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Two months ago, the British government released a “Growth Plan” that talked about tax cuts worth about $45B. That led to a series of events that culminated in Lis Truss going into the history books as the shortest-termed Prime Minister in the UK.

Things are not looking good for the UK economy, with interest rate hikes and soaring inflation! Add to that the Sterling Pound

Specifically, Sterling Pound has fallen against the dollar by around 20% since the start of the year and inflation is at 9.3% as of November 2022. So - How did this happen?

Today on Things Have Changed Podcast, we’re going to talk about how the pound sterling is getting POUNDED! Tune in.

Helpful Links:

• The pound is plumbing near-historical depths. Why?
• Britains Chancellor Offers up a Reckless Budget, Fiscally and Politically
• [UK Data on Inflation](https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices#:~:text=Consumer price inflation%2C UK%3A November 2022&text=On a monthly basis%2C CPIH,of 0.6%25 in November 2021.)
• A weaker pound does not spell disaster for Britain
• UK interest rates raised to highest level for 14 years
• How to Invest a Million Dollars
• Forbes Best Safe Haven Investments

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In early 2021 the dollar was near its lowest level in more than five years against a broad basket of currencies

Fast forward to July of 2022, the dollar reached parity with the euro for the first time since 2002! The dollar has been on a tear! climbing by around 20% over the past year against a basket of global currencies, and is at its highest level in 20 years.

• And this has been a wrecking ball to the global economy!
• Stock markets are bleeding, corporate bonds have been pummelled and crypto is dead!

In this season of Things Have Changed Podcast, we’re going to talk about Currencies. and today we’re going to talk about how USD crushed foreign exchange markets!

Helpful Links:

• Global rate rises are happening on an unprecedented scale
• Central Banks May Stoke Risks by Raising Interest Rates Together
• Dollar-euro parity may be justified. But the yen looks cheap as chips
• The Dollar is Strong as Ever, Isn’t it?
• Why the dollar is strong and why that is a problem
• What’s behind the dollars strength?
• Things to buy when the dollar is strong

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During the pandemic, the way you’ve eaten has likely changed. Either you ate out less, you cooked more, or you wholeheartedly embraced food delivery such as DoorDash, Deliveroo, Grab, Swiggy or Zomato based on where you live.

The Food Service industry was worth over $900B in 2021 just in North America and it’s only getting bigger. It’s also changing.. you may have experienced it already - with all sorts of new experiences, like food delivery, home chefs, and even robot-made food!

As robots become more and more complex, the tasks they’re able to complete is growing! Roomba’s can clean your house, mow your lawn, The Da Vinci robot by Intuitive aids in surgeries and we haven’t even touched on the scale of robotics in manufacturing industries.

So what about a robot that makes you a meal?

Today, on Things Have Changed, we chat with Rajagopal (Raja) Natarajan, CEO & Co-Founder of Xook, to talk about how his team are pioneering a different type of food experience which involves sophisticated robotics, software and some very delicious meals.

One day soon, a robot will make you a salad. And it might just be a Xook machine 🤖

Important Links:

• Xook Website
• Xook Raises $1.3 Million to Roll Out Robotic ‘Food Courts in a Box’ in The US
• Hybrid workers will return to cafeterias with automated food delivery machines
• Rajagopal Natarajan Linkedin

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One of the highest consumers of electric power are data centers. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the data center industry, accounts for approximately 4% of global electricity consumption and 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions. 

To top it off, the carbon dioxide emissions of data centers are comparable to that of the aviation industry.The data center industry is responsible for more greenhouse gases than commercial flights  🤯 

And so the pressure is on for them to achieve net-zero emissions!

The growing intensity of computing power as well as high performance demands has resulted in rapidly rising temperatures within data centres. More computing means more power, more power means more heat, more heat demands more cooling, and traditional air-cooling systems consume massive amounts of power which in turns contributes to the heating up of sites.

So what can we do??

Our guest today, Bharath is at the forefront of this exact problem and is working on some very exciting sustainable methods of reducing DC energy footprint to help us achieve our NetZero goals.

Throughout this conversation with Bharath, Shikher and I learned so much about why Data Centers are starting to become an industry to watch. Although we’ve branded it as one of the most profitable businesses of the 21st century, we acknowledge that it’s also going to continue to take a toll on our environment.

Researchers and engineers like Bharath are the people that are working to improve the way we use technology, so that it doesn’t have to be technology vs the environment. As a lover of technology, maybe you can start learning about these problems and help building the solutions for the future of data centers. We’re putting some links in the description to help you get started! And you heard him! Reach out if you’d like to know more!

Until next time… Stay Curious!

Helpful Links:

• The environmental footprint of data centers in the United States
• How green data centers can cut your carbon footprint
• Bharath Ramakrishnan Linkedin

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Whether you’re streaming "House of the Dragon" on HBO or just chatting with your friends on Whatsapp, both cause a chain reaction and use energy. Today nearly all the world's Internet traffic goes through data centers or DCs for short. and it all the crazy things we do on the internet from cloud computing, AI, self driving to streaming your favourite shows on Netflix.

