Slashdot Mirror
US Supercomputer Lead Sparks Russian Govt's Competitive Drive
CWmike writes "Russia's launch of Sputnik in 1957 triggered a crisis of confidence in the US that helped drive the creation of a space program. Now, Russia is comparing the US's achievements in supercomputing with theirs, and they don't like what they see. In a speech on Tuesday, Russia's President, Dmitry Medvedev, criticized his country's IT industry almost to the point of sarcasm for failing to develop supercomputing technology, and urged a dramatic change in Russia's use of high-performance computing. Medvedev, at the opening address of a Security Council Meeting on Supercomputers in Moscow, told attendees that 476 out of the 500 supercomputers on the Top500 list were manufactured in the United States. 'Therefore, in general, our situation is very difficult,' he said."
Send some dudes to America with some cash and buy some nice computing equipment. Do you have some serious computing to do? Or do you have a serious need to build new computers?
From chernenko@kremvax.UUCP Sun Apr 1 15:02:52 1984
Relay-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83 (MC840302); site mcvax.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 4/1/84 (SU840401); site kremvax.UUCP
Path: mcvax!moskvax!kremvax!chernenko
From: chernenko@kremvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.general,eunet.general,net.politics,eunet.politics
Subject: USSR on Usenet
Message-ID:
Date: Sun, 1-Apr-84 15:02:52 GMT
Article-I.D.: kremvax.0001
Posted: Sun Apr 1 15:02:52 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 1-Apr-84 12:26:02 GMT
Organization: MIIA, Moscow
Lines: 41
Well, today, 840401, this is at last the Socialist Union of Soviet
Republics joining the Usenet network and saying hallo to everybody.
One reason for us to join this network has been to have a means of
having an open discussion forum with the American and European people
and making clear to them our strong efforts towards attaining peaceful
coexistence between the people of the Soviet Union and those of the
United States and Europe.
We have been informed that on this network many people have given strong
anti-Russian opinions, but we believe they have been misguided by their
leaders, especially the American administration, who is seeking for war
and domination of the world.
By well informing those people from our side we hope to have a possibility
to make clear to them our intentions and ideas.
Some of those in the Western world, who believe in the truth of what we
say have made possible our entry on this network; to them we are very
grateful. We hereby invite you to freely give your comments and opinions.
Here are the data for our backbone site:
Name: moskvax
Organization: Moscow Institute for International Affairs
Contact: K. Chernenko
Phone: +7 095 840401
Postal-Address: Moscow, Soviet Union
Electronic-Address: mcvax!moskvax!kremvax!chernenko
News: mcvax kremvax kgbvax
Mail: mcvax kremvax kgbvax
And now, let's open a flask of Vodka and have a drink on our entry on
this network. So:
NA ZDAROVJE!
-- ...{decvax,philabs}!mcvax!moskvax!kremvax!chernenko
K. Chernenko, Moscow, USSR
I thought Russia was focusing on botnets. Most of these have a lot more processing power than the fastest supercomputers.
"His name was James Damore."
The SR-71 blackbird was arguably the finest airplane ever built. Nothing before or since has ever matched it.
It was designed with nothing but a slide rule and paper.
Don't think these expensive toys are an adequate substitute for the human mind. Or for well trained engineers and mathemeticians.
Aw, c'mon. There are good reasons that the "stolen alien technology" meme has such staying power, and the SR-71 is one of the biggest. It was ridiculously far ahead of anything else we'd produced. Sure, it was the product of "the human mind", or at least A human mind, but I don't think lumping Kelly Johnson or Nikola Tesla or Leonardo da Vinci in with "the rest of humanity" is especially useful.
Whatever your level of skill and insight, though, supercomputing can act as a force multiplier for your brain. If you're claiming that real engineers only need a slide rule and paper, or that supercomputing will somehow get in the way of their natural gifts, well, I'm going to have to disagree.
Oh, and I probably shouldn't be mentioning this, but I've heard rumors that the military actually didn't stop developing newer and faster aircraft technologies after the Blackbird. But don't tell anyone.
Yeah, and this is not long after Putin told Michael Dell that they are not "invalids" and didn't need help.
If you post as Anonymous Coward, don't expect a reply.