Infamous nuclear power plant Three Mile Island in the US state of Pennsylvania is re-opening because Microsoft needs more electricity to power its massive data centers. The power plant will be renamed "Crane Clean Energy Center" and isn't dedicated purely to Microsoft's needs, pumping electricity into the grid as a whole, but Microsoft's agreement to purchase all of the plant's 835MW of electricity for 20 years is what's making it financially viable to spin up again. It'll cost US$1.6b to refurbish the plant, which sounds ridiculously cheap for a 50 year old nuclear power plant. This is better than re-opening a coal power plant, but damn this AI stuff really needs a lot of energy. Is it worth it?
Also in things I never would have imagined happening a few years ago, there's strong rumours that Qualcomm wants to buy Intel. That would have been unfathomable previously, but due to Intel's share price becoming the dictionary definition of "shit the bed" lately, Qualcomm reckons it can find enough cash to buy Intel, its patents, its factories and presumably, its engineering talent too. At least Qualcomm is US based so any deal would keep the US government happy. It's far from being real, but it's real enough that people are going "you know what? Maybe Qualcomm and Intel getting business married wouldn't be the worst thing in the world". Could also be the nail in the coffin for x86 as I can't see that happening as long as Intel remains independent.
MG slashed the price on their little MG4 pure electric hatch back, making the starting price $30,990 drive away nationally for the base model Excite 51 that has around 350km of WLTP range. There's dealers selling lightly used ones even cheaper on Carsales, like $26,888 in WA and $29,888 in VIC. Get it on a novated lease (this calculator has more info than you could ever want to work out if a lease is worth it) and you're paying even less! Unlike MG's other cars, the MG4 isn't a heap of shit and apparently, a very nice drive. 350km of range might not sound like much, but my Tesla gets just above 400km (probably more like 380km now) and it's heaps for 95% my driving. Just make sure you can charge at home, otherwise you're in for a world of pain.
Apple Computer iPod Hello Brochure from 2001 (Internet Archive)
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