Like I said, semantics. Grids are a form of supercomputing, as are clusters, both are types of distributed systems, as well as high performance computing systems, but neither are the same, nor are all distributed systems necessarily clusters or high performance computing. Or, in simpler terms, some of these terms are members of the same set, others are not, and there is overlap. If you're talking to me at a convention about supercomputing, I'm not going to assume you mean a Linux cluster. If you're talking about a distributed system, it would depend on the context (I have a friend who installs distributed systems...of environmental sensors). If you say HPC, it's more or less analogous to what I would think if you said supercomputing (which would be "okay, how many TFLOPS are we talking about and what's the architecture?").
So we're more or less in agreement here, except for semantics. Oh, and your comment about filesystems and what Sun sells (Sun does sell an operating system - Solaris, The Operating System Formerly Known As SunOS; I don't imagine they sell much of it in the HPC segment of the industry, but they'll be happy to sell you the OS and support contracts for any machine they sell, as well as any other bullshit that you will give them money for, just like any other company that wants to make money; I'll sell you illegal immigrants with abacuses if that meets your computing needs and you'll pay good money for it - it's simple supply and demand economics...it's just that some companies don't understand what there is and isn't a demand for).
Anyways, about filesystems...how large are your datasets? Most HPC/supercomputing/whatever-you-want-to-call-it deals with massive amounts of data (anywhere from terabytes to exabytes). More than can be contained in memory, unless your code is highly efficient (what's called "embarrassingly parallel"), and even then it must be written out to some sort of non-volatile storage (and, let's face it, even if the data ends up on tape eventually, writing from memory to tape isn't very efficient, even if every node had it's own dedicated tape device; sorry, optical storage is not here yet either, not at a reasonable price-point at least). So, unless you're dealing with small amounts of data that never needs to be used again and is generated dynamically by the application with minimal input, at some point a filesystem becomes involved (many types of processing that use clusters deal with multiple sets of data, for example raw data that must be processed, but that processing is dependent upon a look-up table that is too large to fit in memory, and unfortunately each point in that table must be referenced by each node for each segment of that data that they are processing - this is a worst case scenario, but it still happens). Whether it's to read the input, write the output, perform lookups, write out checkpoints, or whatever, at some point the data must be stored. And unless the amount of data you are dealing with is small (which is true of some computationally intensive applications, but not many), the only way to not bottle-neck is to parallelize. Look at what's being planned for when the LHC at CERN comes on-line - not just massive amounts of processing and storage in Geneva, but all over the frickin' world.
Sigh. I'm not trying to be an asshole (it comes naturally), but I think we're used to dealing with a lot different types of problems and system sizes. I've worked on everything from 5000+ CPU clusters to massive ccNUMA systems, etc. Your benchmark system is smaller in terms of performance than the number of nodes that I've rebooted this week (power distribution issues, long story). You obviously have worked with large systems, but I work with nothing but large systems. So, while we're both more or less correct, our thinking patterns are used to operating at different scales.
There is a difference between super computing and HPC. Only in semantics and some specialized cases. The terms are nearly identical in usage.
As for a threat, not really. The only deployments that Microsoft has gotten is by giving away the software and/or hardware. Hell, I'd take a free cluster from MS - and promptly install Fedora on it. And Solaris 10? Maybe somewhat, but given the fact that almost all Sun clusters are sold w/ Linux installed, that's a bit laughable.
And your statements about the kernel scaling fail to take into account things like Infiniband, parallel filesystems, and the fact that Linux is extremely stable once you get a proper configuration (that used to be one of my primary job duties - "hey, vendor XXX sent us a test node, get it running stably so that we can be ready to get another 1024 in"). Where vendors like Sun and IBM get a good deal of their stability from is having to support a limited subset of drivers, filesystems, etc. - on a single-vendor hardware platform. Which generally only costs an order of magnitude more than buying commodity hardware (or, if you're smart, forcing the big names to compete on price against the smaller shops, so you get excellent gear for COTS prices damn near).
Oh, and I almost fell off my chair when you said Windows provided the highest throughput under a given load w/ a given hardware set. Thanks, I needed that. Now, tell me, what would those two variables be? System.exe and a single CPU Xeon?
