#frugalcomputing — Public Fediverse posts

I put in a paper on my model to estimate emissions from AI data centres for #loco2026 (2nd International Workshop on Low Carbon Computing, https://lancaster-university.github.io/loco2026/)
and it was (grudgingly) accepted!

#FrugalComputing

I set one of my students the task of writing a tool for sustainability analysis of Claude Code.

They used Claude Code to generate the tool. It does the wrong thing. They have no idea why.

Their grade depends on writing code that does the right thing and being able to explain why and how. We are halfway through the project.

#NoToAI #FrugalComputing

Bought a second-hand #ThinkPad L14 Gen 2a (#AMD Ryzen 5 Pro 5650U). Plenty fast enough for what I do, at about 15% of the price of a current model.

Installed #FedoraLinux and, so far, everything works, even the fingerprint reader. Repairable, upgradeable, and a small reminder that we don't always need the latest hardware.

#FrugalComputing #RightToRepair

Bought a second-hand #ThinkPad L14 Gen 2a (#AMD Ryzen 5 Pro 5650U). Plenty fast enough for what I do, at about 15% of the price of a current model.

Installed #FedoraLinux and, so far, everything works, even the fingerprint reader. Repairable, upgradeable, and a small reminder that we don't always need the latest hardware.

#FrugalComputing #RightToRepair

@stefano

An ingenious Fediverse design idea, fully implemented in the most frugal of hardware setups (in NetBSD). So charming.

Bravo, Stefano.

"The post you wrote is the blog post. Same database, same act of writing, still boostable, still repliable, still part of the conversation on the fediverse side. The blog is just a second representation of the same content, generated automatically."

"As a status, it lives in the fediverse, interactive, part of the conversation, subject to replies and boosts like anything else. As a static page, it lives on the web, durable, indexable, with a permalink, something an RSS reader can hold onto. You don't have to decide in advance which posts deserve to last."

#blogging #MicroBlogging #FediToWeb #FrugalComputing

#StefanoMarinelli #lttleFedi

@stefano

An ingenious Fediverse design idea, fully implemented in the most frugal of hardware setups (in NetBSD). So charming.

Bravo, Stefano.

"The post you wrote is the blog post. Same database, same act of writing, still boostable, still repliable, still part of the conversation on the fediverse side. The blog is just a second representation of the same content, generated automatically."

"As a status, it lives in the fediverse, interactive, part of the conversation, subject to replies and boosts like anything else. As a static page, it lives on the web, durable, indexable, with a permalink, something an RSS reader can hold onto. You don't have to decide in advance which posts deserve to last."

#blogging #MicroBlogging #FediToWeb #FrugalComputing

#StefanoMarinelli #lttleFedi

Anyone looking for a home for their website/idea? We've still got some space on Squeak - the solar powered community webserver inspired by compost.party.

Currently there is the awesome mini mahjong league run by @knees , the personal website of @[email protected] @[email protected]
and also it hosts a list of the #solarpunk books I own and of course the #stealthsolar website. Of and @jbmorley says hi on their site.

Get in touch if you are interested - https://squeak.solarcene.community

#website #solar #frugalcomputing

Anyone looking for a home for their website/idea? We've still got some space on Squeak - the solar powered community webserver inspired by compost.party.

Currently there is the awesome mini mahjong league run by @knees , the personal website of @[email protected] @[email protected]
and also it hosts a list of the #solarpunk books I own and of course the #stealthsolar website. Of and @jbmorley says hi on their site.

