Re:Google's Floating Datacenters (Think Oil Rigs)
by j1o1h1n on Monday September 08, 2008 @07:48PM
(#298919)
You forgot the cost of hiring of mercenaries to protect your nukes from pirates.
Re:Google's Floating Datacenters (Think Oil Rigs)
by noonespecial on Tuesday September 09, 2008 @03:52AM
(#299198)
Not to worry. The general consensus is that the courts will not hold google responsible for piracy...
Re:Google's Floating Datacenters (Think Oil Rigs)
by newt0311 on Monday September 08, 2008 @08:45PM
(#298967)
good point. data centers do not have their own military contingent like navy aircraft carriers. Wonder what that does to the cost equation. It seems to be somewhat fixed so if we make this big enough...
One could also try different technologies which make it harder to weaponize the nuclear fuel like pebble bed reactors but then thats never been deployed on a ship.
There are other factors. Wind is intermittent -- not good for servers which have to be active 24/7. To use it would require massive (bigger even than what is already there) batteries which themselves would entail a massive extra cost. Nuclear power also allows easy desalination of sea water which (I assume) would be required for cooling sensitive electronic equipment (expensive servers).
The red tape associated with such an idea would be pretty scary though.