage, bump this instead.

http://www.northeastshooters.com/vb...rge-in-Portland-Harbor?highlight=google+barge