Get in touch if you are interested - https://squeak.solarcene.community

#website #solar #frugalcomputing

Just noticed the (Computing Within) LIMITS 2026 workshop papers are on arXiv already. A selection:

Narratives That Limit the Possible: Interrupting Narrative Closure in Computing Practice
https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.17360

Modest, artistic, and radical solutions to the environmental impact of image-generating machine learning
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2606.19957

Addressing Negative Commons Governance with Positive Commons Principles
https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.04563

Urban Limits as Design Constraints: Identifying Suitable Locations for Distributed, Photovoltaic-Powered Servers
https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.18940

Dismantle and Dissolve, (Re)build, Remix: A Research-creation Inquiry into the Political Economy of Graphics Cards
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2606.10958

Relational Aesthesis in Permacomputing Practice: Building a Solar Powered Website from Reclaimed Materials
https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.30706

Opportunities and Challenges in Securely Reusing and Repurposing Mobile Devices
https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.06181

Designing L5: A Permacomputing Approach to Creative Coding
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2606.18481

(Note: Somewhat disappointed about the continued copy/paste approach of ever more p5-like implementations as de-facto standard approach/structure to "creative computing". As if over the past 25 years there're not better alternative ideas to explore...)

More papers & overview:
https://computingwithinlimits.org/2026/

#PermaComputing #FrugalComputing #LIMITS2026 #Research #Workshop

Just noticed the (Computing Within) LIMITS 2026 workshop papers are on arXiv already. A selection:

Narratives That Limit the Possible: Interrupting Narrative Closure in Computing Practice
https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.17360

Modest, artistic, and radical solutions to the environmental impact of image-generating machine learning
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2606.19957

Addressing Negative Commons Governance with Positive Commons Principles
https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.04563

Urban Limits as Design Constraints: Identifying Suitable Locations for Distributed, Photovoltaic-Powered Servers
https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.18940

Dismantle and Dissolve, (Re)build, Remix: A Research-creation Inquiry into the Political Economy of Graphics Cards
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2606.10958

Relational Aesthesis in Permacomputing Practice: Building a Solar Powered Website from Reclaimed Materials
https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.30706

Opportunities and Challenges in Securely Reusing and Repurposing Mobile Devices
https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.06181

Designing L5: A Permacomputing Approach to Creative Coding
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2606.18481

(Note: Somewhat disappointed about the continued copy/paste approach of ever more p5-like implementations as de-facto standard approach/structure to "creative computing". As if over the past 25 years there're not better alternative ideas to explore...)

More papers & overview:
https://computingwithinlimits.org/2026/

#PermaComputing #FrugalComputing #LIMITS2026 #Research #Workshop

In 2025:
Global gas consumption grew by 1.6%
Global coal consumption grew by 0.7%
Global oil consumption grew by 1.3%
[1]

GHG emissions grew by 2.3% as a result. [2]

Data centres are the fastest growing sources of emissions.[2]

#ClimateEmergency
#FrugalComputing #NoToAI

[1] https://www.energyinst.org/statistical-review
[2] https://wedocs.unep.org/items/9f0bf855-2069-42a6-a856-4b389f740c5c

When I browse on mobile data, I see rhat BlueSky drinks data like pirates in Port Royal drank punch #frugalcomputing

Regarding the AI data centre water usage, this ought to be obvious but "use 100% air‑cooled, closed‑loop cooling systems for new data centers" means they will use more energy for cooling and so increase emissions.

#FrugalComputing #NoToAI

Planning to attend a few of the talks at #limits2026 , particularly interested in the ones focused on solar powered services.

https://computingwithinlimits.org/2026/#program

I particularly appreciate the timings as it falls into the evening for me which is nice.

#solar #solarpower #frugalcomputing #permacomputing

Planning to attend a few of the talks at #limits2026 , particularly interested in the ones focused on solar powered services.

https://computingwithinlimits.org/2026/#program

I particularly appreciate the timings as it falls into the evening for me which is nice.

#solar #solarpower #frugalcomputing #permacomputing

I've signed up to attend LIMITS 2026 virtually https://computingwithinlimits.org/2026/ , the topics look super interesting particularly ones around solar powered systems. I also appreciate the timings as I'll be able to hopefully jump in after work.

