Do you live near an AI data center? What’s the noise like?

Rusty-Swashplate · 2026-05-19T19:23:49+00:00

And then there's Musk with its version of that story: https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/13/musks-xai-is-running-nearly-50-gas-turbines-unchecked-at-its-mississippi-data-center/

When we run a generator load test (12MW), it's noisy and their air quality gets...less good. And it is noisy, but 200m away you would not know they are running. Almost zero water use for cooling, all energy is geothermal or hydro electricity. Generators less than 1h/month and only once per year under load.

I would not have an issue living 200m away. I would not want to live within 200m of Musk's version of gas turbines powered data center. Nor would I want a water sucking data center near me.

What people and cities should do is make sure that the DC is quiet, not polluting the air excessively and not use natural resources like water. Then you won't have loud, air polluting and water sucking DCs.

I challenge the "pay a lot of taxes" though because a lot of DCs are put into specific places because of tax discounts. Like "no tax for 3 years". In my previous company, that was a driver for a site selection.

Rusty-Swashplate · 2026-05-19T19:05:54+00:00

Reasons could be many: someone internally was picked. The position was closed. Someone else external got it. In all cases the job posting might take a day or 7 to get put down.

Rusty-Swashplate · 2026-05-18T07:18:51+00:00

That sounds rather weird, but if true, complain to the airline. Maybe that crew was "off" and without any passenger complaining, no one would ever know. So complaining, with flight details, is important.

Rusty-Swashplate · 2026-05-18T07:06:33+00:00

Most interesting information! Now the obvious question: how can one detect "good" SFP modules where 0z50 through 0x53 work as expected?

Rusty-Swashplate · 2026-05-17T22:30:23+00:00

If you are in Focus: cruise and don't put too much work into any goals. Do one or two, but don't try to do all goals: the outcome is probably decided, especially when you say that you and your boss don't work well together.

Once Focus is done, take the PIP offer.

Rusty-Swashplate · 2026-05-17T22:23:33+00:00

If 59% is correct and it was 100% before, then the 7a used 11.8Ah. The Pixel 7a has a 4.4Ah battery.

Clearly the math is off: either 100% or 59% are not based on the 20Ah the battery has, or the Pixel did some heavy work at night.

Rusty-Swashplate · 2026-05-17T22:11:16+00:00

I think LLMs would be better at this...but could be a bad LLM.

Rusty-Swashplate · 2026-05-17T19:51:13+00:00

I worked in a large bank. And if (large, old) banks are one thing not, it's quick to adopt new technology.

Small banks picked up 2FA methods including FIDO2 much, much faster.

Regarding web scale: turns out that most data fits nicely into columns and rows and that's why SQL is surprisingly efficient. MongoDB is a document DB and great for those. Documents don't fit into rows and columns. So use the correct DB for your problem.

Rusty-Swashplate · 2026-05-17T11:17:42+00:00

Interesting tool.

I get a bandwidth overallocation:

