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Are we allowed post masto links? I'm an Irish techie. I shot a video about this. Sorry about the camera shake: https://mastodon.ie/@handi/116900076149521593 ht

Are we allowed post masto links? I'm an Irish techie. I shot a video about this. Sorry about the camera shake: https://mastodon.ie/@handi/116900076149521593 https://mastodon.ie/@handi/116900076149521593

hahahaa 3mo ago
Excellent video. Thanks for making it. Thanks for sharing it.
infinite_spin 3mo ago
> Dump #datacenters - they are not critical Internet infrastructure! what is the alternative? I don't think self hosting is a robust/defensible option for a majority of internet services
- naturalmovement 3mo ago
  Maybe we ought to take away society's Spotify etc. and go back to trading cassettes. I predict it will last all of two days. You see the mentally ill chaos unfold within hours when DNS or a CDN goes down. Imagine taking their datacenter-dependent toys away for more than a day. How will they navigate job interviews (in between datacenter protests) without relying on ChatGPT to feed them answers? Sounds like a circular dependency to me.
  - deleted 3mo ago
    [deleted]
- spwa4 3mo ago
  Nobody hosts datacenters in Ireland because of capacity reasons. It's not a good location for power, people or connectivity. They host them there for tax reasons. You can bet your firstborn these datacenters are only the exact size that is the minimum allowed by tax law, not a square millimeter more. Yes, datacenters are critical internet infrastructure. But in Ireland they're more like a sailing ship with the sails mounted underwater, because that's cheaper for tax reasons.
  - infinite_spin 3mo ago
    https://enterprise.gov.ie/en/publications/publication-files/the-value-of-data-centres-to-ireland.pdf https://enterprise.gov.ie/en/publications/publication-files/... > it is estimated that in 2024, of the order of ~€104bn in annual GVA, 876,000 jobs and €14.6bn in annual employment related tax was enabled by the availability of digital infrastructure provided by data centres located in Ireland. Seems like the economics of hosting these data centers benefits Ireland substantially, even with their tax breaks.
    - spwa4 3mo ago
      Yes, at the cost of removing at least double, and for FANG companies about triple, the tax revenue from other EU governments. And that's just counting company tax (and only specific companies, ie. this is why the "billionnaire tax" is so low, well, this is the EU component of it) (technically: FANG taxes in Ireland, in violation of OECD treaties, is 12.5%, and for other very large companies 15%. If your company is not at least a certain size, and you haven't transferred "company IP" into Ireland during a certain window that's now closed, other taxes that don't increase with revenue will raise effective tax to as high as 55% for sole traders. And the actual FANG income is mostly generated in France and Germany, who have 25% and 30% company tax rates respectively, with some other EU countries higher still. In other words, this is the tax system billionnaires salivate about: it's a regressive tax, specifically designed to make the ultra rich richer, and push everyone else's wealth down hard, even people outside of Ireland) PLUS the income tax lost for both other EU countries and employees, because for most FANG employees, this is also a tax increase (assuming they chose to move to Ireland rather than stay in the Netherlands or elsewhere in the EU) I mean we should unite against this! This system is making literally everyone in the EU poorer compared to the US tech sector. From an unemployed Romanian in a long term care facility to a French billionnaire. All are losing money through this system.
      - infinite_spin 3mo ago
        Why should Ireland, a historically poor nation that has been exploited by European powers for centuries, be concerned with the taxes that other (much larger) governments collect? The entire point of tax sovereignty is to avoid this exact issue.
- pbgcp2026 3mo ago
  Tapes. Trackloads of them. Ferries with lorries with tapes. You know, the European GDPR compliant way. /s
  - deleted 3mo ago
    [deleted]
Aachen 3mo ago
Why wouldn't you be allowed to?
pnw 3mo ago
You mention a "Chinese economic report". Are you aware the CCP has an active propaganda effort against Western data centers? https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/09/business/china-russia-ai-data-centers.html https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/09/business/china-russia-ai-...
pbgcp2026 3mo ago
The last point is ... strange. Landfills / Datacenters analogy is far fetched and you do want *local* data if you want The Internet. You know, local regions / availability zones? Maximum availability? Cut undersea cables? Even for distributed Mastodon messaging ... LOL
- hahahaa 3mo ago
  Is 22% of energy generation of a country needed to serve services needed for that country? I mean it starts sounding like blockchain at that point.
protocolture 3mo ago
How are datacenters not critical internet infrastructure?
- zeofig 3mo ago
  Some data centers, sure. 23% of the country's energy worth? I don't think so. Training LLMs is not critical digital infrastructure.
  - protocolture 3mo ago
    >23% of the country's energy worth? Dude thats highly unlikely to be LLM training. If anything its cloud. And its cloud because Ireland has been deliberately making itself an attractive place for large businesses to invest. >In 2016–17, foreign firms paid 80% of Irish corporate tax, employed 25% of the Irish labour force (paid 50% of Irish salary tax), and created 57% of Irish OECD non-farm value-add. Other people have spilled enough words here that it should be obvious if you read other comments on this thread that Ireland has ridiculously tiny energy grid. The other part of the picture is that the deliberately court foreign multinationals. Suddenly sitting bolt upright in your chair and screaming "LLMS!!!!!" makes no sense at all.

