Destroying the World, One Server at a Time

[Ralf Maximus]

BLDGBLOG links to these New Scientist and Money articles about the impact of our world IT infrastructure on the environment.  And let's just say, the environment is Not Happy.



http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/server-rooms-and-future-of-humanism.html

One server alone, we read, has the "same carbon footprint as your average SUV doing 15 miles to the gallon. Yet, whereas the SUV is seen as a villain from the environmental perspective, the server is not."

By "server" I'm sure they mean the enterprise-class brutes your ISP is running 24/7 at the other end of your cable.

But still, an SUV?

As Money explained last summer, these "server farms" and "data centers" can each use up to "a small city's worth of electricity" – and most of that electricity goes toward "cranking up the air conditioning to make sure the computers don't literally melt themselves into slag."

The electricity of a small city?  Holy hydroelectric, Batman!  That's crazy bad.  I had no idea my innocent surfing and DonationCoder addition was sucking down that kind of juice.  Maybe I'll cut back on the pr0n.

What's really interesting is the tangent BLDG zips off on next: where does it make sense to build these humming shrines to Amazon and Google?  The answers are surprising and innovative, and give me hope for the future.  At least people are thinking about this now, and not when the Mad Max mutants are fighting over the last can of petrol.

Oh, and extra bonus points for teaching me a new phrase: "mouse potato".

[Deozaan]

I had no idea my innocent surfing and DonationCoder addiction was sucking down that kind of juice. Maybe I'll cut back on the pr0n.

Top Ten Ways to Realize You've Been Looking at too Much Pr0n on the Internet:

10. You back up your Temporary Internet Files for later viewing.
9. Your backups have filled 1.5 TB combined in HDDs, CDs, and DVDs.
8. You sign onto the internet and hear a familiar AOL voice say "You've got pr0n!"
7. You bought tissues with anime characters on them.
6. Before sex you make jokes about your "hard drive." After sex your wife shames you by telling you to remove your "floppy disk."
5. The temperature rises 15 degrees in your ISP's hometown.
4. Your favorite song is Avenue Q's "The Internet is for Porn."
3. Nearby construction cuts your cable line and you die from sexual starvation in a matter of hours.
2. You alone account for at least 75% of the results in the top search engine queries.
1. Your neighbors report that their entire litter of kittens have suddenly died over the course of a few hours.

EDIT: Added more links.

[Wordzilla]

[Renegade]

4. Your favorite song is Avenue Q's "The Internet is for Porn"

HAHAHAHAHAHA~!

Check out the vid at 2:43!

Not Safe For Work

[attachimg=#]

Muahahahaha~!

That was hilarious!

[Ralf Maximus]

Your neighbors report that their entire litter of kittens have suddenly died over the course of a few hours.

Oh good lord, not the kittens!

[Lashiec]

7. You bought tissues with anime characters on them.

You bought one of these (ABSOLUTELY NSFW). God damn, the level of craftmanship of those figures is amazing. I know of one guy who would go berserk over this site

Putting the thread back on topic, I wonder if the Web 2.0 visionaries, and those who declare the big, fat OS dead thought about this. Now it makes sense Al Gore being in the Apple board of directors

[tranglos]

By "server" I'm sure they mean the enterprise-class brutes your ISP is running 24/7 at the other end of your cable.
But still, an SUV?

It would be interesting if they accounted for the number of people servied by an SUV compared to the number of people served by a single - well, server.

Maybe I'll cut back on the pr0n.

Maybe the pr0n artists should cut back on the lighting!

.marek

[Darwin]

Nice work, Deozaan!

[Deozaan]

Nice work, Deozaan!

Thanks! I added more links in case people didn't get some of the jokes.

[Deozaan]

Oh, I can't believe I didn't think of this one before! This belongs close to the top way to know you browse too much pr0n:

Your name is Zaine Ridling. 

[Armando]

[off-topic]Wow... I wasn't aware of all the crazy world of warcraft videos... 
I never actually played...
Can you really do these dances ??? : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRhPKKHJL4Y&feature=related[/off-topic]

[Deozaan]

Can you really do these dances ???

Yep. Each gender and each race has it's own dance built in, just type /dance. Here's a video to show where they really came from (including source video): WoW Dance Origins