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Running a South Pole data center

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  Running a South Pole data center RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-11-07 16:18 +0000
    Re: Running a South Pole data center Randy Westlund <Vorzakir@invalid.invalid> - 2014-11-09 01:23 +0000
      Re: Running a South Pole data center Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2014-11-09 11:23 -0500
        Re: Running a South Pole data center Randy Westlund <Vorzakir@invalid.invalid> - 2014-11-09 18:19 +0000
          Re: Running a South Pole data center polygonum <rmoudndgers@vrod.co.uk> - 2014-11-09 18:59 +0000
            Re: Running a South Pole data center Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2014-11-09 15:24 -0500
          Re: Running a South Pole data center Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2014-11-09 15:23 -0500
            Re: Running a South Pole data center RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-11-10 09:44 +0000

#5574 — Running a South Pole data center

http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/04/coolest-jobs-in-tech-liter
ally-running-a-south-pole-data-center/
-- 

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#5585

On 2014-11-07, RS Wood wrote:
> http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/04/coolest-jobs-in-tech-liter
> ally-running-a-south-pole-data-center/

I've actually done that before, though I was at McMurdo, not
Amundsen-Scott.  I was doing satellite communication for NASA,
working with NOAA's POES weather satellites.

The article is pretty accurate.  There's nothing quite like being
handed a pickaxe and parka and having to remove some 4" diameter
coax cable that runs out of the datacenter/shed and under 3 feet of
ice to the radio tower 200 feet away.  Took me a full day :P

Survival school starts with some basic training for people who
haven't spent much time outdoors (radios, tents, camping stove,
etc), then ends with them dropping your group off on a glacier and
being told that they'd come find you tomorrow.  Half of us didn't
use the tents -- I helped make one hell of an igloo, then dug out a
small room-sized area under the surface of the snow.

I made two trips down there, a year apart.  The first year, I was
installing an new 2U server with a software-defined radio system I
developed.  The second year I was taking the whole damn system out.
Government spending for you.

My second trip was just after Raytheon has lost the contract to
Lockheed, and everything was a mess.  Apparently Lockheed had
significantly underbid Raytheon, and they were cutting costs
everywhere trying to meet that.  Trying to get anything approved
was... difficult.  I don't know what's happened since then.

Here's my take on working down there:  The first trip is the
experience of a lifetime.  Everything is amazing, and every day is
exciting.  There's something new around every corner.

The second trip starts getting lonely.  You realize that there's
actually nothing to do, and no reasonable internet access.  Being a
world away from your wife or girlfriend is not easy.  Everyone there
had different ways of handling it.

Some people enjoy being removed from the world.  I met one guy who
drove the shit truck.  He spent each day driving a truck around at
5 MPH emptying septic tanks, and loved his job.  But the prospect of
going back a third time was too much for me.  I'd rather spend
Christmas with my wife and family.

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#5586

On Sun, 9 Nov 2014, Randy Westlund wrote:

> On 2014-11-07, RS Wood wrote:
>> http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/04/coolest-jobs-in-tech-liter
>> ally-running-a-south-pole-data-center/
>
> I've actually done that before, though I was at McMurdo, not
> Amundsen-Scott.  I was doing satellite communication for NASA,
> working with NOAA's POES weather satellites.
>
> The article is pretty accurate.  There's nothing quite like being
> handed a pickaxe and parka and having to remove some 4" diameter
> coax cable that runs out of the datacenter/shed and under 3 feet of
> ice to the radio tower 200 feet away.  Took me a full day :P
>
YOu didn't read Admiral Byrd's "Alone" before you went down there?

   Michael

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#5589

On 2014-11-09, Michael Black wrote:
> On Sun, 9 Nov 2014, Randy Westlund wrote:
>
>> I've actually done that before, though I was at McMurdo, not
>> Amundsen-Scott.  I was doing satellite communication for NASA,
>> working with NOAA's POES weather satellites.
>>
>> The article is pretty accurate.  There's nothing quite like being
>> handed a pickaxe and parka and having to remove some 4" diameter
>> coax cable that runs out of the datacenter/shed and under 3 feet of
>> ice to the radio tower 200 feet away.  Took me a full day :P
>>
> YOu didn't read Admiral Byrd's "Alone" before you went down there?
>
>    Michael

No, I hadn't head of it.  Maybe I'll check it out.

