🏊The Free-Range Technologist 29 🌊
From Prof C-November 2022
Time to Take your Server for a Swim?
Or how to save 70 Terra watts of Electricity.
While it might look odd, immersing servers in a non-conductive liquid is a dramatically more efficient heat transfer method than traditional computer room air conditioning (CRAC). A report published in Science in Feb 2020 estimated that commercial and governmental data centers use 1% of all the world's energy, over 200 terawatt-hours of electricity every year. On average, 40 percent of electric demand was consumed by cooling equipment. A switch to immersion cooling could potentially save 70 terawatt-hours of electric usage globally. There are numerous other advantages in the areas of high-density computing, high-performance computing, edge computing, and blockchain/cryptocurrency mining.
The European Commission, in a 2020 report titled "Communication: Shaping Europe's digital future," called on data centers to become carbon-neutral by 2030, twenty years earlier than other industries. Since then, the war in Ukraine has created an energy shortage in the EU that is affecting global energy markets. Immersion Cooling is a quick way to reduce energy demand and can help with the adoption of renewable sources of energy.
Microsoft is seriously experimenting with immersion cooling. If Microsoft and some other giant datacenter owners (Apple, Google) convert to immersion cooling, the entire industry may switch quickly. 🏊
👨🏫 Upcoming Talks:
I will be teaching a Saturday workshop on “Building Your Customer Database/CRM” as part of the CEI Entrepreneurial Skills Building workshop series at MU on November 19th at 9am CST. The session will be entirely on zoom, and registration is required.
I will be giving an evening talk on “Deepfakes and the Future of Content Creation, Society and Business” for the Trulaske College of Business at 8pm CST on Nov 29th, also on zoom. If you want to register, let me know and I will get you in!
I will be teaching a four-part course for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Mizzou, on “Exploring the Digital Globe.” in January and February: “Since the simple days of email and web surfing, the "Digital Globe" has become a powerful force in our lives. In this course, we'll explore the history of the internet, how it works now, and how it might work in the future. We'll also explore cybersecurity, hacking, social media, web 3.0, and the metaverse. These interactive sessions will be entirely on zoom, and the audience will have many opportunities to ask questions about how they can survive and thrive in the Digital Globe.” To Learn more about Osher, click here.
🎧 AudioBook Review: Discipline is Destiny 👍
By Ryan Holiday
Discipline is Destiny is Ryan Holiday’s best book yet about stoic philosophy and is the second in his series on the four Stoic Virtues (Wisdom, Courage, Justice, Temperance). His first was Courage is Calling.
This one covers temperance/discipline, and Holiday presents examples from recent and ancient times with strong and elegant writing. Every example lays out what is at stake: how you spend the gift of life that you are so lucky to have received.
It was long ago now that Hercules came to the crossroads.
At a quiet intersection in the hills of Greece, in the shade of knobby pine trees, the great hero of Greek myth first met his destiny.
Where exactly it was or when, no one knows. We hear of this moment in the stories of Socrates. We can see it captured in the most beautiful art of the Renaissance. We can feel his budding energy, his strapping muscles, and his anguish in the classic Bach cantata. If John Adams had had his way in 1776, Hercules at the crossroads would have been immortalized on the official seal of the newly founded United States.
Because there, before the man’s undying fame, before the twelve labors, before he changed the world, Hercules faced a crisis, one as life-changing and real as any of us have ever faced.
Where was he headed? Where was he trying to go? That’s the point of the story. Alone, unknown, unsure, Hercules, like so many, did not know.
Where the road diverged lay a beautiful goddess who offered him every temptation he could imagine. Adorned in finery, she promised him a life of ease. She swore he’d never taste want or unhappiness or fear or pain. Follow her, she said, and his every desire would be fulfilled.
On the other path stood a sterner goddess in a pure white robe. She made a quieter call. She promised no rewards except those that came as a result of hard work. It would be a long journey, she said. There would be sacrifice. There would be scary moments. But it was a journey fit for a god. It would make him the person his ancestors meant him to be.
Was this real? Did it really happen?
If it’s only a legend, does it matter?
Yes, because this is a story about us. It’s about you. About your dilemma. About your own crossroads. And about the choice you decide to make.
Like Hercules, it’s the choice between vice and virtue, temperance and intemperance, the easy way and the hard way, the well-trodden path and the road less traveled.
We all face this choice.
Hesitating only for a second, Hercules chose the one that made all the difference.
— Discipline is Destiny introduction.
If you are a fan of Atomic Habits, Getting Things Done, or any other book about the mechanics and practice of disciplined work, I highly recommend Holiday’s book. This book explains WHY you practice discipline, WHY you say no to distraction and stay true to your journey, and WHY you keep the main thing, the main thing.
Indiebound Link: Discipline is Destiny
🍿Must Watch: One night in Miami
This movie is a historical fiction that imagines what was said when Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown gathered in February 1964 at the Hampton House after Ali's win over Sonny Liston. Cooke would be dead by the end of the year, and Malcolm X soon after in Feb 1965. Brown is the only one of the four still living.
I enjoyed watching these actors (Kingsley Ben-Adir, Eli Goree, Aldis Hodge, and Leslie Odom Jr) act out the imagined dialogue of those in the thick of the cultural battles of the 60s.
Amazon Prime Link: One night in Miami
🇪🇸 En español por favor : The ₿lockchain Game
Iván Gutiérrez is a cybersecurity researcher for Tecnalia, a center of applied research and technological development in Spain, and a member of the Basque Research and Technology Alliance. He recently used my Blockchain Game in a class and was kind enough to provide a Spanish translation of the material. Details and current instructions can be found here, including the German, Italian and now Spanish versions! (Here is a direct link to the google drive with all the files.)
📥Recent Talks, News and Videos
I have been fortunate enough to share what I know with others and geek out with some fantastic hosts. Listen/Read below!
Success InSight Podcast:
Breathing is not enough
🔗 Links of the week.
Freedom House recently released its “Freedom on the Net 2022” about the state of free speech and access to the internet. The report is sobering, but important as much of our democratic discourse takes place online: “At home and on the international stage, authoritarians are on a campaign to divide the open internet into a patchwork of repressive enclaves.” Read the report and summary here.
Going into the deep end on immersion cooling, here is a guy that heats his pool via Bitcoin Mining:
As always, be sure to hit reply and tell me what you have been up to, what you are reading, and what neat stuff you have discovered lately! I always look forward to getting responses from you all, hearing about what you have been creating recently, and the resources/lifehacks you are using!! And thanks to all of you for subscribing and sharing your insights!
Take care,
Scott
Love stoic philosophy and will check out Holiday's book! Great stuff, as usual!