iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

I guess this is the week Bluesky answers this vital question

The "press two button meme", with "I hate AI more" as one button and "I hate Adobe more" as the other

Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 30/06/2026

hello @tangled.org, I just tried joining your Discord after following the chat.tangled.org link in this blog post: blog.tangled.org/spindle-micr... ...but wasn't able to join. I have had a working Discord account for years & I'm active in a few Discord groups. Does the link need to be updated?

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 27/06/2026

Wow, Berlin is cosplaying as the tropics today 😅 Super hot, the. super rain. Yeah, I’m not running today.

A screenshot of the Apple Weather project showing 37°C and 38°C today and tomorrow, followed by lots and lots and lots of rain in the coming days

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 03/06/2026

Holy balls. I knew GenAI coding was subsidised with Github wow, a 10x jump in a single month? "your bill will be $4,790 more next month, upgrading your subscription tier will reduce that by $69" This is from @arstechnica.com's piece arstechnica.com/ai/2026/06/a...

Current billing: USD 500.45
Under the new scheme: 5290.92 USD

"your bill will be $4,790 more next month, upgrading your subscription tier will reduce that by $69"

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 20/05/2026

hi folks, if you've found some analysis about the numbers here in this story, would you share a link? There's a single quote which seems to suggest something like 1.7GW of gas capacity is in the pipeline, specifically for datacentres (presumably off-grid) www.theguardian.com/business/202... /1

highlighted text from the Guardian article saying:

Silvia Simon, the head of research at Future Energy Networks, which represents the UK's natural gas suppliers, said the group had received "more than 100" requests for gas connections from datacentre operators in the past two years.

These requests amounted to more than 15 terawatt hours of energy each year, she said: enough to power London for roughly four and a half months.

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 29/04/2026

It's not really the job of this report to solve this problem, but we do identify a few potential pathways, and while some are technical, more are actually about democracy, accountability and politics - have a look you might find something of interest.

This image provides an overview of strategies for achieving a fossil-free internet. It is divided into two main sections:

**The Problem:**
The left side of the image highlights the issue with a dark background and white text stating, "Too many dirty data centres controlled by unaccountable companies." Below the text, there is an icon depicting a flame over a data server, symbolizing the environmental impact of energy-consuming data centers.

**Solution Pathways:**
The right side outlines three solution pathways to address the problem:

1. **Pathway 01: Reduce the Energy Demand**
- Represented with a pinkish-purple gradient background.
- The main goal is to "Keep to planetary boundaries," emphasizing the need to minimize energy consumption to stay within ecological limits.

2. **Pathway 02: Green the Energy**
- Shown with a green gradient background.
- The focus is on "Cut ties with fossil fuels," suggesting a transition to renewable energy sources.

3. **Pathway 03: Democratise the Tech**
- Illustrated with a teal gradient background.
- The aim is "More alternative ownership," promoting broader and more inclusive control over technology and data centers.

At the bottom, a concluding statement reads: "A fossil-free internet is only possible if we work across all three." This emphasizes the necessity of integrating all three pathways to achieve a sustainable, fossil-free internet.

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 29/04/2026

Maybe you're a responsible technologist, trying to do the right thing. Surely you'd want useful metrics to make a procurement decision, so you can at deploy code into the of cleanest datacentres available, right? Here's one of the most complete open datasets, sourced by industry professionals 😬

"An infographic titled 'How transparent are Google, Amazon, Microsoft about fossil fuels in their cloud services?' compares the transparency of Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft Azure regarding their use of fossil fuels. The data is sourced from the State of the Fossil-Free Internet Report, 2026, by the Green Web Foundation.

The infographic features an overall transparency score and four specific questions evaluating transparency:

**Overall Transparency Score:**
- Google Cloud: Low (22.56%)
- Amazon Web Services: Very low (0%)
- Microsoft Azure: Very low (0%)

**Question #1: Do they disclose how much renewable power is generated at their sites?**
- Google Cloud: Very low (0%)
- Amazon Web Services: Very low (0%)
- Microsoft Azure: Very low (0%)

**Question #2: Do they disclose their reliance on 'unbundled' certificates for renewable energy?**
- Google Cloud: Very low (0%)
- Amazon Web Services: Very low (0%)
- Microsoft Azure: Very low (0%)

**Question #3: Do they disclose their use of carbon-free energy on an hourly basis?**
- Google Cloud: Very high (90.24%)
- Amazon Web Services: Very low (0%)
- Microsoft Azure: Very low (0%)

**Question #4: Do they disclose their burning of fossil fuels at specific sites in all regions?**
- Google Cloud: Very low (0%)
- Amazon Web Services: Very low (0%)
- Microsoft Azure: Very low (0%)"

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 29/04/2026

But when you look there, too, even after accounting for buying clean energy, you can still a wild, divergence between their comms and their progress (check the 2020's and Google…) Data here came from from @ketanjoshi.co's obsessive poring over their sustainability reports. Link in the report.

