Doesn't C++'s std::string also use a null terminated char* string internally? Do you count that also?

Since C++11 it is required to be null-terminated, you can access the terminator with (for e.g.) operator[], and the string can contain non-terminator null characters.

This doesn't count because it's implemented in a way "if you don't need null-terminated string, you won't see it".

It has nul-termination for compatibility with C, so you can call c_str and get a C string. With the caveat that an std::string can have nuls anywhere, which breaks C semantics. But C++ does not use that itself.

Those prices are rock bottom! For that price, what do you get for (a) power budget, (b) Internet connectivity, (c) ingress and egress per month?

I Googled for that brand and got a few hits:

    - https://inflect.com/building/1325-tracy-avenue-kansas-city/joes-datacenter/datacenter/joes-datacenter
    - https://www.linkedin.com/company/joesdatacenter/
    - https://www.facebook.com/joesdatacenter/

The homepage now redirects here: https://patmos.tech/

Another under appreciated point about that data center: It has excellent geographical location to cover North America.

Stupid question from me: What are their other costs? I'm a total newbie about data center colo setups, but as I understand, it includes: power and internet access with ingress and egress. Are you thinking their egress will be very high, thus thus need to pay additional bandwidth charges?

USD money market funds from Vanguard pay about 3.7% now. Personally, I would recommend a 50/50 split between a Bloomberg Agg bond ETF and a high-yield bond ETF. You can easily boost that yield by 100bps with a modest increase in risk.

Another thing overlooked in this debate: Data center costs normally increase at the rate of inflation. This is not included in most estimates. That said, I still agree with the broad sentiment here: 400K USD is plenty of money to run a colo server for 10+ years from the risk-free interest rate.

    > the USD is devaluing against the Euro

The EUR/USD FX rate has been pretty stable for about 10 years. I think (sadly, didn't check notes before I wrote this), the trade balance between US and EU is well-balanced. As a result, the FX rate should also be well balanced.

Try that same argument with a zero coupon bond. It works fine because you don't have any coupon payments, thus no income tax until the principal is repaid at maturity.

By rate, do you mean coupon or yield? I will assume that you mean yield.

Restated:

    > The 10-year Treasury [yield] has more than doubled since 2001.

No, it has not. See chart from the US Fed: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DGS10

Extend range to "Max". Yields in 2001 -- looks like the peaked at about 5.4%. Yields today are about 4.13%.

What am I missing?

Also, this phrase... is a strange one.

    > If you have to pay people twice as much to take your debt, is there more or less demand for it?

If your economy is running red hot (with relatively low inflation rate), then the central bank normally raises interest rates. Yields on central gov't debt will closely follow these rises. Controversially, I will say within a "reasonable" yield range (maybe 1% to 8%), the yield itself says very little about demand for it. Before COVID-19, Germany's 10 year gov't debt yield was frequently zero or slightly negative. Again: What does this say about demand for it? Not much.

What is the Real World use case for dual 5Gbit/s Ethernet ports? I just don't understand how a relatively underpowered board could ever make good use of (combined) 10Gbit/s Ethernet bandwidth. Is this strictly bragging rights?

    > Other mechanisms like adding lanes just invite more cars and traffic is not relieved.

I have been seeing this argument for 30 years, and, yet, rich cities in the US (and Canada) continue to add more lanes. My guess: It is just so politically positive to build more lanes that politicians continue to approve them. Why doesn't this happen as much in other rich countries?

    > Doesn't Sydney also have world class public transport infrastructure?

I did a double take when I read that. Where did you get that idea? By world class, let's say top 10 or 20 cities. Surely, there are plenty of these cities in East Asia and Europe that are far better than Sydney. I wonder if Mexico City or Sao Paolo has better public transport than Sydney.