Seven Wonders of the IT World

C.G. Lynch writes "The computer closest to the North Pole. The most intriguing data center. The biggest scientific computing grid. The little kernel that rocked the world. CIO.com has compiled a list of Seven Wonders of the IT World, some of the most impressive and unusual systems on the planet (and beyond)."

Comments

More than you might suspect...

[BWJones]

From the linked list:Secrecy level: High. Two reporters from the local newspaper are the only media who've been inside the compound and written about it (See "Inside the World of Google"): Google treats any and all details as though they belong to the National Security Agency.

Well.... I know they were trying to be funny, but the authors could be more correct that they might have known given the history of Google (startup partially funded by CIA $$s) and how tight they are with NGIA (Google Earth projects), CIA etc..., it would not surprise me to see Google working intimately with NSA. After all, Google has been competing with NSA for PhD mathematicians for some time now (and winning) and it seems like a natural fit. Of course such a "hypothetical" collaboration would raise all sorts of ethical questions, but assuming one could appropriately compartmentalize those concerns, it could certainly be mutually beneficial.

Personally, I'd like to think that this little project (when complete) will certainly contribute to the creation of one or more of the Seven Wonders of the IT world. After all, we all have little wetware parallel supercomputers sitting in the backs of our eyes that can process massive amounts of data, pre-encode it, filter it and more all while dealing with a certain level of data corruption, particularly in disease.

Re:More than you might suspect...

[BWJones]

Google has in the past had jobs available that required national security clearance.

Sure, but a security clearance can apply to lots of types of data and a diverse group of companies and government agencies. Everything from a basic collateral "secret" clearance (relatively easy to obtain) to "top secret" and compartmentalized programs are being worked on and participated in by people from not just government, but also a number of private companies. No big deal and I would certainly expect Google to have a significant number of folks possessing those clearances.

Re:More than you might suspect...

[Reaperducer]

So, in other words you're still not able to back up anything you said.

I don't know much about the history of Google, but Keyhole was a company independent of Google for quite years. I worked for a company that subscribed to its service. Google bought Keyhole years later.

Your original post is completely worthless, with a bunch of home page links pretending to be citations. Lemme take a shot at your style of online journalism:

Google is a company owned by the Dairy Queen corporation with the stated goal of infiltrating homes worldwide Radio Shack microphones and transmitters. They are carrying out this nefarious deed at the behest of the Queen of England, and the president of Mexico.

There. I'm just as factual as you are. And my references are just as good.

People like you are the reason smart people don't trust the internet.

Re:More than you might suspect...

[BWJones]

Oh, for the love of.... Use Google to find out. A quick search reveals information from In-Q-Tel's own site and from Google's own site of course these investments are all part of In-Q-Tel's mission and there is nothing secret about it. They are quite open about their investments and why they make those investments, so what is the big deal? Also, note that there are other companies initially invested in by In-Q-Tel that Google has acquired.

Further, the claim (again unsubstantiated) that you have a doctorate

Oh, come on now.... using Google is not all that hard, nor is clicking the links that I so thoughtfully already have provided for you. But, so you don't have to click twice, here it is.

Polar Photography

[Kelson]

Semi-off-topic, but Webcam #1 at the north pole reminded me: on Friday the Astronomy Picture of the Day posted a multiple-exposure image of last month's lunar eclipse as seen from the south pole. Not an IT-specific wonder, but still seriously impressive, when you think about it, that we've actually got people near the south pole who are in a position to take photos like this.

And hey, for once I can use the term "polar opposite" and know that it's literally true!

Slightly Dissapointed

[COMON$]

I dont know about other slashdotters but I was rather unimpressed with the 7 wonders of the IT world. Not much on there in the way of impressive other than my boy blue. What about impressive symbolic marvels like The Teapot which were the icons of modern Graphics shaping science and technology. Or code that drives technology like C++ or Perl, or dare I even say it, BASIC. These current wonders are very temporary whereas the original wonders are a bit more timeless, more representative of human innovation than just something that looks cool.

Voyager 1 is not IT

[michaelmalak]

Voyager 1 launched in 1977, about a dozen years prior to the coining of the term "information technology".

There is a deeper, underlying beef here. IT is about boring business data and came to dominate an industry that previously was the domain of science (often but obviously not always for military purposes). CIO is trying to make its readers feel good about themselves by co-opting non-business domains of computer use.

Re:#8...

[Spy der Mann]

Steve "Monkeyboy" Ballmer and his Flying Chair Routine.

The article said WONDERS, not HORRORS.

Storm brewing?

[mcrbids]

Disappointed, too.

But only because they missed something I think should apply - the Storm Trojan network. I mean, come on! Arguably the world's most powerful centrally-controlled computing resource, and it's all comprised of horked computers? How is that not a wonder?

You should hate its existence. But it's still quite amazing.

Biggest Paradigm Change

[Red Jesus]

Biggest Paradigm Change in Enterprise Software: Linux kernel

Don't get me wrong: I love Linus and I love Linux. But don't forget what RMS likes to remind us at every opportunity: Linux is part of the GNU system. And GNU predated Linux by a long shot.

Stallman started the GNU project in 1983 and founded the Free Software Foundation in 1985. The Linux kernel appeared in 1991. Where did Torvalds get his compiler? Where did Torvalds get his editor? Where did Torvalds find people to work on his kernel? I understand that it can be pedantic to argue about big, abstract ideas like ``When did the paradigm shift really happen?'' Maybe the paradigm didn't ``shift'' until the Linux kernel came out. But Torvalds wasn't out to change paradigms. Stallman was. If we're going to hail the concept of free software, we should acknowledge the alphabet soup of RMS, the FSF, GNU, ETC. that gave it legs to stand on.

Re:Biggest Paradigm Change

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe the paradigm didn't ``shift'' until the Linux kernel came out. But Torvalds wasn't out to change paradigms. Stallman was.

Community development was Torvalds' innovation, not Stallman's. Prior to Linux, the FSF was a GPL cathedral cranking out utilities to run on Sun OS.

Re:Small computer running Vista

[This_Is_My_Happening]

The Voyager computer is the only one that will still be impressive in 5 years. Just wait. In ~250 years when it comes back home it will be even more impressive!

Re:The list

[Repton]

I would have put "The Internet" on the list, personally.

It gives you a research lab in all your cities too :-)

Agreed:

[Penguinisto]

Considering that both Voyagers each carry a mechanical device and a gold disk that bears lots of rich data about Earth and Humanity, I'd say that the best damned Backup/DR data storage effort we've made so far in the history of mankind.

/P