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>> Oracle is the only one using debt to build the data center

Stargate is backed by the US gvt hence why they're comfortable to put that under debt financing


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zuck panicked.

the metaverse didn't pan out.

other companies were making inroads on A.I and zuck felt flat-footed.

the crazy shit is in an era where most content on social media is A.I generated - zuck should've pivoted to banning A.I content but eh what do I know


I don't know how he could ban it. AI can't be used to reliably detect AI for the same reasons it's unreliable at other tasks. He didn't really have a choice but to sell the same grift everyone else is selling. He's stuck in a prisoners' dilemma that everyone is losing except a few people at the top.

that's pretty obvious to everyone in the US

what's not obvious to most people - is how e.g other countries that are already struggling will get into deeper depths e.g UK where cost of energy was super high. UK is not bombing Iran, but their economy will cry more than the US

what's not obvious is how a few oil Barrons will make so much money in the next few weeks e.g those in Texas - their great grand-children will never need to work. Defense contractors will also make out like bandits & those politically connected. While everyone else in the US losses.

what's not obvious is the money pumped into A.I so far is about to go kaput (energy demands -- remember Qatar has started not honoring gas contracts - what's gas used to ? power turbines in power plants)

if you're in the US/Netherlands you will be okay in terms of food, if you're in the UK, Middle East, Australia (food is about to become more expensive & tricky)

if you're in Africa your government is about to con you through massive fuel prices at the pump


> if you're in the UK, Middle East, Australia (food is about to become more expensive & tricky)

Australias not in a terrible position. We produce ~50% of our NPK fertilizers used, and this is down primarily because were importing more from places with cheaper/distant environmental impact. Conversely, IIRC, UK and Ineos just shut down their significant last fertilizer plant and the north sea fields is its own thing.

Similarly we have suitable local gas supply for the needed feedstock. And you can see the govt already starting to restrict (“reserve”) exports. Which, of course, will contribute to the global problem.

AU as a whole is a commodity and food exporter. Of course global commodity squeezes make Everyone poorer, I believe ricardo. I dont see our local position being anywhere as fragile as europe and me, unless Im missing something.

But I dont see AU being anywhere near as fragile as Sri Lanka circa 2022-23.


We are vulnerable in Australia though because we have to move food large distances from farms to cities and are unusually road-dependent for those kind of distances (most countries use much more freight rail). Large diesel price rises are going to be extremely painful for us.

And electricity and manufacturing too, since we have no real gas reservation policy and the exporters were allowed to build enough capacity to export basically every single joule of gas that we produce (and they pay a fraction of the royalties that countries like Qatar rake in). So locals and local businesses pay very high prices so the gas companies can export most of our supply overseas...


Diesel price rising can be easily fixed though.

The Government collects 51.6 cents per litre on Fuel and Diesel, they'd need to just temporarily cut back on some of their obscene fuel margins to keep everything within steady-state.

The question is, will the Government do so?


But what if there's not enough diesel?

That's what at stake here, with oil exports from the Middle East dwindling... Oil price might not even go up that much, or for that long, if the economy crashes hard enough.


The Australians are currently pointing to diesel reserves or on hand in the farms is quite low, suggesting that mechanised cropping/transport of farm products is going to provide a pinch point.

I have no idea if the reports are accurate, or an attempt to put the market into readiness for inflation.

edit: Whether real or imagined, there is panic buying of petrol happening - this could lead to supply issues by itself.

https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/1rohwzl/fuel_pan...


As someone who has done physical work at the sites of Australian diesel reserves, they aren't designed to last that long.

I do still feel we're better off than most. We can actually offset the price of fuel by reducing the government excise, and even subsidising it. We've done it before. 2 gulf wars, a global oil crisis, general middle east chaos? Australia has typically done better than most.

Would still be good if we had an actual sovereign mineral fund and hadn't sold our gas rights to everyone else, but I suppose we have to live with the stupid shit the previous governments have done.


The cynic in me thinks we will be squeezed anyway because australian leaders apparently love to sell off everything to the global market with little concern for the residents. Why squeeze just domestic or just global when you can do both and collect even more profit?

> UK where cost of energy was super high. UK is not bombing Iran, but their economy will cry more than the US.

UK isn't exactly rich on energy resources, especially after the North Sea oil dried out. Living in a global economy, most oil is still priced in dollars - which the UK can't print - resulting in a tough energy market in the UK and many other places.

Wars are the worst enemies of good life and economic development, it's profoundly revealing to watch how two of largest and richest countries in the world, with the absolute largest nuclear arsenals, are both engaged in the destruction of other countries - one for each... for now.

Both of the attacked countries are fairly large and have significant impact on global prosperity and supply chains...

