I Remember When…

October 10, 2011August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

…remote control was either difficult or expensive.
You could choose the Microsoft approach. You could use the RDP solution from any client. But if you wanted to actually connect to a desktop, that system needed to be running a “professional” version of the OS. That meant that you could have remote control from Microsoft if you paid them first.
But if you refused to pay the Microsoft tax, you could always pay Citirix for the right to use their remote control tool. Yes, it worked well. And it didn’t require a special version of the operating system. Instead, you just paid a license to Citrix and you could help whoever you wanted to help. But licensing was horribly complex. You had to have a license for a certain number of supported desktops or every desktop had to have a license of its own. So if you wanted to get help, you had to set stuff up BEFORE you had a problem.
Fortunately, you could always roll your own solution. You could install a VNC client and server on the systems that you wanted to access remotely. And if you wanted real security, you could always use an SSH client and server to make sure that your connection was encrypted. It was so easy to do that… OK, it wasn’t that easy to do. If you had an uber-geek for a spouse (or any teenage child could substitute), then you could brute force your way through the maze of complexity.
So the choice was simple: build a terribly complex solution or pay for someone else to do it for you. Now you have another option: Chrome Remote Desktop.
Google is building the Chrome OS. And they need to have a way to provide for remote desktop administration. It has to be secure and it has to be simple to use. So how do you do both? You build a tool on top of other infrastructure that already exists.

You need a rendering engine that can run anywhere. So build it on your browser.
You need a transport mechanism that is easily secured and can pass through almost any firewall. So build it on secure HTTP (https/443).
You need an extensible platform that can encode almost anything into an XML stream. So use jabber (i.e., xmpp) as the transport and stream platform.
Finally, you need a well known means of connecting users to each other. So use GTalk as the central nexus for interconnecting people.

In the end, what you have is a secure infrastructure that can easily be implemented via Google accounts and extensions to the Chrome browser.
I’m still a little leery of anything that is so simple and easy to use. But I think that this one may be a real winner.

A Very Samsung Summer

September 3, 2011August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

It’s been a Samsung kind of month here at the castle. First it was the Galaxy Tab. Then we added a Samsung refrigerator. Finally, we ended up buying a second Samsung TV.
Why did we need another TV? Well, our second daughter has started a job in Chanute, Kansas as an assistant basketball coach. She is having a wonderful start to the new school year. But she is obviously moving out of our house and into her own apartment. That is great. We are so proud of her.
But there are two challenges (one practical and one emotional) that this transition brings. The practical challenge is that Dana needed a TV. Cindy and I had talked about putting an LED/LCD screen in our bedroom (to replace a seven-year old tube system). Since there needed to be a +1 purchase somewhere, we chose to give our daughter the older system so we could buy a new system.
The device we chose was a 40″ LED/LCD panel from Samsung. We already had a huge Samsung TV in our main living room. And we have loved that device. So buying another Samsung TV was a natural next step. And this time, I made sure that it would work with the DLNA infrastructure that is now throughout the house.
After getting the TV set up yesterday, I’ve been setting up a robust DLNA complex using Twonky Media. I have used Twonky in the past (with my Western Digital external hard drive). So I just bought and installed the full product on my media PC. Once I set the server up properly, I have been able to stream stuff stored anywhere in the house. And since I’ve stored all my favorite movies in digital form, it is stunningly simple to pull up any of my favorite movies either on the TV, the tablet or my mobile phone.
That took care of the first challenge. The second challenge won’t be as easy to address. Now that Dana is setting up her own apartment, she rightfully wants her own daughter to be with her. I love Dana’s sense of responsibility – and her devotion to Jayden. But it means that Jayden will no longer be living here with Cindy and I. So while we are proud of Dana, I am so terribly saddened that I won’t be seeing Jayden’s beautiful smile or hear her infectious laugh each and every day. I can only imagine the loneliness and loss that Dana felt while she was separated from her daughter for the past two years.
I don’t think that we can solve the second challenge by buying anything or by performing some kind of technical configuration. This one can only be solved with time and with the comforting knowledge that Jayden (and Dana) are starting off on a new and exciting journey – and we will always be along to help and to share in both the burdens and the joy.
-Roo

