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Google's Data Center Energy Use Doubled In 4 Years

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: No wonder Google is desperate for more power: The company's data centers more than doubled their electricity use in just four years. The eye-popping stat comes from Google's most recent sustainability report, which it released late last week. In 2024, Google data centers used 30.8 million megawatt-hours of electricity. That's up from 14.4 million megawatt-hours in 2020, the earliest year Google broke out data center consumption. Google has pledged to use only carbon-free sources of electricity to power its operations, a task made more challenging by its breakneck pace of data center growth. And the company's electricity woes are almost entirely a data center problem. In 2024, data centers accounted for 95.8% of the entire company's electron budget.

The company's ratio of data-center-to-everything-else has been remarkably consistent over the last four years. Though 2020 is the earliest year Google has made data center electricity consumption figures available, it's possible to use that ratio to extrapolate back in time. Some quick math reveals that Google's data centers likely used just over 4 million megawatt-hours of electricity in 2014. That's sevenfold growth in just a decade. The tech company has already picked most of the low-hanging fruit by improving the efficiency of its data centers. Those efforts have paid off, and the company is frequently lauded for being at the leading edge. But as the company's power usage effectiveness (PUE) has approached the theoretical ideal of 1.0, progress has slowed. Last year, Google's company-wide PUE dropped to 1.09, a 0.01 improvement over 2023 but only 0.02 better than a decade ago. Yesterday, Google announced a deal to purchase 200 megawatts of future fusion energy from Commonwealth Fusion Systems, despite the energy source not yet existing. "It's a sign of how hungry big tech companies are for a virtually unlimited source of clean power that is still years away," reports CNN.

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Laptop Mag Is Shutting Down

Laptop Mag, a tech publication that began in 1991 as a print magazine, is shutting down after nearly 35 years. The Verge reports: Laptop Mag has evolved many times over the years. It started as a print publication in 1991, when Bedford Communications launched the Laptop Buyers Guide and Handbook. Laptop Mag was later acquired by TechMedia Network (which is now called Purch) in 2011 and transitioned to digital-only content in 2013. Future PLC, the publisher that owns brands like PC Gamer, Tom's Guide, and TechRadar, acquired Purch -- and Laptop Mag along with it.

"We are incredibly grateful for your dedication, talent, and contributions to Laptop Mag, and we are committed to supporting you throughout this transition," [Faisal Alani, the global brand director at Laptop Mag owner Future PLC] said. Laptop Mag's shutdown follows the closure of long-running tech site AnandTech, which was also owned by Future PLC. It's not clear whether Laptop Mag's archives will be available following the shutdown.

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Rijnmond - Nieuws

Het laatste nieuws van vandaag over Rotterdam, Feyenoord, het verkeer en het weer in de regio Rijnmond

Rotterdamse haven slaat letterlijk alarm om benarde situatie: 'Doodzonde, we hebben goud in handen'

Vanuit het Maritiem Museum kwam een heuse scheepsbel uit 1937, die letterlijk als noodklok werd geluid. Tientallen werkgevers, vakbonden en politici verzamelden zich dinsdag voor het stadhuis om aandacht te vragen voor de in hun ogen penibele situatie van de Rotterdamse haven. Rijnmond sprak drie van hen.

Deze bruggen en viaducten kunnen na 2028 niet worden aangepakt vanwege miljardentekort

Als de overheid niet snel extra geld geeft, dan kunnen na 2028 tientallen bruggen, viaducten en sluizen niet worden opgeknapt. Dat staat in het meerjarenplan van Rijkswaterstaat. In onze regio gaat het onder andere om de Thomassentunnel, Botlektunnel en Spijkenisserbrug.

Het weer van vandaag: eerst warm, vanmiddag koeler

Na de hitte van gisteren wordt het vandaag nog één keer warm voordat het vanmiddag vanuit het westen gaat afkoelen. De temperaturen stijgen eerst naar 27 tot 32 graden en kunnen we als het op Rotterdam Airport vandaag ook nog tenminste 30 graden wordt een regionale hittegolf noteren.

The Register

Biting the hand that feeds IT — Enterprise Technology News and Analysis

Arista acquires VMware’s VeloCloud SD-WAN outfit from Broadcom

It's 2025 so even this networking deal is about AI, which is apparently about to change wide area networks

Broadcom has sold VeloCloud, the software-defined WAN business VMware acquired in 2017, to Arista.…

Distance

Keith Midson has added a photo to the pool:

Distance

Hinsby Beach, Tasmania.

Maxey and Daniel, November 11, 2023

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Maxey and Daniel, November 11, 2023

No One Wants to Be Alone

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

No One Wants to Be Alone

MetaFilter

The past 24 hours of MetaFilter

Thy gown was of the grossie green, thy sleeues of Satten hanging by:

The Greensleeves Project "is an interdisciplinary collaboration between a team of established historians and practitioners to look at one of the most famous English historical songs, the Elizabethan ballad of Greensleeves... The earliest surviving text of Greensleeves dates from 1584. It's a long song, with 18 verses, written in a somewhat stalker-like fashion, by a man who showers his would-be beloved with gifts, including a lot of clothes. Put together, these gifts provide us with a rich resource of information on clothing, fabrics, embroidery, and other aspects of material culture."

While the website's text will be of interest to some, it's the videos where this project comes to life, especially the video that explains how and why the recreation team made the choices they did when creating the dress, its underpinnings and the sweetmeats (check out the fabulous sugar work at 30:36) gifted to the lady. There's also a music video of the song and one by (MeFi favourite) Bernadette Banner describing all of the pieces of attire and explaining their function.