Get out your Allen keys: Facebook's cooked up flat-pack bit barns Facebook has revealed the design for its new data centre, to be built in the Swedish town of Luleå. The new design was discussed at January’s Open Compute Summit. Facebook has now detailed the design and its ambition for a design process “that would look less like a construction project and more like a manufactured product.” …
so they don't like "high capacity roof structure." this just might cause a few problems where it snows occasionally, like Finland. the flat roof pictured is also ideal for building up a nice snow pack which acts like a sponge for the first spring rain. or do they just leave out the insulation and let the waste heat melt the snow? of course, this might cause a problem in the summer.
no roof panels over 8' wide is going to make for lots of seams that might leak if on-site assembly doesn't have some sort of panel-to-panel interlock like a standing seam roof.
i hope they have done some full-scale testing using real wind/water conditions and the local labor supply for assembly. good luck guys.
Indeed, I see data centres moving into my part of Canad, specifically because of the cooler weather. Recent years have been less predictable and roof loads are building up at times when they didn't in the past. Even a warm spell at an inopportune time can cause ice buildup and stressed seams.
"Maybe that's because, as anyone who has made multiple trips to IKEA to retrieve missing parts can attest, even products designed for low cost and easy assembly can go awry"
Living relatively near an IKEA store, most of the furniture in my home comes from there. I have estimated that my wife and I have bought between 80 and 100 IKEA products containing screws.
How many screws, bolts or parts have been missing? Zero!
I'm guessing that nowadays it's products from other, even lower cost chains, that have missing parts; not IKEA.
I have never understood people's dislike for IKEA. If you have ever attempted to assemble something from their many imitators, you will realise IKEA is a bastion of sanity and quality in the flat pack industry. I long ago refused to assemble anything flat pack furniture from anywhere else and it has saved me a lot of grief
I find IKEA is a worthwhile place to look around but only if you can stand the forced routing around their stores without going on a killing rampage (particularly after the piped music in their car parks), however it's often better to look and then buy elsewhere. This isn't always the case though as IKEA do genuinely produce some gems, but you have to be careful as they also push a lot of junk.
However I avoid flat pack furniture as much as reasonably possible, preferring my furniture to have rigidity other than being retro fitted with stiffeners, additional glue and nails or attached to a wall. The last free standing bedroom furniture I bought was custom made to order from a local furniture maker - it cost only 20% more than the equivalent flat pack, was made to our specifications and is well built so you don't feel that everytime you put something in a drawer the front will either fall off or the drawer base will collapse.
The routing isn't so much forced as very strongly suggested, at least in all IKEA stores I have been in, in the UK and in Europe. Next time you go, when you get to the top of the stairs, try turning the opposite way to the main flow of people; you will find yourself in the restaurant almost immediately. There are similarly a set of shortcuts downstairs - look for doors that appear a bit official and fire door like but do not have any labels saying 'staff only'.
"I find IKEA is a worthwhile place to look around but only if you can stand the forced routing around their stores without going on a killing rampage "
Most stores have shortcuts - some are marked on the maps, some are not.
It's finding that the add-on part to something is elsewhere in the towering racks that gets me.
(the excuse to scoff hotdogs in pairs is a bonus)
The other thing with ikea kit is that a lot of their pieces - and I don't know if this is accident or by design - are precisely the right width for 19" rackmount kit. Yep, instead of seeing it as "the 4th goddamn coffee table we've looked at this morning", look at it as "my new AV unit and projector mount".
That's the word that sums up my dislike for Ikea (and it's ilk) 'assemble', the average quality of furniture nowadays is terrible and stems from everyones insatiable appetite for everything now. Whatever happened to the days where people saved and bought good quality stuff that will last a life time (often improving with age).
So, Google put together some floating storage shipping containers which, presumably, they can ferry about here and there - but FaceBook can get their stuff delivered to your door and then Terry and Bob* come round and put it up for you.
*or any other enterprising flatpack realisation consultants
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