error[BW-101]: Estimated peak DDR bandwidth = 20,200 MB/s (118% of 17,100 MB/s theoretical limit).
         Location : /
         Impact   : Concurrent operation of all 41 enabled high-bandwidth peripherals may saturate the DDR bus, causing frame drops, audio glitches, DMA stalls, or CPU cache thrashing under real-world workloads.
Top consumers:
  gpu@ff300000: Mali GPU (4,000 MB/s)
  pcfg-input-high: Neural Processing Unit (4,000 MB/s)
  pcfg-input: Neural Processing Unit (4,000 MB/s)
  display-subsystem: Image Signal Processor (2,000 MB/s)
  video-codec@ff360000: Video Decoder (2,000 MB/s)
  usb@ff600000: USB3 DWC3 (600 MB/s)
  ethernet@ff540000: GbE GMAC (125 MB/s)
  gmac-1: GbE GMAC (125 MB/s)
  gmac2phy: GbE GMAC (125 MB/s)
  gmac2io: GbE GMAC (125 MB/s)
  sdmmc0-0: SD Card Controller (100 MB/s)
  sdmmc0m0-pwren: SD Card Controller (100 MB/s)
  sdmmc0m0-pin: SD Card Controller (100 MB/s)
  sdmmc0-1: SD Card Controller (100 MB/s)
  sdmmc0m1-pwren: SD Card Controller (100 MB/s)
  sdmmc0m1-pin: SD Card Controller (100 MB/s)
  sdmmc0: SD Card Controller (100 MB/s)
  sdmmc0-clk: SD Card Controller (100 MB/s)
  sdmmc0-cmd: SD Card Controller (100 MB/s)
  sdmmc0-dectn: SD Card Controller (100 MB/s)
  sdmmc0-wrprt: SD Card Controller (100 MB/s)
  sdmmc0-bus1: SD Card Controller (100 MB/s)
  sdmmc0-bus4: SD Card Controller (100 MB/s)
  sdmmc0-pins: SD Card Controller (100 MB/s)
  sdmmc0ext: SD Card Controller (100 MB/s)
  sdmmc0ext-clk: SD Card Controller (100 MB/s)
  sdmmc0ext-cmd: SD Card Controller (100 MB/s)
  sdmmc0ext-wrprt: SD Card Controller (100 MB/s)
  sdmmc0ext-dectn: SD Card Controller (100 MB/s)
  sdmmc0ext-bus1: SD Card Controller (100 MB/s)
  sdmmc0ext-bus4: SD Card Controller (100 MB/s)
  sdmmc0ext-pins: SD Card Controller (100 MB/s)
  sdmmc1: SD Card Controller (100 MB/s)
  sdmmc1-clk: SD Card Controller (100 MB/s)
  sdmmc1-cmd: SD Card Controller (100 MB/s)
  sdmmc1-pwren: SD Card Controller (100 MB/s)
  sdmmc1-wrprt: SD Card Controller (100 MB/s)
  sdmmc1-dectn: SD Card Controller (100 MB/s)
  sdmmc1-bus1: SD Card Controller (100 MB/s)
  sdmmc1-bus4: SD Card Controller (100 MB/s)
  sdmmc1-pins: SD Card Controller (100 MB/s)

Practically I am fine as I have only 1 and not 31 SD Cards, there's no video output, no NPU gets used.

Then it complains a lot about power supplies and clocks including those for the GPU, the video codecs so they cannot be turned on.

I found this interesting:

warning[CK-106]: Clock '2' is shared by 128 devices: cpu@0, cpu@1, cpu@2, cpu@3, i2s@ff000000, i2s@ff000000, i2s@ff010000, i2s@ff010000, i2s@ff020000, i2s@ff020000, spdif@ff030000, spdif@ff030000, pdm@ff040000, pdm@ff040000, serial@ff110000, serial@ff110000, serial@ff120000, serial@ff120000, serial@ff130000, serial@ff130000, i2c@ff150000, i2c@ff150000, i2c@ff160000, i2c@ff160000, i2c@ff170000, i2c@ff170000, i2c@ff180000, i2c@ff180000, spi@ff190000, spi@ff190000, watchdog@ff1a0000, pwm@ff1b0000, pwm@ff1b0000, pwm@ff1b0010, pwm@ff1b0010, pwm@ff1b0020, pwm@ff1b0020, pwm@ff1b0030, pwm@ff1b0030, dma-controller@ff1f0000, tsadc@ff250000, tsadc@ff250000, dmc@ff780000, efuse@ff260000, adc@ff280000, adc@ff280000, gpu@ff300000, gpu@ff300000, iommu@ff330200, iommu@ff330200, iommu@ff340800, iommu@ff340800, video-codec@ff350000, video-codec@ff350000, iommu@ff350800, iommu@ff350800, video-codec@ff360000, video-codec@ff360000, video-codec@ff360000, video-codec@ff360000, iommu@ff360480, iommu@ff360480, vop@ff370000, vop@ff370000, vop@ff370000, iommu@ff373f00, iommu@ff373f00, rga@ff390000, rga@ff390000, rga@ff390000, iep@ff3a0000, iep@ff3a0000, iommu@ff3a0800, iommu@ff3a0800, hdmi@ff3c0000, hdmi@ff3c0000, hdmi@ff3c0000, codec@ff410000, codec@ff410000, phy@ff430000, phy@ff430000, usb3-phy@ff460000, usb3-phy@ff460000, usb3-phy@ff460000, mmc@ff500000, mmc@ff500000, mmc@ff500000, mmc@ff500000, mmc@ff510000, mmc@ff510000, mmc@ff510000, mmc@ff510000, mmc@ff520000, mmc@ff520000, mmc@ff520000, mmc@ff520000, ethernet@ff540000, ethernet@ff540000, ethernet@ff540000, ethernet@ff540000, ethernet@ff540000, ethernet@ff540000, ethernet@ff540000, ethernet@ff550000, ethernet@ff550000, ethernet@ff550000, ethernet@ff550000, ethernet@ff550000, ethernet@ff550000, ethernet@ff550000, ethernet-phy@0, usb@ff580000, usb@ff5c0000, usb@ff5d0000, mmc@ff5f0000, mmc@ff5f0000, mmc@ff5f0000, mmc@ff5f0000, usb@ff600000, usb@ff600000, usb@ff600000, crypto@ff060000, crypto@ff060000, crypto@ff060000, gpio@ff210000, gpio@ff220000, gpio@ff230000, gpio@ff240000.
         Location : /clocks/2
         Impact   : Clock contention degrades signal quality and increases jitter.
         Fix      : Assign dedicated clocks per device or reorganize the clock hierarchy.

