Top all-time · #9938
Wim Vanderbauwhede
Personal blog · wimvanderbauwhede.codeberg.page/articlesaiscience
Wim Vanderbauwhede's personal blog at wimvanderbauwhede.codeberg.page covers ai and science. Since 2023, 8 different Hacker News readers have linked it 12 times, most often “The insatiable hunger of (Open)AI”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-05, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (6) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN commenters cite this blog's articles on the emissions of computing hardware, mainly the claim that a device must be used about 25 years before a newer, more efficient one pays off its manufacturing footprint.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 6 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- The insatiable hunger of (Open)AI3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2024-03-14
- /articles/frugal-computing/2 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2024-08-29
What Hacker News says?
Manufacturing newer CPUs makes sense only if the device it's meant to replace is like 25 years old: "The emissions from production of computing devices far exceed the emissions from operating them" [...] "the European Environmental Bureau [7] makes the scale of the problem very clear. For laptops and similar computers, manufacturing, distribution and disposal account for 52% of their Global Warming Potential [...].…
Comment linking /articles/frugal-computing/
on “My iPhone 8 Refuses to Die: Now It's a Solar-Powered Vision OCR Server”Submitted The insatiable hunger of (Open)AI as a story · 13 points
HN discussionIt's kinda good they use such old systems, as the vast majority of pollution occurs during manufacturing of devices since we usually use them only a handful of years. Iirc the break-even point was somewhere around 25 years, as in, upgrading for energy efficiency then becomes worth it (source: https://wimvanderbauwhede.codeberg.page/articles/frugal-comp... ). 15 goes a long way towards that! On the other hand, I didn…
Comment linking /articles/frugal-computing/
on “F-Droid build servers can't build modern Android apps due to outdated CPUs”Submitted The Problem with the AI Hype as a story · 3 points
HN discussionGP already replied in a sibling comment, so all I can add is another article about this in case you want to read more about it with concrete numbers: https://wimvanderbauwhede.codeberg.page/articles/frugal-comp...
Comment linking /articles/frugal-computing/
on “Building a 2.5kWh battery from disposable vapes to power my workshop [video]”Submitted The insatiable hunger of (Open)AI as a story · 3 points
HN discussion> A Pi will sit much lower in total power consumption than almost any used PC For electricity consumption, beyond the wallet, it actually seems that hardware should have a lifespan on the order of decades before electricity consumption savings offset the environmental impact: "For laptops and similar computers, manufacturing, distribution and disposal account for 52% of their Global Warming Potential (i.e. the amoun…
Comment linking /articles/frugal-computing/
on “New 2GB Raspberry Pi 5 has 33% smaller die, 30% idle power savings”Submitted Cheaper AI does not mean greener AI as a story · 2 points
HN discussionUnless you have a CPU from 2000, probably it's not worth the energy savings to have a new one produced: > The report about the cost of planned obsolescence by the European Environmental Bureau [7] makes the scale of the problem very clear. For laptops and similar computers, manufacturing, distribution and disposal account for 52% of their Global Warming Potential (i.e. the amount of CO₂-equivalent emissions caused).…
Comment linking /articles/frugal-computing/
on “I will never need to buy a new computer again”Submitted The insatiable hunger of (Open)AI as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI don't have time for an elaborate sourced answer but in short, yes, the efficiency gains of modern devices is almost negligible compared to the CO2e of producing a new device at current device lifespans. I can't remember if you would have to use a device for 15 or 25 years before upgrading is better than continuing to use it, but I thought it was 25 Edit: yes, 25. Found my go-to reference for this quickly after all…
Comment linking /articles/frugal-computing/
on “A low-carbon computing platform from your retired phones”Submitted The climate cost of the AI revolution as a story · 1 points
HN discussion