Actually, it's still pretty cool. :)

All good points; it's a big project. Mapping is an important, but not the final step.

The sensory deprivation aspect raises an interesting ethical problem -- if the simulated brain is in fact 100% accurate, then wouldn't running it without normal sensory input be the same as torturing a sentient person?

I suspect that part of creating a functional full-brain simulation will have to involve it's being embedded in a robot (or biological body) which can supply the expected sensory environment.

Actually, it would need to be severely dumbed-down in order to pass the Turing Test. Electronic circuitry operates millions of times faster than the electro-chemical circuitry of the brain, plus it could have instant access to vast databases of information, and no human has that much and that accurate memory.

It looks like MediaWiki already supports some TeX:

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Displaying_a_formula

Wikis are designed for collaborative writing, and many if not most support version control. I don't know of any that support LaTeX (with rendering), but I would think that it could be added to something like MediaWiki.

I came across a Wordpress plugin that apparently renders LaTeX:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/easy-latex/

Perhaps it's code could be adopted for a wiki. Of course, the user would still have to know LaTeX, but they could copy and paste from their favorite GUI LaTeX editor.

"IBM reckons its 20-petaflops capable Sequoia system will outshine every single current system in the Top500 supercomputer rankings"

So the computer will be ready in 2012, and it will outperform computers from 2009?

These multi-year computer construction projects seem very problematic given the pace of change in technology. Memory changes, CPUs change, and the socket specs change — if it takes 3 years to build, it will be obsolete before it's ready. 2012 could be the year that ATI releases 10-petaflop GPUs, and they ship in iMacs.

It sounds like you are pretty comfortable with technology, but are the rest of the teachers? Do they all want computers as "interactive teaching tools"?

Generally, the larger your IT deployment, the more technical support you will need. Time spent fidgeting with computer glitches will be time lost teaching and learning. Then again, maybe your budget is big enough to have IT staff help prepare every lesson, etc..

I second that. Thin clients offer the best RIO due to their low ongoing operational costs. Basically you'll be paying for a good sysadmin, plus commercial software for the server, if you need that.

Sunrays in particular are good because Solaris is free - you don't have per seat licensing fees (unless you're using them with Windows Server). If you need Windows, however, they can do that too.

Another issue to consider is security and insurance costs. Sunrays are not an attractive target for thieves because they are useless without the server. You don't even need to lock them down. If you go with real computers instead of thin clients, you will have theft, and your insurance costs will be higher.

The newspaper is dead. Long live the newspaper!