lots of wires

in Berkeley, California.

I can see fiber optic cabling, a petroleum pipeline, some electricity equipment in the middle-ground of the photo, and barbed wire above the chain-link fence.

wires and tubes: submarine fiber-optic cable journalism from Wired Magazine

An old MCI do-not-dig-here marker for a fiber-optic cable laid alongside the railroad tracks in Berkeley, California.  Photo by author.


Way back in 1996, when the Internet was yet to be found in our pockets and was likely accessed by dial-up modems, the sci-fi/cyberpunk/etc writer Neal Stephenson (who has a Bachelors in Geography from Boston University according to Wikipedia) wrote what has to be one of the longest pieces Wired has published--62 pages formatted to print on standard, 8.5'' x 11'' printer paper--about the laying of what was then the longest wire in the world, connecting Europe with East Asia and points in between.  The writing is great and very informative.  Stephenson calls himself a "hacker tourist" as a way to circumvent both journalistic standards and scholarly language, creating a picture of what it takes, or took in 1996, to lay the fiber-optic infrastructure that allows the Internet to function around the globe.  In the intervening 14 years, the amount of submarine cables have increased tremendously.  Edward Malecki published an article on the subject in the Annals of the AAG a year ago, and yet that article, while useful, does not get at the on-the-ground reality of what it takes to lay and maintain the cables in the way Stephenson's essay does.  "Mother Earth Mother Board" is archived at Wired's website and is free to access.  I am working my way through it now and am thoroughly enjoying it.

water and electrical infrastructure

in Moccasin, California last summer.  Moccasin has a hydroelectric power plant that provides electricity for San Francisco (and the rest of the Northern California region via the overall power grid) as a part of the Hetch Hetchy Water and Power utility that the City and County of San Francisco owns.

Here is a view of Moccasin's reservoir: 

The water leaves the hydroelectric plant to the right of the picture and travels under the mountain to the left, eventually making it to the sinks, showers, and lawn sprinklers of San Francisco.

visualizing data centers

In researching data centers and co-location facilities this morning, I came across two well-done sources of videos that explain some of the spaces of the Internet.  365 Main, which is based in San Francisco but manages data centers around the US, has what I would consider a surprising amount of transparency regarding their operations and facilities.  They have posted a series of short videos about their original location, at 365 Main St in downtown San Francisco.  I will post some of my own pictures of their facilities soon, but in the meantime, check out these videos.  The second source is Digital Realty Trust, which has a "knowledge library" of white papers, videos, and other sources for information on their business building data centers.  Mixed in with the more professional bits are a series of short videos documenting how a data center is actually constructed, using Legos.  Check it here.

While these online resources on the Internet itself are primarily available to show potential clients that 365 Main and Digital Realty Trust are professional and capable businesses for providing server space, the information is also useful for gaining a better understanding how the Internet actually functions.

Powerlines

and a stuck kite in Bolinas, California.