Platform Pivot Possibilities

June 11, 2011August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

Anyone who has read my musings before already knows that I have loved technology for a very long time. You are also aware that I’ve used many different forms and flavors of technology. The list of operating systems is quite long. On the server side, I’ve used: Univac Exec 8, IBM MVS, IBM VM/ESA, IBM MVS/ESA, IBM z/OS, SunOS, Solaris, Irix, DG-UX, HP-UX, IBM AIX, Windows NT, Win2K(x), Linux and a host of other platforms. On the desktop, I’ve used: CPM, UCSD Pascal, HDOS, MS-DOS, PC-DOS, Windows (many flavors), MacOS (many flavors), Xenix, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, Linux (many flavors) and a plethora of experimental OSes.
As you look at this list, you have to be thinking a few things:

Roo is really old,
Roo is fickle,
Roo has been through a lot of tech transitions, and
Roo is really, really old

So why would I recite this list? Am I building a new resume? [No, I’m not.] Am I a preening, arrogant technology elitist? [Yes, I am. But that’s not the reason I recorded the list.] I wrote the list because I’m becoming convinced that it is time for yet another technology pivot.
There are some big trends that are becoming absolutely obvious:

Computing technology is for everyone. So it must necessarily be simple and bullet-proof. Over the past three years, I have deployed more “appliance” devices at home than I have deployed computers. Yes the appliances are computers. But for the average consumer, they are plug and play functionality. This includes: set top boxes, wireless routers, wireless extenders, wireless printers, wireless cameras, wireless phones, wireless monitoring systems, etc.
Everything is becoming mobile. Computers are getting smaller. They are embedded in everything (including my heart). And they are increasingly becoming disconnected from fixed structures (like an office or a home).
We are finally starting to see new user interfaces. Just as the keyboard was displaced by the mouse, the mouse is now being displaced by human touch. Haven’t we had pen computing for almost a decade? Yes, we have. But the iPhone made touch computing ubiquitous. More importantly, touch is not the only new user interface. Speech recognition is becoming ubiquitous as well. I can now talk to my phone and place calls (or write emails). I can now talk to my car (or its GPS) and get driving directions. With speech and touch replacing the hands and fingers that were tethered to a swivel chair, we are accelerating the move towards mobility.
Retail purchasing and provisioning are finally reducing the need to go to the store. It is very possible to sit in your chair at home and order anything for delivery right to your door. I won’t go into the moral impacts of promoting such sedentary lives. But I do think that this change is transforming the way that we live – and the computer systems that we utilize.

