I remember having trouble using the old Sun workstation keyboards. The Control and Caps Lock keys are in switched positions. I suppose that makes some sense on a UNIX system, but it was hard getting used to. Maybe Google should just move Caps Lock somewhere else?

Didn't this hack merely put the console into development/debug mode? I haven't heard of anyone using the USB hack to so something more "low-level" like restoring the OtherOS feature or allow RSX access in Linux (after all, this USB hack should probably work for those who opted not to update to keep OtherOS). A Sony-created development environment sandbox is far different than a complete hypervisor hack.

Granted, I suppose it may be too early to assess what is really exposed by the USB hack.

It's crazy that an architecture developed in the '60s lives on in the System Z today. IBM bet the company on the S/360 product line. I think the investment has paid off-- and still does!

Ugh. I just updated on my Mac running 10.6.4. It looks like Adobe is still distributing Reader 9.3.0 as the default distribution package. I had to download/install this version and then apply individual patches for 9.3.1, 9.3.2, and finally 9.3.3. Annoying.

Perhaps it would have been easier had I updated from within Reader?

If the aim is to simply multiply brain cells, there are plenty of other ways to do that too: just do anything that can give you brain cancer.

Perhaps I misinterpreted the original COTS post. I took the intent to mean that the USAF would develop "games" to run on a cluster of stock PS3s (like folding@home), not a cluster of dev kits. My point was that the stock PS3 OS might not have all the features necessary to operate in an MPI-based cluster. I suppose your "game" might be able to provide this environment, but that could get quite expensive.

As for building a cluster of dev kits, it is not price competitive against IBM's QS22. I believe a QS22 blade is (was?) somewhere around $8-10k a piece (excluding chassis costs). However, the blade has TWO higher-end Cell processors with all 8 SPUs functional in each and the blade can be configured with up to 32GB of memory (compare that to the PS3s 256MB). I'm not sure how many SPUs are functional on the dev kit. Still, it has only a single lower-end Cell, right?

Thus, the only price competitive solution for a dev kit is to use it to develop software for a cluster of stock PS3s. Which again, might not be able to do all the things it must in an MPI-based cluster.

Not sure that the GameOS would support the necessary software stack, such as MPI.

Just a few years behind the meme...

Linux on PS3 for non-scientific work has been a disappointing experience. There is very little code out there that uses the SPUs (and the PPU stinks for general purpose computing) and the hypervisor prevents hardware accelerated graphics.

While the first issue has to do with the community, the second is a restriction imposed by Sony. Perhaps this hack will make it possible to use the RSX (PS3's hardware graphics) in Linux? Maybe then an SNES emulator will run better on a PS3 than a second-gen iMac.

What is the Linux community's willingness to embrace a hack such as this?

The size of a code baseline often has little to do with execution speed. What matters is the speed of the execution paths in the code (i.e. what code actually gets executed), not how much code there is.

Does the fact that there is a road from Los Angeles to San Francisco slow down your drive from Los Angeles to Las Vegas?

Did Final Fantasy VIII play this way? It sure felt like I was treading water.

I've had the impression that ACE supports more exotic platforms, but your question prompted me to check what platforms Qt will run on-- how long has Qt supported VxWorks? I guess a lot has changed recently. I suppose an in-depth comparison of ACE and Qt is warranted. Still, I have enjoyed using ACE.

I've had great experiences with ACE. I found ACE to be dependable and extensive. You don't even have to use the higher level design patterns to get the platform independence.

If you're targeting *only* Windows and Linux, then Qt may also be a good option. I'm not sure if you can strip out the GUI stuff if you don't need it.

Hasn't stuff like this been around forever? Certainly HAM & CB counts for something. Not to mention SINCGARS and EPLRS radio networks. And these are old. The military has been playing around with IP-based mesh networks for quite a while.