Apple May Build Oregon Data Center Next To Facebook's

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Apple May Build Oregon Data Center Next To Facebook's

Posted by timothy on Saturday December 3, 2011 @05:56PM from the consult-the-oregoonians dept.

1sockchuck writes "Apple may build a huge new data center next door to the Facebook server farm in rural Prineville, Oregon. Slashdot has previously noted the potential that Prineville could become a data center mecca due to its climate, which is ideal for using fresh air to cool servers. The scenario could mirror the trend in rural North Carolina, where both Apple and Facebook have built data centers. It's always been likely that Apple will need at least one other large data center complex to provide backup capabilities for the facility in North Carolina."

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Opportunity by Reyendo · 2011-12-03 18:03 · Score: 4, Interesting

One well placed nuclear missile...
1. Re:Opportunity by Pseudonym+Authority · 2011-12-03 18:10 · Score: 2
  
  Fired from orbit, just to be sure.
2. Re:Opportunity by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-03 18:18 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Or just a normal explosive, you freak.
3. Re:Opportunity by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-03 18:59 · Score: 0
  
  Oh god. We would lose both Facebook and iTunes at the same time!
4. Re:Opportunity by Luckyo · 2011-12-03 19:56 · Score: 2
  
  Blowin up near the orbit is more then enough. EMP will fry those servers.
5. Re:Opportunity by tenco · 2011-12-04 00:02 · Score: 1
  
  Freak?! It's the only way to be sure!
6. Re:Opportunity by dave562 · 2011-12-04 11:19 · Score: 1
  
  If you were going to fire the missile, why not hit SuperNAP in Vegas? There are a whole slew of government contractors there. That would be the better target for anyone crazy enough to use a nuke.
better a little more north by statsone · 2011-12-03 18:09 · Score: 4, Insightful

Canada offers cheap electricity and even cooler temperatures. More than welcome here.
1. Re:better a little more north by mcrbids · 2011-12-03 18:12 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Sadly, your country doesn't have the strong privacy laws like we have in the United States *cough* Patriot Act *cough* so this is not a possibility.
  
  --
  I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
2. Re:better a little more north by rtb61 · 2011-12-03 20:05 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Build for summer, regret the winters. Cool summer temperatures inevitably mean snow in winter and travel is difficult in snow. Cheap cooling, park yourself near the coast in temperate climes and use heat exchangers to achieve your cooler temperatures. Also avoid, typhoon or hurricane prone zones, tornadoes, seismic instability and of course flooding. Power should also be drawn from more than one grid, close access to a university is also desirable (user testing, direct training), a substantive employment base to avoid having to bring in all staff and, access to main thorough fairs for better transport options is also desirable.
  Likely what went on with that choice was some stupidly corrupt pay no taxes deal, something that should be put a stop to a federal, state and county level. What ever happened to all being treated equally, screw the scum sucking corporate tax cheats.
  
  --
  Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
3. Re:better a little more north by AHuxley · 2011-12-03 21:15 · Score: 1
  
  They want to be "near" the $1.5 billion NSA centre Utah Data Center ~Camp Williams.
  
  --
  Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
4. Re:better a little more north by TubeSteak · 2011-12-03 21:22 · Score: 2
  
  Cheap cooling, park yourself near the coast in temperate climes and use heat exchangers to achieve your cooler temperatures.
  There are strict EPA regulations on how much heat you can dump into a body of water.
  It's infinitely faster and easier to just park your data center somewhere cold and then deal with the snow.
  
  --
  [Fuck Beta]
  o0t!
5. Re:better a little more north by evilviper · 2011-12-03 21:38 · Score: 1, Interesting
  
  You missed one... Airport. All good datacenters are located rather close to a major commercial passenger airport, for easy access.
  
  --
  Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
6. Re:better a little more north by nomel · 2011-12-03 22:01 · Score: 0
  
  All good data centers also have excellent remote access capabilities so only technicians and on site admins actually have to be there, besides the infrequent tour for executive level management.
7. Re:better a little more north by benjamindees · 2011-12-03 22:28 · Score: 1
  
  I kind of figured that was because they were mostly built by military contractors and airports had better air defenses in case of attack.
  
  --
  "I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
8. Re:better a little more north by evilviper · 2011-12-03 22:38 · Score: 1
  
  Yes, I'm very, very well versed in remote-access and out-of-band management, but it doesn't preclude the need for going on-site for major overhaul, or build-outs, which fast-growing shops will find frequent need of.
  Besides, the fact that someone only occasionally needs to go there doesn't negate the benefits of quick and easy access, particularly if you're giving tours to management.
  
