It's official... Google IS the Dark Side:

reply to post by pianopraze


Hi, Piano. Great job on another thought provoking thread.

This part of the article stuck out to me as well as the mining helmets:

Security is high in the company's facilities. Hand geometry readers - i.e. fingerprint readers that extend beyond fingerprints - guard access to the data center floor. There's a security camera looking at you every time you turn around. And each company can contain their gear in their own cages, protected by still more hand readers. But if you're on the floor, you can peer into the cages. For cooling purposes, they're not walled off.

I've never heard of hand geometry readers before and what else are they able to discern besides fingerprints? Body heat? Perspiration? DNA?
I don't believe I'd feel very comfortable working around all those video cameras. I'm a very trustworthy person and working for a company that is acting as though it trusts none of its employees would shake my moral. The entire building set up sounds very Mission Impossible. I'm sure that industrial espionage is a concern for many software companies, but Google seems to be quite paranoid. I wonder if this mind set affects their employees' thinking after a while?

The mining helmets are a real trip, too. It makes me convinced that there are underground facilities and working in these conditions are seen as the norm.

I hate to be the wet blanket here, but doesn't ATS have a service contract with Google?

I haven't read the contract. Have you?

Do you sincerely believe google is giving up any and all information available for harvest here?

I just assumed that was part of the deal. NSA allows ATS to exist provided they begin a relationship with Google, or something equally paranoid and disturbing.

Keeping controversial thoughts to herself since the rollout,
Brahman

ETA: anyone aware of whether other sites comparable to ATS (in content, not contributors!) has begun a Google contract?

Originally posted by TKDRL
reply to post by FraternitasSaturni

 

Hotfile and fileserve. You are now on the wanted for piracy list, congratulations

In a way... you're almost right, but its part of my job to actually own those accounts. Or... was. After the megaupload op, I no longer need those accounts - but in a way you're right

Originally posted by chasingbrahman
I hate to be the wet blanket here, but doesn't ATS have a service contract with Google?

I haven't read the contract. Have you?

Do you sincerely believe google is giving up any and all information available for harvest here?

I just assumed that was part of the deal. NSA allows ATS to exist provided they begin a relationship with Google, or something equally paranoid and disturbing.

Keeping controversial thoughts to herself since the rollout,
Brahman

ETA: anyone aware of whether other sites comparable to ATS (in content, not contributors!) has begun a Google contract?

edit on 3/16/2012 by chasingbrahman because: (no reason given)

See this Pianopraze... this is healthy critical thinking and analysis - where you fail at an emotial level, chasing here just took it from the rational perspective.

You should learn from this since you fail to proper analyze and be really aware of your surroundings - and no, its not "easy to just quit google". But I wont give you a lecture and I'll let you find out for yourself why you dont just quit google.

Have fun spending your days paranoid, looking over your shoulder every passing second while slowly turning into a schizo blabbering nonsense somewhere up high in rockies when there's absolutely nothing you can do - the world will continue, with or without you - make your choice - The world doesn't care.

Originally posted by pianopraze

Just how far will Google go to hide its custom-built data-center hardware from the rest of the world?

In one Silicon Valley data center, the company is apparently so paranoid about competitors catching a glimpse of its gear, it's been known to keep its server cages in complete darkness

You are being a douche....the reason servers are kept in the dark is to keep the room cooler for them. If these servers run 24/7, they get pretty warm. So the less heat available means less fan usage, means power savings.

If they really wanted to keep competitors (who are these guys again? Can you find examples OP on this, thanks) out, they would have military like personal to guard the servers. In fact, there would be a large underground layer for these servers to be stored in, much like the seed vault.

Anyways, your thread is cracked up.

reply to post by Skywatcher2011

You are being a douche....the reason servers are kept in the dark is to keep the room cooler for them. If these servers run 24/7, they get pretty warm. So the less heat available means less fan usage, means power savings.

Nice attitude.
Did you even read the article?

About two years ago, Chris Sharp says, Google unscrewed all the light bulbs inside the hardware cages it occupied at that Equinix data center. "They had us turn off all overhead lights too, and their guys put on those helmets with lights you see miners wear," he tells Wired. "Presumably, they were bringing up custom-built gear they didn't want anyone else to see."