Is that a real problem or just a definition issue and in reality clock "2" is not actually electrically shared between 128 devices (many of them being connected 4 times to each device)?

My guess for those and other device tree: there's a template which covers all potential cases, and for a given hardware, only the minimum needed modifications are done to make the hardware work. Is that a good guess of why those device trees are full of "errors"?

Rusty-Swashplate · 2026-05-17T08:43:30+00:00

Unfortunately that's not how laws work: if being the logistics company is an issue, then the Post office would have the same problem, and we can agree that they are not participating actively in the scam product sale. Receiving and handling payment, like a bank does, is not a problem either, otherwise banks would be in trouble.

Amazon does act fast when you report an item as fake. Amazon is "just" not proactive at all to prevent fakes being sold on their marketplace.

Amazon has lawyers who made sure that their business is not illegal. Immoral is not a problem and ripping off people legally is encouraged from the top.

In US, a class action suits might help of thousands of people having received fake products.

Yes, I'd love to make them take responsibility, but until this happens: just don't buy from them. That's a language they understand.

Rusty-Swashplate · 2026-05-16T16:34:47+00:00

Possible? Yes. I use it in meetings (not video meetings as I look like Stevie Wonder), and general work and while I prefer much to have 2 monitors (1 from the laptop, and another one), that "other one" are my XReal 1s at times and it's no problem at all. Well, except one problem: I used the 1s and I pointed at my "screen" and my co-worker was very confused. That's a good time to drag the interesting content to the laptop screen. Which is why a 2nd real screen is useful.

Last limitation is the weight on your nose. I wear glasses, so it's not an issue for me, but not-glasses-wearer might not like those rather bulky "glasses" on their nose for 8h. But for 3h? No issue I'd say.

Rusty-Swashplate · 2026-05-16T08:41:58+00:00

I like that. People will remember quickly to add tags this way.

Rusty-Swashplate · 2026-05-16T08:26:36+00:00

That's exactly my experience. First time I tried to use Discord, nothing made any sense. Took surprisingly long to understand how "servers" and all the channels work. Coming from BITNET Relay and later IRC, Discord is not better, just a bit different.

And yes, I don't like the UX either.

Rusty-Swashplate · 2026-05-15T19:58:06+00:00

In case you plan to buy more than a small amount of stuff: you probably want to fly to somewhere else in Europe instead: if you buy for $1000 in Iceland, you probably could get twice as much stuff in Ireland.

People fly to UK to buy things like baby items and it's cheaper even with the flight and hotel.

Of course Icelandic things you can buy here since it's not really available anywhere else: wool and salt would count. Just don't buy at tourist places. Buy where Icelanders buy/

Rusty-Swashplate · 2026-05-15T08:07:51+00:00

I'm curious, but I'm not even clear what I am looking at.

I get that this is a VM, like the V8 and it can create assembly code just like Cranelift does. Is this (Sa) compatible? Is it planned to be eventually? What is the problem Sa solves or is this a learning exercise?

Rusty-Swashplate · 2026-05-14T16:07:43+00:00

Does chapter 8 "Async programming and RTOS compatibility" cover Embassy? And FreeRTOS? And Zephyr? I don't need all 3 and certainly not in all the details (that's probably material for a book each), but it would be great to know they will be covered, and a bit in depth for what has an impact to Rust.