#frugalcomputing #permacomputing #solarpower

I've signed up to attend LIMITS 2026 virtually https://computingwithinlimits.org/2026/ , the topics look super interesting particularly ones around solar powered systems. I also appreciate the timings as I'll be able to hopefully jump in after work.

#frugalcomputing #permacomputing #solarpower

Vývojáři se naučili zrychlovat dotazy, přidávat cache, škálovat služby a hlídat účet za cloud. Frugal computing začíná o jednu otázku dřív: musí se výpočet, přesun dat, volání modelu nebo uložení vůbec stát? Rostoucí spotřeba datových center a nové evropské reportování ho posouvají do návrhu architektury, dřív než do závěrečné poznámky o udržitelnosti v prezentaci.

(2/2) to repeat the tl;dr: from the quoted post:

Moving work between data centres in different locations, so called "carbon aware load shifting", is a distraction. The savings in emissions are only a few percent at best and therefore very quickly undone by the growth in data centre capacity. Instead we need demand management, i.e. compute less.

#FrugalComputing

RE: https://scholar.social/@wim_v12e/115179142615575786

I am really happy that my paper

"Modelling Scenarios for Carbon-aware Geographic Load Shifting of Compute Workloads"

has now been accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Computing.

As expected, it was rather a fraught process, but it only took 9 months and two revisions.

Final paper has not been published yet but I have updated the preprint: https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.07043

(1/2)

#FrugalComputing

The budget decreases yearly, close to a linear trend for the next few decades. But the data centre emissions are projected to grow exponentially (tracking the current trend) or, using the IEA assumptions, logistically. The latter is less bad but it means they flatten out, none of the models projects a *decrease* in AI data centre emissions. The graph shows the global CO2 budget and the projected emissions using a 26% CAGR scenario (McKinsey's high-growth scenario).
(2/2)
#FrugalComputing

Current global greenhouse gas emissions are 57.7 GtCO2e/y. But the global emissions budget for 2035 is only 25 GtCO2e/y (20--27), and for 2050 about 10 GtCO2e/y.

The "budget" is the maximum amount of emissions that can be incurred while still keeping global warming limited to 1.5ºC.

So any amount of emissions, e.g. from AI data centres, has to be compared to this budget rather than to the total current emissions.

(1/2)

#FrugalComputing.

@rhempel I've always felt that being an artist does not give you a free pass (and it's one of the reasons why I always struggled to call myself an artist).

Even if the viewer doesn't see a discernible difference, I think considering energy consumption and algorithmic efficiency as (some of the) hidden costs of art making & viewing always should be a consideration. I also think it's a sign of maturity, both personal and in the larger picture as discipline, to be considerate of these things, even more so for animated or time-based pieces which are running nonstop at galleries/exhibitions/homes for weeks/months. Unfortunately, this is an extreme minority opinion in this field...

But energy aspects aside, especially for animated and/or interactive works, achieving a minimum frame rate (at the very least 30fps, better 60fps or 120fps) is important (not always though!) and failing to do so, can have a negative impact on the overall aesthetics, feel, experience, immersion etc. Optimizing a piece from 2-3 fps to 30+ fps can be a literal make-or-break switch...

Also for realtime audio, which is much less forgiving, hard time limits are enforced by the underlying OS/hardware audio driver. All (sonic) hell breaks loose if you don't manage to compute N new samples for the next time window in a shorter time than that window's duration (usually just a few milliseconds a slice)...

So back to your question: Is there a way to convey a elegance and design in implementing of algorithmic art? I think the answer here is: Yes. At least for the group of time-based works, these aspects are partially/indirectly conveyed precisely via working smoothly within these time & resource constraints, some of them enforced by our own perception thresholds, others by hardware. An animated or interactive system which feels sluggish hardly ever communicates "elegance" (where it matters and in an abstract sense, but even "glitch art" often works with a more or less artist controlled form of glitchiness). For interaction it can even very quickly become actively frustrating once certain action-response delays are exceeded regularly...