This image illustrates how the total emissions of three major tech companies—Google, Amazon, and Microsoft—deviate significantly from their own net-zero targets. The charts compare unadjusted emissions, adjusted emissions, and target emissions over time, specifically from 2020 to projections in 2030.

For each company:

1. **Google:**
- The unadjusted emissions (shown in purple) rise sharply around 2025 and remain high.
- The adjusted emissions (also in purple but a lighter shade) are lower than unadjusted emissions but still above the target line.
- The target emissions (in grey) show a steady decline aiming for net-zero by 2030.

2. **Amazon:**
- Unadjusted emissions increase dramatically around 2025 and continue to rise.
- Adjusted emissions are lower than unadjusted but still do not meet the target.
- The target emissions line shows a consistent downward trend aiming for net-zero by 2030.

3. **Microsoft:**
- Similar to the other companies, unadjusted emissions spike around 2025 and remain elevated.
- Adjusted emissions show a reduction compared to unadjusted emissions but still fall short of the target.
- The target emissions line indicates a steady decline towards net-zero by 2030.

All values are measured in megatons of carbon dioxide equivalents (MtCO2e). The image highlights the gap between the companies' actual emissions and their stated net-zero goals, indicating significant challenges in meeting these targets. The data source is "The AI Climate Hoax: Behind the Curtain of How Big Tech Greenwashes Impacts," commissioned by the Green Web Foundation.

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 29/04/2026

As the world digitalises, you'll need some datacentres, sure, but this new crop of facilities are absolute chonkers. Check this map from the report showing the outline of new Hyperion campus from Meta, by national landmarks for size. See those dots shown? They're the Pyramids of Giza!

An aerial overlay comparison illustrating the vast size of Meta's Hyperion data center campus against global landmarks like New York's Central Park, Egypt's Pyramids of Giza, and Brazil's Maracanã Stadium. The image highlights how the data center's footprint would span across these significant locations, emphasizing its expansive scale."

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 23/04/2026

Excuse my French, but *holy fuck*, this piece from the heated.world newsletter from @emorwee.bsky.social... just wow. "Republicans introduce extreme bill to ban lawsuits against Big Oil forever" heated.world/p/republican... 😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬

In summary, the bill says:

No state or municipality can file a climate lawsuit

No state or municipality can pass or enforce a law making polluters pay for the consequences of their pollution

Existing climate cases would all be dismissed

Existing polluter pay laws would be voided

Private citizens can never sue fossil fuel companies over climate harm

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 13/11/2025

@justinmikulka.bsky.social I swear, that oilfield witness pic of Colossus *travels*. This is from a the opening welcome presentation conference, EcoCompute, in Berlin about sustainable practices in software

A shot of the Collosus datacentre being presented at EcoCompute, highlighting the modular gas turbines dotted around the structure

… presenting positive examples of the application of AI, to the same audience

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 24/09/2025

Here's fig 5, showing the estimated costs for a 100% hourly matched carbon free portfolio for Germany and Poland respectively. The Y-axis on chart doesn't even go beyond 130 EUR, and the cost increase is pretty gradual. (there's much more to the topic, obvs, but for today, this made my day)

A set of 6 charts, showing cost carbon intensity of power under various scenarios in 2030 in Poland and Germany for commercial and industrial loads

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 23/09/2025

Which report is this from? The Ember electrotechnical one? I was wondering about something similar when reading the IEA decline rates report over the weekend. If investment trails off in the US the speed at which production falls is eye opening.

Screenshot of the IEA decline rates report showing the drop off of oil and gas in charts. Unconventional oil and gas falls extremely quickly

Chart from the IEA report showing gotta Russia is relatively unharmed by investment drop off compared to unconventional producers like the USA

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 30/07/2025

So in the UK, there's a new report from the NESO - their national grid operator. Looks like they expect a ~3x growth in data centre demand by 2030 (!).

Screenshot of page 110 of the report.

