6 ms·

The Basement

486 points by chrislloyd 14y ago

lee 14y ago
I wonder how secure that basement is. Someone going down there with a chainsaw could do a lot of damage.
- nmcfarl 14y ago
  I’ve in a few basements with a boatload of fiber, and while guarded those watchmen are not paid enough to take on a mad man with a chainsaw. I just think the crazy folk of America, aren’t angry enough at the internet to try to take it on so physically. (Nor informed enough, nor coherent enough in their planning….)
- jpxxx 14y ago
  I believe this is in the Pittock Block building at SW 9th and Washington. While it's certainly not open to all comers, its no Fort Knox. Attractions upstairs include a police substation, two cafes, and a Swedish bric-a-brac-ery.
  - kaiuhl 14y ago
    You're correct—this is the basement of the Pittock. Upstairs are many, many closets for rent to shove servers in.
kondro 14y ago
I keep meaning to do an art walk like this.
peter_l_downs 14y ago
This is absolutely incredible. I don't have much more to say than that. Thanks for sharing.
jordo37 14y ago
Really cool post. If you have ever been in a printing room while a press was operating, it's an amazing experience. It's crazy to think that through those small pipes more data is being passed - more variety, more volume - than was ever passed with all the cacophony of the press.
nmridul 14y ago
"100 years from now, when another one of you goes spelunking around this basement, that data, those bits, today’s moments, will likely be long, long gone." Well said. Back then the images were pasted on real walls and it adds to the emotional appeal. And now the images are pasted on virtual walls (aka Facebook/desktops). I always wondered this. The new technology is great in spreading the images wide (wide in the spacial plane - I can see what was there in that room, and I'm sitting here far far away. That is the beauty of new technology. ). But it fails to spread it deep (call it in an emotional plane).
- sebastianmarr 14y ago
  Quite an interesting point. You suggest that the act of doing something mechanical does add emotional value to it. But what adds even more is time. Look at your Facebook posts from five years ago, or even your tweets from last year. Time passing makes you feel different about things. I think the emotional appeal of those pictures pasted to the wall comes from the sheer age of them, in sharp contrast to the high tech equipment in the same room. I am more concerned about the preservation of our postings than the emotional value. Things that really matter will produce the same emotions regardless of the medium.
  - barking 14y ago
    You've hit the nail on the head. I (very) occasionally visit a messageboard that was active about a decade ago out of nostalgia.
- markbao 14y ago
  I think that applies to a lot more than images. I think that this new technology spreads our friendships wide (we can have many friends, including people we haven't met in real life) but not deep (more text messages saying "what's up?" and fewer long conversations in person). Conversely, it can spread our interests wide, and much deeper than before (for those that we really care about).
- Tichy 14y ago
  Best we can hope for in the case of Facebook is some kind of rescue and archive act like for Geocities - although I think the Geocities archive started too late and some of it was lost :-(
neilk 14y ago
I guessed it was a newspaper shop before he got to the bit about the Oregonian. All the marks are in blue pencil, which was a common tool in graphic arts until the digital era. And because it's a big basement in an old building in the center of a big city, that to me says newspaper.
albertzeyer 14y ago
I was expecting some archive.org advertisement at the end.
rotten 14y ago
When something catches your eye on the Internet, do you pull out virtual scissors and paste the clipping to a virtual wall?
- lucaspiller 14y ago
  Pinterest.
- michaelgrafl 14y ago
  I'm going to start printing out stuff and actually glue it to the wall behind my monitor. Should look awesome after a year or so. Thanks for the idea.
  - thirdtruck 14y ago
    I did this with lolcat photos when I first started my current job. Leaving a bit of extra white space at the bottom made them look like little Polaroids.
  - keithpeter 14y ago
    I have corkboards stuck up with double sided pads. Just a rotating display of (real) postcards, printouts and (actual) newspaper articles. A nice displacement activity is to pull everything off and start again.
rdl 14y ago
