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Cool/Weird Stuff To Do On a Cluster?

Posted by kdawson on from the whose-merest-operational-parameters-i-am-not-worthy-to-calculate dept.

Gori writes "I'm a researcher at a university. Our group mainly does Agent Based Modeling of interdisciplinary problems (think massive simulations where technology, policy, and economics meet). Recently, we managed to get a bunch of money for a High Performance Cluster to run our stuff on. The code is mostly written in Java. Our IT support people are very capable of setting up a stable cluster that will run Java perfectly. But where's the fun in that? What I'm trying to figure out are other, more far-out and interesting things to do with this machine — think 500+ Opteron cores, 2 GB RAM per core, a gigabit interconnect with some badass switches, a massive storage array, plus a bunch of UltraSPARC boxes. So at times when there's no stuff to crunch, I'd like to boot the thing up with a 'weird' system image and geek around in the name of science. Try fancy ways of building models, dynamically adding all sorts of hardware to it, etc. Have different schedulers compete for resources. Imagine a Matlab vs. Boinc vs. ProActive shootout. Maybe run plan9 on it? Most of us are not CE/CS people, but we are geeky enough. So, what would be the coolest and most far out thing you would do with this kind of hardware ?"

29 of 608 comments (clear)

  1. Vista? by Aggrajag · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think that would be an ideal setup to run Vista on. I heard that with SP1 you might only need half of the equipment you currently have.

    1. Re:Vista? by bobbozzo · · Score: 5, Funny

      Obviously, it should be used to find The Ultimate Question.

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      Nothing to see here; Move along.
    2. Re:Vista? by RiotingPacifist · · Score: 4, Funny

      Program a strong AI and then ask it if entropy can be reduced.

      --
      IranAir Flight 655 never forget!
    3. Re:Vista? by jo42 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Vista-needs-uber-comp jokes are getting extremely old. Get some new material. How many super-computer clusters will Windows 7 need to run as fast as Vista?
  2. You can hope by JesseL · · Score: 4, Funny

    that it will be fast enough to run Duke Nukem Forever when it gets released.

    --
    "Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado!"
  3. high performance java? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    You have a high-performance cluster, and you're running Java? I bet the OS in windows, too.

    1. Re:high performance java? by BluBrick · · Score: 3, Funny

      C

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      The doctor said I'm not supposed to get Slashdot in it!
  4. How about a game? by Niel143 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Chess
    Poker
    Fighter Combat
    Guerrilla Engagement
    Desert Warefare
    Air-to-Ground Actions
    Theaterwide Tactical Warfare
    Theaterwide Biotoxic and Chemical Warfare


    Global Thermonuclear War

    ??

  5. Super photogenesis by Stevenovitch · · Score: 5, Funny

    Write a program that creates every possible 255x255px bitmap possible, and then right an algorithm to go through and figure out which ones are rubbish and which ones are actually recognizable pictures.

    Logic dictates that one of the resulting pictures would have to be of John Lennon kicking George W Bush in the nuts, find that picture and post it on failblog.

    Voila.

    1. Re:Super photogenesis by Stevenovitch · · Score: 5, Funny

      Honestly, we should both be banned for this travesty... you more so than me.

    2. Re:Super photogenesis by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      1. Create every possible mp3 upto 5 minutes long.
      2. Sue the record companies for every song they release from that point on.
      3. Profit.

  6. Well.. by dreamchaser · · Score: 4, Funny

    There was this one incident when me and this girl turned a cabinet over on it's side and used it as a surface for sex play. That was different. It didn't get weird until she insisted that I tie her wrists with some Cat 5 though.

    1. Re:Well.. by bitflip · · Score: 5, Funny

      That *is* weird.

      Cat 6 is much better.

    2. Re:Well.. by JustCallMeRich · · Score: 5, Funny

      So - you are suggesting a clusterf*ck?....

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  7. "We're gonna need a bigger map..." by lemur666 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Anyone else think a 2^16 vs. 2^16 Team Fortress game would be pretty cool?

    --
    Corollary to Hanlon's razor: Any significantly advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from malice.
  8. Re:How about you don't? by mrbluze · · Score: 5, Funny

    That is one of the sanest postings I've come across on slashdot. So why is it marked as a troll? Jealousy.
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  9. Re:How about you don't? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    >> And save the environment a little bit?
    >
    >That is one of the sanest postings I've come across on slashdot. So why is it marked as a troll?

    Hippies are the worst kinds of trolls.

  10. Re:better yet by tshetter · · Score: 5, Funny

    While this might sound stupid this would give us a rough estimate of how many watts per virtual world it takes and from that we could figure out how many layers deep in the simulation we actually live assuming the top level one is powered by something less than 1 sol of power.

    Best idea yet.
    We need to learn to hack reality, and take over the simulation.
    Plus hacking reality just sounds awesome.

  11. Re:How about you don't? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Right on!

    If you're looking for something weird to with on a cluster, try fucking it. At least, leave a dead fish/mouse inside one of the cases.

  12. Re:How about you don't? by spun · · Score: 3, Funny

    No, we're the best kind of trolls. Come on, who's better at pissing people off than a smug, whiny hippie like me?

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
  13. Re:How about you don't? by otacon · · Score: 5, Funny

    I would have to agree with you sir. Nothing pisses me off more than hippies.

    --
    In a world of acronyms, the words are the real victims.
  14. Obviously by Belial6 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Obviously they need to upgrade their equipment.

  15. Re:better yet by 19thNervousBreakdown · · Score: 4, Funny

    Buahahahaha! Make it recursive and STACK OVERFLOW THE WORLD!

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    <xml><I><am><so><damn>Web 2.0</damn></so></am></I></xml>
  16. Only the second time? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    You must be new here (I guess this one also qualifies as a classic)

  17. Re:How about you don't? by spun · · Score: 4, Funny

    Cartman? Is that you?

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
  18. Re:How about you don't? by tubapro12 · · Score: 4, Funny

    They could try running Crysis?

  19. Re:Nothing like hypocrisy! by itomato · · Score: 3, Funny

    Except that I'm posting this from my solar-powered Tandy Model 100, connected via serial to my hand-crank operated OKI-900, dialed into Suncoast Freenet...

  20. Re:better yet by kriyasurfer · · Score: 3, Funny

    http://xkcd.com/350/

  21. Re:How about you don't? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hippies aren't REALLY trolls, they just smell like them!