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'We used acid to sabotage Microsoft hyperscale data centre construction'

techwerkers.nl

141–150 of 194 posts

Re: 'We used acid to sabotage Microsoft hyperscale data centre construction'

#141
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason an industrial use uses x times more than a consumer is because the industry is selling products and services to x consumers. You can't compare them 1:1.

Well the industrial should charge more to cover its costs instead of offloading the cost of its goods to consumers? Why does Walmart get to utilize food stamps or hyperscalers get to drain all the energy? Thats a massive public subsidy for a private corporation.

In the end the consumer pays. Why should the consumer pay tax on the fossil fuels used to bring them AI but not on the fossil fuels used to bring them to work? That's the inconsistency.

Re: 'We used acid to sabotage Microsoft hyperscale data centre construction'

#142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is too dismissive of the impact. Datacenter builders now have to add security so it doesn't happen a second time, perhaps even add it in more places around the world, and the overall attractiveness of building a datacenter in the region go down. The CO2 not emitted by opening a later easily offsets curing by orders of magnitude. To fully model it you'd have to account for the demand being moved as other centers…

> now have to add security so it doesn't happen a second time You assume that that cost is going to be borne by the corporation building the facility and not by the general public through lobbying to protect construction sites from mischief (mischief in the legal sense, which in many countries is an indictable offence). In most democracies, private security generally has to defer to the police for anything that invol…

The rate of somebody actually being caught and handled by police is negligible. The private security still have to watch 24/7 and that's a private cost.

Re: 'We used acid to sabotage Microsoft hyperscale data centre construction'

#143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very unintentionally funny for you to say this here of all places.

is it? from where I stand, hn seems to be one of the exceptionally few remaining places where the mods don't take sides so the obnoxious minority doesn't get to win arguments by silencing everyone else like they do everywhere else.

Mods don't take sides on issues you pay attention to, maybe. They definitely take sides.

Watch: I'll say "free Palestine", and this comment will be deadened soon.

Re: 'We used acid to sabotage Microsoft hyperscale data centre construction'

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This would still pollute less than the usage of the center. You're underestimating how much energy they use once active.

You are underestimating how much co2 is released during ciment production and overestimating what is released by powering datancenters. In 2024, datancenter have consumed 1% of the total worldwide electricity production and are responsible for 0.5% of the co2 emissions.¹ 1- https://www.carbonbrief.org/ai-five-charts-that-put-data-cen...

cement is responsible for 8% I heard

Re: 'We used acid to sabotage Microsoft hyperscale data centre construction'

#145
post #87
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. Even in very red areas like Texas, isn't the public opinion something like 95% opposed? City councils keep allowing it despite this, clearly due to bribes. Whole situation sucks.

I mean bribes can be good. Sure you can build a data center near me, if your going to fund a new swimming pool and library with the taxes you pay. Also I get reduced local taxes? Even better! Infrastructure building would be a whole lot easier, if people could directly tie it to tangible benefits.

You can even heat the swimming pool with the waste heat.

Re: 'We used acid to sabotage Microsoft hyperscale data centre construction'

#146
post #69

> We're probably just a few short years away from the current generation of right-wing populists Right wing populists are nearly as useless as left wing populists now. The people they put into power and now betraying them for monied interests and they’re powerless to stop them. Fools thought they were the harbinger but in reality they were just the vessel. It’s why major populist characters like MTG and Massie are gi…

Left-wing populists haven't got anyone elected, but right-wing populists got to be the most powerful person in the world, so that doesn't seem that useless.

Re: 'We used acid to sabotage Microsoft hyperscale data centre construction'

#147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I imagine their maths is fine. Their objective is to tackle climate change through raising awareness. That happens at the macro scale.

You think they did math on this? No, all he did was have a tantrum where they got attention to themselves and patted themselves on the bat for doing something. They didn't think through the ecological results of someone scraping off the destroyed concrete and pouring more.

The ecological results of the protest are negligible, so I don't know why people keep bringing it up

Re: 'We used acid to sabotage Microsoft hyperscale data centre construction'

#148

Companies at this scale only speak existential threat. If you can't pose one, they don't even know you exist. I question whether this made enough of a dent to be noticed, but it's a start.

Companies at every scale speak marginal gains/losses. Microsoft looks at this the same way your local drugstore considers shoplifting. They will look at property damage in the context of potential revenue & margin, possibly accounting for cost of mitigations. If it continues to make sense, they will continue. If it doesn't they will consider raising prices until it does make sense, or relocating to jurisdictions with…

Microsoft does tonnes of dumb stuff that decreases its profit. Renaming Microsoft Office to Microsoft 365 Copilot, for example. As long as it has plenty of profit left, it doesn't really care. It would only care if the amount of lost profit became existential, reaffirming GP.

Re: 'We used acid to sabotage Microsoft hyperscale data centre construction'

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure what point you are making.

Lots of people sabotaged the Nazis. You think they need to be dealt with on the harshest terms.

It would have been in the interests of the Nazis to do so!
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