ALU * clock is meaningless measure. Hardware scales easily, code does not.

In HPC we call it "pleasantly parallel," nothing is embarrassing about it! =]

If your code:
-scales to OpenCL/CUDA easily.
-does not require high concurrent memory transfers
-is fault tolerant (ie a failed card doesn't hose a whole day/week of runs)
-can use single precision flops

Then you can use commodity hardware like the gtx series cards. I'd go with the gtx 560ti (GF114 gpu).

Make nodes with:
quad core processors (amd or intel)
whatever ram is needed (8GB minimum)
2 x gtx560ti (448) run in SLI (or the 560ti dual from EVGA)

Basically a scaled down Cray XK6 node. http://www.cray.com/Assets/PDF/products/xk/CrayXK6Brochure.pdf

It all depends on your code.

Do some "creative coding" with p5 in Java ( http://processing.org/ ) or OpenFrameworks in C/C++ ( http://www.openframeworks.cc/ ).

Make some art, it's rewarding.

It don't surprise me that it seems to correlate to the age of the language multiplied by how widespread the use, with "newer" languages that are widely used being the most represented.

I don't think it has anything to do with how difficult Javascript is, but more to what the programming experience is of the person using the language. I'm sure there are more would be more posts asking about QBasic than LISP if there was internet in 1994 like there is today.

Also people using C/Java/etc. can self-teach by digging through libraries themselves.

I'm sure that's really going to stop linux nerds from doing what they do... which is installing linux on anything and everything.

This will be cured by a boot disk, ala iBoot.

$1.60 / hour for the largest non-GPU cluster instance. This also provides you with rather fast interconnects and scalability with multiple instances.

Only £4,000 in hardware would be a waste of money. You wouldn't have all that much computing power, and it would be obsolete immediately.

Netflix is a wonderful supplement to piracy.

If it isn't on Netflix, it is popular enough for a torrrent. If you cannot find it through nefarious means, it is old enough to be on Netflix.

Any marginally complex computer program has the possibility of exhibiting nearly any behavior given the correct environmental parameters.

Bugs never behave like you imagine they should, and there are always bugs in any computer system.

There is far more serotonin present in your gut than in your skull.

Take it easy... didn't want to work himself into an early grave.

The real problem with incorrect reporting times is when you have a very large number of 10-100kB files to transfer. Windows spends a very long time starting up the transfer of a new file, and that is where I have seen the greatest slowdown and most inaccurate time estimates.

Windows 7 performs better with smaller files, and provides a transfer rate indicator, but everyone already knows this.

What a weird thing to take out...

The BioLogos Foundation and Center for Cognitive Dissonance

A creative coding suite... I hope the SS doesn't impede my C++ art.

Time to treat it as such.

Now I know exactly how I am going to find out about the world coming to an end.