Some artists are trying to free themselves from the efforts having to deal with these things via means of clever framing and post-rationalization, i.e. by stating the artwork presented is merely a 1:1 instance of the actual artwork which is just a sequence of instructions given on paper (or as text file, as voice instruction etc.) and therefore has neither conceptual nor technical room for addressing these aspects... I can think of some cases where any form of optimization truly isn't desired (e.g. those concepts which communicate exponentially increasing complexity or time effects of a given system), but I'd say these are not the norm... Mostly it feels like: Purity for purity's sake and an easy way out... 🤷‍♂️

In some sense the problem for algorithmic artists is similar to that of game devs: Developing your idea on high-end hardware with top-range compute can be a recipe for disaster when deploying your artwork on lower spec hardware. In that sense a well optimized implementation or one which is aimed at lower compute resources, simply means the piece is much more adaptable and also generally less resource/energy intensive, something which we as society are maybe just not yet valuing sufficiently enough, but which I believe we will come to (value)... People will still want to have engaging digital art in the future, even if compute availability will be much more unevenly available/affordable, less abundant, and more artists, especially them, will be working/showing on devices with lower compute (relatively speaking) due to exploding hardware costs and centralization...

That quote I mentioned in the linked posts above is a perfect summary of this all:

"Too often in this industry hardware is used to solve software problems."

#AlgorithmicArt #InteractiveArt #TimebasedArt #Optimization #Performance #FrugalComputing

@rhempel I've always felt that being an artist does not give you a free pass (and it's one of the reasons why I always struggled to call myself an artist).

Even if the viewer doesn't see a discernible difference, I think considering energy consumption and algorithmic efficiency as (some of the) hidden costs of art making & viewing always should be a consideration. I also think it's a sign of maturity, both personal and in the larger picture as discipline, to be considerate of these things, even more so for animated or time-based pieces which are running nonstop at galleries/exhibitions/homes for weeks/months. Unfortunately, this is an extreme minority opinion in this field...

But energy aspects aside, especially for animated and/or interactive works, achieving a minimum frame rate (at the very least 30fps, better 60fps or 120fps) is important (not always though!) and failing to do so, can have a negative impact on the overall aesthetics, feel, experience, immersion etc. Optimizing a piece from 2-3 fps to 30+ fps can be a literal make-or-break switch...

Also for realtime audio, which is much less forgiving, hard time limits are enforced by the underlying OS/hardware audio driver. All (sonic) hell breaks loose if you don't manage to compute N new samples for the next time window in a shorter time than that window's duration (usually just a few milliseconds a slice)...

So back to your question: Is there a way to convey a elegance and design in implementing of algorithmic art? I think the answer here is: Yes. At least for the group of time-based works, these aspects are partially/indirectly conveyed precisely via working smoothly within these time & resource constraints, some of them enforced by our own perception thresholds, others by hardware. An animated or interactive system which feels sluggish hardly ever communicates "elegance" (where it matters and in an abstract sense, but even "glitch art" often works with a more or less artist controlled form of glitchiness). For interaction it can even very quickly become actively frustrating once certain action-response delays are exceeded regularly...

Some artists are trying to free themselves from the efforts having to deal with these things via means of clever framing and post-rationalization, i.e. by stating the artwork presented is merely a 1:1 instance of the actual artwork which is just a sequence of instructions given on paper (or as text file, as voice instruction etc.) and therefore has neither conceptual nor technical room for addressing these aspects... I can think of some cases where any form of optimization truly isn't desired (e.g. those concepts which communicate exponentially increasing complexity or time effects of a given system), but I'd say these are not the norm... Mostly it feels like: Purity for purity's sake and an easy way out... 🤷‍♂️

In some sense the problem for algorithmic artists is similar to that of game devs: Developing your idea on high-end hardware with top-range compute can be a recipe for disaster when deploying your artwork on lower spec hardware. In that sense a well optimized implementation or one which is aimed at lower compute resources, simply means the piece is much more adaptable and also generally less resource/energy intensive, something which we as society are maybe just not yet valuing sufficiently enough, but which I believe we will come to (value)... People will still want to have engaging digital art in the future, even if compute availability will be much more unevenly available/affordable, less abundant, and more artists, especially them, will be working/showing on devices with lower compute (relatively speaking) due to exploding hardware costs and centralization...

