back to article Someone in Australia wants server sales hidden from view

Someone has successfully applied to hide data on CPU and/or server imports to Australia in June 2016. The Australian Bureau of Statistics' new Confidential Commodities List for July 2016 lists “Digital processing units whether or not presented with the rest of the system which may contain storage units, input units or output …

  1. Oengus
    Joke

    ABS

    It is the ABS hiding the cost of the servers they requested to process the Census data.

    They can cancel that now as they don't have any data to process...

    1. DavidRa
      Coat

      Re: ABS

      What rubbish. When you don't buy any servers your lack of purchase is already hidden (and the servers which weren't purchased would have been not-purchased many months ago anyway).

  2. MrDamage Silver badge

    I dunno

    Do 3 trained monkies equipped with an abacus each count as a server?

    1. P. Lee

      Re: I dunno

      >Do 3 trained monkies equipped with an abacus each count as a server?

      Are you kidding? That's core-tripled parallel-processing HPC.

      Monkey's are mobile so Apple has a patent on that and you'll need a license for each of those rounded beads.

      1. K
        Devil

        Re: I dunno

        Given the licensing model, you must be referring to Oracle...

        (Posted from 30k feet above the Med)

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ddos.org.au ?

  4. Sampler

    Airtrunk?

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/29/who_is_airtrunk/

    Coincidence?

    1. Simon Sharwood, Reg APAC Editor (Written by Reg staff)

      Re: Airtrunk?

      Yes: They've not broken ground yet, never mind plugged in a server

  5. Griffo

    Alibaba or Microsoft ?

    Alibaba has announced plans to expand in Australia this year.

    http://www.afr.com/technology/alibaba-reveals-how-australia-fits-into-world-domination-plans-20160717-gq7f73

    http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/the-worlds-biggest-online-shopping-company-is-on-its-way-to-australia/news-story/8fb1fc0d05a2781ab22c9c546ccdeaa1

    Also, with Equinix SY4 opening soon, and Microsoft having 'capacity' issues in Azure in Australia recently, possibly they are pre-loading the halls with their 880 server clusters?

    http://www.equinix.com.au/locations/australia-colocation/sydney-data-centers/sy4/

  6. ggray

    Maybe some of the people at lifehacker.com.au could help...

    they don't have a forum or I would have posted there.

  7. ggray

    I wonder if they were ordered for the census (hidden so no one would know how bad it was) but they

    couldn't get them working well enough. Or is it the new units that are making it crash?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The full description, from the linked ABS document is:

    "Processing units (excl. processing units for personal computers & those of 8471.41 & 8471.49) whether or not containing in the same housing one or two of the following types of unit: storage units, input and output units"

    8471.41 and 8471.49 according to [1] have ANZSPCs of 45200.10.10, 45200.10.90, 45200.20.10 and 45200.20.90, which according to [2], represent:

    - Mainframe, mini- and super- computers

    - Other multiple-user computer hardware

    - Desktop computers (PCs)

    - Other personal computers

    TL;DR: A quick Google could have shown anyone who cared to look that the granted restrictions explicitly exclude "CPU and/or server sales".

    [1]: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/4A0A6AEB68EACF76CA256A6A001B7EDA?opendocument

    [2]: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/7A227A665A44E625CA256A6A001B7F10?opendocument

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Kim Schmitz?

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