There are big costs to running these massive servers! These DCs, need a huuuuge amount of electricity to run their equipment and make the internet that we use possible. They also need a lot of it to keep the machines cool. 

Research shows that DCs consume close to 1% of the worlds electricity consumption!If DCs were a country, it would be the 3rd biggest electricity consuming nation, just behind the 2 biggest economies today in the US & China! And that is staggering! All those memes you share with your friends is consuming so much energy.

In this episode, we continue our cloud series conversations with Bharath Ramakrishnan, Senior Thermal Engineer at Microsoft. Bharath understands the technology of data centers intimately and at the same time, is working to answer the question: “What’s the best way to keep Data Centers ‘Cool’?”

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As of 2022, approximately 95% of organizations are using cloud computing for their work and nearly 85% of companies have deployed their workload on cloud in 2021. Furthermore, with the rising usage of internet and mobile phones & laptops, digitization is flourishing rapidly.

Cloud computing is clearly here to stay.. and it's still growing.. but what drives the cloud in the physical space?

To continuously expand the capabilities and the capacity of the cloud, we need to build data centers.. and to build data centers.. we need semiconductors. This has been the core technology enabling us to build the future of the cloud. The leading principle of the semiconductor technology can be traced back to the 1960's into the empirical observation of Gordon Moore.

Anything exponential in this world is typically paired with something called "Moore's Law".. Founder of Intel forecasted that the number of components on a chip would double every two years, roughly. That prediction really defined the trajectory of technology as we know it today and it's been a huge growth driver of our economy. A few years ago, leading economists credited the information technology made possible by integrated circuits with a third of US productivity growth since 1974. But as we know in this show, things ALWAYS change and they have.

In this episode, we explore the validity of Moore's law for the foreseeable future and we also speak with an expert in the space of preparing for that inevitable future, Bharath Ramakrishnan

Here are some cool links to read up on:

• Why Liquid Cooling May Soon Be the Hottest Thing in Thermal Management
• Cost-Efficient Cooling
• Liquid Cooling Options for Data Centers
• The 5 Best Liquid Cooled Gaming PC in 2022

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Hey THC Listeners! Jed has had a family emergency come up and had to fly to the Philippines to take care of family.
As a result we at THC are taking a short break and we'll have an impressive lineup of  of guests for our awesome listeners when we're back. 

So stay tuned, as you’ll be treated with an incredible pipeline, of ideas and conversation about the ever-changing digital economy right here starting October 25th.  

 Farewell for now but hey... stay curious!

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It’s happening. AWS is no longer the only cloud heavyweight doing business with the US Government. Azure has recently signed a $10 Billion deal with the DoD.

Gartner reports that AWS is still a better product than most competitors, in terms of what they offer and the quality! But some ask if it's fair that the DoD is only doing business with Amazon, a representation of perpetuating the monopoly Amazon is clinging onto. Amazon and Oracle both raised questions about “political interference”.

Microsoft’s resurgence has been nothing short of extraordinary! With almost a year and a half of revenues more than 30% of AWS’, has Microsoft officially trumped Amazon in Cloud? And don't forget Google, the small fish in this race aggressively ramping up in high growth markets like India & South East Asia.

If you’re curious about how the Cloud Wars are pitting the biggest tech companies against each other, tune in!

Some helpful links:

• Monopoly to Duopoly
• Amazon Lawsuit
• Microsoft Come-Back with Azure
• Big Tech BattleGround
• Governments Erecting Borders for Data
• Battle for Cloud Dominance
• Cloud Marketshare

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IBM, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon are all taking the helm for the cloud renaissance. Gartner says that in 2021, spending on public cloud services could go over $330B. All types of industries and even GOVERNMENTS are moving their infrastructure and technology to the cloud.

There is tremendous opportunity to build on the infrastructure of the cloud. AWS has been the clear winner for a while now, spanning almost 14 years, the margins and scale are unlike any other business in the world, and those incredible margins are attracting some pretty big fish like Microsoft and Google.  

If you’ve ever wondered how you’re able to watch Netflix or hail a cab through Lyft with a click of a button, you are basically using the cloud. So ‘What is the cloud?’ Join us as we make sense of the highly-coveted industry!

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Happy Labor Day Weekend for our American listeners! We hope you have a long and restful weekend!

We're revisiting some of our episode favorites - and for this week - we're doing the gaming industry!

In the last decade, the gaming industry has been smashing Hollywood’s earnings out of the park! Just in 2021, the Global “Games Market” had a whopping $180BN in revenue. In fact, Gaming is bigger than Hollywood and the music industry combined.

Top games are earning more than the big blockbusters. The top sellers include Grand Theft Auto V, Red Dead Redemption Two, Fall Out 4 and the Call of Duty franchise. Looking into the numbers... The Grand Theft Auto V game has raked in more than $6BN, according to Marketwatch. Compare that to Avatar, the highest grossing movie ever at $2.8BN.

As a result, Video game companies have become hot commodities and @thingshavechangedpod we break down the feeding frenzy that has taken over the gaming industry!

Links:

• Gaming Makes More Money than Movies!
• Gaming is the new Big Tech battleground
• Microsoft, Sony acquisitions are just the start of massive video game industry consolidation

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