hahahaa 3mo ago

Excellent video. Thanks for making it. Thanks for sharing it.

infinite_spin 3mo ago

> Dump #datacenters - they are not critical Internet infrastructure! what is the alternative? I don't think self hosting is a robust/defensible option for a majority of internet services

naturalmovement 3mo ago
Maybe we ought to take away society's Spotify etc. and go back to trading cassettes. I predict it will last all of two days. You see the mentally ill chaos unfold within hours when DNS or a CDN goes down. Imagine taking their datacenter-dependent toys away for more than a day. How will they navigate job interviews (in between datacenter protests) without relying on ChatGPT to feed them answers? Sounds like a circular dependency to me.
- deleted 3mo ago
  [deleted]
spwa4 3mo ago
Nobody hosts datacenters in Ireland because of capacity reasons. It's not a good location for power, people or connectivity. They host them there for tax reasons. You can bet your firstborn these datacenters are only the exact size that is the minimum allowed by tax law, not a square millimeter more. Yes, datacenters are critical internet infrastructure. But in Ireland they're more like a sailing ship with the sails mounted underwater, because that's cheaper for tax reasons.
- infinite_spin 3mo ago
  https://enterprise.gov.ie/en/publications/publication-files/the-value-of-data-centres-to-ireland.pdf https://enterprise.gov.ie/en/publications/publication-files/... > it is estimated that in 2024, of the order of ~€104bn in annual GVA, 876,000 jobs and €14.6bn in annual employment related tax was enabled by the availability of digital infrastructure provided by data centres located in Ireland. Seems like the economics of hosting these data centers benefits Ireland substantially, even with their tax breaks.
  - spwa4 3mo ago
    Yes, at the cost of removing at least double, and for FANG companies about triple, the tax revenue from other EU governments. And that's just counting company tax (and only specific companies, ie. this is why the "billionnaire tax" is so low, well, this is the EU component of it) (technically: FANG taxes in Ireland, in violation of OECD treaties, is 12.5%, and for other very large companies 15%. If your company is not at least a certain size, and you haven't transferred "company IP" into Ireland during a certain window that's now closed, other taxes that don't increase with revenue will raise effective tax to as high as 55% for sole traders. And the actual FANG income is mostly generated in France and Germany, who have 25% and 30% company tax rates respectively, with some other EU countries higher still. In other words, this is the tax system billionnaires salivate about: it's a regressive tax, specifically designed to make the ultra rich richer, and push everyone else's wealth down hard, even people outside of Ireland) PLUS the income tax lost for both other EU countries and employees, because for most FANG employees, this is also a tax increase (assuming they chose to move to Ireland rather than stay in the Netherlands or elsewhere in the EU) I mean we should unite against this! This system is making literally everyone in the EU poorer compared to the US tech sector. From an unemployed Romanian in a long term care facility to a French billionnaire. All are losing money through this system.
    - infinite_spin 3mo ago
      Why should Ireland, a historically poor nation that has been exploited by European powers for centuries, be concerned with the taxes that other (much larger) governments collect? The entire point of tax sovereignty is to avoid this exact issue.
pbgcp2026 3mo ago
Tapes. Trackloads of them. Ferries with lorries with tapes. You know, the European GDPR compliant way. /s
- deleted 3mo ago
  [deleted]

Aachen 3mo ago

Why wouldn't you be allowed to?

pnw 3mo ago

You mention a "Chinese economic report". Are you aware the CCP has an active propaganda effort against Western data centers? https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/09/business/china-russia-ai-data-centers.html https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/09/business/china-russia-ai-...

pbgcp2026 3mo ago

The last point is ... strange. Landfills / Datacenters analogy is far fetched and you do want *local* data if you want The Internet. You know, local regions / availability zones? Maximum availability? Cut undersea cables? Even for distributed Mastodon messaging ... LOL

hahahaa 3mo ago
Is 22% of energy generation of a country needed to serve services needed for that country? I mean it starts sounding like blockchain at that point.

protocolture 3mo ago

How are datacenters not critical internet infrastructure?

zeofig 3mo ago
Some data centers, sure. 23% of the country's energy worth? I don't think so. Training LLMs is not critical digital infrastructure.
- protocolture 3mo ago
  >23% of the country's energy worth? Dude thats highly unlikely to be LLM training. If anything its cloud. And its cloud because Ireland has been deliberately making itself an attractive place for large businesses to invest. >In 2016–17, foreign firms paid 80% of Irish corporate tax, employed 25% of the Irish labour force (paid 50% of Irish salary tax), and created 57% of Irish OECD non-farm value-add. Other people have spilled enough words here that it should be obvious if you read other comments on this thread that Ireland has ridiculously tiny energy grid. The other part of the picture is that the deliberately court foreign multinationals. Suddenly sitting bolt upright in your chair and screaming "LLMS!!!!!" makes no sense at all.