A false smoke alarm almost drowned Jane Street’s only NYC datacenter

Posts of varying effort on technology, cybersecurity, transhumanism, rationalism, self-improvement, DIY, and other stereotypical technologist stuff. How a false smoke alarm almost drowned Jane Street’s only NYC datacenter jane street war stories datacenter Published on 10 Nov 2026 by mbacarella A war story from Jane Street’s systems team: a false smoke alarm, a datacenter with no cooling, and a sprint to pull every power cord before the sprinklers went off AI disclosure: this story was written entirely by human hands, with AI doing proof-reading and light edits. Some tasteful imperfections kept to heighten Wabi-Sabi effect. Everyone’s heard of how awesome Jane Street is. Fewer people have heard about the times something stupid nearly put it out of business and it was saved by…