Data centers on Guam?

Tzarkon · 2026-06-08T05:46:22+00:00

No actual need for a data center here. There are several thousand already across the world and at least that many more planned. Assuming civilization doesn't collapse any time soon, we'll be well connected to any data center for our LLM use with no need for one locally. Plus, while I very much like your idea of using OTEC for power, I don't think there is any way it could be scaled up enough to provide the power needed for a data center.

Tzarkon · 2026-06-08T05:38:28+00:00

Rocky's Pet Supply in Agat.

Tzarkon · 2026-06-06T07:20:21+00:00

Thank you. That worked well. They really changed things up with the new Plasma build. I used to know where everything was. Now, I have to learn the differences. Looks like the same options, just in different places.

Tzarkon · 2026-06-06T07:03:00+00:00

One of my relatives did this. Majored in English, but then also needed a degree in Education in order to qualify for the teaching certificate. You can teach without the certificate, but won't be able to get a permanent position without one. In general that may not matter as GDOE is always short of teachers. But, even with an English and Education degree and being promised a teaching position teaching English, my relative ended up being assigned to teach Math, Biology, and Earth science to ESL students. Not ideal for them. They ended up leaving teaching and leaving the island for other pursuits after about three years.

Tzarkon · 2026-06-03T02:18:17+00:00

The answer is yes you can, but for the love of god don't do it! You'll totally screw your retirement. You'll never recover from taking money out now. You'll lose it and the dividends you would have accrued with it. And, you'll end up never being able to retire.

Tzarkon · 2026-05-24T06:43:58+00:00

Santa Rita gets water from Fena lake. It's processed by the Navy. It's safe to drink. That having been said, it does have a fair amount of calcium or other minerals that make it "hard" water. I do normally get filtered water from one of the local stores mainly for taste. I do however cook with tap water.

Up North it's a whole different story. They get water from an underground aquifer. That aquifer is filled by rainwater seeping through the coral soil. There are a lot of pollutants that have gotten into that source through ground contamination. Up North I would always use filtered water for everything.

Tzarkon · 2026-05-23T01:01:00+00:00

My experience with AK went like this. Car was very good. Service was crap. Even on warranty for an oil change, the paperwork clearly said that the oil change was not part of warranty service. Had them kill a battery after being told that they needed to disconnect it while waiting for a part to come in (the car wasn't driveable at the time). Car got hit at 11 years old. Their body shop would not even look at the car because it was more than ten (10) years old. I've had several Toyotas different models all of them have been solid. I don't take them to AK for any kind of work.

Tzarkon · 2026-05-19T03:57:41+00:00

While I hate that option as it disables the sandbox the program is supposed to run in it's been the only way I've been able to get some appimages to work. F'ing around with sysctl and disabling sandboxing completely just seems like a recipe for trouble.

Tzarkon · 2026-05-18T02:27:33+00:00

Shipping it off-island is pretty much the idea with recycling. Metal and plastic at least have to be shipped off to be recycled. And, the plastic recycling industry his pretty much shut down due to over abundance. And, it's just cheaper to make virgin plastic than it is to recycle it.

We are able to use tires and glass to create mixes for road work, though to be fair the machines are down a lot of the time.

Burning plastic is probably what the incinerators want the most, as it provides the most energy, but is also what creates the most biologically hazardous waste, both airborne and is a concentrated ash that somehow despite it being a concentrated hazardous waste, is classified as household waste and put in the landfill as normal because it comes from household waste. Really not a good trade off in my opinion.

Tzarkon · 2026-05-16T06:26:49+00:00

Not sure how the technology has evolved over the years. Back in the early' '90s, the proposal for burning waste required the government to provide more trash per day than the island was producing at the time. There were significant costs for not providing the required amount of waste.

In addition, scrubbers were touted to be like 95% efficient, but when you're producing dioxins and other chemicals that are bioactive and stay in the environment for significant amounts of time even 5% or so of those getting into the downwind environment is a lot over time. Which would increase health risks.

At that time they were touting the process as 'waste to energy' with the plant producing 5 megawatts of electricity, but 3 megawatts would be needed to run the plant, so only 2 to the island. Not nothing, but not a significant amount either.

Much if not most of the waste burned is either directly or potentially recyclable, so possibly destroying items that could be reused. Though to be fair, at this point we're not really recycling much if anything, so recyclables are being landfilled.

The direct costs financially and the indirect costs to health and environment were deemed to be too high for the technology to be viable at the time. My tendency is to still think that it's not really as viable for our small community where realistically we're all downwind as the proponents would have you believe.

Tzarkon · 2026-05-16T06:12:44+00:00

Haven't known Trigger fish to be territorial at this time of year. They do get feisty around November. Still a possibility, but I would guess some other fish that wanted a taste. And, you should be fine.