These trends (and a few other minor trends) are allowing new competitors to jump into prominent positions. And these changes are putting strains on older competitors.
The big boys do see these trends. Microsoft recognizes these changes. And I think that they are trying to compete in these spaces. But their corporate identity (based on sales pros getting commissions) is becoming outdated. Their corporate ethos allowed them to miss the entire music resurgence that Apple inspired. Sure, Microsoft is now in that business. But not before Apple seized the entire market. The Zune is cool. And the Zune market is feature-complete. But the battle was lost because Microsoft was trying to protect their existing channel model.
The Microsoft phone strategy has been equally anemic. They did indeed recognize the mobility trend. But Windows Mobile was incomplete and clunky. Can WP7 and its successors thrive? Uh, using the number ‘7’ in your name won’t repeat the Windows 7 success. Did Microsoft have a chance? Yes. Can they seize market from both Google and Apple? Sure, but they are taking table scraps from their competitors. And their corporate heritage is holding them back. Android has succeeded because it is repeating Microsoft’s PC success: Google has built an open platform.
Microsoft isn’t the only company at a crossroads. Apple is also at a crossroads. Their model of retail purchase via iTunes and delivery to a desktop device is now under assault. The iTunes infrastructure has always used the desktop as the hub of your music experience. But staying with that model would be like staying with high-end audio equipment. Sure, some audiophiles still have a stylus and all of their other component gear. But component audio was replaced by compact discs and then by PC audio.
The new model is to buy the rights to the music and to store the music remotely. This allows you to access your content anytime and anywhere. You don’t have to be at your desktop. You don’t have to stream from that same desktop. And you don’t have to sync with that desktop. You store your licensed content in the “cloud” and then stream it to wherever you want to play it. For me, this meant that I could stream some cool music to Meredith’s outdoor wedding site while we decorated that site. It also means that I can have my entire library available while I’m at work or in the car or on my bike.
And as of this morning, I’ve now switched all of my podcast content from my desktop (and iTunes) to my mobile device. I’m playing with both Doggcatcher and Google Listen. I haven’t chosen my final podcast catcher, but the choice to push content to my mobile device is now made.
That’s a horribly long setup to the real point of this article: I have finally broken the musical cord that tied me to my desktop computer. And last year, I severed the cord related to web content browsing. For me, this mobility push has been thanks to Google and Android. For others, they are thanking Apple and iOS. But the trend is obvious: cloud-based music is yet another desktop tether that can be severed. And with cloud-based services like file storage (via Google Docs, or Dropbox or any number of other tools), I can snip yet another tether.
Think of a bundle of helium-filled balloons. I’m slowly snipping the strings that hold them down. And I think I may soon be cutting the last of the ties that hold me to my desktop computer. Once I can effectively type on a mobile device, I may be able to come out of the cave where my desktop computer is connected.
The final straw will be whenever I purchase a tablet. And when that happens, I will be free of both Microsoft and Apple. I may end up being dependent upon new vendors (like Google or Amazon). But it is just about time to change things up in my computing ecosystem. I can’t wait for yet another technology transition.
-Roo

Does Amazon Have the Whole Enchilada?

April 2, 2011August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

For those who have read my musings for some time, you’ll know that I use a lot of Amazon services.

I have purchased music from Amazon for many years. Why would I use Amazon’s music service when iTunes owned the market? Because I really believe in competition. And I really believe in good prices. And I really believe in digital freedom. Consequently, I’ve bought many dozens of albums from Amazon’s music service. And recently, I’ve purchased from both my home computer and my Android phone.
I’ve also used Amazon’s Video service for a few years. Amazon decided that they would boldly venture into the same market that Netflix and Blockbuster had already captured. I originally chose Amazon because they weren’t Apple. But then I began to use their service more fully. And I realized that because they weren’t Apple, they were intrinsically better.
Yeah, that’s an exaggeration. But not by much. I bought a Panasonic Blu-Ray player. And it included streaming from Amazon VOD. Because both Amazon and Panasonic had an established history of leveraging open source technologies, it was a natural harmony. And as my Viera Cast capabilities grew, so have the Amazon VOD capabilities – especially with the Amazon prime membership that my wife has.
But while I’ve had Amazon VOD for about two years, I haven’t really exploited it much until I had the right wireless infrastructure at home. Now that I have that in place, it’s been wonderful using the Amazon service. I can get almost any video I want whenever I want it. And if I choose to buy it, then Amazon has provided a video locker to store the digital content in.
Since getting my Android phone last year, I have been waiting for Amazon to open up their own Android market. This week, they finally made it official and started vending apps using their retail purchasing engine. I haven’t bought a lot of apps from them yet. But if they provide the same application re-installs that the Google market does, then I may switch my purchases to Amazon. [Note: I really love automatic reinstallation of apps from the Android market. Every time that I switch ROM’s, I need to reload my system. So this is a sticking point for me.]

