As you probably know, a datacenter (sometimes referred to as a server room) is a building that is specially built just for giant computers to inhabit. It’s not just any old office building. People put a lot of care and maintenance into these places. Datacenters are usually armored against earthquakes, electrical failures, and other disasters. They’re purpose-built and designed to last for a very long time.
Do you not find it strange how these buildings are created just for a huge array of computers to sit motionless and crunch numbers en masse?
It’s a house for a computer, a machine. But it’s not just a house.
When I thought about that, I made the sudden realization that datacenters are really a kind of shrine or temple to the information that is kept inside.
Nobody is allowed inside the datacenter, except for security and IT staff. They are the monks that are always standing by, watching over the temple, arranging the rocks and raking the sand every morning. Anybody who is permitted entry must respect the temple’s purity by removing dirt and electrostatic charge from their shoes before they are allowed inside, lest they bring negative energy with them.
Very rarely is a human found in the actual rooms in which the servers reside. That room is the most sacred room of all, a sort of inner sanctum. In this room, there are no windows to the outside world. The cold fluorescent lighting fixtures are normally kept dim, almost as if the room were candlelit. Everything is completely spotless; even the air is absolutely pure of any dust particles whatsoever. The room is laid out quite simply, the entire room being white, but contrasted by the many parallel rows of tall, black shelves. It is almost devoid of color, the only colors are the neatly tied yellow and blue braids of cabling running down each shelf, and the twinkling of hundreds of tiny lights, each one smaller than a grain of rice, all patterned in assorted rows of vibrant reds, oranges, greens, and blues. The room is similar in both appearance and function to a library, only without any books; and like a library, not a word is spoken; the only sounds heard are those of a waterfall, mixed with a faint intermittent clicking in the background. To accommodate these shelves, the ceiling is made fifteen feet high; more suitable, I’d say, for some kind of giant, rather than a human. But that is quite fitting, because this room is not designed for humans. Nobody is present in the server room, yet an ethereal entity is always there, constantly maintaining this invisible library, categorizing and filing everything. This is its permanent sacred home, where it will continue to tirelessly fulfill its sole purpose, with no sense of good or evil. It is the one collective dæmon that is comprised of all the other little dæmon threads fulfilling their simple purposes on all the machines in the room.
I find the whole concept rather surreal.
March 30th, 2011 | 
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Category: Uncategorized |
It’s not a shrine, it’s the Scarlet Devil Mansion!
_,,….,,_ ＿人人人人人人人人人人人人人人人＿
-””:::::::::::::｀”＞ ゆっくりしていってね！！！ ＜
ヽ:::::::::::::::::::::￣^Ｙ^Ｙ^Ｙ^Ｙ^Ｙ^Ｙ^Ｙ^Ｙ^Ｙ^Ｙ^Ｙ^Ｙ^Ｙ^Ｙ^￣
|::::::;ノ´￣＼:::::::::::＼_,. -‐ｧ ＿_ _____ ＿_____
|::::ﾉ ヽ､ヽr-r’”´ （.__ ,´ _,, ‘-´￣￣｀-ゝ 、_ イ、
_,.!イ_ _,.ﾍｰｧ’二ﾊ二ヽ､へ,_7 ’r ´ ヽ、ﾝ、
::::::rｰ”7ｺ-‐’”´ ; ‘, ｀ヽ/｀7 ,’＝=─- -─=＝’, i
r-’ｧ’”´/ /! ﾊ ハ ! iヾ_ﾉ i ｲ iゝ、ｲ人レ／_ルヽｲ i |
!イ´ ,’ | /__,.!/ V ､!__ﾊ ,’ ,ゝ ﾚﾘｲi (ﾋ_] ﾋ_ﾝ ).| .|、i .||
`! !/ﾚi’ (ﾋ_] ﾋ_ﾝ ﾚ’i ﾉ !Y!”" ,＿__, “” 「 !ﾉ i |
,’ ﾉ !’” ,＿__, “‘ i .ﾚ’ L.’,. ヽ _ﾝ L」 ﾉ| .|
（ ,ﾊ ヽ _ﾝ 人! | ||ヽ、 ,ｲ| ||ｲ| /
,.ﾍ,）､ ）＞,､ _____, ,.イ ハ レ ル｀ ー–─ ´ルﾚ ﾚ´
Okay, seriously, you have to stop doing this