Google in The Dalles--what's up?
NullBock
year now. They purchased at least 30 acres of land bordering the
Columbia, and broke ground last year. They've got a couple large
corrugated-tin buildings up already, and one building with 20-foot-high
cooling stacks on top, running full steam since months.
Why they chose The Dalles has been the subject of some debate. Several
reasons have been put forward: dirt-cheap and abundant electricity (The
Dalles has its very own hydroelectric dam); massive available bandwidth
(there's a major, underutilized fiber-optic cable running under The
Dalles); a nice place to live; Larry Page has taken up windsurfing.
But what I'm interested is in what they'll be doing there. It's all
very hush-hush right now--I know a guy working security at the
location, and he's not supposed to say "Google"--officially he's
"working down at the port." Also, my mom talked to a couple people
fishing near the site the other day--she suspected they worked for
Google, so asked them what was going on. They just laughed and said
"we can't tell you that!"
Why so secretive? Were other Google start-ups also kept under-wraps?
Is this simply SOPs for a major company, or is this the focus of a new
direction for Google?
Anyway, I'd love to hear some ideas about this--any rumors that I've
missed? Or news flashes from Google? Or simply blind speculation?
Walter Gildersleeve
Freiburg, Germany
Big Bill
wrote:
>So Google's been building a shop in The Dalles, Oregon for well over a
>year now. They purchased at least 30 acres of land bordering the
>Columbia, and broke ground last year. They've got a couple large
>corrugated-tin buildings up already, and one building with 20-foot-high
>cooling stacks on top, running full steam since months.
>
Sounds like the dark web concept is beginning to firm up.
BB
--
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NullBock
> BB
Is that anything like black helicopters?
Roy Schestowitz
> So Google's been building a shop in The Dalles, Oregon for well over a
> year now. They purchased at least 30 acres of land bordering the
> Columbia, and broke ground last year. They've got a couple large
> corrugated-tin buildings up already, and one building with 20-foot-high
> cooling stacks on top, running full steam since months.
Yes, but what does that have to do with this technical, search
engine-inclined newsgroup? Don't you know that Google are no longer "all
about search", despite what they said to the media last week? So, let's talk
search engines. *smile*
> Why they chose The Dalles has been the subject of some debate. Several
> reasons have been put forward: dirt-cheap and abundant electricity (The
> Dalles has its very own hydroelectric dam); massive available bandwidth
> (there's a major, underutilized fiber-optic cable running under The
> Dalles); a nice place to live; Larry Page has taken up windsurfing.
> But what I'm interested is in what they'll be doing there. It's all
> very hush-hush right now--I know a guy working security at the
> location, and he's not supposed to say "Google"--officially he's
> "working down at the port." Also, my mom talked to a couple people
> fishing near the site the other day--she suspected they worked for
> Google, so asked them what was going on. They just laughed and said
> "we can't tell you that!"
>
> Why so secretive? Were other Google start-ups also kept under-wraps?
> Is this simply SOPs for a major company, or is this the focus of a new
> direction for Google?
>
> Anyway, I'd love to hear some ideas about this--any rumors that I've
> missed? Or news flashes from Google? Or simply blind speculation?
>
> Walter Gildersleeve
> Freiburg, Germany
__/ [ NullBock ] on Sunday 14 May 2006 15:02 \__
>> Sounds like the dark web concept is beginning to firm up.
Dark fiber:
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20051117.html
Some say that Google may one day form their own private Web and have Web
sites submitted directly to the index. You know, kind of like the
commercialisation of the Net. Confer ISP's imposing costs on E-mail and Net
Neutrality debates.
http://www.radioopensource.org/net-neutrality/
http://www.open4success.org/Olnews/index.html
> Is that anything like black helicopters?
Yes, and they hijacked Peter Kohlmann 3 weeks ago. Rumours say that Microsoft
snatched him from our beloved COLA.
Best wishes,
Roy
--
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Big Bill
wrote:
>> Sounds like the dark web concept is beginning to firm up.
>
>> BB
>
>Is that anything like black helicopters?
No, dark fibre.
Big Bill
You know they bought a Dam with a view just recently too? Or was it a
view with a large dam in it?
NullBock
building in The Dalles. The dark web talk is interesting, but the
Cringely articles talk about installing plug n play data centers at
primary peering points. It looks like they're building a multi-million
dollar campus outside The Dalles, which doesn't necessarily play into
this idea.