I’ve used a lot of “cloud-based” storage in the past. While at Microsoft, I tinkered with SkyDrive. BTW, this was a revolutionary concept that suffered from a horrible implementation. [Note: That is quite typical for many Microsoft technologies. They can always out-market you on technology that they acquire. And they can almost always build really cool new things. But they oftentimes have trouble building and marketing first-generation technology.]
But when SkyDrive didn’t seize the market, the most notable cloud-based storage tool in the market became DropBox. DropBox got a lot of the technology right. And they really captured a chunk of the geek market. Indeed, Cindy and I have used DropBox for several years. And it has been a wonderful success whenever she has needed a collaborative storage platform for her master’s degree classwork. But like SkyDrive, DropBox never made a big enough splash in the market to begin to seize the consumer marketplace.
And now it’s Amazon’s turn.
I REALLY love the cloud storage offering that Amazon released this week. If you’ve had your head in the clouds (or had your head stuck somewhere else), then I will tell you that the Amazon service is called the Amazon Cloud Drive. I love the name. It leverages the notion of the cloud (as popularized by Microsoft ads) and adds to it the simple and well-understood notion of the “drive” as storage. Hence, Cloud Drive may well be a marketing winner.
And the Cloud Drive offering is fairly complete. You can use it on your PC or Mac. And you can use it on your phone. And you can use it on a tablet. So far, it seems to really “sing” with music-based files. Of course, that makes sense as music files are the largest commodity that will be stored. It will be months (or maybe even years) before videos will become a ubiquitous on the service. So adroit mastery of music files hits the Amazon sweet spot.
And they have chosen a good niche for the amount of free storage. It is larger than either DropBox or SkyDrive. The current offering is 5GB for free. I suspect that Apple and Google may try and best this with a 25GB offering. But we’ll have to see. The folks at Forbes think that the first major reply will be to up the storage limits. If that happens, I would bet that Amazon will respond. That might be a fun price war to watch.
So far, I really like the first volley in the impending digital storage wars. Like the folks at Forbes, I see Apple and Google jumping in on this. And I think that Google may just buy DropBox. They don’t need the DropBox tech. But they may want the customers and the buzz. But I also think that you may see some other folks jumping in. I do believe that Microsoft may burnish and re-launch SkyDrive. If they do, this might be hella fun.
And I really think that storage vendors and media player vendors are going to want to get in on the action. While they may not be able to make a complete offering themselves, it will be nice to see how they are used as channel providers to the bigger players.
So what will it take to win? Winners (and survivors) will need the following:

They will need capital to purchase and implement the vast quantities of storage that may be required.
They will need established data center management skills to make the cloud-based storage initiative viable.
They will need marketing to get the message to customers
They will need partners for channel depth and diversity of correlated features/capabilities.
They will need digital content.
They will need a retail channel (with a strong purchasing and delivery engine).

Google has many of these. I do think that they lack diverse content – although YouTube does help. What they really need is some content partners – like Sony???
Apple has some of these. Nevertheless, they lack a robust and diverse partner ecosystem. Yes, they have lots of partners. But they re so closed that they are technologically inbred. And they don’t have a lot of online storage already in their pipeline. Yes, they sell content. But they don’t really store it for their customers. They move it to their customers’ devices.
Amazon has most of these (except for the brand identity across many markets). They do have all of the pieces in place. But no one knows that. They have content. They have storage. They have the retail channel. But they need critical mind-share in the consumer marketplace
I think that the market can bear all three of these big players – for now. And Amazon is first out of the gate. If they can capture enough early market, they may be the big winner.
I just wish that I could get “credit” for all of the Amazon MP3 purchases I’ve already made. I hate to move all my stuff right back to them – and then have to buy additional storage. It’s not fair! Wah! Wah! Wah!
-Roo

A Little Dab’ll Do Ya

February 21, 2011August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

Sometimes, help comes from the oddest sources.

As you can probably tell by my last post, I really don’t like compromising on technical matters. But I had to compromise a little in order to achieve the download speeds that I wanted. Consequently, I chose to “relax” my desire to use DD-WRT.

But I couldn’t live with the compromise. So that’s where a little innovation (and some off-the-shelf “hair grease”) came into play.