As for the "Mixed" category, most of those systems are a combination of Linux and another OS. And AIX accounts for 23/25 of the straight UNIX deployments.
I couldn't find anything on what OS it was running, but remember that Sun sells a lot of x86_64 (or x64, whatever) equipment for HPC. And most of it is running Linux. And the "uptake" is nothing new - Linux has been dominant for years, and the "uptake" started sometime around 2000. It's just that most major vendors didn't officially support Linux until later.
That's not to say that Solaris 10 isn't nice, but it's not free, doesn't have the grip on the HPC market, and OpenSolaris is too fragmented and immature, IMHO, for any serious HPC deployments.
So what? Microsoft has been putting up huge booths at the annual Supercomputing Conference, even sponsored one, for years now. No one takes them seriously. They even bought a whole lab for some university that I'm too lazy to look up, and from what I heard, it was a complete flop (no pun intended, though that's probably all the performance you can expect on a real world application).
Supercomputing is the one area where Linux is the dominant operating system. Period. AIX still plays, but that's about it. Just check out top500.org if you don't believe me, the June list just came out. Though the IBM Blue Gene machines do run a proprietary microkernel on the individual computational nodes (the user-accessible nodes are Linux).
In the U.S., it seems like people mostly just use their phones to piss me off while I'm driving. Nothing like being on a single-lane highway behind a dump truck going 50, passing it, and then getting stuck behind some dick (who is generally leaning on the window of his car with the cellphone in between the glass and his head, like it's some heavy fucking burden) going 40. All of this in a 60 mph zone.
They're completely oblivious until you pass them, at which point they'll start honking and/or throw on their high beams (yeah, that's really going to annoy me, mr. i-drive-a-sports-car-and-still-can't-get-laid, when I'm in a 4-wheel drive truck whose bumper is higher than than your windshield). Some asshole did that to me last night on the way home - well, actually, to the bar - from work (after a 13-hour day) last night. I rolled down the window, motioned for him to pull over. He did so. Then panicked and drove off when he got a good look at who he pissed off. Dipshit.
when you pass an argument in C, and wish to pass by address (as opposed to a pointer), you pass it w/ & before the variable name. & is the "address of" operator.
p.s. - to whoever modded this as a troll, suck it, motherfucker. There, that's trolling. Apparently you don't understand that "perimeter" means physical as well as network. But, then again, I bet you don't get out mommy's basement much, do you?
Ah! The presumption that I don't practice the type of security that you advocate! Fucking amazing what one can presume based upon a single statement.
end_sarcasm(&slashname3)
Seriously, I agree with you. I'm just not going to change the key files on and for > 2048 systems (regardless of how I can parallelize it) when I can just change the root password, disable their account and remote accesss, remove their keys, and call it a day.
There is no such thing as perfect security, especially if the person is smart enough (I've dealt with some people that thought they were smart enough, but weren't). IDSes and all other appropriate security measures help, but all what it takes is sweet-talking one night watchman or operator, and then finding a machine that you can boot off a CD (or replace the HDD), and you're in. Physical access is the greater threat than anything else.
Well, to be honest, it's never been an issue to me. Practice proper perimeter security and they'll never get in to the machines that they could damage.
It's called ethics. Plain and simple. Most people do not have ethics or a code of honor, on or off the job, so is it really so surprising that some sysadmins (many of whom are fed up with ID10T errors and ready to snap) don't practice either? I might kick a fallen opponent in the ribs (multiple times, generally - there ain't so such thing as a fair fight) if I'm brawling, but I will not read users' email - as I respect their privacy much as I expect mine to be respected. Ethics, honor, responsibility, etc. - all things that are required in a free society. And people wonder why this country is swirling down the proverbial shitter...
Someone needs to explain to them about using ssh-keygen to allow secure, password-less logins, and how write Expect scripts. That's how I handle changing the root passwords on the supercomputers that I manage (which undoubtedly have more nodes than that company has servers).
Firstly, the Top 500 list is the "authoritative" list, released each year at the Supercomputing Convention. Until then, nothing is really official. Though the list has it's own flaws, mostly from vendors submitting flawed benchmarks and/or guesswork.
