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Wim🧮This is why I write blog posts, as they reach a wider audience and therefore have more potential to change anything. But I know that a blog post does not carry the same weight as a scientific paper, even if it has exactly the same content (I have done the experiment). So that is how we lose.(5/n=5) <a href="https://scholar.social/tags/FrugalComputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#FrugalComputing</a>

Wim🧮This gets me thinking: this is how we lose. The tech industry can push "solutions" like this carbon-aware computing without having to justify anything. But as an academic, if I want to contest them through a scientific publication, the standards have to be very high. So high that I can't meet them in practice. (3/n) <a href="https://scholar.social/tags/FrugalComputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#FrugalComputing</a>

Wim🧮I am writing a paper explaining that carbon-aware computing (moving data centre load to when/where emissions are low) is a distraction. I had the draft reviewed by a colleague, and it is clear that the paper will be rejected for lack of rigour.I am a senior academic and I know about originality, significance and rigour. I know the paper is rigorous, but that is beside the points: the reviewers can easily criticise it for not being so, and that is what matters.<a href="https://scholar.social/tags/FrugalComputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#FrugalComputing</a> (1/n)

Dimly Lit Corners<a href="https://c.im/tags/PSA" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#PSA</a> Please when designing new tech consider that not everyone has a reliable 24/7 broadband internet connection, or a large screen, or a keyboard, or a mouse, or is able to get a domain name, or is able to run services from home, is able to power their home-server for the whole day, or can rent a VPS, or can have their ip-addresses be linked to an identity, or has one legal identity, or has one name, or has a recent computer, or has easy access to a debit or credit card, or has a bank account with either, or has a PayPal account, or has bitcoin, or one of many other things some and often many people just don't have, etc…<a href="https://c.im/tags/PermaComputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#PermaComputing</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/FrugalComputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#FrugalComputing</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/UnBanked" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#UnBanked</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Durable" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Durable</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Repairable" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Repairable</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/CircularEconomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#CircularEconomy</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/LibraryEconomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#LibraryEconomy</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Sustainable" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Sustainable</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Communal" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Communal</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/RightToTinker" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#RightToTinker</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Repair" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Repair</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/RightToAmend" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#RightToAmend</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/RightToDIY" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#RightToDIY</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Reuse" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Reuse</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Repurpose" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Repurpose</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/ReInvent" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#ReInvent</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/RightToSalvage" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#RightToSalvage</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/RightToRepair" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#RightToRepair</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/RightToRepurpose" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#RightToRepurpose</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/RightToShare" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#RightToShare</a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/RightToOwn" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#RightToOwn</a>

Wim🧮When I wrote this, I still thought it was mostly bluff from the AI companies to keep the hype alive and talk up their share price. Now, it looks like they are really hell-bent on making my worst-case scenario a reality.5 GW data centres means 10x the current largest ones, and these are already 10x compared to the largest ones from a few years ago. This is pure madness. For reference, all the nuclear in the UK produces 6 G, all wind 30 GW.<a href="https://scholar.social/tags/FrugalComputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#FrugalComputing</a> <a href="https://wimvanderbauwhede.codeberg.page/articles/the-real-problem-with-AI/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://wimvanderbauwhede.codeberg.page/articles/the-real-problem-with-AI/</a>

J$<a href="https://mastodon.social/@macrumors" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@macrumors</a> Sadly, these five reasons not to don’t even include <a href="https://mastodon.nl/tags/sustainability" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#sustainability</a>, <a href="https://mastodon.nl/tags/degrowth" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#degrowth</a>, <a href="https://mastodon.nl/tags/frugalcomputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#frugalcomputing</a>, <a href="https://mastodon.nl/tags/DigitalAutonomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#DigitalAutonomy</a>. What a miss.

Wim🧮This is in reaction to that article by Tim Bray. "The real problem with the AI hype"<a href="https://wimvanderbauwhede.codeberg.page/articles/the-real-problem-with-AI/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://wimvanderbauwhede.codeberg.page/articles/the-real-problem-with-AI/</a>I wrote that 6 months ago.<a href="https://scholar.social/tags/FrugalComputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#FrugalComputing</a>

Earth NotesRSS Podcast Feed Inefficiency - Climate cost of handling feeds ineptly... <a href="https://mastodon.energy/tags/RSS" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#RSS</a> <a href="https://mastodon.energy/tags/podcast" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#podcast</a> <a href="https://mastodon.energy/tags/FrugalComputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#FrugalComputing</a> <a href="https://mastodon.energy/tags/LowCarbonComputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#LowCarbonComputing</a> <a href="https://mastodon.energy/tags/greenSoftware" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#greenSoftware</a> - <a href="https://www.earth.org.uk/RSS-efficiency.html" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.earth.org.uk/RSS-efficiency.html</a>

Wim🧮<a href="https://mastodon.acc.sunet.se/@maswan" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@maswan</a> and I wrote a paper in which we develop a detailed model for the LCA of HPC centres, including embodied carbon, server replacement and expansion. It is also applicable to other data centres. We also share the source code.It shows how important embodied carbon becomes when the grid has more renewables.<a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.14365" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.14365</a><a href="https://scholar.social/tags/FrugalComputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#FrugalComputing</a>

Wim🧮"in the long run economic considerations are partly a function of culture, as preferences and social concerns come to be expressed in the form of market conditions."<a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780429047053-2/scale-acceptability-nuclear-energy-thomas-wilbanks" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780429047053-2/scale-acceptability-nuclear-energy-thomas-wilbanks</a><a href="https://scholar.social/tags/FrugalComputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#FrugalComputing</a>