Currently, estimates of 50, 100 or 150 high-tech positions being
created at The Dalles are being floated. What I'd *really* like to
know is what flavor of high tech.
Walter
Big Bill
Roy Schestowitz
> On 14 May 2006 14:02:48 -0700, "NullBock" <loyal...@easypeas.net>
> wrote:
>
>>But this doesn't answer my (fairly mundane) question of what they are
>>building in The Dalles. The dark web talk is interesting, but the
>>Cringely articles talk about installing plug n play data centers at
>>primary peering points. It looks like they're building a multi-million
>>dollar campus outside The Dalles, which doesn't necessarily play into
>>this idea.
>>
>>Currently, estimates of 50, 100 or 150 high-tech positions being
>>created at The Dalles are being floated. What I'd *really* like to
>>know is what flavor of high tech.
>>
>>Walter
>
> Go and apply then!
>
> BB
Ahhh... now I get you, Walter.
The jobs that one Googleplex accommodates are rather diverse. At some
stage in the past, our Linux Users Group spoke of some openings, but these
were non-technical jobs. Apart from housekeeping, there are marketers,
developers and some system administration type of folks. Development is
bound to and is closely correlated to Web technologies, as you can
imagine. Even desktop software is merely a front end interface to services
(with the exclusion of Picasa and 3-D Sketching perhaps). In other words,
skill-wide, much is focused traffic that comes from data centres down the
line*.
Anyhoo...
Google opened or are opening some new 'branches' ("Googleplexes" as they
are called) in Dublin and Zurich. I don't know about the States. In the
past (when I was speaking to Google recruiters), I was under the clear
impression that skills of value include Debian Linux. Much of this
involved sysadmining at some back room. That's the aspect which involves
getting things to run, and run persistently.
Then comes desktop development and creation of future services to
penetrare the market (e.g. Google Labs). The staff develops software and
sticks to that 'code monkey' culture using Goobuntu, an housebred Ubuntu
derivative. This applied to the very large majority of staff there. So, my
advice to you would be to embrace Open Source. The demand for such skills
is known to be higher than what's available out there in the market. There
are more GNU/Linux machines out there than staff who can handle them
(without reading some "for dummies" manual and staring at the monitor
drooling).
Just don't brag in your application about MSWord and .NET skills...
Best wishes and good luck,
Roy
*Unless _Wireless_, which is something they are getting more vigorously
into. Announcement on collaboration with Nokia on the 770 model (Internet
tablet) is due out by Tuesday.
--
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ph...@isham-research.co.uk
SOP here in the UK. A large corporate data centre is a warehouse-like
building with no windows, a single loading dock that's hardly ever
used, five parking spaces and enough air-conditioning for three hundred
people.
All are anonymous. Most are these days managed from remote "bridges"
or using tools like Tivoli. There are just enough people on the site
itself to satisfy Health and Safety legislation about working with
electricity.
NullBock
> as they are called) in Dublin and Zurich. I don't know about the States.
> In the past (when I was speaking to Google recruiters), I was under
> the clear impression that skills of value include Debian Linux. Much
> of this involved sysadmining at some back room. That's the aspect which
> involves getting things to run, and run persistently.
Thanks, Roy. I knew that Google were big open-sourcers using Linux.
It also seems that they're fairly taken with Python...
Are the Zurich/Dublin Googleplexes common knowledge? I'm still curious
as to whether the secrecy surrounding the The Dalles campus is typical,
or if its business-as-usual for Google?
Anyway, thanks for the info,
Walter
Roy Schestowitz
>> Google opened or are opening some new 'branches' ("Googleplexes"
>> as they are called) in Dublin and Zurich. I don't know about the
>> States.
>> In the past (when I was speaking to Google recruiters), I was under
>> the clear impression that skills of value include Debian Linux.
>> Much
>> of this involved sysadmining at some back room. That's the aspect which
>> involves getting things to run, and run persistently.
>
> Thanks, Roy. I knew that Google were big open-sourcers using Linux.
> It also seems that they're fairly taken with Python...
Yes, definitely. Blame Brin for that...
> Are the Zurich/Dublin Googleplexes common knowledge? I'm still curious
> as to whether the secrecy surrounding the The Dalles campus is typical,
> or if its business-as-usual for Google?
Let's just say that the media never made a big fuss about it. However:
Some months ago I came across:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/14/google_dublin/
It's not mainstream media, but it's something. They were also said to open
some office in Manchester some months ago.
> Anyway, thanks for the info,
You're welcome.
Roy
--
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