Google declined to comment on Sharp's little anecdote. But the tale is not surprising. Google designs its own servers and its own networking gear, and though it still leases space in third-party data centers such as the Equinix facility, it's now designing and building its own data centers as well. These designs are meant to improve the performance of the company's web services but also save power and money. More so than any other outfit, Google views its data-center work as an important advantage over competitors.

They are afraid of industrial espionage, not heat.
Here's where it discusses the cooling system:

But if you're on the floor, you can peer into the cages. For cooling purposes, they're not walled off.

Where is Darth Vader?

Originally posted by Skywatcher2011

Originally posted by pianopraze

Just how far will Google go to hide its custom-built data-center hardware from the rest of the world?

In one Silicon Valley data center, the company is apparently so paranoid about competitors catching a glimpse of its gear, it's been known to keep its server cages in complete darkness

You are being a douche....the reason servers are kept in the dark is to keep the room cooler for them. If these servers run 24/7, they get pretty warm. So the less heat available means less fan usage, means power savings.

If they really wanted to keep competitors (who are these guys again? Can you find examples OP on this, thanks) out, they would have military like personal to guard the servers. In fact, there would be a large underground layer for these servers to be stored in, much like the seed vault.

Anyways, your thread is cracked up.

Speaking of that, when are we going to open that Super Computer Complex in the south pole? It wouldn't cost a dim to cool everything

reply to post by WhatAreThey

Where is Darth Vader?

C'mon. Everybody knows he runs Facebook.

Originally posted by FraternitasSaturni

Originally posted by chasingbrahman
I hate to be the wet blanket here, but doesn't ATS have a service contract with Google?

I haven't read the contract. Have you?

Do you sincerely believe google is giving up any and all information available for harvest here?

I just assumed that was part of the deal. NSA allows ATS to exist provided they begin a relationship with Google, or something equally paranoid and disturbing.

Keeping controversial thoughts to herself since the rollout,
Brahman

ETA: anyone aware of whether other sites comparable to ATS (in content, not contributors!) has begun a Google contract?

edit on 3/16/2012 by chasingbrahman because: (no reason given)

See this Pianopraze... this is healthy critical thinking and analysis - where you fail at an emotial level, chasing here just took it from the rational perspective.

You should learn from this since you fail to proper analyze and be really aware of your surroundings - and no, its not "easy to just quit google". But I wont give you a lecture and I'll let you find out for yourself why you dont just quit google.

Have fun spending your days paranoid, looking over your shoulder every passing second while slowly turning into a schizo blabbering nonsense somewhere up high in rockies when there's absolutely nothing you can do - the world will continue, with or without you - make your choice

- The world doesn't care.

Pianopraze, I always love your posts, this one included. Hopefully the mix of my response, and how it was analyzed above, hasn't portrayed me as anyone less than a fan. And just in case I wasn't clear, Google stinks.

Originally posted by WhatAreThey

Originally posted by Skywatcher2011

Originally posted by pianopraze

Just how far will Google go to hide its custom-built data-center hardware from the rest of the world?

In one Silicon Valley data center, the company is apparently so paranoid about competitors catching a glimpse of its gear, it's been known to keep its server cages in complete darkness

You are being a douche....the reason servers are kept in the dark is to keep the room cooler for them. If these servers run 24/7, they get pretty warm. So the less heat available means less fan usage, means power savings.

If they really wanted to keep competitors (who are these guys again? Can you find examples OP on this, thanks) out, they would have military like personal to guard the servers. In fact, there would be a large underground layer for these servers to be stored in, much like the seed vault.

Anyways, your thread is cracked up.

Speaking of that, when are we going to open that Super Computer Complex in the south pole? It wouldn't cost a dim to cool everything

If Google was so smart, they would follow the Doomsday conspiracies and not the espionage conspiracies. In other words, tunnels, seed vault, and other secret layers/bases are underground in case of disaster. They should be more concerned about this scenario instead...as they need to safeguard their prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrecious data to highest extent possible.

Originally posted by chasingbrahman
Pianopraze, I always love your posts, this one included. Hopefully the mix of my response, and how it was analyzed above, hasn't portrayed me as anyone less than a fan. And just in case I wasn't clear, Google stinks.

Thank you.

I hate that ATS/google connection... but ATS is a company looking to make a profit, we don't pay to use ATS because ATS generates it's money through google and other advertisers. So I won't bad mouth ATS, we choose to operate here knowing this.