Wim🧮It is naive to think that fusion will provide the world with limitless energy. According to the paper "Can fusion energy be cost-competitive and commercially viable? An analysis of magnetically confined reactors" (from 2023), the cost of a 1 GW fusion plant is of the same order as a comparable fission plant. In other words, per plant order of £10 billion. Construction times are order of a decade, also comparable.<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301421523000964" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301421523000964</a><a href="https://scholar.social/tags/FrugalComputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#FrugalComputing</a>

Wim🧮Let's assume this data centre actually draws 300 MW all the time then it consumes 2.628 TWh/year. At a typical Water Usage Effectiveness of 0.3 l/kWh it would need 788 thousand m³ of water for cooling. The site for the data centre, Ravenscraig, is in Motherwell (near Glasgow). That is a town of 33,000 people. The households of such a town consume 2 million m³ of water per year. So that data centre will consume 40% of that. (3/3)<a href="https://scholar.social/tags/FrugalComputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#FrugalComputing</a> <a href="https://scholar.social/tags/GenAI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#GenAI</a>

Wim🧮The article calls the developing company, Apatura, a "renewable energy developer", but the reality is that they specialise in the land acquisition, design, planning, and operation of large-scale Battery Energy Storage Systems for hyperscale data centres. (2/3)<a href="https://scholar.social/tags/FrugalComputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#FrugalComputing</a> <a href="https://scholar.social/tags/GenAI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#GenAI</a><a href="https://www.itpro.com/infrastructure/data-centres/plans-announced-to-resurrect-former-steelworks-as-a-green-data-center" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.itpro.com/infrastructure/data-centres/plans-announced-to-resurrect-former-steelworks-as-a-green-data-center</a>

Wim🧮The Whitelee wind farm near Glasgow, the largest on-shore wind farm in the UK and one of the largest in Europe, has a maximum generative capacity of 539 MW and covers an area of 55 km² (about the size of Manhattan).Plans have been announced for an AI data centre of 550 MW, and this is one of five such sites planned in central Scotland. (1/3)<a href="https://scholar.social/tags/FrugalComputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#FrugalComputing</a> <a href="https://scholar.social/tags/GenAI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#GenAI</a>

Wim🧮From <a href="https://mastodon.social/@ana_valdi" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@ana_valdi</a>'s paper on "Data Ecofeminism":Principles of Data Ecofeminism Principle 1: Examine power structures within the climate crisis Principle 2: Consider digital materiality and its supply chains Principle 3: Make visible and accountable AI environmental impacts Principle 4: Prioritise frugal AI computing Principle 5: Reclaim digital sovereignty Principle 6: Foster the commons through mutual aid Principle 7: Weave the pluriverse<a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/epdf/10.1145/3715275.3732027" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://dl.acm.org/doi/epdf/10.1145/3715275.3732027</a><a href="https://scholar.social/tags/FrugalComputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#FrugalComputing</a> <a href="https://scholar.social/tags/genAI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#genAI</a> <a href="https://scholar.social/tags/AI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#AI</a>

Wim🧮<a href="https://mastodon.social/@ana_valdi" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@ana_valdi</a> Just read your paper on Data Ecofeminism, I liked it a lot. These are principles I can very much stand behind.(And wow, 145 references! I don't think I ever wrote anything that thorough)Thanks a lot for mentioning <a href="https://scholar.social/tags/FrugalComputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#FrugalComputing</a> !

doboprobodyne<a href="https://social.spejset.org/@samuel" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@samuel</a> <a href="https://mastodonsweden.se/@doktorzjivago" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@doktorzjivago</a> <a href="https://social.spejset.org/@nichobi" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@nichobi</a> I was just reading about <a href="https://mathstodon.xyz/tags/frugalComputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#frugalComputing</a> and found myself thinking of <a href="https://mathstodon.xyz/tags/Precursor" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Precursor</a> It feels to me like it would be a good fit for something like <a href="https://mathstodon.xyz/tags/deltaChat" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#deltaChat</a> <a href="https://vimeo.com/473293886" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://vimeo.com/473293886</a> <a href="https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/precursor" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/precursor</a><a href="https://mathstodon.xyz/tags/security" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#security</a> <a href="https://mathstodon.xyz/tags/fpga" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#fpga</a> <a href="https://mathstodon.xyz/tags/privacy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#privacy</a> <a href="https://mathstodon.xyz/tags/selfHosted" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#selfHosted</a>

doboprobodyne<a href="https://mastodon.social/@mcc" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@mcc</a> <a href="https://mathstodon.xyz/tags/FrugalComputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#FrugalComputing</a> 🦾

Martin Quinson ⏚And now, our software boots up on our hardware prototype of the <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/SmolPhone" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#SmolPhone</a> The keyboard kinda works, too. More work in the future but OK for now.The substrate is able to display a "modern" UI with buttons, text areas, labels, checkbox and such under the RP2040 constraints (about 200k of RAM but rather OK compute power).The goal is to allow users to build apps with lua scripts, as in <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Scrappy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Scrappy</a> <a href="https://jrcpl.us/contrib/2025/Scrappy" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">https://jrcpl.us/contrib/2025/Scrappy</a> Maybe before the end of the year, if we're lucky.<a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/LowNum" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#LowNum</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/FrugalComputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#FrugalComputing</a>

Alexander JanßenLook! I dug me a gopherhole... <a href="gopher://gopher.ynfonatic.de/1/~alex/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank">gopher://gopher.ynfonatic.de/1/~alex/</a> Now let's figure out how to migrate Jekyll/Markdown content to gophermaps. <a href="https://ruhr.social/tags/gopher" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#gopher</a> <a href="https://ruhr.social/tags/frugalcomputing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#frugalcomputing</a>

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