  --
  Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
9. Re:better a little more north by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-03 22:45 · Score: 0
  
  ". Cool summer temperatures inevitably mean snow in winter and travel is difficult in snow."
  My data has winter tires.
10. Re:better a little more north by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-03 22:45 · Score: 1
  
  Travel is fine is snow. Most of Canada commutes through real winter every year; we're used to it. It's only places that don't get regular snow that are shut down by blizzards.
  As another poster points out, we do (still) have privacy laws. That's what makes us no-go for this sort of data-center.
  (Incidentally "cool summer temperatures inevitably mean snow in winter" isn't exactly right either. We get stinking hot summers in most of our major cities that get serious snow. Wet-coast Vancouver is much more moderate in both seasons.)
11. Re:better a little more north by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-03 23:57 · Score: 0
  
  Canada offers cheap electricity and even cooler temperatures. More than welcome here.
  I dont think that the cool temperatures are what they are looking for, it must be how dry it is. Prineville is in the high desert, in the winters it is freezing but in the summer it regularly reaches into the 100's..
12. Re:better a little more north by QuantumRiff · 2011-12-04 01:04 · Score: 2
  
  Actually, none of the big Oregon Datacenters are near major airports..
  Prineville is near Bend, OR, near the center of the state. Bend doesn't have a large airport, and just a few flights a day. Google has their datacenter in TheDalles, OR, about 1.5 hours east of Portland along the Columbia River, and Amazon's is another few hours past Google's, near Hermiston/Umitilla
  
  --
  
  What are we going to do tonight Brain?
13. Re:better a little more north by chromas · 2011-12-04 01:13 · Score: 1
  
  Studded packets. Is that how torrents reproduce?
14. Re:better a little more north by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-04 01:17 · Score: 0
  
  wrong. I've consulted with most of the F 50 companies over the past 20 years. They NEVER want to be located by any significant population center, or something like an airport. The risk of disturbance is too high. The really big data centers are in the middle of nowhere, unmarked, out of the floor zone, out of earthquake areas, on 2 or more below ground feed grids, in moderate temps.
  Only the dot.com's area gang put their data centers in colo sites near airports. Most data centers have virtually no need for routine physical access.
15. Re:better a little more north by turkeyfeathers · 2011-12-04 02:23 · Score: 1
  
  You missed one... Airport. All good datacenters are located rather close to a major commercial passenger airport, for easy access.
  Really not necessary anymore... just turn on Remote Desktop and you can access your computers remotely.
16. Re:better a little more north by travisco_nabisco · 2011-12-04 03:19 · Score: 1
  
  It is almost like these data centers are designed to server data to remote computers.
17. Re:better a little more north by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-04 03:49 · Score: 0
  
  Canada offers cheap electricity and even cooler temperatures. More than welcome here.
  Except that Canada has semi-decent privacy laws, and so a lot of companies won't be able to re-sell any (as much?) data housed there as data that lives in the US (which, practically speaking, has no privacy laws (outside of HIPPA)).
18. Re:better a little more north by cluedweasel · 2011-12-04 07:15 · Score: 1
  
  So how does Prineville fit in then? The nearest passenger airport is Redmond, about 20 miles away but it's hardly a major airport. The nearest large airport would be PDX, but that's a good 3.5 hours away across the Cascade mountains. Not an easy trip in the winter.
19. Re:better a little more north by cluedweasel · 2011-12-04 07:18 · Score: 2
  
  Summers in Prineville (and central Oregon in general) aren't exactly cool. 90F to 100F temps aren't uncommon. The upside is that they are pretty short. This year we barely got out of winter in July!
20. Re:better a little more north by riverat1 · 2011-12-04 07:26 · Score: 1
  
