Vaulting the Shark

I see some of the weaker thinkers have been getting slashdotted recently:

Recently, Facebook provided us with some information on their server park. They use about 30,000 servers, and not surprisingly, most of them are running PHP code to generate pages full of social info for their users. As they only say that 'the bulk' is running PHP, let's assume this to be 25,000 of the 30,000. If C++ would have been used instead of PHP, then 22,500 servers could be powered down (assuming a conservative ratio of 10 for the efficiency of C++ versus PHP code), or a reduction of 49,000 tons of CO2 per year. Of course, it is a bit unfair to isolate Facebook here. Their servers are only a tiny fraction of computers deployed world-wide that are interpreting PHP code

Right, because coding in C++ takes so much less time than coding in PHP, or Python, Ruby, or Smalltalk. We'll just ignore al the extra man hours of time with lights and computers on, and heat/AC needed - because the trivial expense of throwing more hardware at the problem is the thing to worry about.

At least slashdot still sponsors idiot day on a regular basis...

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