kernel2 asks: "I'm currently doing my MSc. degree here at the University of Westminster in London and I need some ideas for my upcoming masters thesis. I'm mostly interested in the areas of clusters, agents, mobile applications, or any cool ideas you guys may have in the area of networking. The idea in the end is to come up with some cool topic and implementing it by either adding to existing software or writing something from scratch. For example, is there something that irks you about the way Beowulf or Mosix clusters work? Something you wish your WAP-enabled mobile could do that it currently can't? I've had an idea about an agent that automatically takes care of transferring files and synchronizing them for you in the background. It would automatically determine the best network to use to transfer the files and would know where to store the results. Has anything like this been done? Does it sound interesting and is there anything cooler that this could do? Any ideas? "

Greg Lindahl sent in this story last September about a massive Alpha Linux cluster that's being built by HPTi for the NOAA's Forecast Systems Laboratories. What Greg forgot to mention when he submitted the original story is that he's the project's chief designer. What with all the Beowulf (and Alpha) interest around here, we figured he'd make a great interview guest, especially now that the project is well under way. Please post your questions below. Answers to 10 - 15 of the highest-moderated ones should appear within the next week.

morzel asks: "One of the advantages of SCSI based systems is that a plethora of devices can exist on the same high-bandwidth bus, including multiple host adapters - at least: that's the theory. While it seems pretty obvious to me to use this as a low latency/high-bandwidth interconnect between a small number of hosts, I've never seen an actual implementation of such a system. Do these, preferrably IP-based systems, actually exist? I'm not in need of a Beowulf style cluster just yet (I don't have an application for them) but I am interested in the possible usage of SCSI as a _fast_ interconnection for small numbers of load-balancing machines in cluster. A combination with the Linux Virtual Server Project could create a killer solution... Right? Thanks for all input/comments on this!" (Read on...)

R. Jason Valentine asks: "One of the more complex problems that computing has tackled has been the game of Chess. The rules are simple, the strategy complex. We now have computers, based upon current technology, that can play as good as or better than the best humans. However, the current computing power is still far from answering the age old question: Is there such a thing as a perfect game of chess?" Anyone have spare processor time on a Beowulf Cluster? Or maybe this could be another project for distributed.net? Update: 04/30 10:38 by J : Remy de Ruysscher writes to say he's still working on distributed chess; to join his mailing list, email him.

King Monkey asks: "Over the past year or so I have see several mentions on the Interet about connecting computrs together in order to pool processing power and resources. I have not yet however seen anywhere that exlains the differences between the various implementations. What is the difference (if any) between clustering, Beowulf and Parametric processing. These are just the ones I have heard about. I am sure there are more I have not heard about. I would also like to learn about these."

Linux is always a little bigger than you think. Every day, people are working on porting Linux to new platforms to achieve more with what they have. In the case of LinuxPPC and Terra Soft Solutions, they're working with community spirit and the PowerPC architecture to create insanely great solutions with a touch of Tux.

tramm writes: "As someone who works on massively parallel Linux clusters everyday, I get tired of explaining why it is not 'Just another Beowulf'. Linux World has a good article on the four major types of Linux clusters. Our work is in supporting scientific codes that have a high degree of communication. This requires a very different system from the standard Beowulf-class machines that excel at the 'embarrasingly parallel' codes that do not require as much communication. The cost of the network interconnect for a high performance cluster is vastly more than that of a generic 100base-T system."

Ellen Spertus writes, "La storia del museo del calcolatore Center, situato al campo di Moffett nel Mountain View, è patrocinare serie di ingranaggi del PC di Beowulf-Class denominate colloquio: Un Perpective Storico' serie di ingranaggi del PC di Beowulf-Class denominate colloquio: Uno storico Perpective' dato da Thomas Sterling, che ha condotto la squadra della NASA che ha sviluppato le prime serie di ingranaggi del PC del Beowulf-codice categoria ed è il co-author How per costruire un Beowulf. Il colloquio avverrà la sera di giovedì, il 13 aprile. RSVP entro 10 aprile. Tutto il centro di storia del calcolatore lo comunica ha dovuto essere grande."

shawnb writes "It seems that IBM has created the world's fastest Linux cluster built from lots of small servers (64 IBM Netfinity 256 servers). The Netfinity servers are linked together using "special clustering software and high-speed networking hardware, which causes the separate units to act as one computer, delivering a processing speed of 375 gigaflops, or 375 billion operations per second." They also go on to say that this is the fastest Linux supercomputer, "it will only rank 24th on the list of the top 500 fastest supercomputers. " "

Anonymous Coward asks: "If the average Slashdot reader had access to a Beowulf cluster, what would they use it for? Everyone seems to think that Beowulf clusters are fairly interesting, but does anyone have any particular job they would assign to one? If someone were to create a publically accessible Beowulf cluster, what would you do with it? Is there even a demand for such a beast?" Now this would be a neat hack, but the logistics behind running such a thing would be immense. But even though something like this may not be needed now this might not necessarily be so in the future. Something like this might be a great tool for that novice astronomer in the neighborhood ... or aspiring mathematicians in high school.

