Internet destroying the world

[sawyl]

Power consumption has always been a big deal in the supercomputing world, where vast machines have always slurped down millions of pounds worth of electricity a year. But now, with the rise of big data centres full of PCs, it's become a big deal for everyone else too:

Among the problems that could result from the internet's voracious hunger for electricity are website failures and communications disruption costing millions in lost business every hour – as well as power cuts and brownouts at plants which supply data centres with electricity.

All of which would be familiar to anyone who's ever lived in Bracknell, the blackout capital of Britain — or at least, that's how it seemed back when I lived there...