This isn't a fairy tale.


>if you're in the US/Netherlands you will be okay in terms of food

I don't get it. Why is Netherlands in the same boat as the US? Do they have some crazy oil reserves I don't know about?


They are a net food exporter.

This is one of likely many shocks that will reward those nations that are leading on cutting fossil fuel use - and punish the laggards.

Even banks are backing out of AI data centers as the risk is too great. Tells you right away that they know the risk exceeds even their willingness to finance the wealthiest ambitions.

Yeah in rich countries nobody is going to starve- at worst you'll have to shop at Aldi. In Africa the price of bread actually matters...

>Yeah in rich countries nobody is going to starve- at worst you'll have to shop at Aldi.

Except that people in rich countries expect a higher bar for their standard of living than just avoiding starvation given the amount of taxes they pay and how expensive life is.

It's not like if you live in a wealthy country it's all sunshine and roses, you're subjected to continuous mass layoffs while still paying wealthy country levels of rent, and people here were already shopping at Lidl to stay afloat. If you keep squeezing them further, they'll just vote the most radical left/right wing candidate who promises to flip the monopoly board over and you don't want that. Telling them to eat (Lidl) cake is never gonna end up well.


> UK where cost of energy was super high

“Was”?


Probably missing 'already', that's how I understood the sentence.

what's the value add ?

what are you offering to candidates - a better interview experience (been tried before etc, those companies closed)

you want to solve a problem, however you are trying solve the problem at a wrong abstraction level -

the problem with the tech market hiring is a coordination problem


[flagged]


thing coz we're people in tech -- we are open to ideas that are non-tech or old school

a lot of creative industries solved this by using agencies, unions and co-ops

if you really want to have success and make an impact start an agency (not the web agency we're used to - but a talent agency)


could have been on sqlite -- backups in s3 or equivalent object storage

but let's over-engineer


terraform is 100% overengineering for some hobby projects

the economy has been shedding jobs back to back now - since nov 2024.

however due to the incompetent and corrupt powers that be - a lot of the news has been suppressed, and even the head of BLS fired.

everyone is struggling - but I guess the economy is doing well coz of the "stock market" as we're told


most people who are into graphics processing e.g video-games, 3d for films/entertainment industry etc need these "PRO-workstation" machines, or doing fluid mechanics

if your work is around data | software engineering (web backends etc) like me - a MacBook Air tends to be sufficient


I know this is a heavily tech circle.

however for the common person out there, unless they're buying for status -- this will meet most of their needs

office workers, hospital workers, stay-at-home parents - who just wanna fill forms occasionally, write emails, browse the web - design a few posters on canva for a funeral, special event etc

so yeah to those people they don't give a shit about M-series, as long it has enough memory and can do what they want without freezing.

well done to apple


I’m still on an M1 Air for my personal laptop and probably will be for another couple years. It doesn’t feel “slow” and I feel no urge to start browsing newer models.

My understanding is this laptop matches or exceeds the M1 Air’s performance, so it should be pretty damn nice for most people.


My M1 was the biggest upgrade of many years, I got one from an old job and returned it when I left, it was possibly the most "fast" feeling computer since going from Win98 to 2000. I ended up buying one for my personal computer, I only replaced it when I cracked the screen as it wasn't a huge amount more to simply get a new one. Now typing on my M4 air.

Counterpoint; Apple was already selling ~$600-700 Macs with the M1 MBA. If you weren't already in the market for one of those laptops, there is pretty much a 0% chance that these pared-back models will appeal to you.

Many people WERE in those markets, but this is a better fit because it is a modern chip. It's hard to recommend a 6 year old computer because the concern about support length is higher.

Charlie Munger once said >>> Show me the incentive, I will show you the outcome

Problem is in big tech -- the incentives are all aligned towards complex stuff

you wanna get promoted - do complex stuff that doesn't make sense. If you get promoted, then it also boosts the performance of your manager.

the only way to escape this nonsense is to work at smaller companies

right now you've people advocating for A.I coded solutions yet never realizing that A.I solutions result in a convoluted mess since A.I never possesses the ART of software engineering i.e knowing what to cut out


most times it seems liberal leaders don't like to read history, even if they're lawyers.

if a pleb like me can understand that the Supreme Court has the power of imposing the judges personal views on the rest of the country.

wouldn't the wise thing for the liberal / centrist government to make sure you always maintain majority on the court


Indeed. I consider the Supreme Court to be our only properly functioning branch of government. If you look at the Warren court it overturned precedent and “grabbed power” at a rate several times what you see from the current court yet because it did so for liberal purposes you only hear about how the court is political now.

I don’t agree with every Supreme Court ruling, but the constant attacks on the court from the left terrify me


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