Another power cut

[Traveller]

North Haugh is in darkness, and lights flickering elsewhere in town. Uni website and Webmail both down, and probably much else besides. Scottish Power reported to be saying power will be restored by 17:30.

[Oli]

The Union lost power at 14:18 or so.

[orudge]

Apparently a high-voltage line had been damaged, and a fairly extensive area was affected. I seem to recall this was the cause of one of the last major power cuts we had (and I think a good chunk of north east Fife was out that time, too). They got the power back on before the 5.30pm they were talking about, so that's something.

Quoting oli from 15:57, 9th Sep 2008
The Union lost power at 14:18 or so.

Seems it went off at around 14:22 here, and back on almost exactly two hours later.

[hr]

http://www.owenrudge.net/
http://standrews.facebook.com/profile.php?id=37103734

[Animal]

It's taken the University's website down too. I wonder why they don't host the site in a protected data centre?

It would make more sense, if only to avoid the site being offline at such a critical time (what with hundreds of students not even know if they've got accommodation and that).

Oh yes, and the email is down too.

[orudge]

The university always takes ages to get its servers back up after a power outage, unfortunately. Which is a bit of a pain, as I'd like to look at some past exam papers.

[hr]

http://www.owenrudge.net/
http://standrews.facebook.com/profile.php?id=37103734

[Animal]

Seems all ok again

[Fawksie]

The University doesn't do protected data centres. It doesn't do redundant power supplies, generators, batteries or much air conditioning. No money, what what?

[munchingfoo]

The builders for the new biophotonics building in the north haugh went through the high voltage line that feeds the north haugh. My guess for this affecting other parts is that it blew some kind of big fuse (whatever the call them at that scale).

Anyone know if the north haugh has power back yet?

I was working on a presentation to give in Australia (flying out today) so I had to carry my PC home in order to get the files I needed off of it. Fun!

[hr]

"The entirety of these definitions lie outside the gamut of the sRGB color space — such a pure color cannot be represented using RGB primaries. The color swatch to the right is a desaturated approximation, created by taking the centroid of the standard definition and moving it towards the D65 white point, until it meets the sRGB gamut triangle."

[RandomMusings]

I was in Argos when the power cut was in force (south street was unaffected...) and a number of builders came in looking for surge protectors :-0

[hr]

? The humble question mark?
? So much mightier than the sword?

[Legion]

Quoting munchingfoo from 05:36, 10th Sep 2008
The builders for the new biophotonics building in the north haugh went through the high voltage line that feeds the north haugh. My guess for this affecting other parts is that it blew some kind of big fuse (whatever the call them at that scale).

I think they're just called "Big Fuses"

[the_third_man]

Quoting fawksie from 18:56, 9th Sep 2008
The University doesn't do protected data centres. It doesn't do redundant power supplies, generators, batteries or much air conditioning. No money, what what?

The University itself doesn't. But in the comp. sci., maths, and physics departments, all the vital servers are kept on uninterruptable power supplies. Why the difference?

[the_third_man]

Quoting munchingfoo from 05:36, 10th Sep 2008
The builders for the new biophotonics building in the north haugh went through the high voltage line that feeds the north haugh. My guess for this affecting other parts is that it blew some kind of big fuse (whatever the call them at that scale).

Do the builders or the university have to pay some sort of fine for that? I mean, won't they be held responsible for the loss of a day's productivity in the area?

[eagle]

Unlikely - if the businesses don't have their back systems in place, it's their loss.

[Fawksie]

Quoting the_third_man from 10:31, 10th Sep 2008
The University itself doesn't. But in the comp. sci., maths, and physics departments, all the vital servers are kept on uninterruptable power supplies. Why the difference?

How long do they stay up? It would take an awful lot of battery storage to keep ITS' servers up for two hours, you only attempt that kind of thing if you have generators ready to take over and float charge the batteries, in the same way that BT do it. Can you imagine the cost of installing and maintaining generators and batteries for the two main machine rooms alone, including finding somewhere to put them? They're not exactly flush with cash.

[the_third_man]

Quoting eagle from 11:51, 11th Sep 2008
Unlikely - if the businesses don't have their back systems in place, it's their loss.

Fair enough -- but presumably the damaged supply line (or at least the "Big Fuses" ) are the property of Scottish Power or the National Grid. Wouldn't they be after some kind of recompense?

I mean, if you manage to blow the company fuse where the power enters your home (difficult I know), you have to pay the electricity company to have it replaced. So I would think that the builders/university will (at the very least) have to pay for the repair of the "big fuses".

[the_third_man]

Quoting Fawksie from 13:28, 11th Sep 2008

Quoting the_third_man from 10:31, 10th Sep 2008
The University itself doesn't. But in the comp. sci., maths, and physics departments, all the vital servers are kept on uninterruptable power supplies. Why the difference?

How long do they stay up? It would take an awful lot of battery storage to keep ITS' servers up for two hours, you only attempt that kind of thing if you have generators ready to take over and float charge the batteries, in the same way that BT do it. Can you imagine the cost of installing and maintaining generators and batteries for the two main machine rooms alone, including finding somewhere to put them? They're not exactly flush with cash.

I think it's in the range of several. A quick search reveals reviews of UPSs that will supply power for about an hour's intensive use for about £200. The bigger UPS supplies (about £5000) could keep a few vital servers running for several hours. Apparently you could probably get even more running time by buying a DC-supply UPS. (i.e. one that supplies DC power from the battery directly to the computer, rather than going DC->AC->DC through the computer's own AC power supply).

Maths in particular are keen on UPS, since they run the most popular website in the university -- the MacTutor history of mathematics site. (Google simply "history" and it's usually on the first page.) I don't know what the current figures are, but it used to get more hits in a day than the rest of the university's site got in a week.

[munchingfoo]

A startup company I worked for had a UPS that would last for 72 hours. It was so heavy that two of us could barely lift it off the ground, let alone move it.

[hr]

"The entirety of these definitions lie outside the gamut of the sRGB color space — such a pure color cannot be represented using RGB primaries. The color swatch to the right is a desaturated approximation, created by taking the centroid of the standard definition and moving it towards the D65 white point, until it meets the sRGB gamut triangle."

[careba2010]

What the uni needs is a couple of generators. Where I work which is a bit of a rough and ready spot they use two old tractor engines as a generator when the power goes off. So basically the Uni needs to find a tractor engine and run a generator of that... surely Estates have one!

[munchingfoo]

I think someone underestimates the power consumption of the University!

[hr]

"The entirety of these definitions lie outside the gamut of the sRGB color space — such a pure color cannot be represented using RGB primaries. The color swatch to the right is a desaturated approximation, created by taking the centroid of the standard definition and moving it towards the D65 white point, until it meets the sRGB gamut triangle."

[Gealle]

I think the university should purchase two million hamsters and set them going in little electricity generating running wheels.

Above all else, it'd make some smashing photos for the prospectus.

[hr]

So someone asked me "What is it you do?". I thought about it for a minute. Then I thought about it a little more. All the while I probably looked like I was staring in to space, struggling for an answer. And I was. There was only one response I could really give.

"I make sure the shit stays off the fan."