Mysterious Floating Barges Have Tech World Guessing At Their Purpose
PORTLAND, Maine (AP/CBS) — Three mysterious floating structures that have the tech world abuzz appear to have been registered by someone familiar with geekspeak.
The secretive structures — two in San Francisco and one Portland, Maine — are registered with a Delaware corporation as BAL0001, BAL0010, BAL0011 and BAL0100. In binary code used in computing, the numbers spell out "one," ''two," ''three" and "four." Currently, Nos. 1 and 2 are in San Francisco and No. 3 is in Portland Harbor.
Sharon Gaudin, a writer for Computerworld, tells the Portland Press Herald that the way the vessels were named is "telling." Online speculation about their creator has focused on Google, which has a patent for a floating data center that uses ocean water for cooling.
CBS5 in San Francisco says it has learned that Google is actually building a floating marketing center, a kind of giant sort of Apple store, but for Google Glass, the cutting-edge wearable computer the company has under development.
Although Google wouldn't respond to requests for comment for this story, sources close to the project told CBS5 Google hopes to tow the completed structure from Treasure Island across the Bay to San Francisco's Fort Mason, where it would be anchored and open to the public
Neither Google nor Cianbro, the company outfitting the vessel in Portland, returned calls from the AP seeking comment Tuesday.
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