From thoughts to text

The thoughts and text on this blog is mine, and mine alone.

  • How many people does it take to operate a data center?

    It looks like the big tech companies are building new data centers like there is no tomorrow.

    A few years ago, it was all about cryptocurrencty. And it should be noted that some of these data centers were not of the highest standard. Just look at the images in this article (in norwegian).

    Nowadays the pressure is on again, this time because of Artificial Intelligence (AI). And, like cryptocurrency, they need a lot of electicity. In return they promise jobs.

    But I have a hard time believing that data centers will employ as many people as these companies claim. Nscale are promising 200 jobs (in norwegian) once their new data center is operational.

    And, maybe 200 people in total is needed to run what they plan to be Europes biggest data center for AI, but I doubt it, and I think most of them would be remote jobs anyway. So much so that I would say that whomever works at the data center is the remote worker.

    What they need is this: cooling technician, electrician, someone to do basic maintenance and a couple of data technicians to install and remove servers. And maybe some on-site security, depending on location. Did I forget anyone?

    What is interesting is that acording to this article (again in norwegian), Green Mountain, in 2020, estimated that a new data center in Norway could employ 8 300 people. But then 3 years later, in 2023, it was adjusted down to 500 jobs. And this data center would be smaller than Nscale’s, which promised 200 jobs.

    I can only assume that the 8 300 jobs mentioned was during construction, and not during regular operation. Anything else would just be absurd.

    Asking Googles AI about how many (people) does it take to operate a data center, the answer is: “Operating a typical data center requires a surprisingly small core staff—often ranging from 25 to 150 permanent workers“

    Then again, we are talking about AI data centers, so maybe most of these jobs will be people with wire cutters. Ready to take down any rogue AI agent.

  • I upgraded Ubuntu 22.04 to 24.04

    I read an article on Hacker News about a guy who ran Ubuntu 16.04 for 10 years and moved over to FreeBSD. Then I rememebered, I have an Ubuntu Server running. And it has been running for a while now.

    I have been keeping it up-to-date, but it was still Ubuntu 22.04, with the latest long-term support released from Ubuntu being 26.04. So I decided it was time to do the dreaded release-upgrade.

    Why do I say “dreaded”? Well, things have broken in the past, and I was sure something would break again. It almost always do.

    So, the first step was to take a full backup. I run it as a virtual machine on VMware ESXi, but since I have had some issues in the past with the snapshot feature, I have learned not to use it, but instead make a copy of the files manually.

    After making sure that every package was up-to-date, and the machine rebooted, I ran do-release-upgrade and let it do it’s thing. I was surprised that most things just worked after the upgrade. But some small things showed up:

    1. Python 2.7 was removed, so some home made scripts stopped working. I need to fix this at some point in the future, maybe.
    2. PHP was disabled for users, that is for files in the public_html directory.
    3. Apache 2.4 (I came from 2.2) introduced some new rules replacing “Order allow, deny” and “Allow from all” with “Require all granted” (or denied, or somewhere in between).

    One side effect, which I spent a lot of time on in Apache configuration files, was that I was not allowed to view files in a subfolder under public_html. But in the end it turned out to be because of PHP being disabled, and this blocked indexing of subdirectories. Viewing the files with a full URL worked, except for PHP files.

    So far everything seems to be running fine, but it will be interesting to see if Certbot is running as it should, because I have a vague memory that this broke when upgrading to 22.04 a few years back.

    I do plan to run another do-release-upgrade to get it up to 26.04, but once I got 24.04 to run as expected, I did not want to ruin it well knowing I did not have the time to take a new backup and fix potential issues.

    All in all, the upgrade was a success. Almost no issues at all.

  • Personal Computer

    When I was a kid, somtimes in the early 90s, my mom borrowed a computer from her work home for a weekend. I think. It is a while ago, so maybe I am wrong. But that is not important.

    I asked what PC stood for; “personal computer” was the answer. And while you may say there was nothing “personal” about the computers of the early 90s, in terms of user friendlyness, it was personal in the sense that you controlled it.

    Now, this is the part that is important. You controlled it, not the other way around. And I feel that this has been gradually lost over the years. Sure, the PC is still personal, but only if you install something like Linux or BSD. But if you use Windows 11, it is far from personal. You are no longer in control. It feels downright hostile.

  • Fun with waves

    A week ago, me and two other kayakers decided to have some fun in the waves. This time they were bigger than last time. A lot bigger.

    We started as usual in Matlaug just outside of Haugesund. A safe haven where the water can be completly flat while waves up to 2 meter can rage just on the outside. Like it did this day.

    The previous image and the next one is taken just outside of Matlaug.

    After playing around and getting used to the waves, we continued north along Gardsøy and Tonjer. We kept a good distance from the shore since the waves would break in the islets just outside and create rolling waves that did not stop until it reached land.

    After deciding it was unsafe to be on the west side of Tonjer, we padled around the north tip and placed ourselfs on the east side. The waves would break over the small island and create “safe waves” to play in. Should we fall into the ocean, we would not be pushed into land, but rather away from it.

    The next two images shows the difference a wave can make in height difference.

    This next one is of me having fun.

    Some of the more interesting waves are the once you get from the side. There is only one trick to stay upright. Lean heavily into the wave with a brace strok and ride it out.

    The waves can make you look really small.

    The first map shows Matlaug. As you can see it really is a well proteced area. The big waves came in from north-west (right-ish)

    Then I have marked the area we continued to afterwards in green. We stayed well away from the area I marked as red on our way up, but on the return we did cross, but only because the waves had diminished quite a bit.

  • Kayak in Waves

    Saturday I had my second kayak trip of the year. This time in waves.

    The forcast said it would be around 1,2 meters, but I don’t think it was more than one meter. Luckly we know how to find waves to play in. Way more than one meter.

    Me getting a salty wash. Photo: Arild Haugstulen
    Looks like I forgot my kayak. Photo: Arild Haugstulen
    Luckly, I was not the only one that forgot his kayak.

    After having fun in the waves, we practiced rescue. I was happy my self rescue in waves went without problems, even if it was only 70-80 cm. We also practice rescuing each other.

    Never go kayaking in whitewater waves alone. You may end up in a situation you need rescuing. Even if you know self rescue, you may get injured.

    Practice, practice, practice…

    This was my first time trying a new waterproof camera, the OM System TG-7. The image quality is not as good as I am used to from my Canon 5D series cameras. But unlike the Canon, this one can be submerged in water without issues.

    All in all, a good day.