Gary Franczyk writes, "The United States government has tightly controlled the export of "supercomputers" to certain other nations (i.e., China, Pakistan, India, etc.) for quite some time. Sun has had to deal with this numerous times when selling their equipment. How will the U.S. government handle the fact that now anyone with access to large numbers of PCs can create a "super-computer" cluster? I'm sure that the government is using Beowulf to do nuclear simulations right now... Who says that other nations cannot do the same? " Interesting thought. I'm not aware of any export controls on Beowulf, but with the U.S.'s views on cryptography, how will it be before such draconian views extend to any powerful computing technology? Is it even possible for the U.S. to restrict Beowulf in any way?

J. FoxGlov writes "UCLA's Project Appleseed has been updated with new benchmarks showing their clusters of Macintosh G3s and G4s running neck and neck with Crays and kicking the snot out of Pentium II clusters, generating fractal clusters in parallel. Includes the recipe for making your own Apple-flavored Beowulf cluster. "

Jon "maddog" Hall is the head honcho at Linux International. Monday we asked him questions about the future of Linux, his beer preferences, and other burning issues. Today, as our premier interview guest in the last year of the 20th century, maddog answers with his usual wit and candor.

waite writes "The Compaq Testdrive program is now making available a Beowulf cluster of XP1000s running Alpha Linux. If you sign up for the testdrive program you can register for an account on the cluster to try out your applications in this cluster environment. There is no charge for this program. Compaq is making this available to Open Source developers. No strings, catches, or hooks of any type."

MRcow writes "A story at ABCnews.com says the Hubble Space Telescope that was recently repaired by the crew of space shuttle Discovery is having its computer system upgraded. The new system will be 'three linked computers that run on the Intel 486 microchip.' It says older processors are used because they have to be tested for radiation and such. That makes me wonder if the computers are going to be "linked" and if so, how? Maybe a Beowulf cluster on Hubble? Talk about 'geeks in space'." The processors on the Hubble are being upgraded from what I understand are 1980s versions. The new hard drive is going to be a whopping 10 gigs with three 486 processors. The processors and drive have to be specially shielded and made to handle heat/cold extremes.

ragnar! writes "National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded $500,000 to support a new parallel computing facility for Bartol. The "major research infrastructure" (MRI) grant will support a parallel system based on 100 linked processors, each of which will run at speeds up to 600 megahertz, connected by fast Ethernet hardware - very similar to the Avalon-Beowulf Cluster, developed by the Los Alamos Center for Nonlinear Studies and Goddard Space Flight Center. "

ckotso asks: "So I've read here and there about linux clusters, and I am ready to set on creating one with some help of the educational institute I am working for. So far I've found out about Beowulf, SCI and MOSIX. I really wish I can get some help on this, since NT is making its way into the University gradually and I hate to see this. I want to give a cheap and robust alternative to this place, I simply have to change their minds! " Interested? There's more information inside.

Finally home long enough to compile some quickies. option8 sent us the MacCrate which probably isn't up to code. Course neither is this one (thanks pkr) Speaking of cases, Deega sent us a site where you can get air brushed cases. rafa noted that Propaganda Volume 12 is out. UM_Maverick has started YALS called Linuxtopia.com pq wrote in with a picture that proves that a spell checker is probably a good idea. RoLlEr_CoAsTeR found something on Brunching Shuttlecocks which lets you combine Advertising and Perl: its actually extremely clever. Speaking of perl, ThePixel noted Perl Toys, which I think we mentioned a year or so ago, but with Christmas coming up, it probably is worth checking out again. Especially if you want magnetic poetry. Speaking of stuff to buy, JbirdUAH noted that Copyleft has Slashdot frisbees! Just in time for Winter! jhopson sent us a retelling of beowulf starring people you know. Lexie (who should really ask CowboyNeal out) sent us Eunuch which I'm not gonna explain, but its definitely wierd. motardo noted that Dalnet is for sale on eBay. Ant noted that Google seems to have an interesting result if you search for 'More evil than satan himself'. Speaking of evil, jsfetzik sent us Sinux the Linux for sinners. And how about Captain Zion's link to FsckU-FsckMe(tm) which is not for children, but is pretty amusing. Maybe you'll find auto.pron.org a little more wholesome. Finally, jetpack pointed us to Forum2000, which I'd never seen before, but am glad I did. It was mentioned in a comment awhile ago, and then we were assimilated. Super wierd.

Finnish law was amended last Wednesday, adding a two-year sentence for the catch-all crime "Causing danger to data processing systems." Is keeping sample virus code intended for anti-virus authors on your FTP site a violation?

A Michigan hospital may be only the first of many: a digital dictation system used by doctors for private medical notes has been cracked. 2600 magazine published a sample audio file, which got people's attention. Yahoo and ZDNet's CyberCrime have good coverage.

And, the Defense Department is very proud of its Defense Computer Forensics Lab. They fit broken disks together, read deleted files, "trace hackers across the internet," and use some doohickey called a "Beowulf cluster" to analyze captured computers. Can someone tell me why the FBI gets a lab in this building which was deliberately located near the National Security Agency? Isn't there some conflict of interest?

Doran writes "The U.S. Dept. of Defense is showing off its new $15,000,000 Computer Forensics Lab and it looks like they'll be using a Beowulf cluster to gleen as much info as possible from the computers they confiscate. Here is the story from Nando. An interesting aside is that they seem to be using Clinton's 'approval' last week to allow sale of more powerful encryption software as a justification to ask for $80,000,000 more for the Center. " Beowulf cluster mentioned, but not Linux, oddly enough.