Secondly, the real benchmark is the application. Some algorithms run better on some platforms and worse on others. Period. Unless you are running a highly specialized set of applications - and nothing but - the rule of thumb is "design the best system you can, that has the best overall performance for the majority of codes, and if it excels in one area, great". Of course, most supercomputing is FP intensive, so anything that has an excellent FPU architecture will probably be your best bet. And don't forget bottlenecks, like storage, network, memory, etc.
And, last but not least, remember that there are a lot of private companies with incredibly large systems. And most of those companies do not advertise their processing capabilities. Universities and government labs do, private industry generally doesn't. Of course, private industry is often trapped by the portability of their applications to new architectures, thus rendering the use of a system like Blue Gene/P useless to them.
This is why you often hear "Unidentified man found dead in his vehicle on the side of Highway X. Police have no suspects or motives, as the victim was not robbed nor...[blah-blah]" on the Houston news. An armed society is a polite society, and I'm Mr.Fucking Manners. And to endanger my family? You might as well just cross your name out of the phone book and take out life insurance. Not that I'll give you the time to do so...
Regardless of the correlations found in this study, I'm of the opinion that one thing causes road rage : stupidity on the part of one or both parties. And I'm all for pouring a little bleach in the gene pool...
Well, I can tell you one thing - better to be captured by the Americans than the Russians in WWII. My maternal grandfather fought in WWI, earned a Knight's Cross, and was pretty much forced to fight (long story to do with his politics and publicly stating that Hitler was fucking crazy) in WWII. Captured by the Russians, survived a POW camp in Siberia, and then they just released him at the end of the war : "Yeah, you're only a continent away from your home, and most of it has been ravaged by war - but you're free to go now."
Crazy bastard walked all the way home from Siberia to Koln, then from Koln to the village where my family was relocated. And my mother still wonders why he hated my great-uncle, who was an SS officer. Duh...
We were speaking of MBAs, not people in general. I know plenty of people that are "geeks" that aren't technical. Whereas, I'm the inverse of a geek, in many ways. My major interests outside of CS are body modification, music, literature, applied martial arts (also known as fighting), cooking, drinking in shady bars, and exercise. Admittedly, my literary tastes tend towards science fiction and fantasy, but I'm a bit more discriminating than I have found the average/. reader to be.
I am not the one perpetuating a fallacy. And finance is not complicated in and of itself, but it has been made so by the international business community. I knew everything I needed to know, at least to function in the modern business world, about finance by the time I was 13. And my apologies for the late response, I have been ill.
They can be...but often aren't. I know a few CS/EE types who got an MBA (presumably to advance into management, but why anyone would want to do that, I can't answer...I would think that a MA/PhD in that field would count more than an MBA) and are still very bright hackers and don't hesitate to get their shiny new suits dirty digging for that unlabeled fiber optic cable under the floor tiles. But I've met just as many who are arrogant assholes that don't have a fscking clue what they're doing (my ex-brother-in-law was the perfect example of this), or even what the people they're managing are supposed to be doing. Oh well, it keeps the writer of Dilbert employed...
I don't know why I'm responding to an AC, but you made me laugh, so what the hell. The cop who pulled a gun on me did the right thing by trying to "build a record" on me? How did he do that? By violating the law and falsely arresting me and my ex-wife? That's really funny, getting posted on a story about authorities abusing their powers. He was wrong, we were right. That's why I spent the money (that I could ill afford) to fight the case, instead of just taking the "time served" that I was offered (the DA knew they didn't have a case, so they offered me time served for the 3 days I spent in jail if I'd plead guilty - despite the fact that a class A misdemeanor generally carries a minimum of 60 days on a good plea bargain). That's also why my ex-wife was released w/out having to go to trial or plea bargain.
Yeah, let's "build records" on anyone who doesn't bend over and get fucked by the justice system. People like you are the reason that America is so fucked up, buddy. So much for "innocent until proven guilty", habeas corpus, double jeopardy, or the rest of the Constitution...we might as well just let the Republicans and Democrats get together and have a soggy biscuit party on the original document, because they've done about every goddamn thing but that.