The problem was simple: when I connected the new router to the new cable modem, I was seeing abysmal throughput. And the challenge only came when using DD-WRT. So it seemed fairly clear that there was a problem with DD-WRT and how it managed the WAN port connection to the cable modem. Since both the cable modem’s downstream link and the router’s upstream link were attempting a gigE connection, I suspected that the issue dealt with auto-negotiation of the WAN port.

What could I do to bypass the code problem? From the simplest viewpoint, all I needed to do was change the hardware between the two devices; I needed a little dab of low-cost grease that could shiny up the problem. So I bought a cheap tin of techno-Brylcreem: a Netgea GS105.

Brylcreem was a pomade used for your hair. Pomades were made from beeswax, petroleum jelly and a little wax. These off-the-shelf components would make your hair shiny – and practially immobile! 🙂 The GS105 was the “off-the-shelf” component that both the cable modem and the router would seamlessly connect to. Hopefully, this would be a classic work-around for the problem that DD-WRT was having with the Cisco DPC3010.

Did it work?

Absolutely! The GS105 was the little dab that made my network quite shiny. Once installed between the two devices, my bandwidth (as tested by Speedtest.net and Speakeasy.net) was back to my contracted expectations. W00t!

-Roo

A Little Dab'll Do Ya

February 21, 2011August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

Sometimes, help comes from the oddest sources.
As you can probably tell by my last post, I really don’t like compromising on technical matters. But I had to compromise a little in order to achieve the download speeds that I wanted. Consequently, I chose to “relax” my desire to use DD-WRT.
But I couldn’t live with the compromise. So that’s where a little innovation (and some off-the-shelf “hair grease”) came into play.
The problem was simple: when I connected the new router to the new cable modem, I was seeing abysmal throughput. And the challenge only came when using DD-WRT. So it seemed fairly clear that there was a problem with DD-WRT and how it managed the WAN port connection to the cable modem. Since both the cable modem’s downstream link and the router’s upstream link were attempting a gigE connection, I suspected that the issue dealt with auto-negotiation of the WAN port.
What could I do to bypass the code problem? From the simplest viewpoint, all I needed to do was change the hardware between the two devices; I needed a little dab of low-cost grease that could shiny up the problem. So I bought a cheap tin of techno-Brylcreem: a Netgea GS105.
Brylcreem was a pomade used for your hair. Pomades were made from beeswax, petroleum jelly and a little wax. These off-the-shelf components would make your hair shiny – and practially immobile! 🙂 The GS105 was the “off-the-shelf” component that both the cable modem and the router would seamlessly connect to. Hopefully, this would be a classic work-around for the problem that DD-WRT was having with the Cisco DPC3010.
Did it work?
Absolutely! The GS105 was the little dab that made my network quite shiny. Once installed between the two devices, my bandwidth (as tested by Speedtest.net and Speakeasy.net) was back to my contracted expectations. W00t!
-Roo

MSN Messenger Integration

December 19, 2005August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

There is a new version of MSN Messenger for general use. It’s MSN Messenger 7.5.0322. While it still needs the ability to communicate with (and through) other IM networks, it is one of the nicest client programs I’ve seen.
First, I must apologize. This is the first version I’ve loaded of MSN Messenger for quite some time. While at my previous employer, we used Windows Messenger – not MSN Messenger. Therefore, there was no “integration” with other Microsoft products/services on the Internet. In fact, our Messenger infrastructure was a walled garden. Yes, it used SIP and was a great enterprise client – but it was walled off from the outside world. So my knowledge of previous builds is quite dated.
Well, this build is nice. It has a crisp look and feel. It is a little cluttered, but that’s because there are so many integration points. If you have a Hotmail account, you can instantly see how many messages you have (and whether or not they’ve been read). If you have an MSN Spaces blog, you can see your most recent post – and click your way directly to that posting.
And then there is the downside of integration. I now have tabs that link to free movies, free audio and a dating service. Personally, I don’t care for these integration points, but I’m sure that some folks do care about these. Of course, you can rearrange the tabs, but I’d love to remove them. In any event, I cant wait to see what this looks like on the Sprint PPC-6700.
From my viewpoint, I’m starting to see product integration from a whole new angle – strictly as a consumer. I can integrate my blog, my email, my presence, and my voice in a single place. And I really like the “look and feel” of the intgration I’m seeing. Every frustrated and concerned BlackBerry owner needs to take a serious look at where complete integration is headed. Now if integration can only transcend to true interoperability!
-CyclingRoo-

