I've built about 9 computers in the past 4 years and have run various flavors of Linux on all of them (mostly LTS builds of Ubuntu), and I've never had compatibility problems with the motherboard. Nowadays nobody can really afford not to support Linux, so I think the important thing is to wait a little while for the chipset drivers to get integrated into the newest builds of the Linux kernel, and then go from there. I've had issues with USB 3.0 support for an older CentOS version, but overall everything works for the most part. Linux even works better out of the box than a clean install of Windows 7 sometimes, because Win7 doesn't have drivers for a lot of common NICs, whereas Linux usually did. As you mentioned, in the latest computers I've built, the UEFI did give me more problems than traditional BIOS, but they weren't show-stoppers by any means, just a google search away from a resolution.

But NVIDIA's consumer oriented cards have very slow double precision processing, something like 1/16 the processing speed of single precision. And they even artifically hobbled the DP performance of the GTX 780, which is otherwise a slightly cut down Titan (i.e. big kepler). All of AMD's 79XX cards (and its rebranded brethren the 280X card), and the new 290X card have 1/4 DP performance. I've consistently bought AMD Radeon cards for my OpenCL applications because their $300 cards are almost as fast as NVIDIA's $1000 card, and in some cases faster, for DP calculations.

Hm, small world--I'm also in metabolomics (more on the computational end than the biological side of things, what I like to call computational metabolomics). I was going to write a post similar to your own, but more generalized for those who aren't familiar with the biology behind it. The issue now is that well established informatics/statistical/computer science approaches are used as general tools in biology/astronomy/biochemistry, and there is a great need to formulate novel algorithms to take advantage of the particular idiosyncrasies of their respective data sets. Otherwise you end up losing a lot of valuable information. The word "interdisciplinary" is fairly abused in academia, but it really does apply in the case of these emerging computational/informatics approaches to classical fields of biology/astronomy/etc. We need people who are equally trained in both biology/astronomy/etc and computer science/informatics to really make the revolutionary leaps in their respective fields.

I can see it from my backyard though. I'm going to file a complaint with the HOA!

And even fewer possibilities with the VH-71 cancellation this past spring.

Let me guess...LMSI-O?

I used a Thinkpad X61 tablet pc for note taking and lecture recording while doing my bachelors in EE, and still use it as a regular notebook and note taking now as a grad student. I recently loaded Windows 7 on a SSD and it flies. The screen's 1400x1050, so no screen real-estate complaints here. Most of the time I type my notes, but when I need to write down equations and diagrams, I flip it around and draw them, then go back to typing when I need to. It's fast enough to be a regular use noebook, especially with the new SSD. I love it. The sad thing is they don't make 12.1 inch IPS high res screens anymore, as the latest incarnation, the X200 tablet, uses a 1280x800 screen that's far inferior. Still I think it's worth a look.

It's based off the Sephirotic Tree of Life. I blame too much evangelion for this sort of knowledge.

OZ will surely quell those colony rebels!

I'd question that statement, as both the T1i and the 5D Mark II have the DIGIC 4 processor.

You hit the nail right on the head. Incidentally, I work at the Lockheed site that's funding this research, and I also went to Cornell. Let me shed some light on this. These "students" are not really students per se, and are employees of Lockheed Martin who are undergoing their ELDP (Engineering Leadership Development Program). It is a three year program in which you work full time for Lockheed while earning your MEng at Cornell (not a bad deal unless you consider the fact that it only takes 1 year to earn the same degree full time, and, honestly, the surrounding area is depressing as hell, plus you get worked to the bone for 3 years). So in fact, these graduate students are professional Lockheed Martin engineers already.

Almost right about the X series tablet thing. IBM/Lenovo produces the X60 and X61 tablets, which can be configured to have a 12.1" 1400x1050 resolution IPS screen. This unit is still in production, but always difficult to obtain.