15-years ago or so a spreadsheet was floating around where you could enter server costs, compute power, etc and it would tell you when you would break-even by buying instead of going with AWS. I think it was leaked from Amazon because it was always three-years to break-even even as hardware changed over time.
Azure provides their own "Total Cost of Ownership" calculator for this purpose [0]. Notably, this makes you estimate peripheral costs such as cost of having a server administrator, electricity, etc.
Thank you, I've wanted to see someone use this in the real world. When doing Azure certifications (AZ900, AZ204, etc.), they force you to learn about this tool.
I may be out of date with RAM prices. Dell's configuration tool wants £1000 each for 32GB RDIMMs — but prices in Dell's configuration tool are always significantly higher than we get if we write to their sales person.
Even so, a rough configuration for a 2-processor 16 core/processor server with 256GiB RAM comes to $20k, vs $22k + 100% = $44k quoted by MS. (The 100% is MS' 20%-per-year "maintenance cost" that they add on to the estimate. In reality this is 0% as everything is under Dell's warranty.)
And most importantly, the tool is only comparing the cost of Azure to constructing and maintaining a data centre! Unless there are other requirements (which would probably rule out Azure anyway) that's daft, a realistic comparison should be to colocation or hired dedicated servers, depending on the scale.
If you buy, maybe. Leasing or renting tends to be cheaper from day one. Tack on migration costs and ca. 6 months is a more realistic target. If the spreadsheet always said 3 years, it sounds like an intentional "leak".
Well, somebody should recreate it. I smell a potential startup idea somewhere. There's a ton of "cloud cost optimizers" software but most involve tweaking AWS knobs and taking a cut of the savings. A startup that could offload non critical service from AWS to colo and traditional bare metal hosting like Hetzner has a strong future.
One thing to keep in mind is that the curve for GPU depreciation (in the last 5 years at least) is a little steeper than 3 years. Current estimates is that the capital depreciation cost would plunge dramatically around the third year. For a top tier H100 depreciation kicks in around the 3rd year but they mentioned for the less capable ones like the A100 the depreciation is even worse.
Now this is not factoring cost of labour. Labor at SF wages is dreadfully expensive, now if your data center is right across the border in Tijuana on the other hand..
I used to think the same way as you about audiobooks but this year I had three weeks where I wasn't supposed to read a screen after eye surgery and so I tried some audiobooks. It took a few days but eventually I got to the point where it was indistinguishable from reading - where I could picture in my mind everything happening.
This is quite different from tv and film where you're just watching and not using your mind.
I think you are fairly unique in audiobook consumption though. I imagine most people (myself included when I do) consume audiobooks where they would have otherwise listened to podcasts or radio, meaning stochastically in the car, doing chores, generally during other activities.
If I were to sit down in my book corner chair, putting on an audiobook and leaning back, I can imagine I'd have the same experience as you, but that is when I would otherwise read a book the traditional way. Perhaps this will change when I get older and wish to rest my eyes and arms while taking in a book.
I'll double up here. For me, audiobooks are 'the same' as reading a book. Yes, I know they are not exactly the same, but the experience for me is pretty darn close enough.
Now, I use audiobooks because I can then take the dog for a walk and do other chores while listening to them. For me, it's a good way to get my mind working while my body is too. Plus, you can speed up the narration to some multiple so you're at the same pace as if you were reading anyway.
For me, it's no different than if I were a cigar roller with someone reading out a book to the lot of us.
Is it exactly the same? No, of course not. But if the alternatives to doing chores is 1) doing them with no auditory enjoyment 2) doing them with some podcast/radio station blaring topical news 3) doing them with a classic book
then, I'm going for 3. It's just the best use of time
I think you are fairly unique in your inability to listen to audiobooks. I talk with a lot of friends about books and have been in very long-running book clubs. Almost nothing differentiates book readers and book listeners. Mostly book readers don't know how to pronounce some character names.
The ability to picture the scene in your mind is not why listening to an audiobook is different from reading.