"We define 'data centre demand' as demand from dedicated buildings for computing, excluding servers within other commercial buildings.
Data centre demand in Great Britain is estimated at 7.6 TWh from the 2.4 GW connected facilities, mainly for traditional services such as banking, which often requires close proximity to London. We expect future data centres to be increasingly utilised for Al, which may result in less importance on location and latency issues, compared to the existing data centre fleet.
Government's creation of the Al Opportunities Action Plan shows ambition in the field. The main uncertainty for future data centre demand is how much will be located within Great Britain compared to other competitive global markets. The demand shown below covers electricity demand, however many data centres may install on-site generation, often as a backup for security of supply - this generation is captured within our supply modelling. With sufficiently strong locational signals, we anticipate a maximum of 20% of future data centre demand could be located in Scotland, helping reduce network constraints. Cold thermal storage can allow shifting of cooling demand away from peak times and further operational flexibility may also be possible for non time critical operations.

A chart below shows various projections, with the default 10 year forecast showing a jump from 7.6TWh to around 20 by 2030

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 30/07/2025

Holy balls. The NESO appears to be expecting something like a *tripling* of demand from DCs by 2030 based on their 10 year forecast - an extra 15 TWh / yr! @nworbmot.bsky.social @iriepin.bsky.social how much "firm" power you reckon that might require? UK has a lot of gas to replace by 2030.

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 22/07/2025

This post raised a full-on belly laugh for me at the end, but it speaks to a serious issue - I'm amazed by the lengths poor Dave Barry has had to go to, to convince Google to stop telling everyone he's dead in AI Overview answers. davebarry.substack.com/p/death-by-ai

Which option best describes the issue?

Options are: Misleading, Outdated, Incomplete, Incorrect

Incorrect is checked. the details box says:

"I'm Dave Barry. The AI Overview about me says that I'm dead. I am not dead. In fact I am alive"

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 19/07/2025

There has GOT to be a word in German for when: 1. you lose your phone 2. person who nabbed it tries to cross the country with it on a train 3. realises it 's locked 4. gives up and hands it to the next person they see 5. who then calls the number on it to arrange to send it back to you

A map showing a set of devices in Berlin, and my iphone near Saarbrucken

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 14/07/2025

Have you found any really good framings of this? The best I've found so far is from Hannah Daly, showing something you might describe as "the opportunity cost" of using clean energy for that purpose vs alternatives: hannahdaly.ie/2024-10-18-d...

A chart showing the annual CO2 emissions from using 1 TWh of renewable energy to meet data centre demand, vs replacing gas cars or fossil generation

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 10/07/2025

Hi David! I think 1) might have already happened. This was announced a little over a week ago, by Crusoe Energy and Redwood, with their new AI datacentres mixing solar panels and repurposed EV batteries. No figures on total MW capacity in the press release tho. crusoe.ai/blog/crusoe-....

Crusoe and Redwood have developed a unique solution that tackles this head-on: our first deployment at Redwood’s Tahoe campus in Nevada integrates North America's largest solar microgrid with second-life EV batteries. This allows an AI data center to run seamlessly and continuously on renewable solar power, even long after sunset, while significantly reducing costs.

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 30/06/2025

Is there a commonly accepted (and hopefully entertaining) name for these panels that go over where the air intakes of internal combustion engines in cars used to be for transitional designs like this BMW? Whenever I see them on EVs I always think “nostril plugs”, but there must be a better term.

A front view of a BMW EV. The kidney grill which normally would have air tech for the engine has panels blocking them instead, because electric motors do not need so much air to run

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 01/02/2025

TIL: if you have a framework laptop, there is now a RISC-V motherboard you can buy, from a different company, that works with Ubuntu and Fedora already. This is a framework laptop with RISC-V running inside it.

A photo showing the RISC V mainboard, with a screen-free case

Photo showing RISC-V kit - tablets, laptops, routers

RISC-V in a framework, and a headless version plugged into a separate screen

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 26/01/2025

Cory Doctorow has a similar concept which he calls "the shitty technology adoption curve". It's a useful concept, and "above / below the API" is a nice SFW term, but it would be good to have one that is better for convos with ppl whose entry point to tech is "AI" pluralistic.net/2022/12/02/n....

This is the premise behind my idea of the "shitty technology adoption curve": if you want to do something horrible to people with technology, you must first inflict it on people without social power and then work your way slowly up the privilege gradient, smoothing the tech's rough edges by sanding them against the human bodies of people who can't fight back.

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 26/12/2024

I have one query though. The figure you’ve used for deals like the nuclear power between Microsoft & Constellation for power at 110-115 USD / MWh. Would that likely include any subsidies for extending life of clean generation in the IRA? The subsidies seem v generous for new builds.

let's be clear about what's in the IRA. The IRA says if you actually are building a nuclear reactor, you get a 30% tax credit. Then if it's in an existing energy community, which all nuclear reactor sites are, you get a bonus 10%. And then if you have majority domestic content, you get another 10%. So, a lot of these reactors are going to get a 50% tax credit.

