Weekly Highlights: New Data Center Launch, Industry Association Membership, and Must-Read Articles

Hello, Habr! Today, we’re excited to share updates about our new data center in the Arctic, our membership in the Association of Data Center Industry Participants, the migration of 1C to a virtual server, and some of the top articles from last week covering various topics, including drill types, free hosting services of the 2000s, memes about admin’s shamanic drum, and much more.

We have officially launched a virtual data center in the Arctic! This new facility in Murmansk is designed to cater to both individual users and businesses. We’re also aiming to attract clients from scientific and governmental organizations focused on developing the Arctic region and the Northern Sea Route. You can find more details about the data center on our website.

Our company, RUVDS, has joined the Association of Data Center Industry Participants, an organization that advocates for the interests of the entire data center market. Why is this important to us? It’s simple: as RUVDS continues to grow, we’re opening new facilities with computational capacities across Russia and beyond. We’re launching exciting initiatives and creating new opportunities for the entire industry, which means we need to engage more closely with our peers, share our expertise, and collaborate on certain issues. We have the experience, the resources, and now, a whole team of like-minded individuals.

In a new article on VC, we provided a detailed guide on how to migrate a 1C database step by step to a virtual server (VPS). This material will be beneficial for accountants, small business owners, and budding IT specialists looking to access 1C databases from anywhere in the world.

🔹 Internet Artifacts: GeoCities, Narod, uCoz, and Other Hosting Exhibits of the Noughties

Endless guestbooks, vibrant animated banners, and visit counters… In the 2000s, every computer enthusiast dreamed of having “their place” on the internet, even if it was just a tiny personal website. To facilitate this, there were free hosting services like GeoCities, Tripod, FortuneCity, Narod.ru, uCoz, among others. Let’s remember how they functioned and what made them memorable.

🔹 About Drills

Let’s expand our horizons in the field of metalworking by exploring the diverse range of drills available—both common and hard-to-find in your nearest hardware store. We won’t delve into the intricacies of cutting material, but will broaden our understanding so that when the need arises to “drill a hole,” you can choose the right tool.

🔹 Meme Culture of System Administrators: Part 2 — The Admin’s Drum

The admin drum is a mysterious artifact. It has long been known in the Russian Internet that, in the most perplexing situations where no experience, RTFM advice, or colleague tips work, a sysadmin pulls out their drum and starts beating it in hopes of miraculously fixing hardware and software issues through shamanistic methods. Let’s explore the origins of the notion that admins utilize shaman drums.

🔹 Thomson Computers: How France Aimed to Lead Home Electronics

In the early 1980s, the French aimed to position their country as a leader in the personal computer market. This led to the introduction of Thomson TO7 and TO8 computers in homes and classrooms. Although this venture ultimately faded away, Thomson computers represent an entire era fondly remembered by the French, who started their educational programs using cassettes and dreamed of mastering programming at a time when the term “computer” still seemed magical.

🔹 AGI is Mathematically Impossible, but the Hype is Unstoppable

In May 2025, Max Schlereth, a professor at the University of Applied Sciences in St. Pölten, Austria, published clear scientific evidence that strong AI is logically and mathematically impossible due to a fundamental limitation known as the Infinite Choice Barrier (ICB), which describes the exponential growth of entropy amid increasing uncertainty. Nevertheless, few have heeded the professor’s arguments. The world continues to prepare for “revolutionary changes,” which are being heralded as inevitable for some reason.