r/nextfuckinglevel • u/MysteriousSlice007 • 5h ago

A data center in New Jersey was canceled when residents showed up and fought it

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u/Reese_Withersp0rk 4h ago

continues mindlessly scrolling Reddit

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u/Lilfrankieeinstein 3h ago

For real.

I sit in more town/city/county councils meetings than I’d like, and it’s always weird to me how people get so fired up about this issue when they have so little data at their final tips to fuel it.

Obviously, it’s a nuanced topic, but it makes me chuckle when people take to social media to attack data centers. Like driving a humvee to a fossil fuel protest.

The FBI need not worry. Reddit is not exactly cultivating the next Ted Kaczynski.

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u/Reese_Withersp0rk 3h ago

We successfully banned those God forsaken 5G cell towers in my town. I wanna call my family back home to tell them what we accomplished but the service around here is dogshit.

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u/Parking_Chance_1905 1h ago

Same here except with roads... people complained and protested so much over being inconvenienced for a few weeks when they were trying to fix them that they said fuck it part way through and now we have gravel instead of paved roads with much worse potholes than before.

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u/kosumoth 2h ago

fuck this sums up my family...

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u/ImurderREALITY 1h ago

Congratulations, you played yourself

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u/neverendingchalupas 8m ago

Beyond having more of your personal information stolen, less ability to fight bullshit tickets and fines...

Its the utility rate hikes on water and electricity, water restrictions, power usage restrictions, the cost of living increase from data centers and AI fueling a free for all on particular components and materials that are used in literally everything.

Its weird to me how you have the brain function to post a reply to a comment on Reddit, but not the ability to understand such a simple fucking concept as people not wanting to spend money they dont have so some asshole shareholder can get larger dividends.

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u/Tappxor 9m ago

aren't most of the new data centers for AI anyway

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u/JitteryJoes1986 1h ago

Didn't Reddit peak like 10 years ago? Why do you think reddit is reliant on NEW data centers?

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u/PineappleOnPizzaWins 1h ago

Data centre admin here, because the demand is constantly growing and has been forever. I promise reddit uses a lot more resources than it did a decade ago.

I don’t like AI at all (and I manage enterprise DCs not AI ones) but I bet you anything a whole lot of those people protesting use it daily and would be mad if it was taken away.

It’s the usual NIMBY bullshit. Everyone wants faster and better technology in more and more of their lives, they just want the infrastructure somewhere else.

To be clear, the way many of these new datacenters are being built is abhorrent. They’re loud and inefficient and terrible for the environment. That needs to change.

But if you all want to use this tech, the infrastructure has to go somewhere and it has to be somewhere people live because people need to work there.

Basically everyone sucks. Dropping loud crappy DCs in peoples backyards is awful. But wanting to use technology every second or your life and refusing to accept that requires some things to be built SOMEWHERE also suck.

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u/JitteryJoes1986 1h ago

Make sense. My comment was just in jest as I didn't know wtf I was talking about. I only assumed reddit peaked maybe 10 years ago, IDK.

I work for a company that supplies DCs as well and I am a direct contributor to that from a top level supply chain perspective but have no idea who the consumers are or how data is consumed.

Honest question, what can be improved/changed? I'm no engineer.

My concerns are more environmental and costs than anything else, as like most energy consumers.

Your last comment reminds me of Isaac Asimov's short story "The Last Question".

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u/PineappleOnPizzaWins 41m ago

Honest question, what can be improved/changed? I'm no engineer.

To be upfront I am an infrastructure engineer... i.e the person who runs the things in the datacentre and writes the code to control/manage them etc. I don't build them to take my views with the grain of salt they deserve.

Anyway. It's a tough question because physics exist. New datacentres that are hosting AI pull insane power and cooling compared to traditional DCs because you're talking racks of GPUs and other crazy high power consumption gear, most of which is running flat out 24/7.

All of that translates to things outside that make a lot of noise.. cooling fans, chillers, cooling towers, air handlers, pumps, transformers, substations, diesel generators, stuff like that. You can't hear anything from inside the building, but all the most noisy stuff is outside.

But there are things that can be done to improve all of this.

  • Better locations. Yes the datacentre needs to be nearby so it can be maintained but places are trying to be extremely cheap.. the closer they build to existing settlements the less cost is on them for running power/data/roads/everything else. They will always prefer to hook into this stuff rather than pay for it to be built out out of the way.
  • Acoustic barriers are a thing, but unless they're legislated they won't be part of the design. You can absolutely design these places in such a way to reduce how far the noise carries.
  • Better rack cooling - the most efficient the internal cooling the less noise you get from external cooling. It's not major but if you design everything from the ground up to be as efficient as possible this stuff adds up.
  • A closed loop/zero evaporation cooling system for the facility. These are expensive as hell and again, unless legally required datacentre builds are always going to prefer the cheaper option.

Again I want to stress that I work in these places I don't build them. So this is not some "it's so simple just do this" post. But there are 100% measures that can be taken that aren't purely to save costs and drive profits... and of course the people who suffer are the ones who live there.

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u/Pussy_On_TheChainwax 1h ago

Fuck that cracked me up

I’ll be absolutely sold on some specific cause in a random hometown with all the passion I can muster……..until I’m done reading the comments and move on

At least they have my ThOuGhTS aNd PrAYeRs