Stop living in hate? I'd bet good money I know what hate is, what feeds it, and how to stop it far better than you do - as anyone who really read my post would realize. Comparing me to the Unabomber? Oh God, that's a good one too. As for moving, I will when I have a reason (like another relationship - I don't mind risking my own life living in the ghetto, but not a woman's) or the spare money. A job? Can you think of a better job than starting your own company? As for where the line is - let me give you a clue...read my previous post. There is no fine line between black and white, good and bad. Grab a dictionary and look up the words "gradient" or "spectrum", put some thought into it, read the rest of the posts here, and then get back to me when blood starts flowing to your brain again.
Are you being sarcastic? I would presume so, since "grannie-rapers and father-killers" compose about.001% percent of the population (and are scumbags as far as I'm concerned). As for gangsters and drug-dealers, most people are products of their environments. I don't know where you're from, but it takes a hell of a person to overcome poverty (and I am anti-welfare, BTW), violence, fear, and all the other systems of control that are in effect in the United States. Even the above-average intelligence kid in a Houston high school has a hard time coping with eating a bagged lunch (or the shit they serve in the cafeteria) and walking (or riding the bus) home, then seeing the guy that dropped out last year driving by in a Cadillac. It's an appealing game, and the social pressures are high. No one tells you "oh, yeah, you'll be making a lot of money - until you end up in prison", because all the people that will tell you that are in prison. And once you're institutionalized, then it's hard to break that mentality. And there are many types of institutions, also known as "systems of control" - read some more of the frank, unconventional books about sociology and psychology if you want to understand how people are manipulated by media, government, and pretty much everything around them (or just listen to some Bill Hicks recordings, if you want a funny and condensed version of the same).
And the level of tension is so high you can practically reach out and touch it - hell, I almost ended up in a "kill-or-be-killed" situation last night, just because some asshole cut in line at the corner store while I was buying a beer. We had some words, and he backed down once I explained the situation and made it clear that I wasn't going to turn tail and run, but the little chickenshit flashed a pistol as he was walking away. If he had tried to pull it while we were arguing, I would have had to kill him. And probably gotten charged with manslaughter, and maybe a hate crime charge to boot (because he was black, and I'm white). And I'm a professional systems architect, for Christ's sake, and just wanted a beer after dinner. I just live in a crappy neighborhood because I just got divorced, am starting my own company, and this is all I have right now. And the muscles are because I believe in taking care of myself, and I appreciate body art, hence the tattoos.
But without the sarcasm and granny-rapers, yeah, you'd be surprised how little different you, I, or the guy selling dope on the corner are (we're all human beings, with more or less the same set of emotions and needs, even if our goals and choices vary widely in many areas). Maybe some of us are smarter, faster, or stronger than others, but where you end up in life in a combination of upbringing, choices, society, and let's face it - the only one of those factors that you have control over is your choice. And the problem with choice is (a) you're not always informed that you have other choices than the ones you're offered (and how many of us are mature enough when we're young and growing up to see that we don't have to be products of our environment; no one told me "well, the reason your mother beat the shit of you when you were small is because her father did the same to her, and you don't have to be angry the rest of your life over it" - I had to figure that out for myself, and once I did that, my relationship with my family became much better, as did my attitude in general - yeah, I still have a temper, but I now know that I have choice about controlling it) and (b) the things that influence your choices aren't always what they appear to be. For example, you hear the "War On Drugs" people telling you that everyone who smokes pot is going to end up a heroin addict and in prison. And then you see the perfectly well-adjusted person who has a job, a relationship, and is a responsible individual, yet smokes pot on the weekends. What they don't tell you is that some people have addictive personalities, or self-destructive streaks (as I do, and it too
Sorry, I'll be right there...as soon as I get my gun back. Seriously, I was in my private vehicle, with my (now-ex) wife who has a Concealed Handgun License, with my pistol out of sight (as the law in Texas requires), and changing a CD at a red light, missed the brief green light, and look up to see a cop pointing a gun in my face. After we were dragged out of the vehicle, they found the pistol, I was taken to jail (my ex-wife was taken and held for 3 days for her prescription medicine, until someone brought the prescription bottle up to the court) and held under investigation for possession of a concealed weapon (which is a felony charge, serious shit; it was also a baseless charge, since in TX you are allowed to carry a pistol in your vehicle as long as it's not in plain view), which then got dropped to "unlawful possession of a firearm" (since they then claimed that the gun was visible outside of the vehicle, and that's why the cop pulled me out of the vehicle). I had to shit out 300 USD to get a bail bond, 1500 USD for my lawyer (who managed to get the case thrown out - I mean, how insane is the legal system - first I'm investigated for a concealed weapon, then prosecuted for the weapon being in plain sight - you can't have it both ways, fuckers), and then was advised by my lawyer to not even bother filing a writ to get my pistol back, because since the case never went to trial, the DA could re-open it at whim.