  I know the Prineville area well. It is very dry there. It's cold in the winter but a big snowfall is pretty rare. More than 6 inches of snow on the ground is rare. It can get into the 90's and occasionally the 100's (Fahrenheit) in the summer but the overnight lows are still in the 50's and 60's generally. The only time it gets humid is when there are thunderstorms, maybe 5 days a year. No hurricanes or tornadoes and where the data centers are located flooding is not an issue. It's not a seismic zone and probably the worse natural disaster would be one of the volcanoes in the area going off but that's so rare it's not worth worrying about.
  I believe Crook County did give them some sort of tax deal but it's not zero property taxes and they'll come out ahead in the long run. The biggest problem probably is finding people to work there. It's a long way from anywhere. Bend and Redmond (Oregon) are 30-40 miles away and it's a 4 hour drive to Portland. The night life in Prineville (what there is of it) consists mainly of redneck bars but Bend has some good things going on. If you're the city type you wouldn't like it much but if the the outdoorsy type it's a great area to live. The cost of living is fairly low there. The road access is good and US 97 which goes through Bend and Redmond is the major highway just east of the Cascade Mountains.
21. Re:better a little more north by riverat1 · 2011-12-04 07:35 · Score: 1
  
  The airport at Redmond (less than 30 miles away) is capable of handling all but the largest modern aircraft (anything smaller than a 747 or A380.) It has scheduled service with daily flights to Portland, Seattle, San Fransisco, Salt Lake City and Denver.
22. Re:better a little more north by evilviper · 2011-12-04 11:30 · Score: 1
  
  Right, because servers will just rack themselves...
  Network cabling can just rearrange itself as needed...
  And you never, ever have a major issue or outage requiring someone to get on-site in a hurry...
  
  --
  Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
23. Re:better a little more north by nomel · 2011-12-04 12:50 · Score: 1
  
  Maybe intermittently using a fleet of taxis are cheaper than industrial sized air conditioners running 24/7. ;-)
24. Re:better a little more north by evilviper · 2011-12-04 16:31 · Score: 1
  
  SLA penalties for an extra couple hours, and high-end employee's hourly rates are probably higher than the property price savings, no matter how cheap the taxi service...
  Now a bullet-train...
  
  --
  Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
25. Re:better a little more north by cthulhu11 · 2011-12-04 19:32 · Score: 1
  
  It's also strongly protectionist of domestic business and hostile to business from below the border. The government wouldn't be inclined to let Apple build a big DC there.
26. Re:better a little more north by LordLimecat · 2011-12-05 02:46 · Score: 1
  
  If its really super urgent, they have remote hands, and hopefully you have KVM-over-IP. One would also assume that if "power outage exceeding CoLo's generator capacity" is an issue, that you would have a fail-over location.
27. Re:better a little more north by pgpalmer · 2011-12-05 09:17 · Score: 1
  
  Infinitely?
28. Re:better a little more north by mattack2 · 2011-12-05 14:05 · Score: 1
  
  Likely what went on with that choice was some stupidly corrupt pay no taxes deal, something that should be put a stop to a federal, state and county level. What ever happened to all being treated equally, screw the scum sucking corporate tax cheats.
  (I'm talking in general about these kinds of deals.)
  How is it cheating, if the government that would be collecting the taxes is the one that signed the deal in the first place?
  I don't necessarily disagree that these kinds of things should stop, but at least many of them (e.g. new stadiums) get public votes, and people vote for them.
29. Re:better a little more north by swalve · 2011-12-05 15:09 · Score: 1
  
  And it doesn't cost all that much to build a runway or a helipad.
30. Re:better a little more north by riverat1 · 2011-12-05 15:43 · Score: 1
  
  The Prineville airport is just across the highway from the data centers but it's not set up for heavy aircraft. The runways are paved but only 5,000 feet by 60 feet and 4,000 feet by 40 feet. The 2 runways at Redmond are 7,000 feet by 150 feet and by 100 feet. Building a large runway isn't cheap. To handle the load of landing aircraft the pavement is often more than two feet thick, up to 4 feet sometimes.
31. Re:better a little more north by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-06 08:08 · Score: 0
  
  rectification :
  Quebec (in Canada) offers the cheapest electricity in the world (i pay 4.5cents a Kw, and i'm just a familly home) , and best of it IT'S TOTALLY GREEN (hydro)
  and yes we're colder then the states
32. Re:better a little more north by evilviper · 2011-12-06 08:31 · Score: 1
  
  If its really super urgent, they have remote hands
  Yes, remote hands with about the same capabilities as a 9 year-old... They're okay at going into the right cage, finding the correct label, and pushing the blue button, but that's about it... and they still occasionally screw that up.
  I wouldn't even try to have them move some fiber optic cables around for me, no matter how urgent.
  
