3 ms·

This got mentioned on an irc channel a few hours ago and my response was: "Why don't they build a pulley? They're nerds, they have the skills". Obviously shifti

This got mentioned on an irc channel a few hours ago and my response was: "Why don't they build a pulley? They're nerds, they have the skills". Obviously shifting diesel about has some risks involved but a basic pulley system would help save a lot of time.

eropple 14y ago
Only if they have a place to rig it and the tools to do it. Neither are guaranteed (and if they don't, they won't be getting them quickly).
- nicholassmith 14y ago
  Depends how advanced and fancy they wanted to get it, there's probably enough bits of random hardware in a data centre to improvise something. It'd be more a 'thereifixedit.com' solution than something you'd use on a daily basis, but it could (possibly) work.
  - tedunangst 14y ago
    Who keeps 17 stories of rope in a data center? Do you know how much 17 stories of rope weighs?
    - nicholassmith 14y ago
      A data centre with a really comprehensive disaster recovery plan. Don't necessarily need 17 stories depending on internal layout.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
wukkuan 14y ago
Building a pulley system would take some significant time and requires finding the necessary tools and resources. The bucket brigade is much simpler and immediately available. Not nearly as much fun, though.
- nicholassmith 14y ago
  Nowhere as much fun, but the brigade probably has more of a sense of camaraderie involved so it might balance.
grayrest 14y ago
A pulley system would save manpower but manpower wasn't the limiting factor last night. It was buckets and throughput. Pulley system wouldn't work inside. There isn't a gap in the stairwells and it's not a straight shot up. Going over the side of the building would potentially work but there'd need to be a boom to get it off the side of the building and without some sort of power winch it's a matter of hauling one or two buckets up manually and I think that'd be lower throughput than the brigade system where you get 1-2 buckets in the time it takes to walk up two flights of stairs.
ChuckMcM 14y ago
Actually a pulley might be slower when you think about it, lets say you have 10 guys trudging up the stairs each with 4gal in a bucket, that is 40gallons going up stairs, as opposed to one 4gallon bucket being pulled up, then emptied, then dropped down, then pulled up. So the question is how long the load / unload cycle is relative to the bucket brigade cycle. When constructing my earthquake preparedness kits I spent some time looking at what happened when folks were in earthquakes both in reasonable infrastructure places (Chile) and less reasonable (Haiti) and non-existant (Turkey). That led to having a 'suture kit' in my day pack because one of the common themes was that there were emergency personnel around who were trying to help but they were often without or short on basic supplies to treat severe lacerations. I have no illusions about being able to suture myself up if I needed it, but I do have hope that I could find someone with the skills to do so. And by having distributed emergency supplies with lots of people, it means that as more people collect the better supplied the resulting group will be. So back to our flood, a number of buildings include a lift system on the roof for moving heavy things in and out of the building that can't go by elevator. One preparedness solution would be to have a way to utilize that system with a bunch of buckets that would let people do this without carrying up the water directly. If it could be made part of the regular gear that they have on site for doing lifts, that might be a positive thing overall.

eropple 14y ago

Only if they have a place to rig it and the tools to do it. Neither are guaranteed (and if they don't, they won't be getting them quickly).

nicholassmith 14y ago
Depends how advanced and fancy they wanted to get it, there's probably enough bits of random hardware in a data centre to improvise something. It'd be more a 'thereifixedit.com' solution than something you'd use on a daily basis, but it could (possibly) work.
- tedunangst 14y ago
  Who keeps 17 stories of rope in a data center? Do you know how much 17 stories of rope weighs?
  - nicholassmith 14y ago
    A data centre with a really comprehensive disaster recovery plan. Don't necessarily need 17 stories depending on internal layout.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

wukkuan 14y ago

Building a pulley system would take some significant time and requires finding the necessary tools and resources. The bucket brigade is much simpler and immediately available. Not nearly as much fun, though.

nicholassmith 14y ago
Nowhere as much fun, but the brigade probably has more of a sense of camaraderie involved so it might balance.

grayrest 14y ago

A pulley system would save manpower but manpower wasn't the limiting factor last night. It was buckets and throughput. Pulley system wouldn't work inside. There isn't a gap in the stairwells and it's not a straight shot up. Going over the side of the building would potentially work but there'd need to be a boom to get it off the side of the building and without some sort of power winch it's a matter of hauling one or two buckets up manually and I think that'd be lower throughput than the brigade system where you get 1-2 buckets in the time it takes to walk up two flights of stairs.

ChuckMcM 14y ago

Actually a pulley might be slower when you think about it, lets say you have 10 guys trudging up the stairs each with 4gal in a bucket, that is 40gallons going up stairs, as opposed to one 4gallon bucket being pulled up, then emptied, then dropped down, then pulled up. So the question is how long the load / unload cycle is relative to the bucket brigade cycle. When constructing my earthquake preparedness kits I spent some time looking at what happened when folks were in earthquakes both in reasonable infrastructure places (Chile) and less reasonable (Haiti) and non-existant (Turkey). That led to having a 'suture kit' in my day pack because one of the common themes was that there were emergency personnel around who were trying to help but they were often without or short on basic supplies to treat severe lacerations. I have no illusions about being able to suture myself up if I needed it, but I do have hope that I could find someone with the skills to do so. And by having distributed emergency supplies with lots of people, it means that as more people collect the better supplied the resulting group will be. So back to our flood, a number of buildings include a lift system on the roof for moving heavy things in and out of the building that can't go by elevator. One preparedness solution would be to have a way to utilize that system with a bunch of buckets that would let people do this without carrying up the water directly. If it could be made part of the regular gear that they have on site for doing lifts, that might be a positive thing overall.