Slashdot Mirror
Grid Computes 420 Years Worth of Data in 4 Months
Da Massive writes with a ComputerWorld article about a grid computing approach to the malaria disease. By running the problem across 5,000 computer for a total of four months, the WISDOM project analyzed some 80,000 drug compounds every hour. The search for new drug compounds is normally a time-intensive process, but the grid approach did the work of 420 years of computation in just 16 weeks. Individuals in over 25 countries participated. " All computers ran open source grid software, gLite, which allowed them to access central grid storage elements which were installed on Linux machines located in several countries worldwide. Besides being collected and saved in storage elements, data was also analyzed separately with meaningful results stored in a relational database. The database was installed on a separate Linux machine, to allow scientists to more easily analyze and select useful compounds." Are there any other 'big picture' problems out there you think would benefit from the grid approach?
Well, My piont was that nobody in their right minds think that some people are less then human. They just don't jump at a cause to help them because of various reasons. You pointed out a few good ones too.
As for waiting untill it effects free trade. It is normal for a person to not care much about situations that don't effect them. This isn't anything new or novel. It might not be the best practice to have but it is a reality in life. I really don't see much wrong with it other then it tends to lend the opinion that if you don't think your being heard do something to effect something they care about. But even this is a trivial concern. Most humans get this idea from their parrents who ground them from nitendo or something they think you like to punish you.
Personaly, I have enough troubles running my own life without having to concern myself with someone across an entire ocean that doesn't influence my life at all. And when malaria does effect my life, you bet your bottom dollar that I would use anything to stop it even if it was bad for the enviroment. Why, Because it is that easy to control and rid the risk of it.