And, yes, I live in the county (Harris) that sends more people to death row than any other county in TX, and more than any other state in the U.S. The first thing I am doing once I recover from my divorce is re-establishing my legal armament. I'm now living in an apartment complex where I can walk out on my porch and watch the crack dealers and hookers at work, no white person in their right mind goes to the corner store after about 8PM (I'm the exception, because I'm heavily tattooed, muscular, and have gotten to know the locals because I don't give a fuck - I'll bum anyone a cigarette and sit there and drink my beer in public with them - hey, once you survive Houston public school, nothing really bothers you), and yet I'm the one who gets arrested and loses my personal property.
So give me a few months, homeboy. The corrupt government in question isn't just going after Muslims that want to fly, they're going after everyone, and it is occurring at all levels (city, county/parish, state, federal). And don't be surprised when something similar to the Rodney King tape comes out of Houston, and half the city gets burnt down either.
Might I suggest that your critical reasoning centers never developed? Free will is something that has been debated endlessly in Western philosophy for quite some time. There's two points that I was trying to make, and used myself as an example for. Firstly, I (along with a good deal of others better versed in philosophy than I) feel that the freedom to choose between doing something and not doing that thing is one of the primary defining characteristics of higher-level reasoning. The difference between cognition and instinct.
The second point, the more socially important one, is that it's a slippery slope. I don't trust any government to not make this compulsory as a condition of probation or parole, much like urinalysis and AA/NA/CA meetings are - despite the fact that those organizations are completely independent. And from there, you've begun to slide down that slippery slope. What's next? Compulsory vaccination? How about one that makes gays impotent? Can't have all those faggots running around violating the morals that this country was founded on, can we?...sarcasm...
Brain cells grow back, btw. Of course, if one were never possessed of them, that might be a problem, eh, AC?
I'm not so much worried about the people who voluntarily submit to the treatment as I am what the U.S. government will do with it, given their past track record of doing incredibly stupid and oppressive things "for the good of the public." As for horse urine, I have no clue what you are talking about. Never had the urge, sorry. Good luck with it, though;p
I can tell you first hand - Suboxone is a joke. The naloxone in it makes me sick as shit (until I fix, and then it goes away), and the buprenorphine in it does nothing for the cravings. Yes, I understand that some people benefit - mostly people with prescription painkiller addictions. People that could kick on their own w/out any serious problems. I've never seen it work on an actual heroin/morphine/etc. addict.
The only way to kick is, well, to kick. It helps if you reduce your usage or take a mild opiate (like hydrocodone) to reduce your cravings prior to going cold turkey.
Though it is similar to Antabuse.
Slashdot Mirror
My apologies, I didn't mean "free as in beer".
So we're more or less in agreement here, except for semantics. Oh, and your comment about filesystems and what Sun sells (Sun does sell an operating system - Solaris, The Operating System Formerly Known As SunOS; I don't imagine they sell much of it in the HPC segment of the industry, but they'll be happy to sell you the OS and support contracts for any machine they sell, as well as any other bullshit that you will give them money for, just like any other company that wants to make money; I'll sell you illegal immigrants with abacuses if that meets your computing needs and you'll pay good money for it - it's simple supply and demand economics...it's just that some companies don't understand what there is and isn't a demand for).