  One would also assume that if "power outage exceeding CoLo's generator capacity" is an issue, that you would have a fail-over location.
  Ignore power outage, and consider any other kind of outage.
  It's fine to say: There's an unknown outage at out primary datacenter, requiring fail-over to our backup. We'll have a tech on-site in one hour to determine the cause.
  Replace an "hour" with a "day" and you have some real explaining to do, to whoever depends on your services.
  
  --
  Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
33. Re:better a little more north by Bug-Y2K · 2011-12-12 06:36 · Score: 1
  
  Industrial rates in the Columbia Basin (read Oregon & Washington states) are LESS than 2 per kW/hr. This is why the pacific northwest is the prime location for datacenters in the USA.
The Job Creators at Work by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-03 18:12 · Score: 1

With another 50 Jobs the unemployment problem should be licked!
1. Re:The Job Creators at Work by 93+Escort+Wagon · 2011-12-03 18:39 · Score: 2
  
  With another 50 Jobs the unemployment problem should be licked!
  Do large data centers employ even that many people? (serious question)
  
  --
  #DeleteChrome
2. Re:The Job Creators at Work by AHuxley · 2011-12-03 18:57 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Guards, a few low end staff to swap out the data media when needed 24/7, gardeners so the landscape looks pretty for a congress critter media event, a few smart admins to cover all the real time error reports (off site is fine).
  No need for on site engineers, plumbers, electricians, technical staff, admins - just swap out the media and look at id's at the gates.
  
  --
  Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
3. Re:The Job Creators at Work by QuantumRiff · 2011-12-04 00:58 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Facebook has about 55 employees onsite in prineville (a town of 10k). They are adding more when they finish their second datacenter at the location. I was reading an article yesterday about how the town loves it.. Facebook orders lunch from a different local restraunt every day for 55 employees. Use locals for as much as they can, and only a few of the employees are transplants, most were trained locally.
  Plus more than half of the construction jobs were sourced locally..
  Now the amazon datacenter, up in boardman, OR, that is just basically a bunch of shipping containers..
  
  --
  
  What are we going to do tonight Brain?
4. Re:The Job Creators at Work by cluedweasel · 2011-12-04 07:20 · Score: 1
  
  Got a link? As far as I can tell, FB recruited about 5 people from C.O. and imported the rest. There is a large amount of local resentment regarding the tax breaks given to FB. I also saw the number of employees listed as 30, not 55.
5. Re:The Job Creators at Work by Bug-Y2K · 2011-12-12 06:38 · Score: 1
  
  As far as I can tell you are dead wrong. Very few imports, almost all local hires.
opportunity for the governors' copywriters by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-03 18:23 · Score: 0

Why relocate here? Well, other states may brag about their NFL and MLB teams, but only (Oregon, North Carolina) has data centers for both Apple And Facebook!
Rats! *crumples paper*
1. Re:opportunity for the governors' copywriters by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-03 18:43 · Score: 0
  
  And Google (The Dalles)...
  And Amazon (Umatilla)...
Apple and Facebook new theory about data by TheVelvetFlamebait · 2011-12-03 18:29 · Score: 4, Funny

Osmosis!

--
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
1. Re:Apple and Facebook new theory about data by pckl300 · 2011-12-04 03:57 · Score: 1
  
  No, from one cloud to another, it's called lightning.
  
  --
  In the beginning, there was null.
XServe by psergiu · 2011-12-03 18:37 · Score: 0

So that's why they will no longer sell the XServes - they need them to fill up those datacenters :-)

--
1% APY, No fees, Online Bank https://captl1.co/2uIErYq Don't let your $$$ sit in a no-interest acct.
1. Re:XServe by TheRaven64 · 2011-12-04 03:44 · Score: 1
  
  That was why they made them in the first place - using Dell's in Apple's datacentres was bad for PR. Now it's not so relevant.
  