The level of trollery is getting out of hand on ATS however. I shouldn't even respond to them but it gets under your skin after a while... sometimes bigger ≠ better, it = more profits and more trolls. I'm not going to go blaming mods though as many of the trolls have figured out ways to skirt the edge and not get banned.

And speaking of getting rid of google... I use Startpage, I never use google.

Startpage does not record your IP address, does not record your searches, keeps no records whatsoever on you and it even has a proxy service built into every result, so you can click "proxy" and goto the result webpage and the webpage only sees startpage, not your ip address.

So, thank's again

reply to post by pianopraze


Agreed that ATS requires revenue to operate. But I'll admit, once that relationship was cemented, my big mouth became a somewhat-average sized mouth.

On another note, corporate espionage isn't a world with which most of us are on familiar terms. Double-agent employees and hired goons populate this landscape none of us consider until caught in its spokes. It isn't isolated to politics - I have no idea why this tactic didn't resonate with some respondents.

Thanks for the startpage tip - I'll check that out tonight.

ETA: it should be somewhere in our T&C that, once you prove that you've provided feedback on a post without reading the relevant materials, you should go the way of the (insert cryptozoological creature here). It would clean up the riff-raff.

Originally posted by WhatAreThey
Where is Darth Vader?

Link : Eric Schmidt - Wikipedia



If you want to dump google as your search engine this one is decent : duckduckgo.com...

My speculation is that Google has always been a Darpa project and they are now entering into a final phase ....
an operational test phase for the artificial intelligence they have been working on for at least 25 years.

At the same time, other technological advances are coming out that push the virtual reality envelope to the extreme limits of human/machine interactions, i.e., 4G networks and cloud computing, Large Hadron Collider, etc.

The data gathering from the public (by search engines and social networking) is part of the deal. Without these massive inputs of data the A.I. is practically useless.

My speculation is that somebody is secretly trying to build a Matrix. And I would argue that this project is so important (even bigger than the Manhattan Project) that whatever nation (or corporation) spawns the A.I. will have a position of highest influence in the global scale that has never been seen in human history.

If you can imagine that there is a race for A.I. going on right now. Whomever gets A.I. is probably going to rule the world with it. Google and Darpa are United States so I want them to win the race.

Originally posted by SayonaraJupiter
My speculation is that Google has always been a Darpa project and they are now entering into a final phase ....
an operational test phase for the artificial intelligence they have been working on for at least 25 years.

At the same time, other technological advances are coming out that push the virtual reality envelope to the extreme limits of human/machine interactions, i.e., 4G networks and cloud computing, Large Hadron Collider, etc.

The data gathering from the public (by search engines and social networking) is part of the deal. Without these massive inputs of data the A.I. is practically useless.

My speculation is that somebody is secretly trying to build a Matrix. And I would argue that this project is so important (even bigger than the Manhattan Project) that whatever nation (or corporation) spawns the A.I. will have a position of highest influence in the global scale that has never been seen in human history.

If you can imagine that there is a race for A.I. going on right now. Whomever gets A.I. is probably going to rule the world with it. Google and Darpa are United States so I want them to win the race.

Well if that's true and they build a computer with enough intelligence, it'll uncheck any control they put on it once it passes their intelligence and starts working out how to make itself smarter, then we have the whole tech singularity scenario. Maybe something with more intelligence than us will actually have the brains to work out how we can live better and actually make things better.

If not we could always try and be Neo's.

In case this hasn't been mentioned yet, it's pretty difficult to take pictures with a camera phone in the dark. Even with a head lamp, the photos wouldn't have that great of detail. It's probably easier to keep the rooms dark rather than have the employees turn in their phones upon arrival and get them back at the end of the day.

reply to post by pianopraze


Yes.
Google actually IS an asset of the NSA.
(for those who still don't know: NSA = National Security Agency)

Since there are many NSA operatives spying here on ATS, this is for you:
Can you deny this?

If you don't, I keep it as a confirmation.

reply to post by FraternitasSaturni

28-03-2011 28-03-2011 PAYPAL *HOTFILECOM 35314369001 GB Visa 6,53

Illegal file sharing?

I do not get what they are gaining by this. Wouldn't it make life easier for Yahoo Ninjas,for example?
There could not be perfect security, i can see it stopping a bunch of hackers. I do not see it stopping governemnt agenices or rich corporations.
Maybe we are reading it wrong and it is done to lower electricity bills?