Anyways, about filesystems...how large are your datasets? Most HPC/supercomputing/whatever-you-want-to-call-it deals with massive amounts of data (anywhere from terabytes to exabytes). More than can be contained in memory, unless your code is highly efficient (what's called "embarrassingly parallel"), and even then it must be written out to some sort of non-volatile storage (and, let's face it, even if the data ends up on tape eventually, writing from memory to tape isn't very efficient, even if every node had it's own dedicated tape device; sorry, optical storage is not here yet either, not at a reasonable price-point at least). So, unless you're dealing with small amounts of data that never needs to be used again and is generated dynamically by the application with minimal input, at some point a filesystem becomes involved (many types of processing that use clusters deal with multiple sets of data, for example raw data that must be processed, but that processing is dependent upon a look-up table that is too large to fit in memory, and unfortunately each point in that table must be referenced by each node for each segment of that data that they are processing - this is a worst case scenario, but it still happens). Whether it's to read the input, write the output, perform lookups, write out checkpoints, or whatever, at some point the data must be stored. And unless the amount of data you are dealing with is small (which is true of some computationally intensive applications, but not many), the only way to not bottle-neck is to parallelize. Look at what's being planned for when the LHC at CERN comes on-line - not just massive amounts of processing and storage in Geneva, but all over the frickin' world.
Sigh. I'm not trying to be an asshole (it comes naturally), but I think we're used to dealing with a lot different types of problems and system sizes. I've worked on everything from 5000+ CPU clusters to massive ccNUMA systems, etc. Your benchmark system is smaller in terms of performance than the number of nodes that I've rebooted this week (power distribution issues, long story). You obviously have worked with large systems, but I work with nothing but large systems. So, while we're both more or less correct, our thinking patterns are used to operating at different scales.
As for a threat, not really. The only deployments that Microsoft has gotten is by giving away the software and/or hardware. Hell, I'd take a free cluster from MS - and promptly install Fedora on it. And Solaris 10? Maybe somewhat, but given the fact that almost all Sun clusters are sold w/ Linux installed, that's a bit laughable.
And your statements about the kernel scaling fail to take into account things like Infiniband, parallel filesystems, and the fact that Linux is extremely stable once you get a proper configuration (that used to be one of my primary job duties - "hey, vendor XXX sent us a test node, get it running stably so that we can be ready to get another 1024 in"). Where vendors like Sun and IBM get a good deal of their stability from is having to support a limited subset of drivers, filesystems, etc. - on a single-vendor hardware platform. Which generally only costs an order of magnitude more than buying commodity hardware (or, if you're smart, forcing the big names to compete on price against the smaller shops, so you get excellent gear for COTS prices damn near).
Oh, and I almost fell off my chair when you said Windows provided the highest throughput under a given load w/ a given hardware set. Thanks, I needed that. Now, tell me, what would those two variables be? System.exe and a single CPU Xeon?
As for the "Mixed" category, most of those systems are a combination of Linux and another OS. And AIX accounts for 23/25 of the straight UNIX deployments.
I rest my case.
That's not to say that Solaris 10 isn't nice, but it's not free, doesn't have the grip on the HPC market, and OpenSolaris is too fragmented and immature, IMHO, for any serious HPC deployments.
Supercomputing is the one area where Linux is the dominant operating system. Period. AIX still plays, but that's about it. Just check out top500.org if you don't believe me, the June list just came out. Though the IBM Blue Gene machines do run a proprietary microkernel on the individual computational nodes (the user-accessible nodes are Linux).
They're completely oblivious until you pass them, at which point they'll start honking and/or throw on their high beams (yeah, that's really going to annoy me, mr. i-drive-a-sports-car-and-still-can't-get-laid, when I'm in a 4-wheel drive truck whose bumper is higher than than your windshield). Some asshole did that to me last night on the way home - well, actually, to the bar - from work (after a 13-hour day) last night. I rolled down the window, motioned for him to pull over. He did so. Then panicked and drove off when he got a good look at who he pissed off. Dipshit.
when you pass an argument in C, and wish to pass by address (as opposed to a pointer), you pass it w/ & before the variable name. & is the "address of" operator.
p.s. - to whoever modded this as a troll, suck it, motherfucker. There, that's trolling. Apparently you don't understand that "perimeter" means physical as well as network. But, then again, I bet you don't get out mommy's basement much, do you?
end_sarcasm(&slashname3)
Seriously, I agree with you. I'm just not going to change the key files on and for > 2048 systems (regardless of how I can parallelize it) when I can just change the root password, disable their account and remote accesss, remove their keys, and call it a day.
There is no such thing as perfect security, especially if the person is smart enough (I've dealt with some people that thought they were smart enough, but weren't). IDSes and all other appropriate security measures help, but all what it takes is sweet-talking one night watchman or operator, and then finding a machine that you can boot off a CD (or replace the HDD), and you're in. Physical access is the greater threat than anything else.
