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Is The Register known for objectively reporting facts? If so, I have fundamentally misunderstood it for a quarter century.

by zzgo 3mo ago

JumpCrisscross 3mo ago
> objectively reporting facts? I believe so. They're not known for neutrally reporting them, which is different.
- antonvs 3mo ago
  Do Ireland's data centers objectively "guzzle" electricity? I don't have any problem with The Register, but reporting laden with value-judging adjectives is not objective.
  - teamonkey 3mo ago
    Objectively, yes. It means to consume excessive or plentiful amounts of something, and 23% of Ireland’s electricity generation capability is objectively an excessive and plentiful amount.
    - antonvs 3mo ago
      The characterization as “excessive” is subjective. If you disagree, what are your objective criteria for making that claim? You fundamentally can’t give a correct answer to that, because it requires defining a threshold, and that’s subjective. If people seriously think claims like this are “objective”, I weep for our collective understanding of reality.
      - teamonkey 3mo ago
        Of course it’s excessive. Questions should be asked about any one industry using 23% of a nation’s generating capacity, when it was not built for this purpose. Of course it’s excessive. Ireland’s electricity is not cheap or in such plentiful supply that homes are not affective by this. These data centres are driving up the electricity prices for everyone in Ireland. Of course it’s excessive. There are only 80 datacentres that used 7.8TWh between them in 2025. That amount of power is used by only the heaviest of industries; it’s 3x more power than the UK steel industry uses, for example. Of course it’s excessive. The amount of energy used means that more fossil fuels is being used to power them than would otherwise be necessary. Legislation has been written so that new datacentres must in future provide their own [fossil fuel] generators. This in a time of man-made climate change where we all urgently need to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. It’s not just excessive, it’s deeply irresponsible.
        antonvs 3mo ago
        None of your statements give objective conclusions, unless one accepts as premises the implicit value judgments and other subjective assessments they depend on. It shouldn't surprise you to know that there are people who disagree with everything you're saying. Do you really believe they're all "objectively wrong"? That's the territory of religion - "only my beliefs are the real ones".
        teamonkey 3mo ago
        Merriam-Webster says: “Excessive: exceeding what is usual, proper, necessary, or normal” https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/excessive https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/excessive The power use of data centres is objectively exceeding what is usual or normal. Therefore it is objectively excessive.
        antonvs 3mo ago
        "Usual, proper, necessary, or normal" for what purpose? For data centers, none of those adjectives are being exceeded, so it's not excessive. Ireland is not using more power to run its data centers than anywhere else is, for data centers of a similar size. To justify the claim of "excessive", you need to define some standard against which that's being measured. That choice of standard is necessarily subjective. Again, this attempt to reframe subjective claims as objective is an act of either ignorance (not understanding what "objective" means) or zealotry (believing your opinions are the only ones that can be correct, and therefore "objective".) Either way, you need to examine what you're claiming more closely.
        teamonkey 3mo ago
        I posted several metrics by which the power used by these data centres is ‘excessive’. You’ve decided that those don’t matter and you’ve created some other metrics by which you could consider the power use typical. But just because you’ve found a way to say that they’re typical in one way, that doesn’t mean they’re not excessive in another way. They do use power to excess in some ways, therefore it’s perfectly legitimate to describe them as excessive in that way. Data centres’ power use is becoming a problem for multiple reasons. The problem isn’t going to be solved by denying that a problem exists, or by taking offense when an adjective is used that draws attention to said problem. > zealotry (believing your opinions are the only ones that can be correct) Indeed.
    - hunterpayne 3mo ago
      Objectively no, 23% of nothing is nothing. Ireland has no industry. Their grid is smaller than a major city's grid. That this is 23% says a lot more about the size of the Irish grid and their lack of industry than it does about how much energy a datacenter uses.
alephnerd 3mo ago
They basically re-report press releases. I've dealt with The Register as well as their sister publications back when I was still in product (especially during shudder RSA). The Reg keeps a snarky tone, but immediately becomes deferential once a vendor begins a content campaign with them. They also operated a bot account on HN for years that was spamming Register articles for almost 3 years and accumulated 66K karma until I and a couple others complained about it.

