Wow, today has been such a nerdy day.
So in networks, we got a grand tour of the CMU-Q network by one of the engineers. We first got a diagram basically showing how we connect to the world and to CMU-Pittsburgh.
Then, it was time to visit the one of the rooms that connect part of the building to the server room. It was pretty chilly, pretty star
k, but with ropes of wires everywhere.We were also in the presence of equipment that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Then we went downstairs.
It was large and in charge... of all of the internet and telecommunications within the building.
The Data Control Room.
The wires and switches (of the virtual variety) were pretty cool.
But I guess I'm just not into that stuff, because what I thought was fascinating was the cooling system and the UPS (uninterrupted power supply) system.
In the Data Control Room, they had these holes in the ground which made it look like an air hockey table. Cool air circulated up through there, and hot air went out the back. There were also fans in each individual unit, as well as ceiling-based air conditioning.
For the UPS, there were reportedly three full rooms in the basement (that we didn't get to see) that were basically huge batteries.
We looked at a couple million dollars of infrastructure at work. I will never take the Internet for granted again. (Except, that I'm kind of doing that right now...)
Anyway, to finish off a nerdy day, I watched part of the ASCII Star Wars. Don't judge, just click and you'll see why I was pretty amazed and a little disturbed.
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