Well, to be honest, it's never been an issue to me. Practice proper perimeter security and they'll never get in to the machines that they could damage.
It's called ethics. Plain and simple. Most people do not have ethics or a code of honor, on or off the job, so is it really so surprising that some sysadmins (many of whom are fed up with ID10T errors and ready to snap) don't practice either? I might kick a fallen opponent in the ribs (multiple times, generally - there ain't so such thing as a fair fight) if I'm brawling, but I will not read users' email - as I respect their privacy much as I expect mine to be respected. Ethics, honor, responsibility, etc. - all things that are required in a free society. And people wonder why this country is swirling down the proverbial shitter...
Someone needs to explain to them about using ssh-keygen to allow secure, password-less logins, and how write Expect scripts. That's how I handle changing the root passwords on the supercomputers that I manage (which undoubtedly have more nodes than that company has servers).
Secondly, the real benchmark is the application. Some algorithms run better on some platforms and worse on others. Period. Unless you are running a highly specialized set of applications - and nothing but - the rule of thumb is "design the best system you can, that has the best overall performance for the majority of codes, and if it excels in one area, great". Of course, most supercomputing is FP intensive, so anything that has an excellent FPU architecture will probably be your best bet. And don't forget bottlenecks, like storage, network, memory, etc.
And, last but not least, remember that there are a lot of private companies with incredibly large systems. And most of those companies do not advertise their processing capabilities. Universities and government labs do, private industry generally doesn't. Of course, private industry is often trapped by the portability of their applications to new architectures, thus rendering the use of a system like Blue Gene/P useless to them.
Regardless of the correlations found in this study, I'm of the opinion that one thing causes road rage : stupidity on the part of one or both parties. And I'm all for pouring a little bleach in the gene pool...
So just kill the person that made the joke.
Crazy bastard walked all the way home from Siberia to Koln, then from Koln to the village where my family was relocated. And my mother still wonders why he hated my great-uncle, who was an SS officer. Duh...
We were speaking of MBAs, not people in general. I know plenty of people that are "geeks" that aren't technical. Whereas, I'm the inverse of a geek, in many ways. My major interests outside of CS are body modification, music, literature, applied martial arts (also known as fighting), cooking, drinking in shady bars, and exercise. Admittedly, my literary tastes tend towards science fiction and fantasy, but I'm a bit more discriminating than I have found the average /. reader to be.
I am not the one perpetuating a fallacy. And finance is not complicated in and of itself, but it has been made so by the international business community. I knew everything I needed to know, at least to function in the modern business world, about finance by the time I was 13. And my apologies for the late response, I have been ill.
They can be...but often aren't. I know a few CS/EE types who got an MBA (presumably to advance into management, but why anyone would want to do that, I can't answer...I would think that a MA/PhD in that field would count more than an MBA) and are still very bright hackers and don't hesitate to get their shiny new suits dirty digging for that unlabeled fiber optic cable under the floor tiles. But I've met just as many who are arrogant assholes that don't have a fscking clue what they're doing (my ex-brother-in-law was the perfect example of this), or even what the people they're managing are supposed to be doing. Oh well, it keeps the writer of Dilbert employed...
Yeah, let's "build records" on anyone who doesn't bend over and get fucked by the justice system. People like you are the reason that America is so fucked up, buddy. So much for "innocent until proven guilty", habeas corpus, double jeopardy, or the rest of the Constitution...we might as well just let the Republicans and Democrats get together and have a soggy biscuit party on the original document, because they've done about every goddamn thing but that.
Stop living in hate? I'd bet good money I know what hate is, what feeds it, and how to stop it far better than you do - as anyone who really read my post would realize. Comparing me to the Unabomber? Oh God, that's a good one too. As for moving, I will when I have a reason (like another relationship - I don't mind risking my own life living in the ghetto, but not a woman's) or the spare money. A job? Can you think of a better job than starting your own company? As for where the line is - let me give you a clue...read my previous post. There is no fine line between black and white, good and bad. Grab a dictionary and look up the words "gradient" or "spectrum", put some thought into it, read the rest of the posts here, and then get back to me when blood starts flowing to your brain again.