  --
  I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Ok who else... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-03 18:39 · Score: 2, Interesting

Looked at zillow upon reading this to see if prineville was worth moving to.
Not bad pricing actually, but lacks some good homes larger than starter. I'm curious if a data center has a need for a good programmer or if they would be hiring grunts while all the tech work is done else where
1. Re:Ok who else... by rsmith-mac · 2011-12-03 20:23 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  They would just be hiring grunts. The NC Apple data center only has about 50 employees, as the only on-site people they need are techies to keep the servers up. Data centers themselves are capital-intensive but require little in the way of permanent labor beyond the skeleton crew, as the only big labor pushes would be construction and whatever you bring in if you overhaul the systems.
2. Re:Ok who else... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-03 20:51 · Score: 0
  
  Bend, Oregon is the regional big town in that area. There is a large ski resort nearby, and many touristy kinds of shops and restaurants. Prineville, is, well, just another small town in Oregon.
3. Re:Ok who else... by cluedweasel · 2011-12-04 07:23 · Score: 1
  
  It's the redneck centre of Oregon. Massively depressed, a pretty much unskilled workforce, a huge meth and alcohol problem and those who aren't unemployed are pretty much on minimum wage. It's seen the biggest drop in property prices outside of Vegas and the local government is pretty much bust. As for Mount Bachelor, it's more expensive to ski there than pretty much anywhere else in the US. The lifts are frequently out of service but don't expect a refund.
4. Re:Ok who else... by cthulhu11 · 2011-12-04 19:36 · Score: 1
  
  Systems from everyone but Soracle (who have worked hard to keep away customers) require some grunt on-site to plug in a monitor and keyboard for initial setup, too. In a large DC that can mean multiple FTE's. Now that I'm forced to move away from Sun-class hardware, I'm dumbfounded by the abject lack of real lights-out capabilities from HP, IBM, and Dell.
5. Re:Ok who else... by swalve · 2011-12-05 15:15 · Score: 1
  
  I can't speak for IBM and Dell, but HP servers all have iLo, which is as close as you can get without having a robot butler standing there. Plus, I would imagine that an operation like this has the racks built-up and set-up elsewhere and just uncrates them and plugs them in at the site. Shouldn't ever have to plug a keyboard in.
6. Re:Ok who else... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-05 16:27 · Score: 0
  
  I'm all too familiar with iLO. Until the recent iLO 3, the hardware was miserably underpowered. One needs a $300 extra license for remote media direction, and it is impossible to configure iLO IP from the serial console. And then there's the bogosity that in many places the serial console can't keep up with cut/paste, so one has to type commands in slowly. Oh and let's not forget HP's brain-dead NIC on the DL580 G7, which forces the console to 115200 when PXe booting. My employer has racks full of these that needed a PCI-e NIC just for PXE/kickstart.
  Sun/Oracle ILOM works out of the box on the serial console, and unlike IBM and HP, another # of flesh is not required for remote media redirection. Unfortunately Oracle has made it infeasible to continue with their gear
i love it but..... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-03 18:58 · Score: 0

we need more jobs here i am a isp and that makes it a huge impact on my business alone. ......................yes i know i sound like every other american out there
Error 503 Service Unavailable by larry+bagina · 2011-12-03 19:14 · Score: 4, Funny

Maybe slashdot needs an Oregon data center.

--
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
smart move on Apple's behalf by bluelip · 2011-12-03 19:45 · Score: 1

They realize that FB will be going the route of MySpace after Google+ takes hold. Since they're in the same town, easy move for Apple to procure those resources.

--

Yep, I never spell check.
More incorrect spellings can be found he
And people said rural broadband was a joke by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-03 20:16 · Score: 0

Enjoy your fat pipes, Prineville!
Facebook should patent Oregon datacenters by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-03 20:33 · Score: 4, Funny

Facebook should sue apple for stealing their datacenter location ideas :)
1. Re:Facebook should patent Oregon datacenters by Mitsoid · 2011-12-03 20:52 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Wrong, Sir. Facebook is obviously infringing on apple's intellectual property by building a data center that has 4 walls, a floor, and a ceiling.
2. Re:Facebook should patent Oregon datacenters by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-03 22:15 · Score: 0
  
  Well they're both infringing my patent on a building with electricity.
  So i'll see them in court!
3. Re:Facebook should patent Oregon datacenters by failedlogic · 2011-12-04 02:04 · Score: 1
  
  Thankfully for Facebook, their building does not not have rounded corners.....
4. Re:Facebook should patent Oregon datacenters by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-04 03:13 · Score: 0
  
  Facebook should sue apple for stealing their datacenter location ideas :)
  Wrong! Apple should sue the facebook as if a data center belonged there it was obviously Apple's idea.
Idealer Climate by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-03 20:59 · Score: 1

Ideal climate? I'd say Luleå (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lule%C3%A5#Climate) is closer to ideal, where Facebook is building its European server halls. (also has a technical university next door among other things).
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2054168/Facebook-unveils-massive-data-center-Lulea-Sweden.html
Indeed a little bit more north by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-03 22:02 · Score: 0