The New Hotness

December 1, 2005August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

Old and busted, meet the new hotness. This week, we are seeing some amazing releases that have been in development for many months. As everyone must know already, Firefox 1.5 is finally available in a GA form. I’ve been using trunk builds and release candidates for several months. And now everyone can share the fun.
So what’s so new? Well, Firefox 1.5 delivers on nearly every front. In this new release, you’ll find:

Improved speed,
Improved security,
Improved stability,
An automated product update facility (that includes incremntal updates as well as forklift updates),
Improved graphical rendering (via SVG),

and a host of other functions. If you want to see the full list, check out the release notes.
And the extension developers haven’t been standing still either. The new version of Greasemonkey (0.6.4) features a new script installer and a new menuing system (otherwise known as “MonkeyMenus”). If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, then you know how excited I am about AJAX and Greasemonkey. And this new version continues to deliver the goods.
But lest I f0rget competition, it is important to note that even Microsoft is taking notice of the new excitement of Web 2.0. I can’t wait for IE 7 to go GA. It will be great to have real competition in the market once again. With Mozilla and Microsoft both striving to outdeliver and outperform each other, the users will be the real winners. I love healthy competition!
-CyclingRoo-

Morning Grind #10

August 19, 2005August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

From the heartland, here are your morning bits and bytes…

I am now fully immersed in the most recent grid computing initiatives. I ran a couple of work units for the Folding@Homefolks at Stanford. This is a very cool project that is performing distributed calculations to determine protein folding characteristics associated with key protein sequences. The folks at Standford are looking at solving sequences associated with key diseases – such as Alzheimer’s disease. The project is worth your consideration. But for me, I will not be spending a lot of cycles on this project. Simply put, the computing engine is one-dimensional. That is, it supports this one project. Consequently, I am focusing more attention (and resources) on the more generalized computing frameworks. I currently am running both the World Community Grid and the BOINC framework.The World Community Grid is a project sponsored by IBM and United Devices. It is a generalized grid framework which can be used for a variety of scientific tasks. Currently, it supports just one task: the analysis of human proteome folding. This project differs from Folding@Home in that the Human Proteome project is focusing on the science of protein folding and not the assessment of specific diseases.
As noted previously, I am really excited about the BOINC framework. First, it is generalized tool that can be used for any number of projects. Second, it has more than one project in flight at this time. Third, some of these projects are immensely interesting to me. In particular, I love the fact that SETI@Home is running on the same framework that the modelers of the CERN LHC are using. Further, the WYP (World Year of Physics) team is using this framework for its Einstein@Home project. Einstein@Home is being used to interpret laser interferometry data in an effort to detect gravitational waves.
I forgot just how geeky I am. As noted above, I am fascinated by the LHC and what it will mean in our efforts to understand our universe. And I have used “LHC” as a Technorati tag. By looking at the results of that tag, I found a whole bunch of links to bright (and quirky) young minds. One link pointed me to a website where atomic decay models are compared to dating models. The most frightening part about seeing this link is that I understood what this young man meant!
Broadband convergence is great – and it’s hell as well. Cindy and I have one provider for cable television, broadband internet access and VOIP. The convergence is great because I have one bill. And it will be great when converged features start to emerge (e.g., interactive TV linked to broadband, callerid on the TV, etc). But it is hellacious when we have a cable outage. This morning, a series of thunderstorms took out the cable head-end in the neighborhood. Consequently, we lost voice, data and video. Of course, my heart was pumping and my kidneys still cleaned my blood. But my wife and kids almost seemed forlorn at the challenges. I should have told them to think of it as urban camping. Oh well. Things are back to normal. And I’ll have to think about how we can minimize the impact of these kinds of events.
My son amazes me – and frightens me. He really likes hard rock. And he likes seventies music. Last night, we listened to some Eric Clapton (Cream) and some Jimi Hendirx. My sone really likes Jimi. And he likes Van Halen as well. It was really odd listening to Van Halen’s “Dream” with my teenage son as I remember seeing the video when I was a teenager. Wow! I’m getting older (and grayer). But it is great to talk with your kids about insanely simple stuff. Sometimes, we get too wrapped up in the urgent/important stuff that we forget about simple and “unimportant” things. I hope that my son will think of me as someone he can approach whether the issue is cataclysmic or commonplace.
There are still some problems with current Deer Park nightlies and Blogger. Today, the items under MG#10-1 were poorly aligned (i.e., they didn’t flow around the embedded graphics). I’m sure it will be fixed soon. I love working with nightly builds. You see the development process in all its amazing beauty. 😉

