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Cloud

CERN Testing Cloud For Crunching the Universe's Secrets 67

Posted by samzenpus from the silver-lining dept.
Nerval's Lobster writes "The European Organization for Nuclear Research (known as CERN) requires truly epic hardware and software in order to analyze some of the most epic questions about the nature of the universe. While much of that computing power stems from a network of data centers, CERN is considering a more aggressive move to the cloud for its data-crunching needs. To that end, CERN has partnered with Rackspace on a hybrid cloud built atop OpenStack, an open-source Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) platform originally developed by Rackspace as part of a joint effort with NASA. Tim Bell, leader of CERN's OIS Group within its IT department, suggested in an interview with Slashdot that CERN and Rackspace will initially focus on simulations—which he characterized as 'putting into place the theory and then working out what the collision will have to look like.' CERN's private cloud will run 15,000 hypervisors and 150,000 virtual machines by 2015—any public cloud will likely need to handle similarly massive loads with a minimum of latency. 'I would expect that there would be investigations into data analysis in the cloud in the future but there is no timeframe for it at the moment,' Bell wrote in a follow-up email. 'The experiences running between the two CERN data centers in Geneva and Budapest will already give us early indications of the challenges of the more data intensive work.' CERN's physicists write their own research and analytics software, using a combination of C++ and Python running atop Linux. 'Complex physics frameworks and the fundamental nature of the research makes it difficult to use off-the-shelf [software] packages,' Bell added."

Comment I'd really like to add photos to OSM (Score 1) 108

by timothy (#44159699) Attached to: Google Street View Backpack Now Available To Volunteers

A friend involved with the project pointed out that this is more complicated than it sounds, and I'm sure he's right, but it would be fun one day to be able to take a photo, tag it with coordinates, and at least have it stuffed in an online pigeonhole for later linking to a spot on OSM-based maps. Click on a map, have it show the nearest-tagged photo ... in some places, the nearest tagged photo might be many miles away, making it a sort of challenge to split the gap by taking another photo between the distant points.

 

Comment Re:A monumentally bad idea (Score 5, Interesting) 280

by bill_mcgonigle (#44159489) Attached to: Microsoft To Shut Down TechNet Subscription Service

This has got be the third dumbest idea Microsoft has had in the last decade

Hey, as someone who competes against proprietary solutions (including Microsoft) with Free Software solutions, I wholeheartedly endorse this change!

What I frequently see is businesses that hire a developer to code a solution, and that developer has Technet, so he chooses whatever technology he thinks is best on there, and then when the customer gets ready to deploy it, they find a chain of Microsoft dependencies that all need licensing and CAL's, and often get roped into a software maintenance agreement for 5+digits over their initial cost estimate. Often it gets big enough to require new hardware and a virtualization solution too.

I get "second-opinion" work from them, but it's often too late to do anything else. I've heard of some (that I don't work with) who 'just get Technet' too.

If there's a silver lining, it's that I often get first-crack at the next project. But either way, this is a great decision on Microsoft's part as far as I'm concerned!

Comment Re:why? (Score 4) 778

by mcgrew (#44159479) Attached to: Firefox 23 Makes JavaScript Obligatory

No. This is completely unacceptable. FireFox is my browser of choice, and I don't block JS, but there's no reason whatever I should have to go to a third party if I decide to.

What's next, I'll have to DL the HTML and strip the JS out of the source and run it locally?

Unless Mozilla changes these terrible plans, I'll have to use a different browser. There's no reason whatever to remove this feature.

My answer isn't no, it's HELL NO and fuck you, Mozilla. If you want me to continue using your products you'll grow a brain and think of your users, not your Google sugardaddy.
Medicine

Microscopic "Tuning Forks" Help Determine Effectiveness of Antibiotics 36

Posted by samzenpus from the getting-in-tune-with-your-body dept.
sciencehabit writes "A patient admitted to a hospital with a serious bacterial infection may have only a few hours to live. Figuring out which antibiotic to administer, however, can take days. Doctors must grow the microbes in the presence of the drugs and see whether they reproduce. Rush the process, and they risk prescribing ineffective antibiotics, exposing the patient to unnecessary side effects, and spreading antibiotic resistance. Now, researchers have developed a microscopic 'tuning fork' that detects tiny vibrations in bacteria. The device might one day allow physicians to tell the difference between live and dead microbes—and enable them to recognize effective and ineffective antibiotics within minutes."
Games

Ben Heck's Plan To Make Gaming Open To All 33

Posted by samzenpus from the man-with-the-plan dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Legendary DIY gaming guru Ben Heck has given a new interview in which he talks about the Access Controller, his modular controller for consoles that lets disabled gamers play with one hand, and how he plans to update it for the next generation of consoles: 'I'm sure I will. At the very least people are going to want the accessibility controllers I build...People have already asked about them for the next-gen consoles, and that was at E3. When I was there, the thing I looked at the most was the controllers. The Xbox One looks pretty similar to what we have at the moment, but they finally fixed the D-pad.'"
Windows

Microsoft Reacts To Feedback But Did They Get Windows 8.1 Right? 543

Posted by samzenpus from the trry-it-now dept.
MojoKid writes "Microsoft's Windows "Blue" 8.1 update has been long-awaited. Those who've been using the base OS since launch have no doubt been anticipating some of the enhancements that are coming. At the moment, Windows 8.1 is available only as a preview, and if you are looking to give it a try, there are a couple of things to be aware of. The most important is the fact that once you upgrade, you can't easily downgrade — so you may wish to try the update in a virtual machine or on a test machine if possible. In addition, your current product keys will not work, so you'll effectively be turning your activated OS into an evaluation (it's assumed that once 8.1 goes final, we'll be able to update using our original keys). That said, Microsoft's free update offers a slew of enhancements like a new Start Screen, the return of the Start Button, even quicker shutdown and restart, boot to desktop, quicker integrated search and Skydrive enhancements. All told, Microsoft's new OS release is a more than worthy successor for end users but now Microsoft really needs to work on getting developers on board."

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