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Los Alamos Fire Idles NSA Supercomputer

ygslash writes "Among the many facilities shut down since Monday at Los Alamos National Laboratory due to the approaching wildfire is Cielo, one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world. The National Nuclear Security Administration's three national laboratories - Los Alamos, Sandia, and Lawrence Livermore - all share computing time on Cielo, according to Associated Press." Update: 06/30 14:48 GMT by S : As readers have pointed out, this article refers to the National Nuclear Security Administration, not the National Security Agency. Summary updated to reflect that.

65 comments

  1. typo by shentino · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's Agency, not Administration

    1. Re:typo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So they want you to believe !! Silly kids on slashdot !! / Never get much of anything !! / SWOOSH !!

    2. Re:typo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's not a typo. It's a garden-variety "writer didn't know what he was talking about" flaming error.

    3. Re:typo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The job at Ceilo is called administrator, not agent ;-D

      Actually, now I think of it... It is probably called NSS (National Security Sudo)

    4. Re:typo by vbraga · · Score: 2

      I think the headline might be referring to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and not to the NSA.

      --
      English is not my first language. Corrections and suggestions are welcome.
    5. Re:typo by 228e2 · · Score: 1

      Probably, but they did put a link to NSA in the summary.

      --
      Since when does being a Socialist mean 'someone who has a different opinion than me'?
    6. Re:typo by shentino · · Score: 1

      It was a typo, they just fixed it.

    7. Re:typo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But is he dedicated enough for the job?

      http://xkcd.com/705/

    8. Re:typo by shentino · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yup.

      I just checked on Cielo, and apparently it is the NNSA that operates it, and not the NSA.

      So they're wrong on two levels, one for misspelling NSA, and two for using the wrong agency.

    9. Re:typo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, it's not a typo. A typo is when you hit the wrong key on a keyboard (or omit a key). This is an inaccuracy as the parent of your comment stated.

    10. Re:typo by shentino · · Score: 1

      They still misspelled NSA. Whether they got the right agency or not is another issue altogether.

    11. Re:typo by ygslash · · Score: 1

      You're right. The AP article looks like it's wrong.

      I was amazed by that little item they let slip in the middle of the article. It was the whole reason I posted this story - but it turns out to be just confusion of a clueless reporter. Ah, well. Sorry.

    12. Re:typo by ygslash · · Score: 2

      It's Agency, not Administration

      Thanks.

      But actually, it's Administration: The National Nuclear Security Administration. It turns out that the author of this AP story was a little confused.

  2. maybe its just me by papasui · · Score: 3, Funny

    but I had to read that headline about 4x to understand it.

    1. Re:maybe its just me by Lord+Lode · · Score: 1

      You're not the only one.

    2. Re:maybe its just me by jhoegl · · Score: 2

      Yeah, it is a terrible headline.
      I thought someone got fired until I remembered that Los Alamos is surrounded by fire.
      Then, IDLE != shut down.
      Be less terrible at your shock and Awe titles Slashdot.

    3. Re:maybe its just me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At first glance, I thought a supercomputer had been fired for being idle.

    4. Re:maybe its just me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would say twice. It strives for brevity, at the expense of legibility.

    5. Re:maybe its just me by Thanshin · · Score: 1

      Maybe it's just me but I had to read that headline about 4x to understand it.

      Lack of understanding by self amazes, abundant headline perspicuity found!

    6. Re:maybe its just me by ygslash · · Score: 2

      maybe its just me, but I had to read that headline about 4x to understand it.

      Yeah, sorry about that. Slashdot now has a very tight limit on the number of characters in a title, so it's tough to get in the point of the post. You've really got to pack it in.

      We need to come up with a good compressed format for Slashdot titles.

    7. Re:maybe its just me by jhoegl · · Score: 1

      + funny

    8. Re:maybe its just me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Still, it would be helpful if you didn't use obscure verb forms.

    9. Re:maybe its just me by carpenoctem63141 · · Score: 1
    10. Re:maybe its just me by RivenAleem · · Score: 1

      Says the guy who uses "it would be helpful" instead of "it would help".

    11. Re:maybe its just me by ygslash · · Score: 1

      Use British Headlinese. http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3148

      Indeed, that's what I used. And there's a precedent: This article reports that the following headline actually appeared in a newspaper:

      TEACHER STRIKES IDLE KIDS

  3. lp0 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    > WARNING: Job halted - lp0 on fire

    1. Re:lp0 by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      Get off my lawn! rofl haven't seen that one in a while. For the kids here, this is actually a valid system message...