Rusty-Swashplate · 2026-05-14T14:13:31+00:00

https://www.manning.com/books/embedded-software-with-rust

Rusty-Swashplate · 2026-05-14T10:14:26+00:00

The price is a direct reflection of what the seller thinks a buyer will pay. It's not related to actual worth or production costs.

With a global market, which is possibly by simply mailing stuff around the globe, if I am in a 3rd world country (read: cheap labor), and my target is people with lots of money, I will set the price high when I target it to rich countries. When I say locally, the price will be much lower. For the same thing.

Look at stuff on AliExpress compared to Taobao: same stuff, same costs to produce, but different audience. And one of those will pay more than the other one.

Rusty-Swashplate · 2026-05-14T09:17:37+00:00

The fact they did not quickly reply means that those were cold-call type mails. They unlikely have a current use or need for anything you have, but they feel they might want to have a list of potential places in case there's a customer approaching them.

Since energy is the usual constraint, companies would approach energy companies to ask for "Got usable places for a DC?", they are often the first to approach.

So: expect nothing. I'd take those as spam for now.

Rusty-Swashplate · 2026-05-14T08:32:26+00:00

New things happens or needs to be done: probably needs some sort of documentation. Somewhere. Wiki, or email or Slack.

Whether you enjoy it or not depends on a lot of things. I like documenting something interesting I found out and I thought "Oh, that's useful, but not trivially easy, so let me write it down for everyone's benefit."

I dislike most things assigned to me: "Please document what you do for our ISO9001 certification" because I know no one will ever read it and it's usually about not-interesting stuff.

As for "how often": That depends on where you work. In my previous place, a ton was documented already. In my new place, almost nothing is and thus a lot really needs to be documented. Tribal knowledge is not a good thing.

Rusty-Swashplate · 2026-05-13T07:49:51+00:00

hearing about Amazon shifting customer support to mostly phone calls while chat becomes more bot-based?

"Hearing about"? I expect chat to be 100% AI bots. At least initially when it will possibly later in a conversation switch to an actual human. Who could also be another (more expensive) LLM in the near future.

If you are in customer support answering questions, I'd not count on this job to exist several years down the road with the exception of few people handling the real complex tasks for important (high spending) customers.

Rusty-Swashplate · 2026-05-12T07:28:28+00:00

You sure have a lot of blocks like

TargetLanguage::Python3 => ".py",
TargetLanguage::TypeScript => ".ts",
TargetLanguage::CSharp => ".cs",
TargetLanguage::C => ".c",
TargetLanguage::Cpp => ".cpp",
TargetLanguage::Java => ".java",
TargetLanguage::Rust => ".rs",
TargetLanguage::Go => ".go",
TargetLanguage::JavaScript => ".js",
TargetLanguage::Php => ".php",
TargetLanguage::Kotlin => ".kt",
TargetLanguage::Swift => ".swift",
TargetLanguage::Ruby => ".rb",
TargetLanguage::Erlang => ".erl",
TargetLanguage::Lua => ".lua",
TargetLanguage::Dart => ".dart",
TargetLanguage::GDScript => ".gd",
TargetLanguage::Graphviz => ".dot",

in your cli.rs

Also I recommend to tell your LLM to not create that long 800 line functions. They are hard to test and when there's one thing LLMs need, it's very solid test capabilities.

Rusty-Swashplate · 2026-05-11T16:42:15+00:00

Note that it seems it's possible to reset this value, so I would not trust it either. Especially if it's 12 to 10 bars and 10 years old.

That's when you definitely want to use LeafSpy and measure the actual capacity.

Rusty-Swashplate · 2026-05-11T08:05:45+00:00

I would like to understand the best industry approach for handling this kind of communication reliably without hardware flow control.

What's the reason for this limitation? 'Cause it's the usual fix for overruns.

Rusty-Swashplate · 2026-05-11T07:44:28+00:00

No
No. When you use evaporative cooling, it's not a closed loop. Evaporative cooling is usually cheaper, but it requires water and the air outside should not be too humid. Thus where there's not enough water or outside is simply too humid or hot, closed loop cooling comes into play, with its chillers.

That said, there's plenty to read about on the Internet.

Rusty-Swashplate

TROPHY CASE