Is The Register known for objectively reporting facts? If so, I have fundamentally misunderstood it for a quarter century.

by zzgo 3mo ago

Is The Register known for objectively reporting facts? If so, I have fundamentally misunderstood it for a quarter century.

JumpCrisscross 3mo ago

> objectively reporting facts? I believe so. They're not known for neutrally reporting them, which is different.

antonvs 3mo ago
Do Ireland's data centers objectively "guzzle" electricity? I don't have any problem with The Register, but reporting laden with value-judging adjectives is not objective.
- teamonkey 3mo ago
  Objectively, yes. It means to consume excessive or plentiful amounts of something, and 23% of Ireland’s electricity generation capability is objectively an excessive and plentiful amount.
  - antonvs 3mo ago
    The characterization as “excessive” is subjective. If you disagree, what are your objective criteria for making that claim? You fundamentally can’t give a correct answer to that, because it requires defining a threshold, and that’s subjective. If people seriously think claims like this are “objective”, I weep for our collective understanding of reality.
    - teamonkey 3mo ago
      Of course it’s excessive. Questions should be asked about any one industry using 23% of a nation’s generating capacity, when it was not built for this purpose. Of course it’s excessive. Ireland’s electricity is not cheap or in such plentiful supply that homes are not affective by this. These data centres are driving up the electricity prices for everyone in Ireland. Of course it’s excessive. There are only 80 datacentres that used 7.8TWh between them in 2025. That amount of power is used by only the heaviest of industries; it’s 3x more power than the UK steel industry uses, for example. Of course it’s excessive. The amount of energy used means that more fossil fuels is being used to power them than would otherwise be necessary. Legislation has been written so that new datacentres must in future provide their own [fossil fuel] generators. This in a time of man-made climate change where we all urgently need to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. It’s not just excessive, it’s deeply irresponsible.
      - antonvs 3mo ago
        None of your statements give objective conclusions, unless one accepts as premises the implicit value judgments and other subjective assessments they depend on. It shouldn't surprise you to know that there are people who disagree with everything you're saying. Do you really believe they're all "objectively wrong"? That's the territory of religion - "only my beliefs are the real ones".
        teamonkey 3mo ago
        Merriam-Webster says: “Excessive: exceeding what is usual, proper, necessary, or normal” https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/excessive https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/excessive The power use of data centres is objectively exceeding what is usual or normal. Therefore it is objectively excessive.
        antonvs 3mo ago
        "Usual, proper, necessary, or normal" for what purpose? For data centers, none of those adjectives are being exceeded, so it's not excessive. Ireland is not using more power to run its data centers than anywhere else is, for data centers of a similar size. To justify the claim of "excessive", you need to define some standard against which that's being measured. That choice of standard is necessarily subjective. Again, this attempt to reframe subjective claims as objective is an act of either ignorance (not understanding what "objective" means) or zealotry (believing your opinions are the only ones that can be correct, and therefore "objective".) Either way, you need to examine what you're claiming more closely.
        teamonkey 3mo ago
        I posted several metrics by which the power used by these data centres is ‘excessive’. You’ve decided that those don’t matter and you’ve created some other metrics by which you could consider the power use typical. But just because you’ve found a way to say that they’re typical in one way, that doesn’t mean they’re not excessive in another way. They do use power to excess in some ways, therefore it’s perfectly legitimate to describe them as excessive in that way. Data centres’ power use is becoming a problem for multiple reasons. The problem isn’t going to be solved by denying that a problem exists, or by taking offense when an adjective is used that draws attention to said problem. > zealotry (believing your opinions are the only ones that can be correct) Indeed.
  - hunterpayne 3mo ago
    Objectively no, 23% of nothing is nothing. Ireland has no industry. Their grid is smaller than a major city's grid. That this is 23% says a lot more about the size of the Irish grid and their lack of industry than it does about how much energy a datacenter uses.

alephnerd 3mo ago

They basically re-report press releases. I've dealt with The Register as well as their sister publications back when I was still in product (especially during shudder RSA). The Reg keeps a snarky tone, but immediately becomes deferential once a vendor begins a content campaign with them. They also operated a bot account on HN for years that was spamming Register articles for almost 3 years and accumulated 66K karma until I and a couple others complained about it.