Facebook is currently building its first data center outside the US in Luleå, Sweden, located 100 km south of the artic circle.
http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/16/view/17266/facebooks-first-european-data-centre-in-lulea-sweden.html
Its like mcDonalds by QuantumRiff · 2011-12-04 01:01 · Score: 3, Insightful

When I was a kid, I remember my store manager (one of the franchise owners) mentioning how much research went into a new location for McDonalds. The sheer amount of research, planning, etc. And he (probably jokingly) said that Burger King would just look for where McDonalds was building, and go across the street :)

--

What are we going to do tonight Brain?
1. Re:Its like mcDonalds by mcsqueak · 2011-12-05 06:11 · Score: 1
  
  When I was a kid, I remember my store manager (one of the franchise owners) mentioning how much research went into a new location for McDonalds. The sheer amount of research, planning, etc. And he (probably jokingly) said that Burger King would just look for where McDonalds was building, and go across the street :)
  He may have been "half joking", but that is indeed done, and it's why you often see clusters of fast food (or coffee shops, or whatever) businesses together. The basic idea is that one company did a bunch of research and determined the site was good. The next company comes along, and says "Hey, Brand A is here, so we should probably be here as well". They'll preform their own market research and due diligence regarding the site of course, but the existence of other brands there drives up the idea that the site is good location.
  Furthermore, these business clusters serve to actually drive up business far all the brands located there, despite them being competitors and for the most past interchangeable with each other, as you gain a larger share of customer traffic to an area with many businesses.
  Lastly, my current company is majority owned by one of the early investors and owners of Hollywood video. He said that Hollywood and Blockbuster would engage in the same practice of locating physically close to a competitor's store, because that area would have good customer demographics.
  Its a pretty interesting topic, really..
2. Re:Its like mcDonalds by swalve · 2011-12-05 15:20 · Score: 1
  
  Yes. McDonald's was one of the first commerical users of satellite imagery. Bunch of houses being built? Build a store. It has been said that they are in the real estate business, and selling hamburgers just gives them built-in tenants. (Most of the time, McCorp owns the property the restaurant sits on. If it is a franchise, the franchisee owns the building and pays rent.)
What to to do with the heat? by McDrewbie · 2011-12-04 01:27 · Score: 1

And maybe use that heat to warm to poor and cold???? - dr:u
1. Re:What to to do with the heat? by McDrewbie · 2011-12-04 01:30 · Score: 1
  
  i meant to warm the poor and cold.
Farms by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-04 01:37 · Score: 0

Maybe they can visit eachothers' farms.
Why not california by xmorg · 2011-12-04 04:12 · Score: 0

Its so close to oregon... AND we have silicone valley! what not CA?!?!
1. Re:Why not california by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-04 05:22 · Score: 0
  
  Its so close to oregon... AND we have silicone valley! what not CA?!?!
  If you're asking a serious question, it no longer matters where you build your datacenter anymore. With a fat datapipe you can build in California, Oregon or Outer Mongolia.
  So you look at other factors like climate, land costs and favorable tax structures.
  California is almost bankrupt, land costs are high and taxes are going up. People who actually work for a living are moving out of California.
  Oh, and it's Silicon Valley. Silicone is what actresses use, coincidentally also in California..
2. Re:Why not california by xmorg · 2011-12-04 08:58 · Score: 0
  
  EXactly, so atresses are in califonia so its silicone. so whats your problem?
Conspiracy by Faulkner39 · 2011-12-04 04:47 · Score: 2

I've been told by a reliable source that at their new data center, Apple is building a large slingshot aimed at FaceBook and has been accumulating large quantities of caged birds.
Re:flooding by cluedweasel · 2011-12-04 07:27 · Score: 1

The only thing to watch out for in Prineville is if any of the Sisters volcanoes erupt. There is a lava dome building there so you never know........................
Are you telling me... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-04 08:06 · Score: 0

... that Apple has all their cloud stuff in ONE data center now? Isn't that a little reckless?
heat water and the town by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-04 10:38 · Score: 0

Prineville residents need heat at least 7-8 months out of the year.
Seems like a waste to send it all into the wind.
And since the coal fired electrical generation plant in Boardman Oregon is out of favor, they will be spending more every year.
You'd think they could at least heat a pool for the high school, or pump it into huge grow houses and triple their growing season.