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#5591

On 09/11/2014 18:19, Randy Westlund wrote:
> On 2014-11-09, Michael Black wrote:
>> On Sun, 9 Nov 2014, Randy Westlund wrote:
>>
>>> I've actually done that before, though I was at McMurdo, not
>>> Amundsen-Scott.  I was doing satellite communication for NASA,
>>> working with NOAA's POES weather satellites.
>>>
>>> The article is pretty accurate.  There's nothing quite like being
>>> handed a pickaxe and parka and having to remove some 4" diameter
>>> coax cable that runs out of the datacenter/shed and under 3 feet of
>>> ice to the radio tower 200 feet away.  Took me a full day :P
>>>
>> YOu didn't read Admiral Byrd's "Alone" before you went down there?
>>
>>     Michael
>
> No, I hadn't head of it.  Maybe I'll check it out.
>
I thought it would have been the number one book for all those bound 
very far south to have read! I happened across it by chance lots of 
years ago - a tough trip.

-- 
Rod

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#5593

On Sun, 9 Nov 2014, polygonum wrote:

> On 09/11/2014 18:19, Randy Westlund wrote:
>> On 2014-11-09, Michael Black wrote:
>>> On Sun, 9 Nov 2014, Randy Westlund wrote:
>>> 
>>>> I've actually done that before, though I was at McMurdo, not
>>>> Amundsen-Scott.  I was doing satellite communication for NASA,
>>>> working with NOAA's POES weather satellites.
>>>> 
>>>> The article is pretty accurate.  There's nothing quite like being
>>>> handed a pickaxe and parka and having to remove some 4" diameter
>>>> coax cable that runs out of the datacenter/shed and under 3 feet of
>>>> ice to the radio tower 200 feet away.  Took me a full day :P
>>>> 
>>> YOu didn't read Admiral Byrd's "Alone" before you went down there?
>>>
>>>     Michael
>> 
>> No, I hadn't head of it.  Maybe I'll check it out.
>> 
> I thought it would have been the number one book for all those bound very far 
> south to have read! I happened across it by chance lots of years ago - a 
> tough trip.
>
I'd never heard of it eaither before I found it at a used book sale.  But 
that was 20 or 30 years ago, I'm not sure if it's in print.  I'm sure when 
it came out, it got a lot of attention.  I've read it a couple of times, 
and I've never been to Antarctica.

   Michael

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#5592

On Sun, 9 Nov 2014, Randy Westlund wrote:

> On 2014-11-09, Michael Black wrote:
>> On Sun, 9 Nov 2014, Randy Westlund wrote:
>>
>>> I've actually done that before, though I was at McMurdo, not
>>> Amundsen-Scott.  I was doing satellite communication for NASA,
>>> working with NOAA's POES weather satellites.
>>>
>>> The article is pretty accurate.  There's nothing quite like being
>>> handed a pickaxe and parka and having to remove some 4" diameter
>>> coax cable that runs out of the datacenter/shed and under 3 feet of
>>> ice to the radio tower 200 feet away.  Took me a full day :P
>>>
>> YOu didn't read Admiral Byrd's "Alone" before you went down there?
>>
>>    Michael
>
> No, I hadn't head of it.  Maybe I'll check it out.
>
About 1936, he lived in a shack away from everyone, though I don't think 
it was at the South Pole.  It was a preassembled wooden shack, they dug a 
hole and put it in there.  ANd he had really bad problems with carbon 
monoxide from the stove.  At best "warm" was relative, and the exhaust for 
the stove would freeze up.  So he had to stop using the stove much of the 
time, and there went the heat. He tried to act like all was well, he had a 
radio, but they finally sent out a rescue party, made hard since it was 
winter.  And finally they got to him, staying with him for a while before 
brining him back.

That and books about Shackleton's expedition where they were stuck in the 
ice are the two books that give a glimpse of how cold can get.

   Michael

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#5598

On Sun, 9 Nov 2014 15:23:31 -0500
Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> wrote:

> On Sun, 9 Nov 2014, Randy Westlund wrote:
> 
> > On 2014-11-09, Michael Black wrote:
> >> On Sun, 9 Nov 2014, Randy Westlund wrote:
> >>
> >>> I've actually done that before, though I was at McMurdo, not
> >>> Amundsen-Scott.  I was doing satellite communication for NASA,
> >>> working with NOAA's POES weather satellites.
> 
> That and books about Shackleton's expedition where they were stuck in the 
> ice are the two books that give a glimpse of how cold can get.
> 
>    Michael
> 

The appropriate beverage to drink - or contemplate drinking - while
reading that book is this:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/shackleton-s-whisky-returned-to-antarctic-hut-1.1304252

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/magazine/drinking-ernest-shackletons-whisky.html?
pagewanted=all&_r=0


I would love just a sip, but alas.

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