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    2. Re:lp0 by Myrrh · · Score: 1

      ...says the guy with a six-digit UID. Get off my lawn.

    3. Re:lp0 by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      ...says the guy with a six-digit UID.

      It's not the size that counts...?

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    4. Re:lp0 by Myrrh · · Score: 1

      Huh. I was fully expecting someone with a four-digit UID (or, perhaps even one of the rarely-seen three-digits) and bitchslap me. C'mon guys...

    5. Re:lp0 by msk · · Score: 1

      Get off my lawn, scrub.

    6. Re:lp0 by DMUTPeregrine · · Score: 1

      And for the kids who want an explanation, LP0 is line printer 0. When a line printer jams the friction can ignite the paper. This is bad, so a paper jam in a line printer gets a warning of what is probably happening.

      --
      Not a sentence!
  4. Wrong agency by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Los Alamos, Sandia and Lawrence Livermore all belong to the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), _NOT_ the National Security Agency (NSA).

    1. Re:Wrong agency by DrgnDancer · · Score: 1

      Also, isn't Oak Ridge National Lab supposed to be part of that list? Or is it a different section of DOE?

      --
      I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
    2. Re:Wrong agency by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Oak Ridge, and many other labs are part of a different section of the DOE, named the Office of Science.

    3. Re:Wrong agency by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Different part: they are on the Office of Science side of DOE, along with Argonne, Lawrence Berkeley, Pacific Northwest, etc.

    4. Re:Wrong agency by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      Thanks I was going to post that I thought that they where DOE labs and not the NSA.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
  5. Effect on TOR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It would be interesting to see what TOR services/nodes/relays have suddenly become unavailable...

    1. Re:Effect on TOR by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2

      I'd be fairly surprised, even if the NNSA has any interest in Tor, to see much effect...

      Tor involves enough crypto-twiddling that it isn't quite as computationally trivial as static-content webserving; but on anything remotely resembling modern hardware it is still going to be bandwidth constrained, rather than limited by anything else.

      A huge supercomputer at a site likely using IPs from a well-known and early allocated government block would be a lousy place to put it. What a hypothetical interested party would want is a whole bunch of cheap and annonymous 1Us colo-ed in various random places and/or cheapy VPS instances all being paid for by front companies with PO boxes and horribly forgettable names.

    2. Re:Effect on TOR by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      cheap and annonymous 1Us colo-ed in various random places and/or cheapy VPS instances all being paid for by front companies with PO boxes and horribly forgettable names.
      Yes http://cryptogon.com/?p=624 had "High-Traffic Colluding Tor Routers in Washington, D.C., and the Ugly Truth About Online Anonymity" on just that in 2007 :)

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  6. This isn't... by Net_fiend · · Score: 0

    sensationalist in the slightest. Not that I'd expect editing or fact checking prior to a /. post; that was a fad that died out decades ago. I fully expect this to get flame-baited.

    --
    "When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty."
    1. Re:This isn't... by Net_fiend · · Score: 1

      So...further checking reveals: - TFA states: National Security Administration instead of NISA (which was already noted earlier) which is more likely the actual Administration that is being stated in the article. - Still a long leap from /. assigning a new word to an Acronym that is notorious in the public eye. - Seeing as the NSA (National Security Agency) isn't even mentioned in TFA. A simple mistake? Probably.

      --
      "When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty."
    2. Re:This isn't... by Net_fiend · · Score: 1

      Correction: NNSA not NISA.

      --
      "When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty."
    3. Re:This isn't... by bsDaemon · · Score: 1

      Yes, It's the National Nuclear Security Administration that has a presence at those labs. That's not to say that the NSA isn't doing something there, but they're much less likely to make that public. NNSA is under the auspices of the Department of Energy, which one would assume, since those are DOE facilities, which are traditionally associated with nuclear research (especially Los Alamos). However, claiming that the NSA is down gets more page reads, doesn't it?

  7. Link soup by lancelet · · Score: 2

    OK - this is one of those postings where I ask: which of the links is actually TFA?!

    1. Re:Link soup by antifoidulus · · Score: 1

      The very last one, but even then it's not obvious as the headline is about airplanes fighting the fires, the computer stuff is mentioned in the 3rd paragraph or so.

  8. Nuclear Weapons Calculations a Myth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Los Alamos and other NNSA supercomputers are instead running many, many, many... copies of Meeting Maker.

