NYTimes Publishes Two Letters to Editor, DC Most Inefficient users of Energy

I hope this gives you a laugh.  I did.  The NYTimes chose two letters to publish about the infamous James Glanz article on Sept 27. 

Here is the first to make you laugh.

To the Editor:

For the last decade at least, we have been told that computerizing everything imaginable was part of an overall strategy of “going green.” Now we discover that computers are among the world’s most profligate, inefficient users of energy and that “the cloud” is a carbon-intensive, diesel particulate-spewing, eco-unfriendly fog.

The party ended last night, and the beer goggles just came off. I feel really dirty this morning.

CINDY BROOMAN
Delaware, Ohio, Sept. 25, 2012

So who is Cindy Brooman?  A 61 year old small business owner of web site Point and Click Software.  Wow Cindy thinks data centers are the most inefficient immoral users of energy.  Her server hoster is a 200% renewable energy user which makes you think Cindy is a hardcore environmentalist.

OSServerLast changedIP addressNetblock Owner
F5 BIG-IP Microsoft-IIS/6.0 2-Oct-2012 66.96.143.162  Endurance International Group, Inc.

And the other letter is from NRDC promoting their upcoming cloud report.

A coming Natural Resources Defense Council report will reveal that not all clouds are created equal; there are “green” clouds and “brown” clouds. Those that carry out energy-efficiency best practices and use low-carbon energy sources are far more sustainable than typical server rooms.

Now these are the two letters that the editor choose to put into print.  Talk about a waste.

I can’t wait to see what James Glanz fires out next.  This is quite entertaining.

 

NYTimes Data Center articles miss the target, comments cut off, little traffic, truth in whose view?

I am sure many of you have discussions with your friends on the NYTimes infamous articles. I had friends call me, and it is dinner/bar conversation that inevitably comes up.

Here are some facts that you may like to use in a conversation.

The 1st and 2nd articles by Jim Glanz no longer accepts comments.  Huh?

Comments are no longer being accepted. Please submit a letter to the editor for print consideration.

There is a correction posted on Sept 24.

Correction: September 24, 2012

A previous version of this article misstated why Microsoft wasted millions of watts of electricity, according to records. It was an attempt to erase a $210,000 penalty the utility said the company owed for overestimating its power use, not underestimating its power use.

The NYTimes Public Editor has an article on balanced reporting and the pitfalls of "false equivalency".   The editor closes with a statement that is hard to believe is  a truth applied to the data center articles.

It ought to go without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway: Journalists need to make every effort to get beyond the spin and help readers know what to believe, to help them make their way through complicated and contentious subjects.

The more news organizations can state established truths and stand by them, the better off the readership — and the democracy — will be.

When you look at the last 7 days.

The most e-mailed shows the Power, Pollution and Internet at #11.

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The article does get most blogged with #1 and #4 positions for the two articles

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But the article doesn't make the Top 20 views for NYTimes overall or in Science over the last 7 days.

So this would seem like the articles stirred up the tech savvy data center community with e-mail forwarding and blog posts, but net didn't get that much traffic for the NYTimes.  

If you ran the NYTimes would you give the go ahead for more articles or not?

Why did the NYTimes cut off comments for both articles?

 

 

Mike Manos tells the rest of story - NYTimes DC cont.

Mike has posted the rest of the story on what happened in Quincy, WA in response to the NYTimes' 2nd story on Microsoft's efforts.

Insider Redux: Data Barn in a Farm Town

I thought I would start my first post by addressing the second New York Times article first. Why? Because it specifically mentions activities and messages sourced from me at the time when I was responsible for running the Microsoft Data Center program. I will try to track the timeline mentioned in the article with my specific recollections of the events. As Paul Harvey used to say, so then you could know the ‘REST of the STORY’.

One of the main points of the NYTimes is the air pollution.  Mike tells the rest of the story.

The article then goes on to talk about the permitting for the Diesel generators. Through the admission of the Department of Ecology’s own statement, “At the time, we were in scramble mode to permit our first one of these data centers.” Additionally it also states that:

Although emissions containing diesel particulates are an environmental threat, they were was not yet classified as toxic pollutants in Washington. The original permit did not impose stringent limits, allowing Microsoft to operate its generators for a combined total of more than 6,000 hours a year for “emergency backup electrical power” or unspecified “maintenance purposes.”

NYTimes article lands on NBCNEWS Homepage

You may be thinking the NYTimes article on Polluting Data Centers will fizzle out.  But, guess what, NBCnews.com puts the 2nd article focusing on Microsoft on its home page.

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When NBCnews.com was MSNBC.com there would have been the disclosure that MSNBC is a Microsoft & NBC collaboration, but that has ended.  And, now NBCnews is just NBC.  

DatacenterKnowledge collected a roundup of reactions to the 1st post.

And, Mike Manos has posted his response to the 2nd post.

NYTimes throws its 2nd punch at Microsoft Data Centers, Diesel Generators, and Policy

NYtimes had its 1st article on Power, Pollution and the Internet.   The 2nd punch (article) focusing on Microsoft as the bad guy who consumes huge amounts of power, pollutes with diesel generators, and plays hard ball.

But for some in Quincy, the gee-whiz factor of such a prominent high-tech neighbor wore off quickly. First, a citizens group initiated a legal challenge over pollution from some of nearly 40 giant diesel generators that Microsoft’s facility — near an elementary school — is allowed to use for backup power.

Then came a showdown late last year between the utility and Microsoft, whose hardball tactics shocked some local officials.

In an attempt to erase a $210,000 penalty the utility said the company owed for underestimating its power use, Microsoft proceeded to simply waste millions of watts of electricity, records show. Then it threatened to continue burning power in what it acknowledged was an “unnecessarily wasteful” way until the fine was substantially cut, according to documents obtained by The New York Times.

The story spins inconsistencies between Christian Belady who has Mike Manos's old job.

Mr. Belady, the Microsoft official, said the board’s resolution “eliminated the illogical financial incentive for Microsoft to consume unnecessary power in order to avoid a larger fine.”

Mr. Manos, the former Microsoft data center chief who had pledged to operate in an environmentally sensitive way, said he was surprised by the company’s response to the penalty. “Those types of decisions would not have been part of the program’s initial inception,” he said.

Note how the author closes, questioning the value of data centers to the local economy.

But Mr. Morgan, the president of Double Diamond Fruit, said the positive impact over all had been far less than many people imagined. As for all the digital services that data centers power around the country, Mr. Morgan said, “I understand that it’s a necessary situation for us as a society and the way we want to live.”

“But I don’t think it’s benefiting Quincy,” he said. “I think we’re taking one for the team, to tell you the truth.”

We'll see who he goes after next after Microsoft

THE CLOUD FACTORIES

This is the second article in a series about the physical structures that make up the cloud, and their impact on our environment.

Part 1: Power, Pollution and the Internet

Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook?  Amazon has had Diesel Permit issues in VA.  

This kind of feels like a data center witch hunt or McCarthyism trial.