Google patents sea datacentres to avoid regulation, property taxes

[MichaelJ 0]

This really surprised me but the concept is quite interesting.

They are talking about wave powered datacentres located several miles off shore, which will pay no property tax or have few regulations for their construction, to save money.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=9937

[RayK 0]

This really surprised me but the concept is quite interesting.

They are talking about wave powered datacentres located several miles off shore, which will pay no property tax or have few regulations for their construction, to save money.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=9937

I did not read the blog. But, one quick question comes to mind, who will defend them?

[MichaelJ 0]

This really surprised me but the concept is quite interesting.

They are talking about wave powered datacentres located several miles off shore, which will pay no property tax or have few regulations for their construction, to save money.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=9937

I did not read the blog. But, one quick question comes to mind, who will defend them?

They are still within Federal Government territory, and still pay Federal taxes. They just avoid state & county level taxes / regulations.

[Thales 0]

They are still within Federal Government territory, and still pay Federal taxes. They just avoid state & county level taxes / regulations.

This is massively hypocritical. Google continually pushes left wing causes and now they are trying to avoid regulations and taxes? Amazing.

[MichaelJ 0]

Thales, welcome to corporate pragmatism, where companies use all avenues open to them(including lobbying the government) to hurt their competitors, but take all cost savings possible to deliver maximum profits.

I wish them success in this particular venture however, it can set a precedent that can help others who want to avoid taxes but don't have the deep legal pockets to do so.

[Carlos 0]

I think this is one of many pranks that google plays on people. (see their list of April Fools pranks for example)

[ruveyn ben yosef 0]

Thales, welcome to corporate pragmatism, where companies use all avenues open to them(including lobbying the government) to hurt their competitors, but take all cost savings possible to deliver maximum profits.

The tendency in the world of Big Corporations has been to privatize profits and socialize losses. One might call it getting the best of both worlds. I call it something else.

I am sorry to say it, but many of the Big Corporations have made the phrase "business ethics" oxymoronic.

ruveyn

[styg50 0]

Just as a general idea, not specifically related to Google, but Alaska is a great place to be an engineer and build things, especially things that require power. Hydropower is a possibility almost anywhere. I have a small 112 KW turbine and am rebuilding an ancient 400KW turbine at an original site of an old gold mine. And these are just one man projects (and budgets, ugh).

But even better is the nature of the unorganized burroughs in the state, which pay no state or local taxes, are not subject to building codes, and have little federal oversight (as of now, we'll see with this EPA mess). Even though you would be limited to considering state and private land for projects, it is still an expansive amount of space. I have had to deal with the Army Corp of Engineers, and the state DNR water resources division, and that is it, so far. The ACoE didn't amount to anything in the long run, either, just some lame duck paperwork because the property has tide flats. And this is after Babbitt's run as Secretary of the Interior under Clinton which compounded the problems with Federal oversight in Alaska.

Why deal with the extreme forces of the sea when you can work on nice solid land?

[ewv 0]

Just as a general idea, not specifically related to Google, but Alaska is a great place to be an engineer and build things, especially things that require power. Hydropower is a possibility almost anywhere. I have a small 112 KW turbine and am rebuilding an ancient 400KW turbine at an original site of an old gold mine. And these are just one man projects (and budgets, ugh).

But even better is the nature of the unorganized burroughs in the state, which pay no state or local taxes, are not subject to building codes, and have little federal oversight (as of now, we'll see with this EPA mess). Even though you would be limited to considering state and private land for projects, it is still an expansive amount of space. I have had to deal with the Army Corp of Engineers, and the state DNR water resources division, and that is it, so far. The ACoE didn't amount to anything in the long run, either, just some lame duck paperwork because the property has tide flats. And this is after Babbitt's run as Secretary of the Interior under Clinton which compounded the problems with Federal oversight in Alaska.

Why deal with the extreme forces of the sea when you can work on nice solid land?

It's only a matter of time before they find you. Maine used to be like that, too. Now the state Land Use Regulatory Commission (LURC) controls land use in all the unorganized territories (UT) with increasingly harsher impositions and prohibitions. What started as a state equivalent of minimal local zoning for the UT is turning into a Greenline Park authority. This is a direct result of viros taking over the state. "Wetland" designations are part of what they use to prohibit land use. With Federal "wetland" regulations already in place in AK (and everywhere else), the framework is already in place where you are, waiting to be exploited with arbitrary bureaucratic decrees on behalf of viroism. Take advantage of your relative freedom while you still can.

[ewv 0]

This really surprised me but the concept is quite interesting.

They are talking about wave powered datacentres located several miles off shore, which will pay no property tax or have few regulations for their construction, to save money.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=9937

Google is talking about a self-contained unit (excluding bandwidth connections) that would sit offshore much like an oil rig.

My God, what if there's a spill? There would be trillions of thick gooey bits polluting the ocean and all life forms. This cannot be allowed.

[MichaelJ 0]

This really surprised me but the concept is quite interesting.

They are talking about wave powered datacentres located several miles off shore, which will pay no property tax or have few regulations for their construction, to save money.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=9937

Google is talking about a self-contained unit (excluding bandwidth connections) that would sit offshore much like an oil rig.

My God, what if there's a spill? There would be trillions of thick gooey bits polluting the ocean and all life forms. This cannot be allowed.

Close but not quite.

Environmentalists instinctive reaction to that article is to claim that using the ocean as coolant, will heat the Ocean, which is bad to increase ocean temperatures and could kill lots of marine life.

I cite as evidence, this UK newspaper articles coverage of it, read the comments area.

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/ne...icle4753389.ece

I have came to the conclusion that environmentalists have no grasp of numbers or mathematics and so completely lack perspective, the relationships between concepts. If something causes the tiniest little bit of pollution, whether it is 1 part in 10 billion or if it causes temperatures to rise on Earth by 0.000000000000000000000000000000000000001C, they sit there screaming.

Insignificant amounts of human CO2 or heat are claimed to destroy the environment. And completely useless things in the scheme of things such as switching off a light, are seen as world saving things. (e.g. Earth Hour)

What it looks like they want, is man to have 0 effect on the environment. But each step we take, we might kill some, snap a twig, exhale CO2. If we chomp something for dinner, that is millions of cells consumed.

The only way we can have no effect, is to not exist, or in other words, for every human alive to die. It truly is frightening to see the path their ideology is heading down.

[piz 0]

My God, what if there's a spill? There would be trillions of thick gooey bits polluting the ocean and all life forms. This cannot be allowed.

Just dump 'em in the trash:

Then again, some "data rights group" will probably have them delcared persons: