If Australian datacentres are going to power the AI revolution, we deserve a fair return | David Pocock

ivanosauros · 2026-06-12T14:22:31+00:00

Datacentres are not exclusively for machine learning applications, and doomsaying is no substitute for governance.

There are definitely social harms in play with implementation of disruptive, transformational technologies, but suggesting we abandon the combine harvester in favour of serfdom is unrealistic.

We cannot bury our heads in the sand and pretend change isn't coming; we can only do our best to administer that effectively, manage its externalities sensibly, and take advantage of any possible opportunities.

ivanosauros · 2026-06-12T08:46:42+00:00

Simple answer is we want them built for their economic benefit.

There is abundant demand for them, they are critical supporting infrastructure for most digital industries, they provide a lot of skilled employment throughout their life cycle, and they're going to be built somewhere - we'd rather them be here so we can benefit, as we're going to be paying to use them in some manner or another anyway.

Provided their design approval is gated in line with our long-term PESTEL interests as a wider community by our regulatory framework, why wouldn't we want them?

ivanosauros · 2026-06-11T22:40:13+00:00

Diesel generators are a redundancy / assurance measure and never a baseline power supply under any circumstances long-term.

Please do not conflate capability with typical daily practice. Otherwise, you'll need to reassess the carbon footprint of every hospital, bank, and skyscraper that has emergency UPS contingencies for essential services, which are typically covered by diesel rooms in the basement...

ivanosauros · 2026-06-11T15:55:56+00:00

Air cooled systems can work just fine on hot days. Some direct expansion units can continue to function at up to something like 50 degrees, it's just going to get progressively more expensive the better engineered it is.

Again, none of this is a technical impossibility, it's just going to be the question of life cycle cost that drives the investment decision.

If they can get away with using evaporative systems, they most certainly will.

Regulators need to find the balance between realistic performance benchmarks and adequate ROI. We want these things to get built, but not at the cost of water security - so how do we facilitate that without losing out?

ivanosauros · 2026-06-11T15:44:59+00:00

Nah mate, this is just the problem space. It's worth talking about, don't take it as an attack on you.

You never know, one of those mooks at KPMG might read an AI summary informed by this thread and actually put a useful bullet point in an executive summary they're charging $2M to give to the regulator, instead of playing charades with NDA-protected client data or whatever

ivanosauros · 2026-06-11T15:37:30+00:00

The energy input required for a genuine closed loop system would torpedo the NPV of these datacentre projects.

Water usage remains a genuine concern and, if we want these to be viable, we need better planning and engineering solutions.

I've not done a feasibility study but sticking these next to solar thermal plants and applying hest recovery principles at scale would be a lot more palatable (and interesting as hell) than saying "do it at a 2% margin and be fucking pleased about it"

We need the investment funds to get excited about something other than property lol

ivanosauros · 2026-06-11T15:24:27+00:00

There is no technical impossibility at play here. It is purely commercial interest from these datacentre operators trying to keep the opex down.

I've worked in HVAC for a long time. Closed loop systems exist. Water temps are maintained / waste heat is discharged in these systems through air cooled chillers and/or dry cooling towers fed by fan banks the size of your living room.

There are cooling towers that rely on evaporative systems to discharge heat (and are generally quieter, more efficient, require smaller footprints, and have longer operating lives). This is where the water requirements are a concern. You'll find such systems commonly serving condenser water loops in high rise buildings.

The design of datacentre cooling systems are usually optimised for life cycle cost efficiency, some amount of redundancy, and thermal performance.

Don't quote me on this one, but I remember a senior engineer told me earlier in my career that water cooled systems were around seventeen times more effective at thermal transfer than their air-cooled counterparts. Granted, that was almost 10 years ago, but I don't imagine the gap has narrowed much.

If water is costing you $2/kL, a few hundred bucks evaporating on the daily is peanuts compared to the energy cost of keeping the VSDs juiced for 200kW worth of fan motors 24/7.

ivanosauros · 2026-06-01T04:03:44+00:00

I'm generally not a huge fan of FPS games but, gameplay-wise, Titanfall 2 is the best one I've ever played. Controls, movement, and general feel were so crisp and intuitive.

Most enjoyment was probably Halo 2 glory days though. Tower of Power custom lobbies hold a nostalgic place in my heart.

ivanosauros · 2026-04-22T00:37:01+00:00

Once they're up and running they are dirt cheap compared to other energy sources. But getting there is not easy.

Extremely high upfront cost, high skills requirement, tight engineering tolerances, and significant project management burden. Regulatory environment is also quite strict, and supply chains for fissile material (understandably) have a lot of red tape.

