The News

Here’s why you should care where they’re building data centres

Everyone at the Tech Council of Australia’s summit this week was talking about how they’re going to get new data centres. There’s tens or hundreds of billions of dollars in new global data centre spending being announced pretty much every week — like Microsoft and NVIDIA’s AU$67B UK announcement today (WIRED, $). In Australia, it’s making unicorns like Firmus. (Smart Company). One tech journo told me yesterday that the lobbying efforts in Canberra over data centres is “crazy” right now.

A great Reuters piece that came out this week shows that Australian governments are green-lighting these massive projects with no idea about how they’re going to deal with the long-term resource demand.

The Sizzle: Until recently, I did not care about data centres. I knew we needed more and, because of generative AI’s training and inference demands, that meant shitloads more.

What changed for me was starting to really think about what this means locally: these tech companies are going into communities, competing with residents over land, water and electricity — all for centres that don’t produce much benefit for the local community once they’re up and running. And tech companies are going to have to do this over and over again. It’s going massive issue over the next few years, and one that I’m going to try and start covering.

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Roblox is bigger than you think

Does this mean anything to you?

Almost certainly not. But to tens, maybe hundreds, of millions of people who play Roblox regularly, this is a normal sentence about the game-within-the-game Steal a Brainrot that’s become extremely popular on the platform (Roblox wiki).

Roblox has been in the news a bit lately because of the growing scrutiny on its child safety efforts (SMH, $) and just generally covering how it is a “brain-rotting, hyper commercial dystopia” (NYMag). All this is true — I just wanted to share that Roblox is so much bigger than you think. It has 110 million+ daily active users. That’s more than Reddit.

I’ve actually never played it! So, my homework is to give it a try. And if you want to join me — or perhaps you’re already a hardcore Roblox fan with thoughts — I’d love to hear what you think.

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

‘Get Out Of Technology’

A short post from a well-known American hacker and engineer, George Hotz, has been making waves in tech circles:

The Sizzle: Well-known tech fiddler Jane Manchun Wong summed it up: “These days, everything seems to be all about maximising shareholder value and getting rich quick.”

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Leftovers

Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Oh, Also

The Taliban are banning the internet to ‘prevent immorality’

Ignore the headline about Wi-Fi, AP has an article about how the Taliban are cracking down on internet access in one of Afghanistan’s provinces to “prevent immorality”. While mobile internet is still available, fibre optic internet has been blocked and a Taliban spokesperson says they’re building an “alternative” for “necessities”.

While I concede that there’s plenty of immorality online — look no further than the Sizzle Slack server and forum — sure seems like a lot of authoritarian countries are cracking down on internet access!

Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.

Bargains

Electronics & electrical

Computing

Mobile

The End

😎 The Sizzle is written by Cam Wilson and emailed every weekday. It was created by Anthony “decryption” Agius.

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The Sizzle is created on Gadigal land and acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, recognising their continuing connection to land, water and community. I pay my respect to them and their cultures and to elders both past and present.