Greetings from the shelter

Saturday, August 23, 2008

The little box which served up this page to you is now living in a datacenter in downtown San Jose, much closer to the genecowan.com world headquarters than its previous location. The building has an interesting history and is a great example of recycling architecture instead of tearing it down and starting again -- very carbon friendly. It's connected to the old Westinghouse warehouse, which is a beautiful example of 1930s architecture in decay.
The building was built in 1943 as the Joseph George Liquor Distribution Company. In the early 1960s it was designated as a Civil Defense Air Raid Bomb Shelter -- the cold war is very much in evidence here in San Jose, as the old DEW Line Radar tower on top of Mt. Umunhun is clearly visible from everywhere in the valley as a reminder.
Eventually the building became -- ready for this? -- the Enron data center. And the implosion of that company meant that the current owner got a world-class data center cheap.
For the geeky among you, my server is now a half mile away from MAE West, the main access point of the internet for the west coast, which is located smack in the middle of downtown San Jose. (If you're wondering, it's the shiny gold building on Market and Post.) And it is only two blocks away from the international node connection. Yay! Zippy connections! One hopes.
I had no idea these places were within walking distance of my house. Such is Silicon Valley, I suppose.
And thus ends our geekiness for the day.

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