That quote I mentioned in the linked posts above is a perfect summary of this all:

"Too often in this industry hardware is used to solve software problems."

#AlgorithmicArt #InteractiveArt #TimebasedArt #Optimization #Performance #FrugalComputing

The model takes into account the trends in embodied carbon (in fact, that is the main contribution of the research) and in global carbon intensity of electricity generation. For the latter I am assume we stay on trend, although it is conceivable that the energy hunger of AI would slow down the decarbonisation of energy production.

#FrugalComputing
(5/n=5)

I have also looked at the IEA scenarios. They use a bounded growth model, and their projections are only until 2035. But even with that model, in the worst case we'd see emissions of more that 1 GtCO2e/y (about 10% of the global carbon budget) purely from AI.

#FrugalComputing
(4/n)

The graph shows an extension of the McKinsey high-growth scenario until 2045. This is exponential growth, 10x in 10 years, 100x in 20 years.

Note that Michael Dell said we'd need 100x in 10 years, and Altman said something similar about growth in AI servers.

So if the expectations of the AI industry would be realised, by 20245 AI alone would cause more emissions than the entire global carbon budget.

#FrugalComputing
(3/n)

The aim of the paper is to model the emissions ensuing from the growth scenarios put forward by the IEA, McKinsey and the AI industry. We created a very detailed model for this. Here is a sneak preview of one of the graphs in the paper.

#FrugalComputing

(2/n)

I put in a paper for #loco2026 (deadline 29 May EOA)

"Estimating the growth in emissions from AI data centres"

https://lancaster-university.github.io/loco2026/

#FrugalComputing

(1/n)

Hello!

I'm Taylor and I'm a philosophy PhD student transitioning out of academia into who knows what. But I know if I stop reading and writing I get restless, so I want to continue doing that here and on my website.

In #philosophy, I'm into Continental philosophy, Post-Kantianism, history of philosophy, aesthetics, language/semiotics, and classical rhetoric.

I also enjoy #cinema (esp. art films, horror, old Hollywood) and music. I make syllabi of movies and albums to watch/listen through chronologically.

I have no professional background in tech, but my logic brain can pick up on tech stuff pretty quick. I like #Linux, #SelfHosting, #FrugalComputing, and probably more things I haven't discovered yet!

Looking to make friends with other people into #philosophy, #movies, or #tech 👋

#Introduction #NewHere

Hello!

I'm Taylor and I'm a philosophy PhD student transitioning out of academia into who knows what. But I know if I stop reading and writing I get restless, so I want to continue doing that here and on my website.

In #philosophy, I'm into Continental philosophy, Post-Kantianism, history of philosophy, aesthetics, language/semiotics, and classical rhetoric.

I also enjoy #cinema (esp. art films, horror, old Hollywood) and music. I make syllabi of movies and albums to watch/listen through chronologically.

I have no professional background in tech, but my logic brain can pick up on tech stuff pretty quick. I like #Linux, #SelfHosting, #FrugalComputing, and probably more things I haven't discovered yet!

Looking to make friends with other people into #philosophy, #movies, or #tech 👋

#Introduction #NewHere

Jevons's analysis is very readable

"It is wholly a confusion of ideas to suppose that the economical use of fuel is equivalent to a diminished consumption. The very contrary is the truth."

https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/jevons-the-coal-question#lf0546_label_100

#FrugalComputing

By 2040, it is expected to be 6 GW, which is more than the capacity of that solar farm and also about 30% of the UAE’s total projected electricity demand.

