Make Something Wonderful - Steve Jobs Book

Today, April 11, 2023 Steve Jobs archive released Make Something Wonderful.

There’s lots of ways to be, as a person. And some people express their deep appreciation in different ways. But one of the ways that I believe people express their appreciation to the rest of humanity is to make something wonderful and put it out there.

And you never meet the people. You never shake their hands. You never hear their story or tell yours. But somehow, in the act of making something with a great deal of care and love, something’s transmitted there. And it’s a way of expressing to the rest of our species our deep appreciation. So we need to be true to who we are and remember what’s really important to us.

—Steve, 2007

This is a different way to see what problems to solve. Spending time striving to make something wonderful can give your life meaning. Try it and you’ll be hooked for life.

Google's Green Data Center approach - one size does not fit all

Urs Hölzle posted back in Nov 2022 on Google’s Green Data Center efforts. I have not written in a long time and that will change and it is feels write that one of the posts to write about is Google’s Green Data Center efforts. Many of my good friends are at Google or have worked there. I find it with great irony that I know and chat with many more Google data center employees than Microsoft even though I worked at Microsoft for 14 years and still live in Redmond. But when it comes to discussing the green data center topic I have no problem having conversations with Google employees including Urs.

Two things that jumps out from reading Urs post. Are the focus on water as part of Google’s climate-conscious data center cooling. Normally people only focus on electricity and cooling for a green data center, and that is where Google is different in that they have had a water strategy from their early efforts.

The other point is

The best approach depends on local factors — there is no one-size-fits-all solution.
— Urs Hölzle



7x24Exchange Keynote Reality vs Myths of Data Centers

Bill Kleyman (Switch) and Mark Seymour (Cadence) gave the close keynote at 7x24 Exchange covering a range of myths that exist which shapes people’s perceptions.

An example of the myth is this slide. What drives this type of news is it creates much more traffic than the reality.

The presentation continued on to cover the reality to contrast the myths. The data that is used to make data centers work. Be energy efficient, use less water. Sometimes the way media write about data centers it is like the data centers of 20 years ago that had little concern about cooling efficiency. PUE did not exist.

The topics covered are in this slide.

The 7x24 Exchange hit a record 992 attendees and many are still here on the last day at 8:45a in the morning because a presentation by Mark and Bill can only be absorbed by sitting at the conference.

Meta shares its Water Efficient Data Centers practices at 7x24 Exchange

Meta has a team discussing its water efficient data center journey from 2018 to now. Meta has a goal of being water positive by 2030. The presenters are Bharat Gopal, James Monahan, and Krishna Somayajula. The session is nicely attended which is great to see the interest in water savings.

There were 33 slides in the presentation with lots of graphs and diagrams. Covering five different areas.

Given Meta’s openness much of this information is available on their web site. https://sustainability.fb.com/water/

7x24 Exchange Tues Keynote, Introduces OCP and OPEN 19

I have been going to OCP since its start in 2011 at Facebook’s campus and it is nice to see that OCP and OPEN 19 are introduced to the data center building audience of 7x24 Exchange. There are a handful of people who go to both OCP Summits and 7x24 Exchange but it is not many.

The panel has Greg Stover (Vertiv), John Gross (J.M. Gross Engineering), Peter Panfil (Vertiv), and Zachary Smith (Equinix).

The panel discussion worked well to discuss the issue of open standards like OCP and OPEN 19 and its impact on the industry. To give you an idea of what OCP and OPEN 19 work on the following diagram was shared.

If you have interest in these areas here are links. www.opencompute.org and www.open19.org