Leads you to wonder where the 641a equivalent is in that building (or is it in the actual telco building nearby, which a lot of the fiber also runs through, with some additional fiber stubs from the exchange back to the carrier building)
luigi 14y ago
I'm in the middle of reading "Tubes" by Andrew Blum, which is the story of how the Internet was physically built. MAE-East, PAIX, Ashburn, and all that. The Kindle version is $1.99 right now. I paid $9.99 for it last week. http://www.amazon.com/Tubes-Journey-Center-Internet-ebook/dp/B006FOHWDI/ http://www.amazon.com/Tubes-Journey-Center-Internet-ebook/dp...
- RickHull 14y ago
  Obligatory http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass_pr.html http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass_pr.html 90s-era
larrys 14y ago
"Turns out, he claims, “they used to print The Oregonian down here, way back.” The pressmen, one imagines, worked day and night down here, working the lumbering machines, spitting out another edition of the day’s business." I used to be in that industry. I don't think they printed this paper in the basement (at least not a newspaper). I've had experience getting even small printing machinery into a basement (that was not even as sub grade as this one). It's a big task. You have to either cut a whole in the floor or take it down a bilco type basement door. Generally it would be on reinforced first floors or possibly even above that on reinforced floors (where it could easily be craned into windows if necessary). Then you have the issue with paper down and up most importantly. It's hard to say exactly based on the info provided in the article. If this was done by web it most certainly wouldn't be in a basement as you would need ceiling height in addition to size and weight of the equipment. And it wouldn't make any sense. Also, you have issues with humidity in basements that have an impact on printing inks and paper. And you would also have the rolls of paper most likely (or sheets once again hard to say w/o more details) to get in and out of the basement? What would be the reason that you would want to do all that extra work?
- jpxxx 14y ago
  You're correct, this was The Oregonian's editing office and the erstwhile home of the owner but not a press. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittock_Block https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittock_Block
  - larrys 14y ago
    Right and further: "The paper's offices and presses were originally housed in a two-story building at the intersection of First Street (now First Avenue) and Morrison Street, but in 1892 the paper moved into a new nine-story building at 6th and Alder streets" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oregonian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oregonian
- mikey_p 14y ago
  This is most likely correct although that building does have an exceptionally large basement and sub-basement. It originally housed an entire electrical substation and steam generating plant that supplied steam to many nearby buildings. I suspect this space (which could now be used by generators) and the tunnels and conduits previously used for steam (which could now be used for fibre and other connectivity) are what made the Pittock an ideal location for a carrier hotel. Relevant: http://vintageportland.wordpress.com/2011/06/15/pittock-block-excavation-1913/ http://vintageportland.wordpress.com/2011/06/15/pittock-bloc...
nlh 14y ago
One of the things I like the most about these photos is the fact that the workers who cut & drilled the walls to install the "new" cables/conduit actually made an effort to not destroy the old clippings on the wall. Sure, there's a place where it's clear they had to seam or otherwise plaster over one section, but for he most part it looks as if they kept it as-is. This makes me happy. I've seen so many other cases where people doing their jobs totally ignore their surrounds and paint over, cut through, or destroy the things around them with nary more than a shrug and a "just doing my job".
wallflower 14y ago
A non-sequitor of sorts - on the subject of Cables and Underground - if you have never read Jamie Zawinski's (jwz) Cable Story, it is one of the most fascinating real engineering reads I've ever read. "What happens when a 230 kilovolt underground cable shorts out" http://www.jwz.org/blog/2002/11/engineering-pornography/ http://www.jwz.org/blog/2002/11/engineering-pornography/
- sbshetley 14y ago
  And for a bit more info on the infrastructure spoken of above. http://psc.wi.gov/thelibrary/publications/electric/electric11.pdf http://psc.wi.gov/thelibrary/publications/electric/electric1... edit: Also, very nice post and find, Thanks!!

The Basement

486 points by chrislloyd 14y ago

lee 14y ago

I wonder how secure that basement is. Someone going down there with a chainsaw could do a lot of damage.

nmcfarl 14y ago
I’ve in a few basements with a boatload of fiber, and while guarded those watchmen are not paid enough to take on a mad man with a chainsaw. I just think the crazy folk of America, aren’t angry enough at the internet to try to take it on so physically. (Nor informed enough, nor coherent enough in their planning….)
jpxxx 14y ago
I believe this is in the Pittock Block building at SW 9th and Washington. While it's certainly not open to all comers, its no Fort Knox. Attractions upstairs include a police substation, two cafes, and a Swedish bric-a-brac-ery.
- kaiuhl 14y ago
  You're correct—this is the basement of the Pittock. Upstairs are many, many closets for rent to shove servers in.

kondro 14y ago

I keep meaning to do an art walk like this.

peter_l_downs 14y ago

This is absolutely incredible. I don't have much more to say than that. Thanks for sharing.

jordo37 14y ago

Really cool post. If you have ever been in a printing room while a press was operating, it's an amazing experience. It's crazy to think that through those small pipes more data is being passed - more variety, more volume - than was ever passed with all the cacophony of the press.

nmridul 14y ago

"100 years from now, when another one of you goes spelunking around this basement, that data, those bits, today’s moments, will likely be long, long gone." Well said. Back then the images were pasted on real walls and it adds to the emotional appeal. And now the images are pasted on virtual walls (aka Facebook/desktops). I always wondered this. The new technology is great in spreading the images wide (wide in the spacial plane - I can see what was there in that room, and I'm sitting here far far away. That is the beauty of new technology. ). But it fails to spread it deep (call it in an emotional plane).

sebastianmarr 14y ago
Quite an interesting point. You suggest that the act of doing something mechanical does add emotional value to it. But what adds even more is time. Look at your Facebook posts from five years ago, or even your tweets from last year. Time passing makes you feel different about things. I think the emotional appeal of those pictures pasted to the wall comes from the sheer age of them, in sharp contrast to the high tech equipment in the same room. I am more concerned about the preservation of our postings than the emotional value. Things that really matter will produce the same emotions regardless of the medium.
- barking 14y ago
  You've hit the nail on the head. I (very) occasionally visit a messageboard that was active about a decade ago out of nostalgia.
markbao 14y ago
I think that applies to a lot more than images. I think that this new technology spreads our friendships wide (we can have many friends, including people we haven't met in real life) but not deep (more text messages saying "what's up?" and fewer long conversations in person). Conversely, it can spread our interests wide, and much deeper than before (for those that we really care about).
Tichy 14y ago
Best we can hope for in the case of Facebook is some kind of rescue and archive act like for Geocities - although I think the Geocities archive started too late and some of it was lost :-(

neilk 14y ago

I guessed it was a newspaper shop before he got to the bit about the Oregonian. All the marks are in blue pencil, which was a common tool in graphic arts until the digital era. And because it's a big basement in an old building in the center of a big city, that to me says newspaper.

albertzeyer 14y ago

I was expecting some archive.org advertisement at the end.

rotten 14y ago

When something catches your eye on the Internet, do you pull out virtual scissors and paste the clipping to a virtual wall?

lucaspiller 14y ago
Pinterest.
michaelgrafl 14y ago
I'm going to start printing out stuff and actually glue it to the wall behind my monitor. Should look awesome after a year or so. Thanks for the idea.
- thirdtruck 14y ago
  I did this with lolcat photos when I first started my current job. Leaving a bit of extra white space at the bottom made them look like little Polaroids.
- keithpeter 14y ago
  I have corkboards stuck up with double sided pads. Just a rotating display of (real) postcards, printouts and (actual) newspaper articles. A nice displacement activity is to pull everything off and start again.

