Ask Donald Becker
This is a "needs no introduction" introduction, because Donald Becker is one of the people who has been most influential in making GNU/Linux a usable operating system, and is also one of the "fathers" of Beowulf and commodity supercomputing clusters in general. Usual Slashdot interview rules apply, plus a special one for this interview only: "What if we made a Beowulf cluster of these?" is not an appropriate question.
If you could make a Beowulf cluster out of anything, what would it be and why?
Nerf guns. Lots of Nerf guns.
Seriously. If your bosses were putting that much effort and cash into the adoption of a common device that the rest of the world already uses, rational arguments just won't work.
Nerf guns.
Do you ever regret leaving Steely Dan?
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
Nah. What most folks don't realize is that I own their box(es) thanks to some backdoor code in the drivers. I've got the worlds most powerful beowulf cluster at my fingertips, so money means very little to me. Believe me, if I wanted money I could take whatever I wanted.
-Don
And why don't you people like vowels?
(Thanks for the ne2000 driver!)
"I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)
What if we made a Beowulf cluster of Donald Becker?
Donald Becker,
With all that you've accomplished to date, how much do you think a Beowulf cluster of Donald Beckers could accomplish?
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
So Donald, how do you get your package
in so many peoples box?
I would think the first step would be to recognize that the people in management aren't pinheads.
Thanks for pointing that out. To clear things up, some are shitheads, waterheads, airheads and buttheads. Let's remember that there's a diversity of stupidity and a uniformity of idiocy in management.
Hey! For once Beowulf references are on topic!