Metacomputing

IBM takes Grid to the Clouds and Aids Solar Research

Greg Schnippel — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 07:29:13 -0800

IBM today announced that it is teaming up with Harvard University to launch a new worldwide grid project aimed at finding ways to make solar energy cheaper and more efficient.

Google Uses Searches to Track Flu’s Spread

Greg Schnippel — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 07:10:58 -0800

A new Google tool that tracks user searches for "flu symptoms" has given rise to a new early warning system for fast-spreading flu outbreaks that test indicate may be able to detect regional outbreaks of the flu a week to 10 days before they are reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

NSA and Army on Quest for Quantum Physics Jackpot

Greg Schnippel — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 07:17:15 -0700

The US Army Research Office and the National Security Agency (NSA) are together looking for some answers to their quantum physics questions on quantum computing and cryptography.

Reaching for the Exa-scale, by BOINC-ing

Greg Schnippel — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 07:17:43 -0700

Today, the average personal computer can do a few GigaFLOPS (the acronym refers to doing one billion FLoating-point Operations Per Second). A modest cluster might do one thousand GigaFLOPS, or 1 TeraFLOPS. And for several years, one thousand TeraFLOPS, or one PetaFLOPS, was the Holy Grail of high- performance computing.

Saudi Arabia Unveils Grand Supercomputer Ambitions

Greg Schnippel — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 07:19:25 -0700

Saudi Arabia is building a supercomputer that could rank among the 10 most powerful systems in the world. And the country isn't stopping there.
It has plans to turn this marquee system for the Middle East into a petascale system in two years, and, beyond that, an exascale system.
The move represents a big leap for Saudi Arabia and the region generally, which, despite massive oil wealth, has not had much of an impact on information technology, except as consumers.

User-Generated Science

Greg Schnippel — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:53:45 -0700

Web 2.0 tools are beginning to change the shape of scientific debate
Illustration by Peter Schrank

IN PRE-INTERNET times, peer-reviewed journals were the best way to disseminate research to a broad audience. Even today, editors and reviewers cherry-pick papers deemed the most revelatory and dispatch them to interested subscribers worldwide. The process is cumbersome and expensive, but it has allowed experts to keep track of the most prominent developments in their respective fields.

Google Search finds Seafaring Solution

Greg Schnippel — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 20:58:34 -0700

Google may take its battle for global domination to the high seas with the launch of its own “computer navy”.

The company is considering deploying the supercomputers necessary to operate its internet search engines on barges anchored up to seven miles (11km) offshore.
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ET could 'Tickle' Stars to Create Galactic Internet

Greg Schnippel — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 11:38:47 -0700

Advanced extraterrestrial civilisations may be sending signals through space by "tickling" stars, new research suggests. The signalling would be the galactic equivalent of the internet.

"If it exists, it might be revealed by an analysis of already-existing stellar data," says John Learned of the University of Hawaii in Honolulu.

Learned and his colleagues have focused their attention on stars that vary regularly in brightness. Crucially, these "Cepheid variables" are so luminous they can be seen as far away as 60 million light years.

Supercomputing Power Hits the Desktop, Minus the Software

Greg Schnippel — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 19:35:02 -0700

Biologists Enlist Online Gamers

Greg Schnippel — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 19:35:01 -0700