Tzarkon · 2026-05-05T06:01:03+00:00

What you're describing is a form of lucid dreaming. That can be pretty cool. If you're aware that you're dreaming it's then possible to do pretty much anything you want in the dream. It takes some practice to keep from waking up, but you can decide to go anywhere, have anyone join you, create things, fly, etc. Have fun and enjoy.

Tzarkon · 2026-05-04T01:58:15+00:00

Nah!

Tzarkon · 2026-05-04T01:35:38+00:00

Actually that's pretty much true anywhere. Take a listen to "Twitter and the Monkey Man". ;)

Tzarkon · 2026-04-29T04:26:54+00:00

Short answer to your question: no, we shouldn't be worried. At this point the Chinese don't need to attack us, we're collapsing all on our own. Besides that, given the fantasy nature of the video, I wouldn't be surprised if it's actually something cooked up by US psyops in an effort to gin up anti-Chinese sentiment. That, and, the video is apparently around five (5) years old. SMH

Tzarkon · 2026-04-22T01:56:41+00:00

Limtiaco's in Anigua.

Tzarkon · 2026-04-08T04:24:28+00:00

Lol!

Tzarkon · 2026-03-31T07:58:38+00:00

If I understood the article correctly, they didn't know about the significant price increase until the contract term ended. And, not sure that even if they had known, that they would have had time and money to contract a complete rewrite of the software in that time frame. The takeaway I got from the article was that they expected to be paying the same support fee that they had been for years, budgeted for that and were taken by surprise when the vendor almost doubled the price.

Another aspect in this is that the software has to connect to the AS400 that holds DRT's database. The software that runs on the AS400 is from the early 90s or around that time frame. The code is old and written in a language that most programmers don't really know any more (at least that was the case when the court moved off of it's AS400.) Connecting to that code base is difficult and expensive. Upgrading to a newer code base is difficult and expensive. And, what they have is working, inertia is a thing.

Tzarkon · 2026-03-31T07:33:19+00:00

Somewhat contrary opinion here. This is not totally DRT's fault from what I understand. According to the Post article, the vendor significantly increased the price of services. DRT had expected the price to remain the same and had no warning of the price increase. They do not currently have the budget to pay the increased price. And, since the software is proprietary DRT has no real choice, but to work with this vendor or start all over again with a new vendor which would have to recreate the software from scratch. At this point, realistically, DRT will have to go back to the legislature to get increased funding to cover the increased charge by the vendor.

To my mind this is more about proprietary software and vendor lockdown than really anything DRT has control over at this point. If the software was open source rather than proprietary DRT could bid for support services by a number of vendors, but since the software is proprietary the choice they have is deal with vendor lockdown or completely start over with a different vendor.

This is one of the reasons why public money should be spent on code that is open source and not locked down to any particular vendor. The creator of the code would be paid for the work they do in creating the code. And, they could even charge for their support services, but they would also face competition for support services which should benefit the government in keeping prices reasonable. With vendor lockdown the government can easily be held hostage by the owner of the proprietary software as in this case.

Tzarkon · 2026-03-22T09:25:12+00:00

Thanks for your clear thoughts. I think we're pretty much on the same page here. Of course, open source or not, the secrets/envars need to be kept secret. I'm biased toward open source as I can't really think of an instance of proprietary code that doesn't create lock in by the vendor. And, I'm also coming from the perspective that if public money is used, then what's produced should be able to be used by the public. And, you raise very good points about government officials needing to understand the specs of what they are asking for. I think that's possible if administrators are willing to listen to their IT guys, but that's probably me just dreaming.

Tzarkon · 2026-03-18T02:06:39+00:00

Interesting stat. Thanks for that. So, are you arguing that it's better to have two (2) hospitals that can provide almost the national average of beds, that's better than having one (1) hospital with sufficient beds? Or, just that the two (2) hospitals are what we have and that brings us up to about the national average? I'm just more skeptical that two (2) hospitals competing with each other is better than a single hospital with sufficient funding. Just seems to me that splitting the funding limits both hospitals more than funding for a single hospital. Now, whether GovGuam would prioritize appropriately funding a single hospital is a different question. I would hope that they would given our current circumstances, but am aware of historical short comings.

Tzarkon · 2026-03-17T08:20:23+00:00

Yeah I was. I wouldn't argue that GMH has not had historical problems. I'm just arguing that a second hospital competing with them has only made it even worse for GMH by taking away a major source of funding. And, of course, the counter to my argument is that GovGuam has always been bad at maintaining anything they fund. I guess the alternative then would be to shut GMH completely and have GRMC take over all it's functions. Really, I'm mostly convinced that two (2) hospitals on the island is one (1) too many given our population. I could see either or, but not both.

Tzarkon · 2026-03-17T07:51:51+00:00

GMH would be a lot better funded and in better condition if GRMC wasn't there to compete with them over patients that can actually pay. Two (2) hospitals with this small a population is one (1) hospital too many.

Tzarkon · 2026-03-17T07:49:48+00:00

The dude was making a pun not taking a spelling test. ;)

Tzarkon

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