Arik Hesseldahl

Recent Posts by Arik Hesseldahl

Facebook’s Next Data Center Will Be in Iowa

Social networking giant Facebook is apparently the company behind a mysterious data center construction project under way in the town of Altoona, Iowa, according to a report in the Des Moines Register. It would be Facebook’s fourth company-owned data center. The others are in Prineville, Ore., Forest City, N.C., and Lulea, Sweden.

The Register says the data center will be 1.4 million square feet. There’s no word yet about what incentives, if any — tax breaks and the like — the state of Iowa is expected to provide. And there’s no word on how many jobs the facility will provide. Facebook is also said to want some tax credits for using wind power; that will require a vote by the state legislature.

State officials have been kind of hush-hush about the whole thing, and apparently there was pretty stiff competition between Iowa and Nebraska to win the deal. Google and Microsoft have recently opened data centers in the state, as well.

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Another gadget you don’t really need. Will not work once you get it home. New model out in 4 weeks. Battery life is too short to be of any use.

— From the fact sheet for a fake product entitled Useless Plasticbox 1.2 (an actual empty plastic box) placed in L.A.-area Best Buy stores by an artist called Plastic Jesus