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Roller Coaster Data Center
stienman writes "The Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point Amusement Park may have more technology than your data center. From the article: "The parameters within which the Dragster has to operate are so finely tuned that variable load weights from people, wind speed and out-side temperature affect its performance. ... After every third launch, the data are averaged and compared with historic launch data in an effort to create that perfect ride - the roller coaster must go fast enough to clear the top of the tower, but slow to between 7 and 15 mph in order to give riders the maximum lift effect at the top."
Now that is a thrill ride!
Does it run 24/7 with automatic backups and rollbacks if the system is overloaded by users?
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
Stop SHOUTING at RANDOM interVALS!
*mumbles* whippersnappers these days...
Ok, so this is a home "datacenter" but at least its mine... :-)
For a moment I thought it was an article about my career.
"Kittens give Morbo gas!"
Yeah, even the Cedar Point Site says "May not accommodate Guests of Exceptional Size."...exceptional lol
How can I get the company to pay for my summer vacation to Cedar Point?
One of my friends took two pictures of a roller coaster ride that had a loop. The first picture showed someone throwing up (actually down) from the top of the loop. The second picture showed someone being hit by the vomit at the bottom of the loop. We could never figured out if it was the same person who hurled was on the receiving end. This why I stay on the water rides.
TMA (too many acronyms!)
Damn straight!
That's why The Zipper at the local once-a-year carnival is so damn fun: the bloody thing was assembled by carnie apes who only bothered finger-tightening the handful of nuts they scrounged out of the coffeecan, leaving the rest of the bolts to fend for themselves unaided.
Get in the cage and... the door doesn't lock closed. Gonna have to hold it shut. Lap bar comes down... but only partially. The machine starts with a jarring clunk, and you notice the clove pin on the right-hand bearing is absent. A few sparks fly from a misaligned pulley, and you're off! Deathgrip on the door, head bashing the ceiling every time the cage flips, and an alarming squeal from the right-hand bearing... my god, is that Death looking at us from the opposing cage? It is!
When the ride finally stops, life begins anew. The colours are brighter, the crush of people is comforting, and all the worries of the past year slip away: Death was cheated, and damn it feels good!
--
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Even The Pirates of the Carribean at Disneyland has people concurrently going through lengthy looped scenes, so that certain boats see the beginning of the loop, others see the middle, and others the end.
... AND ... OVER ... AND OVER!? IS THERE ANOTHER VERSE?! WILL THIS BOAT EVER START AGAIN!? IS THIS THE TIME YOU USE THOSE EXITS IN THE RIDE? IS IT OK TO STEP IN THE WATER? WHY ARE THERE 5 BOATS ALL BUMPED AGAINST EACH OTHER IN THIS BURNING TOWN!? HAS THIS EVER HAPPENED BEFORE? OH GOD FUCK THESE PIRATES, FUCK THESE PEOPLE, JUST GET ME THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!! THIS SUCKS! I HATE DISNEYLAND. I DON'T EVEN WANT TO BE HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE.
I was once stuck in the Pirates of the Carribean's burning village listening to:
YO HO
YO HO
A PIRATE'S LIFE FOR ME
YO HO
YO HO
A PIRATE'S LIFE FOR ME
for over 20 minutes straight. It was a nightmare.
The first five minutes were interesting. I really got to see the details about the animatronics. I was able to appreciate how the ride was put together. I checked out the boat. I checked out the rails between which the boat rides. It was enlightening. Annoying, true, but preferable overall because I got to explore on my own for a bit.
The next five minutes were a bit more confused. All the passengers were getting to know each other, chuckling, making pithy comments, getting worried, calling to passengers in other boats, and basically exhibiting various expected reactions to the situation. All the while, the bloody YO HO YO HO song was carrying on and on. And the puppets were dancing in the same way, over and over again.
The next five minutes were spent dealing with fellow passengers freaking out about the music, the fucking puppets, and, mostly, the fact that we're "trapped" and WTH is GOING ON!? THERE MUST BE SOMETHING SERIOUSLY WRONG!! IT'S BEEN FIFTEEN MINUTES AND WE'RE ALL JAMMED IN THESE BOATS IN A BURNING VILLAGE SOMEWHERE!!
What turned out to be roughly the last five minutes were spent AGREEING THAT THIS IS CrAzy! WHY CAN'T THESE FUCKING PUPPETS SING A BIT MORE THAN YO HO YO HO A PIRATE'S LIFE FOR ME OVER
And then the boats started up and all was fine.
I survived.
As my father lik@(munch munch)...
How's that supposd to even begin to compare with a datacenter? Why, back in the day, our datacenters would go up and down several times at high speed, with a couple loops and corkscrews thrown in for good measure!
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.