Blog
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Data Center Water in Yorkville: 350,000 Gallons, 42,000 Gallons, and the Aquifer Underneath
Yorkville’s data center water figure fell from 350,000 to 42,000 gallons a day. Here is what changed, and what the aquifer and the lake can supply. Read more →
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The Generator Yard: What Transfers From Loudoun County and What Doesn’t
Northern Virginia’s generator problem is engine density in a nonattainment area. Illinois inherits the engine count and the missing cumulative review. Read more →
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A Data Center Brings Its Grid With It. Which Grid Is the Question.
A data center’s air footprint is its grid’s. Both sides use the wrong average, and no marginal-emissions study exists for any proposed Illinois site. Read more →
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Data Centers Don’t Have an Environmental Record. They Have Thirteen of Them.
Thirteen data center environmental complaints, rated against permits and city records. What reaches Northern Illinois is the regulatory gaps, not the harm. Read more →
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The Pipeline, and Why This Work Comes Last
Fourteen pieces are queued behind eleven published. A verification pipeline that checks every draft against sources is the slow part, on purpose. Read more →
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Honda Navigation Clock Stuck at 0:00? Here Is What Actually Happened
Honda or Acura navigation clock stuck at 0:00? It looks like a GPS chip’s built-in expiry date, not your antenna. Check your own screen in a minute. Read more →
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Hello World!
I’m Mike Hammett. Twenty years running ISP and data center infrastructure in Northern Illinois, co-founding an internet exchange, and watching public narratives about technical systems drift further from operational reality. Most of what gets written about infrastructure, policy, and public… Read more →
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An Open Letter to Data Center Developers: Transparency Prevents Delays
The information vacuum around new data center projects gets filled by whoever shows up first. Usually that’s not the developer. Here’s what the industry keeps getting wrong, and why it’s easier to fix than they think. Read more →
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Why Electric Bills Really Rose, and What It Means for Data Centers
Electric bills went up. Data centers got blamed. The cause is PJM capacity markets and Illinois deregulation decisions made years before the first server arrived on I-88. Read more →
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How Meta’s Data Center Affected DeKalb County Property Taxes (2020–2024)
Assessments are up. Tax rates are down. Most residents don’t know why. The numbers are public. Here’s what they show. Read more →