That’s all for now. It’s off to meetings for me.
-CyclingRoo-

CERN: The Center of the Universe?

August 16, 2005August 22, 2018 Lorin Olsen

In late September, I’ll be giving a presentation on grid computing for the Kansas City Computer measurement Group (KCCMG). And since I am responsible for getting speakers to this year’s event, I thought I’d do the intro presentation. I’ll do this for several reasons. First, I’ll get to define terms and set the tone for the conference. Second, as the kickoff, I won’t have to be an undeniable subject matter expert.
So I’ve been putting some stuff together concerning various forms of grid computing. Moreover, I have been putting together some history concerning peer-based computing and its development over the years. So one of the key historical points I was going to highlight was the development of the SETI@Home project. I had spent many thousands of computer hours trying to perform all the fast Fourier transforms required to find E.T. And after a few years of spending lots of idle cycles, I finally stopped keeping up with the project. BTW, I’m not a wacko nut-job. I truly loved the notion of taking “leftover” computer cycles and putting them to good use. And as a sci-fi junkie, this was a diverting application of a fascinating principle.
Since SETI@Home was an early (and successful) form of a scavenging grid, I thought it deserved a slide or two. At the same time, I figured I could always get a laugh or two out of the crowd. So I went to the Berkeley site where SETA@Home used to reside. And I found the new Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC). Not only did BOINC support the ongoing work of the Planetary Society (the SETI folks), but they also developed an open framework that would support any number of distributed computing projects.
And what a cool selection of projects they support. I won’t go through all of them. But three really caught my fancy – and the cycles of a number of machines I administer. These projects include: climatepredictions.net (a global climate prediction tool), Einstein@Home (an applicaion to detect pulsars through the theoretical gravitational waves that Einstein postulated, and LHC@Home (a quantitative tool that performs offline calculations for the Large Hadron Collider at CERN).
While in college, I became infatuated with particle physics – or at least as infatuated as an Economics student can get. Consequently, the use of ‘spare” computer cycles to support the collision of hadrons (e.g., protons) really sparked my long-dormant physics curiosity. And while I am sure that I will speak further of the LHC (and BOINC), I was struck by the realization that CERN has always been at the center of computing innovation.
In 1980, Tim Berners-Lee worked as a consultant at CERN. Then in 1990, he presented his seminal paper on information managemnt to his colleagues at CERN. This paper helped to launch TBL’s (and CERN’s) development of HTTP (and httpd). For those unfamiliar with the history, the W3C has a great page with the historical highlights.
Well, CERN is at it again. CERN’s current support of an open grid infrastructure is testimony to their continuing commitment to the progress of the computing sciences. If you want to see some of CERN’s recent efforts concering grid computing, head on over to the GridCafe (http://gridcafe.web.cern.ch/gridcafe/). It’s a nice site about how The Grid is currently under development – and how it will impact our lives.
-CyclingRoo-

The intersection of vision and action

Category: Networking