  9. Great, who's going to listen to my calls now? by elrous0 · · Score: 1, Funny

    So now I won't have a witness to the fact that my girlfriend is being TOTALLY FUCKING UNREASONABLE when she calls me in the middle of an important design project meeting to complain about some store clerk being rude to her at the supermarket. Just great.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:Great, who's going to listen to my calls now? by Coisiche · · Score: 1

      Aside from the fact that it wasn't really the NSA (or maybe the DOE eavesdrop)...

      Wouldn't the other people in the important design project meeting be witnesses so such a call? So which isn't real? The meeting or the girlfriend?

    2. Re:Great, who's going to listen to my calls now? by elrous0 · · Score: 1

      Only the NSA could witness, and presumably archive, *both sides* of the conversation. All the people in the meeting hear are "Excuse me, I have to take this" and then some muffled yelling from the hallway. Now there's no one to verify that she's being a total annoying bitch who can't seem to do even the simplest fucking thing without bugging me about it.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    3. Re:Great, who's going to listen to my calls now? by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      Yea right. Don't worry the NSA has enough recordings of you calling for Pizza delivery to your parents basement. Girlfriend and design product meeting. Now that is funny.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    4. Re:Great, who's going to listen to my calls now? by elrous0 · · Score: 1

      My mom *is* my girlfriend, you insensitive clod!

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  10. Cielo? by Chordonblue · · Score: 1

    I see a fire down the road
    Burnin' out of control and I'm like,
    Forget you... /Pity the fool that supercomputes with you...

    --
    "...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
  11. The Labs are DOE not NSA by Virtucon · · Score: 1

    The Department of Energy operates the labs, not the NSA .

    They also need to update their SSL Certificate... I went to go look at the Event Calendar at https://lanleventsext.lanl.gov/ off their main page to see if the Fire was a planned event and wouldn't you know, the Cert expired on 6/2/11.. Doh!

    --
    Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
  12. Ya I was wondering what was up by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 2

    There's no way the NSA lets their stuff go out to any other supercomputer, even one owned by the DoE. The NSA's institutional paranoia is legendary. Makes sense when you think about it, their mission is to safeguard critical US communications (government, financial and so on hence their participation in AES) and to do electronic intelligence gathering. Give that, one can understand how they get rather paranoid about informational security.

    These big supercomputer are DoE (that is the NNSA's parent agency). They do all kinds of things, including weather simulation but a part of it as you might guess form the agency is nuclear testing. The US can't actually test its nuclear weapons anymore as it is a signatory to a treaty banning nuclear tests. So instead it does them by computer. These high end supercomputers really can simulate them down to an atomic level, so they can test and see how the nuclear weapons stockpile is holding up.

  13. SIGFIRE by sourcerror · · Score: 1

    Or SIGFIRE.

    1. Re:SIGFIRE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or SIGFIRE.

      ... or HCF (Halt and Catch Fire)

      John McCain was wrong. It's not illegal aliens that start wildfires .... Evidently the DOE still uses core memory !

    2. Re:SIGFIRE by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1
      From the BeOS Kernel Kit documentation:

      double is_computer_on_fire(void)

      Returns the temperature of the motherboard if the computer is currently on fire. If the computer isn't on fire, the function returns some other value.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  14. echelon down? by datapharmer · · Score: 1

    Is that why my phone calls stopped making that click noise?

    --
    Get a web developer
  15. Supercomputer left idle? by black+soap · · Score: 1

    Keep it busy, or it may get bored, start looking around, and then before you know it we are in a kill all humans scenario.

    Cielo means literally "heaven," but is also commonly translated as "sky."

    1. Re:Supercomputer left idle? by cpghost · · Score: 1

      An idle supercomputer means running a whole lot of endless loops in under 2 seconds each... in parallel!

      --
      cpghost at Cordula's Web.
    2. Re:Supercomputer left idle? by black+soap · · Score: 1

      I set you up with a supercomputer called "sky," a Sky-computer if you will, potentially deciding to end human life, and that's what you come up with?

  16. Idle computers should be fired. by Camel+Pilot · · Score: 1

    Super or not if they are idle give them the boot... It sends a message to the rest of the computers that they may be next.

  17. I read that as by BigJClark · · Score: 1

    I read that as "NSA fires idle supercomputer"

    Too bad stupidcomputer, should have kept busy while the economy was slow!

    --

    Hi, I Boris. Hear fix bear, yes?