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Interesting to see how divergent the “urban legend” like version of the story is versus the actual news report. 1) the 1MW transformer was shutdown, but was no

Interesting to see how divergent the “urban legend” like version of the story is versus the actual news report. 1) the 1MW transformer was shutdown, but was not the one which got the grease dumped on it (which was a 200KW) 2) there was about a foot of grease, not “completely submerged” 3) they didn’t replace the transformers, just cleaned them.

Animats 8y ago
Yes. I used to live near there. Palo Alto has occasionally struggled with their underground transformer vaults. They make the streets look nice, but they're high maintenance. Many were submerged in the 1998 flood. The "DEC data center" is of historic importance to the Internet. It's an old telephone company building, and was the home of AltaVista. It's now an Equnix data center, and says "PAIX" (Palo Alto Internet Exchange) on the front. [1] DEC built the AltaVista search engine as a demo for DEC Alpha 64-bit computers, to show what they could do. Having thousands of identical machines in racks was a new thing then. Because it was in an old telco building, with high ceilings, high racks, and ceiling cable trays from the electromechanical switching era, AltaVista was built like a telephone central office - tall racks of computers, with the cables overhead. Before this, data centers were usually raised floor construction. This is where telco-like data centers started. As the "Palo Alto Internet Exchange", around 1996, it was the main peering point for the Internet in Northern California. One of the first big carrier-neutral peering points. Also, I think the "1MW transformer" for the data center was actually above ground in the alley. It, or a successor, is still there, and you can see it in the aerials, but there's a cinderblock wall in front of it now. It used to be out in the open on a pad. [1] https://www.google.com/maps/@37.4455915,-122.1611684,3a,31y,26.24h,86.73t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1siEqwYn25IybePsHB6ed4iw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.com/maps/@37.4455915,-122.1611684,3a,31y,...

Animats 8y ago

Yes. I used to live near there. Palo Alto has occasionally struggled with their underground transformer vaults. They make the streets look nice, but they're high maintenance. Many were submerged in the 1998 flood. The "DEC data center" is of historic importance to the Internet. It's an old telephone company building, and was the home of AltaVista. It's now an Equnix data center, and says "PAIX" (Palo Alto Internet Exchange) on the front. [1] DEC built the AltaVista search engine as a demo for DEC Alpha 64-bit computers, to show what they could do. Having thousands of identical machines in racks was a new thing then. Because it was in an old telco building, with high ceilings, high racks, and ceiling cable trays from the electromechanical switching era, AltaVista was built like a telephone central office - tall racks of computers, with the cables overhead. Before this, data centers were usually raised floor construction. This is where telco-like data centers started. As the "Palo Alto Internet Exchange", around 1996, it was the main peering point for the Internet in Northern California. One of the first big carrier-neutral peering points. Also, I think the "1MW transformer" for the data center was actually above ground in the alley. It, or a successor, is still there, and you can see it in the aerials, but there's a cinderblock wall in front of it now. It used to be out in the open on a pad. [1] https://www.google.com/maps/@37.4455915,-122.1611684,3a,31y,26.24h,86.73t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1siEqwYn25IybePsHB6ed4iw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.com/maps/@37.4455915,-122.1611684,3a,31y,...