And the level of tension is so high you can practically reach out and touch it - hell, I almost ended up in a "kill-or-be-killed" situation last night, just because some asshole cut in line at the corner store while I was buying a beer. We had some words, and he backed down once I explained the situation and made it clear that I wasn't going to turn tail and run, but the little chickenshit flashed a pistol as he was walking away. If he had tried to pull it while we were arguing, I would have had to kill him. And probably gotten charged with manslaughter, and maybe a hate crime charge to boot (because he was black, and I'm white). And I'm a professional systems architect, for Christ's sake, and just wanted a beer after dinner. I just live in a crappy neighborhood because I just got divorced, am starting my own company, and this is all I have right now. And the muscles are because I believe in taking care of myself, and I appreciate body art, hence the tattoos.
But without the sarcasm and granny-rapers, yeah, you'd be surprised how little different you, I, or the guy selling dope on the corner are (we're all human beings, with more or less the same set of emotions and needs, even if our goals and choices vary widely in many areas). Maybe some of us are smarter, faster, or stronger than others, but where you end up in life in a combination of upbringing, choices, society, and let's face it - the only one of those factors that you have control over is your choice. And the problem with choice is (a) you're not always informed that you have other choices than the ones you're offered (and how many of us are mature enough when we're young and growing up to see that we don't have to be products of our environment; no one told me "well, the reason your mother beat the shit of you when you were small is because her father did the same to her, and you don't have to be angry the rest of your life over it" - I had to figure that out for myself, and once I did that, my relationship with my family became much better, as did my attitude in general - yeah, I still have a temper, but I now know that I have choice about controlling it) and (b) the things that influence your choices aren't always what they appear to be. For example, you hear the "War On Drugs" people telling you that everyone who smokes pot is going to end up a heroin addict and in prison. And then you see the perfectly well-adjusted person who has a job, a relationship, and is a responsible individual, yet smokes pot on the weekends. What they don't tell you is that some people have addictive personalities, or self-destructive streaks (as I do, and it too
And, yes, I live in the county (Harris) that sends more people to death row than any other county in TX, and more than any other state in the U.S. The first thing I am doing once I recover from my divorce is re-establishing my legal armament. I'm now living in an apartment complex where I can walk out on my porch and watch the crack dealers and hookers at work, no white person in their right mind goes to the corner store after about 8PM (I'm the exception, because I'm heavily tattooed, muscular, and have gotten to know the locals because I don't give a fuck - I'll bum anyone a cigarette and sit there and drink my beer in public with them - hey, once you survive Houston public school, nothing really bothers you), and yet I'm the one who gets arrested and loses my personal property.
So give me a few months, homeboy. The corrupt government in question isn't just going after Muslims that want to fly, they're going after everyone, and it is occurring at all levels (city, county/parish, state, federal). And don't be surprised when something similar to the Rodney King tape comes out of Houston, and half the city gets burnt down either.
The second point, the more socially important one, is that it's a slippery slope. I don't trust any government to not make this compulsory as a condition of probation or parole, much like urinalysis and AA/NA/CA meetings are - despite the fact that those organizations are completely independent. And from there, you've begun to slide down that slippery slope. What's next? Compulsory vaccination? How about one that makes gays impotent? Can't have all those faggots running around violating the morals that this country was founded on, can we?
Brain cells grow back, btw. Of course, if one were never possessed of them, that might be a problem, eh, AC?
I'm not so much worried about the people who voluntarily submit to the treatment as I am what the U.S. government will do with it, given their past track record of doing incredibly stupid and oppressive things "for the good of the public." As for horse urine, I have no clue what you are talking about. Never had the urge, sorry. Good luck with it, though ;p
I can tell you first hand - Suboxone is a joke. The naloxone in it makes me sick as shit (until I fix, and then it goes away), and the buprenorphine in it does nothing for the cravings. Yes, I understand that some people benefit - mostly people with prescription painkiller addictions. People that could kick on their own w/out any serious problems. I've never seen it work on an actual heroin/morphine/etc. addict.
The only way to kick is, well, to kick. It helps if you reduce your usage or take a mild opiate (like hydrocodone) to reduce your cravings prior to going cold turkey.
Though it is similar to Antabuse.