rdl 14y ago

Leads you to wonder where the 641a equivalent is in that building (or is it in the actual telco building nearby, which a lot of the fiber also runs through, with some additional fiber stubs from the exchange back to the carrier building)

luigi 14y ago

I'm in the middle of reading "Tubes" by Andrew Blum, which is the story of how the Internet was physically built. MAE-East, PAIX, Ashburn, and all that. The Kindle version is $1.99 right now. I paid $9.99 for it last week. http://www.amazon.com/Tubes-Journey-Center-Internet-ebook/dp/B006FOHWDI/ http://www.amazon.com/Tubes-Journey-Center-Internet-ebook/dp...

RickHull 14y ago
Obligatory http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass_pr.html http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass_pr.html 90s-era

larrys 14y ago

"Turns out, he claims, “they used to print The Oregonian down here, way back.” The pressmen, one imagines, worked day and night down here, working the lumbering machines, spitting out another edition of the day’s business." I used to be in that industry. I don't think they printed this paper in the basement (at least not a newspaper). I've had experience getting even small printing machinery into a basement (that was not even as sub grade as this one). It's a big task. You have to either cut a whole in the floor or take it down a bilco type basement door. Generally it would be on reinforced first floors or possibly even above that on reinforced floors (where it could easily be craned into windows if necessary). Then you have the issue with paper down and up most importantly. It's hard to say exactly based on the info provided in the article. If this was done by web it most certainly wouldn't be in a basement as you would need ceiling height in addition to size and weight of the equipment. And it wouldn't make any sense. Also, you have issues with humidity in basements that have an impact on printing inks and paper. And you would also have the rolls of paper most likely (or sheets once again hard to say w/o more details) to get in and out of the basement? What would be the reason that you would want to do all that extra work?

jpxxx 14y ago
You're correct, this was The Oregonian's editing office and the erstwhile home of the owner but not a press. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittock_Block https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittock_Block
- larrys 14y ago
  Right and further: "The paper's offices and presses were originally housed in a two-story building at the intersection of First Street (now First Avenue) and Morrison Street, but in 1892 the paper moved into a new nine-story building at 6th and Alder streets" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oregonian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oregonian
mikey_p 14y ago
This is most likely correct although that building does have an exceptionally large basement and sub-basement. It originally housed an entire electrical substation and steam generating plant that supplied steam to many nearby buildings. I suspect this space (which could now be used by generators) and the tunnels and conduits previously used for steam (which could now be used for fibre and other connectivity) are what made the Pittock an ideal location for a carrier hotel. Relevant: http://vintageportland.wordpress.com/2011/06/15/pittock-block-excavation-1913/ http://vintageportland.wordpress.com/2011/06/15/pittock-bloc...

nlh 14y ago

One of the things I like the most about these photos is the fact that the workers who cut & drilled the walls to install the "new" cables/conduit actually made an effort to not destroy the old clippings on the wall. Sure, there's a place where it's clear they had to seam or otherwise plaster over one section, but for he most part it looks as if they kept it as-is. This makes me happy. I've seen so many other cases where people doing their jobs totally ignore their surrounds and paint over, cut through, or destroy the things around them with nary more than a shrug and a "just doing my job".

wallflower 14y ago

A non-sequitor of sorts - on the subject of Cables and Underground - if you have never read Jamie Zawinski's (jwz) Cable Story, it is one of the most fascinating real engineering reads I've ever read. "What happens when a 230 kilovolt underground cable shorts out" http://www.jwz.org/blog/2002/11/engineering-pornography/ http://www.jwz.org/blog/2002/11/engineering-pornography/

sbshetley 14y ago
And for a bit more info on the infrastructure spoken of above. http://psc.wi.gov/thelibrary/publications/electric/electric11.pdf http://psc.wi.gov/thelibrary/publications/electric/electric1... edit: Also, very nice post and find, Thanks!!