Send Link mailing list submissions to
link@anu.edu.au
To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
https://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
link-requ...@anu.edu.au
You can reach the person managing the list at
link-ow...@anu.edu.au
When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of Link digest..."
Today's Topics:
1. Re: AI advances limited by electricity supply (David)
2. Re: Linux Alive and Well in Sydney (Narelle Clark)
3. Re: AI advances limited by electricity supply (Narelle Clark)
4. Re: Rebuilding the public service with AI (Tom Worthington)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2025 18:43:02 +1000
From: David <dloch...@aussiebb.com.au>
To: link@anu.edu.au
Subject: Re: [LINK] AI advances limited by electricity supply
Message-ID: <2701573.fDdHjke4Dd@ulysses>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
On Tuesday, 29 July 2025 08:44:29 AEST Tom Worthington wrote:
> On 7/27/25 13:17, David wrote:
>> But this is still energy needed for other, arguably more essential, purposes.
> Data center owners pay for the electricity they use. They don't take it from
> someone else.
Whether they pay for it (probably at a negotiated & discounted bulk price) is
not the point. There's only a limited supply of electric power and an even
more limited supply of "green" power. Do we want AI data centres pushing up
prices for domestic and other established users in order to fund new energy
infrastructure at public expense? ...and increasing the greenhouse load on the
planet while they're at it?
>> Without affecting the ecology of those heat-sinks?
> No, water used for cooling heats the body it is discharged into. This is most
> noticeable with power stations, as they are large heat sources, [...]
Yes, cold water in, hot water out. I suppose it's the equivalent of
climate-change for whatever lives there.
>> Most such arguments about the proper use of energy & planetary resources
>> depend on narrowing the scope of a large project's justification ...
> Yes, in this case we are discussing energy and water use, not materials.
I didn't express that very clearly... By "narrowing the scope" I meant
ignoring byproducts & indirect effects such as the cost of waste and focusing
on the benefits, not reducing a project's physical footprint. For example, it
was once considered the atmosphere was so vast that nothing humans could do
would affect it, but that didn't work out well, I'm not an economist, but I
understood the atmosphere was then a "global external common" in economic terms.
_DavidL_
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2025 19:40:11 +0800
From: Narelle Clark <narel...@gmail.com>
To: Tom Worthington <tom.worthing...@tomw.net.au>
Cc: Link <link@anu.edu.au>
Subject: Re: [LINK] Linux Alive and Well in Sydney
Message-ID:
<cacrmd1hfcemrwnc5do-mihl8vangsnx7wkrnxsk9lt4tqyc...@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Well, I, for one, am glad it still exists.
Next time I feel like blowing away the operating system on a dying PC I
will remember they still exist and go there for guidance.
Narelle
narel...@gmail.com
On Sat, 26 July 2025, 7:44?am Tom Worthington, <tom.worthing...@tomw.net.au>
wrote:
> Last night I attended the Sydney Linux User Group (SLUG) meeting at
> Google Sydney. I haven't been to a Slug meeting for years. It is good to
> see nothing has changed. The is the same pizza and soda, the same talk
> topic made entirely of acronyms and attendees who look like extras from
> Big Bang Theory.
> https://blog.tomw.net.au/2025/07/user-group-alive-and-well-in-sydney.html
>
>
> --
> Tom Worthington http://www.tomw.net.au
> _______________________________________________
> Link mailing list
> Link@anu.edu.au
> https://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
>
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2025 19:51:28 +0800
From: Narelle Clark <narel...@gmail.com>
To: Tom Worthington <tom.worthing...@tomw.net.au>
Cc: Link <link@anu.edu.au>
Subject: Re: [LINK] AI advances limited by electricity supply
Message-ID:
<CACRMD1EjypA=kbia9crrzmgbedmv88oto8v40nb7fvt_puo...@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
On Sun, 27 July 2025, 7:55?am Tom Worthington, <tom.worthing...@tomw.net.au>
wrote:
> On 7/25/25 16:01, Antony Barry wrote:
> > https://qz.com/eric-schmidt-ai-limit-chips-electricity?lctg=1980929
> <https://qz.com/eric-schmidt-ai-limit-chips-electricity?lctg=1980929&utm_source=digitaltrends&utm_medium=email&utm_content=subscriber_id:1980929&utm_campaign=DTDaily20250721>
>
>
> More seriously, data centers could use off peak power, moving the power
> consumption around the world to wherever the wind is blowing or sun
> shining.
Some of the global providers do already, however load is largely shifted
around on the basis of lowest tariff rather than type.
Narelle
narel...@gmail.com
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2025 09:08:10 +1000
From: Tom Worthington <tom.worthing...@tomw.net.au>
To: link@anu.edu.au
Subject: Re: [LINK] Rebuilding the public service with AI
Message-ID: <81f2d0d8-cf02-47ae-81f0-11ca8d0dc...@tomw.net.au>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; Format="flowed"
On 7/28/25 11:20, Roger Clarke wrote:
> I think you're confusing ascetic monks with punk aesthetics
> (which, to an old fuddy-duddy, is a wonderful oxymoron). ...
I have never met any monks as they don't get out much, only some friars.
> I'm wondering where the 'public service' is in 'interplanetary travel'.
Many governments provide public transport, why not interplanetary? More
seriously, we were given cards with topics on them and that is what our
team was dealt.
> SpaceGuard? ...
A few years ago I came across the International Strategic Deepspace
Command (ISDC), in Sydney: https://msquaredmedia.com.au/blog01.php
ISDC have much nicer uniforms than the real Australian Defence Space
Command:
https://www.defence.gov.au/news-events/news/2023-03-03/year-defence-space-command
--
Tom Worthington http://www.tomw.net.au
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: OpenPGP_signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 665 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL:
<https://mailman.anu.edu.au/pipermail/link/attachments/20250730/a5ff9e5b/attachment.sig>
------------------------------
Subject: Digest Footer
_______________________________________________
Link mailing list
Link@anu.edu.au
https://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
------------------------------
End of Link Digest, Vol 392, Issue 18
*************************************
