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Antarctica Needs a Network Engineer
littlekorea writes "It's a little underpaid, but network engineers with a fetish for very cold weather might be interested to know that the Australian Government's Antarctic Division is seeking network engineers to manage its telephony, satellite and radio comms in Antarctica. According to the job FAQ, summer temperatures aren't a lot colder than your average data centre. But winters of -30 degrees celsius (-22 Fahrenheit) might make the morning jog a little challenging."
It should be an overclocker's paradise there! Of course, better get the best rig you can get starting out, because I'm pretty sure Newegg's shipping isn't as cheap to there.
One CPU cycle wasted on digital restrictions management is ONE TOO MANY.
The ATMs there don't charge any fees!
Modding "-1, Troll" is not a proper response if you disagree with me. Try reason.
"We need to talk to you about something
that happened at the North Pole."
"If this is about the night
the heat went out,
there's nothing to be
embarrassed about."
- "It's not about that."
- "We agreed to never speak of it again."
"So we slept together naked."
"It was only to keep our core body
temperatures from plummeting."
"He's speaking about it."
"For me, it was a bonding moment."
Morning jog? This is a job for a flabby individual with lots of personal insulation, and jogging is out of the question!
For anyone who's interested, Raytheon Polar Services is almost always hiring for positions at the US South Pole research facilities.
cool job
/me looks at the thermometer outside my window. It shows -49C (I'm in Yakutsk).
Hm. I think, it might be a good idea to move somewhere where it's a bit warmer.
PS: and no, it's not a good idea to put a computer outside at this weather. HDDs freeze to death quickly.
I was going to scold Slashdot for posting a job ad on the front page. Imagine all the crap resumes that'll wind up in the HR inbox now.
Then I realized I despise HR, especially those in the hiring/recruiting section.
I'm imagining some choice resume snippets from this crowd -
- I live in my moms basement and never leave, so I won't go stir crazy
- I've seen that John Carpenter movie about monsters in Antarctica like 9 times
- I could totally do a rad experiment where I overclock an old PDP-11 processor to 9ghz since its so cold
- UHF? VHF? Fah! I can replace that with a hacked WRT router running linux for like $5
- Penguin/Linux jokes galore
I read a very intersting article about IT at the south pole a while ago. One of the most surprising facts:
They need extra large fans to cool their servers. The Amundsen-Scott station is alomst 3000m above sea level,
which means rather thin air - so they need a higher throughput to achieve the same cooling capacity than a
data center at more usal elevations.
The cold outside temperature means no real need for AC, but doesn't help too much in terms of cooling power:
The difference between 295K and 250K isn't that big and outweighed by the lower air density.
So, just to put it in perspective, the average winter is between -112 to -130 F. The coldest naturally occurring temperature on the face of the earth was recorded there, which was actually colder than dry ice.
"Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish"
Albert Einstein
.....to "Hiring Freeze"
And come home with the Thing? No thank you...
You wouldn't come home with it. It'd come home looking and acting just like you.
.
Trolling is a art,
It's not just that being on the ice leads to crazy behavior, it's that the management is back in the US and they treat the workers like dirt. While they have picnics back in Kansas City. The NSF, which pays for it all, is equally brain dead. Here are some some "uncomfortable questions" from the blog.
Having pointed this all out, it also sounds like fun in a weird way, if you enjoy hanging with funny disfunctional drunks in a potentially lethal environment.
Why is Snark Required?
There is not enough atomospheric pressure for it to turn into a liquid. It would go straight into a solid if it were cold enough. It would probably look like regular snow, which would make it a bit difficult to spot.
Does anyone really want to go to Antarctica? It is a cold, harsh environment that will isolate you from your family, friends, and civilized comforts. It had its novelty factor back in the day, just like Mars does now.
How is Mars / The moon more exciting/pleasant than Antarctica? Can we really expect people to want to populate the Moon or Mars without a large financial/spiritual/political motivation? Sure, there is the novelty factor of "OMG I'm on the moon!!!" but that can only last for a few years.
The idea of being trapped with Kate Beckinsale, for any length of time, while highly appealing, is immediately dashed when one realizes she smokes.
Yeah, yeah, blah, blah, smokers. Sorry, if I'm going to have any sense of enjoyment being in close proximity to someone like Kate, I don't want them or me to be horfing up a lung or smelling like shit all the time.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
They did also mention that the base get 16,500 condoms a year. It gets cold and lonely there in Antarctica with nothing else to do except for each other.
EvilCON - Made Famous by
It's very hard to qualify for. My father served two winter tours for the Antarctic Division in exactly this role. He loved it to bits -- he's a bit of a hermit, so only having to deal with the same dozen people for months at a time was his idea of heaven.
However, a lot of people apply. A lot of them are very smart and qualified. My father has decades of experience radio, satellite, microwave, land line and LAN communications. You may need the same.
Next you need to pass the rigorous screening process. You need to be in good physical condition. Dad spent months sweating away in a gym to meet the weight, blood pressure and cardio requirements. You will be checked for a large number of medical conditions, and if any of them turn up, you will not be accepted.
Finally, there's the psych review. If you're going to be a winterer, you'll be living in isolated darkness for months with a small group of people with a pitiful satellite uplink to the internet (no youtube or games for you). Not everyone is suited to that.
Classical Liberalism: All your base are belong to you.