this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2023
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Microsoft are looking at putting datacenters under the ocean, which sounds like a really good idea to cool them but I can’t help but think a couple decades from now it’s going to start causing us problems

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[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No one does maintenance on the server farms. It costs more money to send someone in than to let the parts slowly die until the farm no longer is economically viable. Once that happens, you sell the whole farm to a recycler.

[–] CaptainAniki@lemmy.flight-crew.org 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

That sounds monumentally more wasteful.

[–] ricecake@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What's the difference between recycling one piece at a time or en mass?

[–] CaptainAniki@lemmy.flight-crew.org 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

One hasn't been corroded by the ocean.

[–] flashgnash@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The actual computer parts wouldn't necessarily be corroded though, I would assume the hull itsself would be designed to last longer than the computer components themselves

Yes we all know that designs are always perfect and never stupid or wasteful for greenwashing and marketing.

[–] Parsnip8904@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

I mean not really because the computers in the farm at this point are recycled to be sold as seperate used units.

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] grue@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The most sustainable option would also always be the cheapest option, if regulations were properly designed to correct for externalized costs. We should strive for that.

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 1 points 1 year ago

It might be the most sustainable option.

Building a server farm that needs to be maintained means building out space for people to maintain the farm, increasing the space and requiring additional cooling to make the farm able to be serviced by humans.

It also means that less efficient hardware gets used for a longer period of time, driving up electricity costs.

And as long as the e-waste is recycled, in which it is easier to recycle an entire farm rather than consumer electronics, what is the issue?

[–] CaptainAniki@lemmy.flight-crew.org 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

For microsoft at the expense of the fucking planet.

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is common practice for any large data center.

[–] CaptainAniki@lemmy.flight-crew.org 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No it isn't. What DC do you work at? We recycle hardware as much as fucking possible until its worthless and then it's sold to anyone who wants it in the company first and then the rest is sold on ebay and craigslist.

[–] snowbell@beehaw.org 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ahhh, so this is why you are so angry in this thread. You're the competition. Not exactly an unbiased third party.

[–] silentashes@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

@snowbell having fun #trolling ? Or just a bit lacking in holding the #environment as a core personal worldview/value-set ? If you did, I think you might immediately have understood— as I did — that the other person has 1. a strong ethos around the environment, which dovetails with 2. their strong sense of professionalism.

It’s the difference between friendly competition whom one actually can RESPECT (even when you disagree), vs seeing the other party as a literal piece of turd-pile because the treat their stakeholders like turds.

M$ is extremely well known for being the latter.

Also, I doubt that someone at the engineer-level (low on the totem pole) is seriously going to give two f***s about their multinational richass CEOs or investors “competing” with each other.

I sure as sh*t wouldn’t. It’s just a money game. Zero loyalty

(as any corporate drone knows (see also Dilbert comic strip).)

[–] snowbell@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Datacenters are already bad for the environment and all available evidence points to this being a better option for the environment. Believe me I thought it was the stupidiest shit when they first announced this but I've had years to think about it now. Just because something is made by a horrible company doesn't mean that it iself must be horrible.

Sorry for not participating in your corporate drone culture, loyalty actually matters to me. This comment made me cringe.