Put another way, reading involves:
1. Parsing and interpreting the words on the page.
2. Synthesizing the information in our heads (scenes, arguments, etc.)
3. Interpreting the synthesis (Does it work? Is there subtle or implied information in the synthesis? What comes next?)
My argument is that audiobooks drastically alter step 1.
Let's not denigrate any forms of media though. They all have their unique benefits. You can use your mind or not during the consumption of any of them.
Out of curiosity I looked at my ios books app to see how many I read and it says I only read one book in 2025 and one book in 2026. This is completely wrong - I've read 4 books since Jan 1 and last year maybe 10 to 15 books (mostly trashy sci-fi and fantasy)
When I looked closer in the app it's because all of my books are 99% finished because I didn't click in every page until the end. Annoying.
I use my garmin connect app to track exercise, blood pressure, water consumption, etc. it would be cool to have something similar for the mind.
I usually look at both the critics' reviews and the public's reviews because sometimes I want to see a good movie (critic scores) and sometimes I want to see a fun movie (audience score).
But the public scores are ridiculous for this. They could have made the reviews realistic by at least making the movie sound campy but this is utterly ridiculous
There's a farm here in Zurich where we buy a lot of our groceries. The store is unmanned. You use their calculator (or your cellphone calculator) to add up what you're buying then use your phone to scan a QR code and pay.
I know a few farmstands here that operate on the honor system. Put $5 in the box, take your bag of apples. You have to go a bit out of your way, but they do exist in the States.
+1, every time we hike up a mountain and there's a help-yourself-fridge/shelf, we take 5-10 items and it's too much to add up in ones head. I use the phone calculator and pay by QR code.
This way you're measuring change in oxygen concentration. As more oxygen comes into the compartment in order to equalize with the outside you consume and at the same time produce more oxygen. You measure the change in rate of oxygen consumption/production. It is always consuming/producing oxygen but the rate changes with the concentration.
Before, you measured diffusion rate of oxygen and inferred oxygen concentration from that (the concentration outside the chamber is always greater than the concentration inside). Dirty membranes etc all changed the rate of diffusion, which caused issues.
After you measure oxygen concentration directly (the concentration inside and outside the chamber are always the same).
I wouldn't mind if they put one in Douglas county where I have a cabin. It would hopefully get some of the locals off government disability payments which seems to be the main income source there.
I wonder if the US population understands that the entire world now knows the US is under a fascist regime and is cutting ties as fast as possible. The economic repercussions of this regime will be felt for years to come. Look at the USD/EUR or USD/CAD exchange rates over the last year.
edit: thanks for the downvotes. I know political comments are frowned upon on HN and that is fine. I tried to be factual but my tone was probably off.
Hello. There is a paramilitary force murdering people with impunity. The president and its administration consider themselves above the law. They encourage political violence against their enemies. They use state power to punish dissent. Corporatism reigns. Minorities and intellectuals are scapegoated.
I'm going to say you're the one who doesn't understand the word "fascist".
It's a spectrum and the changes are gradual, but if you zoom out, would you say the current administration is more or less fascist than the previous ones?
The US economy might be booming yes but I was referring to how it relates internationally. The value of the US dollar is on a downward trend. Trump might be pushing Buy America but for the rest of the world, it's Sell America.
It sure looked like he was a part of the organizing of the event. But you mean the organizers phoned him up and informed him that they were going to storm a church or something?
> But you mean the organizers phoned him up and informed him that they were going to storm a church or something?
Yes, probably. The whole point of protest is to be public and raise awareness of the issue. Getting a journalist to cover their controversial church protest is exactly what I would expect a competent protester to do.
I've also seen the "interviews" though. He's interviewing the victims of the harassment and he's not interviewing them, he's pushing the agenda. You should go watch them with this in mind.
"Lemon's attorney, Abbe Lowell, said last week that a magistrate judge rejected charges against Lemon. A source told ABC News that Bondi last week was "enraged" at the magistrate judge's decision to not charge the journalist."
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