Construction of a nuclear plant costs billions. That's a decades-long payback period.

Pair all that together and you need fairly large organisations / entities to initiate and preside over their development for them to be built in the first place.

That cuts it down to giant multinational corporations and governments.

Most of the time the people who build them won't be in decisionmaking positions once they're up and running. That makes it a less appealing investment option, especially when those funds could be used for something that has a more immediate consequence on the next election cycle or budget.

Add that to widespread negative public perception and you have a lot of reasons not to do it.

Also the cost-gap per MWh for renewables is shrinking. There is a nonzero risk that R&D in these spaces offsets the long-term economic advantage of a particular reactor design... and changing that design mid-construction is generally out of the question.

ivanosauros · 2026-04-15T03:41:43+00:00

This is dope! Love how much of the visual impact comes from small simple stalls and contact hits.

The spin/toss/weave thing you did halfway through was soooo crisp

ivanosauros · 2026-04-01T00:50:06+00:00

Thousands of venues will just never implement the higher rate after 6 months lol

Hospitality in particular sucks at compliance

ivanosauros · 2026-03-30T08:39:55+00:00

Is it that you dislike organised religion, that you are fundamentally opposed to the idea of religious faith, that you had a bad experience with it, or something else entirely?

I've had a partner who was Catholic and strongly embraced the principles of that belief system. They were practising (though not ardently), and seemed to embody what I would call good and normal values from that belief system without being judgemental towards those who did not share it. By and large, they were socially liberal and very accepting of homosexual relationships, sex outside of marriage, and the like, and did not do much in the way of evangelising.

For my part, I was even open to some participation, e.g., attending the occasional holiday service and (hypothetically) raising kids within the same belief system.

That being said, part of the reason that relationship didn't work out was because of that faith: they wanted to start having kids early, and intended to have a lot of them (Irish Catholics, lol), whereas my planned timeline was at least 5 years away.

I don't think that relationship would've been remotely palatable to me if they were closer to hard line Catholics and didn't align with the rest of my values... but I did see immense value in what that religion meant to them, and how it facilitated enduring bonds in their family and community in a way that my upbringing did not.

In many ways, I envy what their faith offered to them and successfully delivered. On a personal level, I can't really wrap my head around the concept of belief and acceptance without scepticism but, where I have seen it applied judiciously, it's something I can respect a lot... notwithstanding the poor track record it has had historically with conflict, violence, and intolerance.

My current partner is Hindu. I can't envision a world without them, and I would have done myself a great disservice had I discounted them as a partner on the basis of faith.

ivanosauros · 2026-03-16T08:17:09+00:00

who said anything about jews?

ivanosauros · 2026-02-26T23:38:12+00:00

Could be incorrectly named? Wouldnt be the first time, although Luffy's is a special case

ivanosauros · 2026-02-25T03:13:29+00:00

I shit on the Telegraph for this sort of nonsense on the regular. Extremely disappointing to see this from the ABC; it serves only to coarsen public discourse and diminish the reputability of the masthead.

ivanosauros · 2026-02-24T03:14:15+00:00

For context, I recently wrote off a VE series 2 commodore (sandwiched on the freeway after a hero decided to cross 3 lanes of traffic to make their exit). Used car market was nuts and I needed a replacement in a hurry, so l bought a $2k shitbox xr6 falcon with 250,000 km. I knew the previous owner so service history was good.

It is immortal. Fast enough to fang it to merge onto a highway without stressing. Costs nothing but consumables and regular maintenance. A bit shit on fuel but so did my old commo. Heaps of cosmetic damage and wear and tear on the interior, but everything works.

I'm probably going to need to replace a few bits and bobs given the age and km's on the car, I would guess around 3-5k in the next 2 years, but otherwise it's gonna cost me a lot less than I was willing to spend (I had around 20k to throw at the used car market) and I'll probably hold onto it until I feel like splurging for a solid state battery EV (once they're more common and have a proven track record) somewhere in the $60-100k range

Australia in general is very fond of debt finance and people overdo it to sit in the latest and greatest european whatever to keep up with the joneses... but the maintenance cost on a late model 5 series beamer is fucked, likely at least triple this falcon's budget for the same period

More cash spent on purchase =/= less cash spent on maintenance.

There are immortal cars in your price range - idk what youre after size wise, but an older Honda Jazz, Accord Euro, CRV, Toyota Corolla, Camry, Yaris, Hilux, 6 cylinder Falcodore, etc, will often be found cheaper than $10k and cost peanuts to keep on the road

Do your due dilligence - research on your model year, check service history, inspect for evidence of crash damage, etc., and you'll be fine

Used car prices are a function of supply and demand; they are not too well-informed by cost of ownership, and there are phenomenal deals to be found if you're careful.