To my mind this illustrates well the difference between "green" computing and frugal computing.

(3/3)
#FrugalComputing

https://www.intelligentdatacentres.com/2026/03/26/wood-mackenzie-uae-data-centre-power-demand-to-double-by-2030-as-regulatory-gaps-constrain-clean-energy-procurement/

The picture is indeed of part of the Shuaa Energy 3 PV installation near Dubai, currently at 900 MW capacity. The Solar Park aims to have a production capacity of approximately 5 GW upon completion by 2030.

By 2029, the UAE’s data centre capacity is expected to be around 1 GW.

Which means that its data centres would consume about 20% of the electricity generated by this solar park. This 6% of the UAE’s total electricity demand.

(2/3)
#FrugalComputing

This caught my eye:

https://mastodon.social/@Divorytaur/116509378195121356

OP posted a satellite image on X of what they claimed to be a 100 MW data centre in the UAE with its own solar array of 10 square kilometers.

Somebody reposted this on fedi and a commenter pointed out that the pic is not of a data centre but part of a much larger installation, and that the circled building is the substation. On X, another commenter pointed out the same.
(1/3)
#FrugalComputing

@upmultimedia speculative answer because I haven't got around to trying it, but perhaps an old mobile phone?

Historically, for example, I've found the old OnePlus devices straight forward to flash, with ++ online guides. A OnePlus 6 with a cracked screen ought not to be more than £80. 6GB RAM, 128GB storage, quad-core processor that switches between 1.8 and 2.8GHz. This is just an example of a well-trodden path though, I'm sure a keen bargain hunter could identify a better mass-produced platform that users no longer want for the original purpose, so is now going cheap on the used market.

https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Devices#Main

#FrugalComputing #SelfHosted #deGoogle #recycling

@macrumors TL;DR One is vastly overdimensioned for its workload. The other, also. #frugalcomputing

RSS Podcast Feed Inefficiency - Climate cost of handling feeds ineptly... #RSS #podcast #FrugalComputing #LowCarbonComputing #greenSoftware - https://www.earth.org.uk/RSS-efficiency.html

I have been enjoying @yihui's litedown (h/t @defuneste) and this is one part of the reason. #RStats #FrugalComputing

RSS Podcast Feed Inefficiency - Climate cost of handling feeds ineptly... #RSS #podcast #FrugalComputing #LowCarbonComputing #greenSoftware - https://www.earth.org.uk/RSS-efficiency.html

RSS Podcast Feed Inefficiency - Climate cost of handling feeds ineptly... #RSS #podcast #FrugalComputing #LowCarbonComputing #greenSoftware - https://www.earth.org.uk/RSS-efficiency.html

…How extravagant?

Well the image described above is 1,576,361 bytes.

Combined, my image description texts are 866 bytes.

So the image is 1,820 times bigger.

#frugalComputing

- - -

Also worth noting that HTML `<img>` tags without descriptions and without `alt=""` to compensate, will have screen readers read out the image file name, which is probably worse

RSS Podcast Feed Inefficiency - Climate cost of handling feeds ineptly... #RSS #podcast #FrugalComputing #LowCarbonComputing #greenSoftware - https://m.earth.org.uk/RSS-efficiency.html

…Although Stewart’s point about *pace* is well-observed, what we’ll see more acutely as things go into reverse, is *persistence* or the lack of it.

We have no option but to get back closer to that which has always been there but which we have severely diminished.

More severely than most are aware.

In terms of Jeremy’s talk, while we still have a lot, we can start doing #frugalComputing… or keep pushing towards bigger collapse, which will have the weird quality of being both quick and slow

…I’ve either come up with an alternative but still accessible and semantic markup, or rethought the design approach.

There are remaining frustrations with CSS limits, especially with regard to layout, but tbh they’re not really deal breakers.

I’d much rather we focus on the vital importance of #frugalComputing than incrementing design fetish