Posted on 10/09/2013 6:43:01 PM PDT by MeshugeMikey
The National Security Agency's $2 billion mega spy center is going up in flames.
Technical glitches have sparked fiery explosions within the NSA's newest and largest data storage facility in Utah, destroying hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment, and delaying the facility's opening by one year.
And no one seems to know how to fix it.
- See more at: http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2013/10/08/2-Billion-NSA-Spy-Center-Going-Flames#sthash.JiSTgTHk.dpuf
(Excerpt) Read more at thefiscaltimes.com ...
Prayers are being answered.
The potential for mistakes is incredible. And the ability to clean it up is far worse.
In college, my health insurer confused my records with someone of the same age and very similar name. (Identifier was not SS number.)
I discovered the mistake when going in to an OBGYN and getting cholesterol test results in the mail. The insurer said just to throw out the mail not meant for me. Other phone calls resulted in them refusing to talk to me, because my personal details like address didn’t match their records.
I had to drive to their office with all my notes and received letters to demand to see my file. I took out what wasn’t mine, that I could identify. I made them switch my medical ID to something else.
A decade later, I had minor complications during childbirth because they didn’t have the right “reacts to these drugs” info in my file. At least a blood type of O, instead of A, isn’t a problem.
In a federal system, the patients will have no rights to make corrections while everyone else has the rights to see it. And the black mail potential is enormous. So, too, is the likelihood that the National Enquirer or equivalent group will hack data transfer points to get medical records for various people.
“HB1 visa holders form...KENYA perhaps”
Perhaps, or from one of the ‘stans.... Our FERAL Government probably has let several million come over since Odogdung has been in office.
And they probably passed security clearance pretty easily. Just had to open their shirt and not have a suicide vest on. Your HIRED...sign here....
BINGO! You nailed it!
Trust no living soul, walk softly among the dead and if you hear sticks breaking, run like hell!
what a blessing it would be if the prayer that the NSA would burn out were fused ...with one asking to rid of us kenyan neo stalinist
I will make a WAG (wild-ass guess) as to what is going on here:
In a data center of that magnitude, they won’t be using computers with their own AC-DC power supplies, because the entire thing probably runs on 48VDC, maybe these days, even more. This way, you get fewer conversion losses (=heat and money) and other distribution problems. Telcos run at 48VDC because there are lot of other benefits of doing this, one of which is the ease of building in uninterruptibility - just hang a big bank of lead-acid batteries on the DC bus, and charge the batteries. No charging (i.e., a power failure from the utility) = equipment still gets 48 VDC, but now the batteries discharge.
The danger is, the current available on that bus can be mind-blowingly high - if one were to drop a wrench between the busses at a big central office, the wrench wouldn’t melt, or glow red, it would probably become a ball of plasma!
The skills of designing and operating super high-power DC buses aren’t that common anymore.
Must have forgotten to put in damn fuses somewhere, everywhere :)
Stuxnet strikes again
How convenient. So during that year before it is "officially" open and operating, what's going to be going on there? Any shakedowns, tests of hardware and software? Let me guess... Because it is not "officially" open there won't be any official oversight over these activities. Mighty good timing for some people to have unrestrained access to all that capability...
That’s a very thorough and believable explanation. You sound like a stage engineer, ready to set situations up quickly. That Data Center needs to hire the right people to plan tis project and quality assure check the maintenance.
Some aspects of electricity are the same as during Tesla’s day. Electricity can appear to be domesticated, trained down and tethered up to do our bidding, but we should never forget her powers still contained, her swirling tentacles of power that can never be measured in an earthly manner.
Strange that the GOOG doesn't have such problems. Nor AMZN. Nor even MSFT!
A cleaning contractor came in one night with a vacuum cleaner with a metal tube. They lost the office for a short time until they called somebody in from the power room to figure the mess out LOL.
Sure was...
10-guage wires for 6-guage capacity. That’s gonna leave a mark. As in tearing up concrete floors and re-doing the wiring.
Not that I have any knowledge of this facility but I’ve seen this elsewhere.
Or.. If you build a system designed to collect and store all communications in the world you become a target of every entity in the world wanting privacy -individuals, corporations, governments.
Gee, dats heart b-waking, I could just cu-wy my wittle eyes out.
They have had ten events where the average damage of each event in 100k.
A 100k electrical fire is messy. Causes a full stop to the power commissioning on a Data Center. This project was to go on-line this month. They are talking about a year delay.
I have to tell you, as someone who is familiar with this type of project, this is not a “rounding error.” This is a major failure.
Data Centers are not so much buildings or computer centers as they are giant electrical systems with an HVAC component that is beyond description with CRAC units of incredible size.
several thoughts come to mind....its a disaster....or its The regimes answer to the riechstag fire
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