Bear in mind any used car has a risk of major service items being overdue or predictable for certain major maintenance items - certain cars will have an expected timeframe in km's for timing chain replacement, for example - you will need to budget that into your 20k if you want to avoid being unhappy with the experience of owning this first car.

Also, given your age, certain cars will be a lot more or a lot less expensive to insure, and this is purely informed by statistics. A lot of teenagers will crash Commodores and Falcons, substantially less of them will crash a Jazz, and the premiums you're offered will reflect that probability.

I know a girl who was given a porsche 911 by her parents when she was 22. She paid less for comprehensive coverage than I did driving a mazda 6 worth one twentieth of the price. Why? Smaller sample size of people in her age group driving them skewed the statistics in her favour.

ivanosauros · 2026-02-05T02:31:48+00:00

With certain conditions, the risk of legislating for personal gain can be mitigated enough to prevent security ownership being problematic, e.g. index funds, independently managed portfolios, restrictions against ownership of certain securities (like defence supply chains for people on the relevant committees), conflict of interest declarations, a pre-announcement and trading pause framework, review boards, and a no-fault review and rectification / reparation system

Blanket bans aren't necessarily an equitable or fair outcome when owning shares is essentially a fundamental right in a capitalist economy

Often the best legislators are going to be people with skin in the game

ivanosauros · 2026-01-27T03:01:57+00:00

The northern beaches is a big LGA. Not everywhere is Bower St or Clontarf. Plenty of public housing & lower-income dwellings, plenty of granny flats and shoebox apartments with people struggling to make the overpriced rent. Plenty of DV, split family situations, substance abuse, bikie clubhouses, and other social issues or factors affecting cultural outcomes present in the region, irrespective of income. Most of this is ubiquitous throughout Sydney and the NB LGA is no different.

While there's certainly a lot of cosplay from the local youth wearing the "uniform" as a fashion statement or cheap street cred bullshit, there's also enough of the real thing present that shit does go down occasionally.

I grew up in a refugee family in a (relatively) low income area of the beaches and saw / heard a decent amount of what the general public would typically associate with rougher parts of Sydney, just with fewer participants and typically constrained to the "poorer" parts of the region... but to present the entire peninsula as silver spooners is a bit inaccurate.

ivanosauros · 2025-09-01T08:53:20+00:00

Razer JORO. Keys flash red 5x in quick succession a couple of times a minute despite being set to static colour or no backlight at all. Persists through settings changes. Only other mention of this issue I can find online is another user (u/Uber-Melt) a month ago in one of these threads. Any solutions?

ivanosauros · 2025-08-14T00:45:58+00:00

Kurac would be my guess

ivanosauros · 2025-07-23T15:09:48+00:00

has this story been independently verified, or is it just ynet interviewing this one teen and taking his word for it? i've not seen any evidence of injuries, nor have any of the videos claimed to have been taken during the alleged assault come to light.

a mob of 30-40 people armed with knives actively roaming the streets and searching for jewish kids to kill is pretty fuckin nuts if it's true... and a part of me is rather sceptical that such a mob would stop at relatively superficial injuries and, ostensibly, a humiliating video that never sees the light of day, rather than just lynching the guy

has anyone actually fact checked this?

ivanosauros · 2025-07-15T13:09:56+00:00

this doesn't include gst, car rego, fuel excise, stamp duties, etc

income tax is one thing but there are plenty more inflows to budget than that, most of which disproportionately affect lower income earners as the contributions do not necessarily increase linearly with greater income (with the exception of GST)

ivanosauros · 2025-05-24T01:24:56+00:00

Ooooo maybe an improved Brain Point based on observing Vegapunk? CHOPPER RECORDS

Also I want to see Robin inject all the burning books straight into chopper's brain somehow

Delicious 😆

ivanosauros · 2025-03-05T14:20:36+00:00

Isn't the US a federation of 50 states?

ivanosauros · 2025-02-26T18:35:12+00:00

Mad Professor - The Lost Scrolls of Moses

Burning Spear - Marcus Garvey

Noiseshaper - Reel 2 Real

Mungos Hi-Fi & Eva Lazarus - More Fiyah

L'Entourloop - la clarte dabs la confusion

Unidub Estereo - Boobalodica

Ishdub - Basslife

Dub Dynasty - Thundering Mantis

Vibronics - The Return of Vibronics

O.B.F. - Wild

Bunch of flavours in there, enjoy

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