Seems rather unlikely that Google's patent this would stand up in court, what with modular building being a well proven method of making a regular building and therefore being 'obvious'. Recently, a new hotel went up in the town where I live, lift shaft and frame first, then each of the bedrooms craned into place, fully built, it took a tiny ammount of time.

Actually, with regard to shipping and docking of data containers, probably the Russians have Prior Art Rights with their Space Station System, but who would be bothered to Patent IT whenever IT only is rewarded with Monopoly Money/Fools Gold.

Hey. The title just came to me, ok? Feel free to use it if you like. :-)

As a practice, datacenters and their contents move infrequently. Shipping containers are designed to move, and, particularly in the case of the WTDC, be impervious to an exterior environment.

So the containers in question hopefully will be more in alignment with the requirements for a building interior and a non-vagabond existence, offering modular containment of computing equipment environmentals. The supposition is that by not conditioning the entire building space, but rather just the space close to the computing gear, efficiency and effectiveness is improved. Did MS miss an opportunity to mention the 'green' angle? Looks like it.

This odd project does offer the opportunity to contrast the two modes of operation right there in the same building. Odd, because you certainly don't need to build a traditional data center to contrast with. There are plenty of those already. And if the first floor represents the known good future, and the second floor the known obsolete past, MS is spending money on it because ... ?

I'm sorry, old chap, I can't understand your banter.

Is there a translation of the headline the first paragraph, and some of the other stuff into English?

"""Crack open the Natty Light. Microsoft plans to throw a white trash data center rager in Chicago."""

First of all, "Natty Light" is what the college kids use as slang for "Natrual Light," a cheaper, (more) poorly flavored version of Bud Light. It can typically be obtained in boxes of 30 cans, at a price about 1/6 the price of a good beer. People use them to play drinking games, shot gun, vomit, and whatever else they can come up with while inebriated.

A rager is sort of a massive party to which many people show up. After a healthy rager you can expect the hosting venue to be more or less completely destroyed (Think missing drywall, broken fixtures, smashed windows) and littered with beer cans, urine, condom wrappers, etc.

Should just about sum it up, I think.

Natty light - National Bohemian. Beer.

http://www.nationalbohemian.com/ From the home page, "Why do you drink Natty Boh" - I chose "Baltimore Pride"

"As a practice, datacenters and their contents move infrequently. Shipping containers are designed to move,"

And when they stop moving? There is a little growth industry in turning containers into homes - a clever way of using unused containers rather than just letting them sit and rust in massive piles. I'm sure you could easily think of a dozen other possible uses.

Try google.

"... an embrace of the Southern, food stamp culture your reporter shares with trailerized people."

The Register pays so little that Ashlee Vance subsists on food stamps? Or should we believe that Ashlee is transplanted to San Francisco from someplace in the American South? Or that trailer parks only exist in the South? Puzzling.

As a former resident of trailer parks (I lived in an 18ft 1967 Fireball), I can't imagine any tech reporter in San Francisco having something to do with us. And yes, I had three computers in my trailer.

slam the white, it's all right. But don't mention Obama's middle name.

f**kin hilarious. It's in the back of a container truck. Chinese goods come in containers by the thousands, but I suppose AV formerly from Mountain View never bothered to watch ships come in under the Bridge. Let's start up some good ol' Chinese racial slurs from the Gold Rush, hell, that's San Francisco history right there!

Make some of those "out of control" comments about eating dogs, slant eyes and "funny accents" while you're at it. Hilarious comedy gold!

liberal guilt w@nkers. And Alan, meth is a *poor people*'s drug. Real big on indian reservations, "da Hood", "migrant" farmer communities-anywhere they can't afford or manufacture "big city" crack or yuppie cocaine. maybe y'all need to step out of your ivory towers a bit and see how many "trailer trash" are the people your kind step on to maintain your illustrious existence.

Eloi's good eatin' I hear. Us Morlocks are gonna do well soon enough.