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 16/12/2024

Not just the shareholders, guidance from the board too. The recorded video argument addresses every single point from the board: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Bwb... I've attached the screenshots from the argument used. They didn't seem very convincing.

There is more text than can fit here. please see the link below for the

https://gist.github.com/mrchrisadams/377cf000fbe5986cf2cc9f3fdd9e8337

please see the Link below for the alt text

https://gist.github.com/mrchrisadams/377cf000fbe5986cf2cc9f3fdd9e8337

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 09/12/2024

Wow, I hadn't realised that the Healthcare CEO guy who got shot also ran the same firm that was being sued in a class action lawsuit, about their automated decision-making system denying ppl care. Snippet from the paper in the post from Meredith Whittaker below: bsky.app/profile/mere...

There are many other examples of financial incentives shaping the use of automated decision systems in ways that are not socially beneficial. Ross & Herman (2023) showed United Health used a diagnostic algorithm to deny patients care, an application now at the center of a class action lawsuit filed by patients and their families.

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 09/12/2024

Y'know that #solarpunk trope of floating wind turbines in the sky, tethered to the ground, and feeding power down to denizens below? This is one in China, serving 50KW at 500m, which is power for between 40 to 140 households. Link to post: www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202410/12/... /1

A inflatable structure, high in the sky, with a wind turbine inside, over the the Chinese countryside.

An idyllic, illustration of solarpunk, with similar floating wind turbines hovering over farmland

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 06/12/2024

Thank you for saying this. This is what opened @leahstokes.bsky.social really wonky but wonderful book, Short Circuiting Policy, and the simplicity of the message has always stayed with me.

This book is dedicated to all living beings. May the fossil fuel era end.

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 04/12/2024

At #greenio conf, seeing a talk by Juliette Frope, the AI project lead at the French govt. dept of climate transition. The digital sector in France is the only sector *growing* in emissions where other sectors are either at a plateau, or falling slowly. I'll link to this deck when it's available.

French Digital sector
Increase of impact across environmental indicators:

Energy consumption
Resources used (materiel, biomass, soil)
Carbon footprint
Metal and mineral consumption

From ADEME/ARCEP study: assessment of the digital environmental footprint in France in 2020, 2030 and 2050

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 04/12/2024

I'm at #greenio, and I just saw a presentation from staff at Backmarket about why they left AWS, and they specifically cited climate commitments and issues with transparency as the drivers. At 700+ employees, this is the biggest firm I've seen say this so far. If you gave seen larger ones, LMK?

All providers are not born equal
• 100% renewable energy match
• Google: 2017
0 Amazon: 2023
• Net-zero
Google 2030
0 Amazon 2040
• Google: 24/7 by 2030: Realizing a
Carbon-free Future
• AWS: mainly compared their footprint with on-premise datacenter

CDP Score
Carbon Disclosure Project (2000)
Disclosure on environmental impact
• 23,000 companies globally
135+ cities, states & regions
2 EU governments
Amazon F until 2023 then B
• Alphabet (Google) A since 2014

Back Market
A French unicorn FRO
• An hyper growth story
• 18 countries, +700 employees, 10 millions customers,
+1700 sellers
1.6 million tons of CO, emissions avoided C P3
• B-Corp certified and société à mission" in France
• Up to 40k containers in our infra @
: Bom in the cloud (AWS)

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 29/11/2024

TIL: the Fish shell is now mostly written in Rust!* github.com/fish-shell/f... Would this make it the only "major" shell written in Rust now? * If you're using fish right now, your one is probably using still using C++. The next upcoming release has the new Rust bits. Follow-on qn time... /1

Languages
• Rust 71.0%
• Python 5.7%|
JavaScript 0.5%
Other 1.0%
• Shell 19.9% |
• CMake 1.4% |
• HTML 0.5%

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 28/11/2024

Hey Dan, Alex (and friends)! Sorry for the slow response. I have a few things that might be relevant. I did a talk about something called the "Ten Tonne Rule" back in 2019. I've attached the three screenshots of the key ideas, plus the link to the slide deck. docs.google.com/presentation...

The ten tonne rule

If any spend will cause more than 10 tonnes of CO2 emissions, rank bids by CO2 emitted over length of contract.

Suppliers show the workings for their CO2 figures in bids. Favour the lowest.

