Weekly output: AI data centers, Stasi Museum, Sneakers, Brendan Carr on censorship, Mark Vena podcast

After a week at home, I’m back on a plane early Monday morning for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii. That company is covering my airfare and lodging, its usual arrangement for the event it hosts at a high-end resort, and I’ll include a disclosure about that in all the copy I file about the summit.

In other business-travel news, Patreon readers got a bonus post this week from a trip that they helped underwrite: a recap of the Online News Association’s conference in New Orleans.

9/15/2025: AI’s Dirty Secret Lies in Fossil Fuels Powering the Future of Artificial Intelligence, Worth

I missed this story when it was published because (ahem…) an editor spelled my last name wrong in the byline, leading to it not showing up on my author page. But anyway: Even if you’re as late to discovering this online as I was, I encourage you to read it and remember two questions to ask about any new data-center project: Will its electricity come from burning polluting fossil fuels, and are its owners paying for new generation capacity to avoid stressing the existing power grid?

9/15/2025: Berlin’s Stasi Museum Offers Uncomfortable Lessons About Surveillance, State Coercion, PCMag

Even though my previous visit in 2018 happened with the same president in the White House, the museum’s exhibits hit in a much different way this time.

9/16/2025: Why the Robert Redford Classic ‘Sneakers’ Is a Favorite in Cybersecurity Circles, PCMag

I had borrowed a DVD of this 1992 flick from my local library in March, which turned out to be good timing for the piece that I realized I needed to write the day after Redford’s death.

9/19/2025: The FCC Chairman Was Against Censorship Before He Was for It, PCMag

As I’ve written more than once here before, I hate abuse of power, and the chance to call it out gets me awake in the morning.

9/19/2025: EP 115 SmartTechCheck Podcast — Apple’s Awe Dropping Event, new iPhones and IFA 2025 takeaways, Mark Vena

My major contribution to this episode was discussing the popularity of balcony solar power in Germany–and its absence in the U.S.

12/11/2015: Updated the post to add a post that had escaped my attention in a particularly embarrassing manner. 

#balconySolar #BrendanCarr #EastGermany #hackerMovies #JimmyKimmel #MarkVena #Qualcomm #RobertRedford #SnapdragonSummit #Sneakers #StasiMuseum #surveillance #TooManySecrets

Streit um Umbenennung des Berliner U-Bahnhofs Magdalenenstraße

#Berlin #Magdalenenstraße #Politik #Stasimuseum #Streit #UBahnhof #Umbenennung #ÖPNV

https://bahnblogstelle.com/235326/streit-um-umbenennung-des-berliner-u-bahnhofs-magdalenenstrasse/

What was mind-blowing to me visiting the #StasiMuseum #Berlin was the effort it took to get information on people.

Stacks of papers: left the house, went to work, visited a friend. Written by hand or typewriter.

Nowadays, only some 30-40 years later, and every other week we get to read about yet another data broker or exposed location data at a scale and in detail unthinkable back then.

Meine Gedanken nach dem Besuch des #StasiMuseum in #Berlin.

Das Denken und Handeln von Menschen, die Organisationen unterstützen, deren Bestrebungen zu Ende gedacht darauf hinauslaufen Menschen die anders denken, leben oder sind zu unterdrücken, verfolgen und töten, ist abzulehnen.

Ich kann einfach das aktuelle politische Handeln von Menschen die selbst oder deren Eltern in so einem System gelebt haben nicht nachvollziehen.