If we optimise for cost of transaction in maps already, why not carbon per transaction too?

Average carbon intensity* of the UK economy in 2017:

~ 3.2 tonnes of CO2 per 10k

Source: Greenhouse gas intensity, provisional estimates, UK: 2017, ONS (link)

* Carbon intensity is also an SDG indicator - 9.4.1

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 28/11/2024

Hi Michelle! If you aren’t following @chrisnelder.bsky.social’s stellar Transition show podcast, then there’s a good section covering a recent case with AWS’s recent nuclear deal in the most recent episode: xenetwork.org/ets/episodes...

But then Amazon asked to modify the deal to buy another 180MW of power directly from the plant, and that prompted utility giants Exelon and American Electric Power or AEP to file a protest against the agreement and asked FERC to hold a hearing on the matter. They complained that the deal would take power away from their customers and shift up to $140 million in extra costs onto the people of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and the other states that are served by PJM, the wholesale market in that region. So in effect, Amazon's private behind the meter deal with the nuclear plant operator results in shifting costs to other ratepayers

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 18/11/2024

Should we do it like Germany? This was an email from last week from my provider, who is probably one of the best ones. The rocket emoji always cracks me up when I see it.

The process:
1. The grid operator Stromnetz Berlin will check if the smart meter installation is possible at your location.
2. After 2-3 weeks, you will receive an installation appointment.
3. After around 3 months, you will receive your smart meter (rocket emoji)

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 18/09/2024

Here’s what came up on my phone. It was a nice surprise, I don’t know what the cutoff point is though, so who knows maybe you get to humblebrag too?

Thanks for being one of our first 10million users.

Together we’re rebuilding the social internet. We’re glad you’re here.

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 18/09/2024

If you’re waiting for a Certified Bluesky Elder badge thingo, then today I learn that if you joined in August 2023 you should likely have it. The notification just pops up out of the blue - no way I see if triggering it yourself. If your first post is in Sept 2023 I guess you’re fair too, right?

Blue sky badge. Celebrating 10m users. I’m no 719,955x I joined aug 25 2023

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 06/09/2024

I really enjoy Adam Johnson's technical django blog, and it's a fave in my feed reader. But this recent post gave me a newfound respect for his capacity to find the silver lining in any cloud. Adam, I salute you 🫡 From this post: adamj.eu/tech/2024/09... PS. Is there #djangosky on here?

Recently, I built a Microsoft Teams bot for a client, inside their Django project. It wasn’t fun or easy, but the experience did increase my resiliency as a developer.

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 21/02/2024

Holy moly - these numbers are absurd! For context, I understand a typical hyperscaler datacenter might be 50 - 150MW. Facebook tried to get a 400MW campus built a few years back in the Netherlands but failed (as I understand it, that would been the largest datacentre in Europe if it got built)

Riot platforms 450MW
Cipher mining 207MW
US Bitcoin 200MW
Rhodium Enterprises 185MW
Bitdeer 170MW

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 07/02/2024

I'm not convinced either, TBH, but it IS v new. Assuming you DID want to see "no climate denial", the paper shared by the techies about how it works clearly points to a "Bluesky App View" where you might reasonably set a default to filter it out, based on some prior labelling.

Complicated diagram showing the main services involved in providing Bluesky, and data flows between them. Bsky operates a relay and a default "App View" that everyone sees.

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 07/02/2024

I'm thinking mainly of @ketanjoshi.co and greensky when I read this, because a bunch of the posts I read on fedi essentially criticise it as outsourcing content moderation rather addressing it themselves. Is "no climate denial" a thing you'd buy in an app store? www.platformer.news/bluesky-publ...

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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 02/01/2024

I‘m reading Thomas Piketty‘s „Capital and Ideology“ and it is blowing my mind. I’m aware of groups like Amazon for Climate and corresponding ones in other firms, but lots of green energy jobs are less well paid and more precarious than existing union ones, so I can sort of understand why.

Under pressure from the unions and the social Democrats, the Weimar Constitution of 1919, instituted a much more so short instrumental concept of property than any previous constitution. In particular the constitution specified. The property rights in the limits would henceforth be limited by law which meant that property was no longer considered a sacred, natural right. The text explicitly envision the possibility of expropriation and nationalisations, if the good of the community required it under term set by law

In the late 2000s and early 20010s, when references to Germany and its economic model, work ubiquitous, partly for good reasons, it became increasingly difficult for French, employers and shareholders to reject co-management out of hand, and to insist that the presence of workers on corporate boards would sow chaos.

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