Blake’s Travel Tips

My News Feed

• Best statistics question ever 28 October 2011
  By way of Raymond Johnson, the best statistics multiple choice question ever written on a chalkboard. Try not to think too hard. [via]
• NASA To Test New Atomic Clock 19 October 2011
  edesio writes "Many satellites and spacecraft require accurate timing signals to ensure the proper operation of scientific instruments. In the case of GPS satellites, accurate timing is essential, otherwise anything relying on GPS signals to navigate could be misdirected. The third technology demonstration planned by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laborator […]
• Video: Janus – A Co-Designed Facility and Supercomputer 9 October 2011
  www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp_KyhFD2Ws In this video, NCAR’s Henry Tufo presents: Janus: A Co-Designed Facility and Supercomputer. The presentation was recorded as part of the Dell Panel on Power & Cooling at the HPC User Forum in San Diego on Sept. 8, 2011. The Janus supercomputer at the University of Colorado, Boulder is one of the largest container-based […]
• Dell Powers IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antartica 26 September 2011
  www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rwLY5jIg3Q In this video, Dr. Martin Merck from the University of Wisconsin discusses the environmental and compute challenges faced by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory project in Antartica. Dell and Intel were able to provide them with a robust computing solution that met their needs for power efficiency under harsh conditions. The […]
• Texas university to build powerful supercomputer 22 September 2011
  Maybe everything really is bigger in Texas.
• Podcast: Texas Super Gives Dell and Intel Big Win; ScaleMP Brings AMD On Board 23 September 2011
  Addison and Michael talk about TACC's upcoming 10-petaflop supercomputer, which will be equipped with Intel's manycore accelerators. Also, ScaleMP adds Opteron support and a wrapup of the HPC Financial Markets event.
• Video: TACC Announces Plans for 10 Petaflop Stampede Super 22 September 2011
  www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAniNH4O1O0 In this video, Jay Boisseau discusses how Supercomputing has become the third pillar of science over the coarse of the last 30 years. Today TACC announced that it will deploy a new 10 Petaflop system called Stampede, which will be built by TACC in partnership with Dell and Intel to support for four years the nation’s scien […]
• Dell to Build 10-Petaflop Supercomputer For Science 22 September 2011
  The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) has revealed plans to deploy a cutting-edge petascale supercomputer courtesy of a $27.5 million dollar NSF award. Built by Dell, the system will consist of 2 petaflops of Sandy Bridge-EP processors accelerated by an additional 8 petaflops of Intel's Many Integrated Core (MIC) coprocessors. The machine is schedu […]
• The southern lights from space 16 September 2011
  Astronaut Ron Garan takes photos in space and posts them to Google+. This photo was taken yesterday, aboard the ISS, and shows the Southern Lights. Real-time astronaut photos may be my favorite benefit of social media networks.
• NRO Declassifies KH-9 Satellite 17 September 2011
  schwit1 writes "The Big Bird, formally known as the KH-9 Hexagon satellite, was first placed in orbit in 1971 after its development by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), making it one of the most advanced spy satellites of its time. It is believed to have produced images of the Soviet Union, China and other countries that held strategic importanc […]
• KH-9 Hexagon Spy Satellite Makes a Rare Public Outing (Photos and Video) 19 September 2011
  KH-9 Hexagon Spy Satellite Makes a Rare Public Outing (Photos and Video) "With virtually no advance notice, the National Air and Space Museum's Udvar Hazy Center put a KH-9 "Hexagon" spy satellite on public display today. The display is up for one day only. Word of this display only leaked out late on Friday. No media advisories were issu […]
• Video: Power and Cooling at Texas Advanced Computing Center 14 September 2011
  www.youtube.com/watch?v=APVGaApddL4 In this video, TACC’s Tommy Minyard presents: Power and Cooling at Texas Advanced Computing Center. The presentation was recorded at the HPC User Forum in San Diego on Sept. 8, 2011 as part of the Dell panel discussion on Power and Cooling. Download the slides (PDF). Related posts:Video: Panel – The Future of LustreVideo: […]
• Video: Panel – The Future of Lustre 11 September 2011
  www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3AKW7kiq9Y Our Video Sunday feature continues with this panel discussion from the recent HPC User Forum in San Diego in which community members discuss the future of the Lustre file system. Recorded Sept. 7, 2011. Moderator: Paul Buerger An Update on OpenSFS, Norm Morse, CEO of OpenSFS Peter Bojanic, Xyratex Bob Ciotti, NASA Ames Joh […]
• Heathkit DIY Kits Are Coming Back 8 September 2011
  donberryman writes "IEEE Times reports that Heathkit, the fabled electronics kits company, is going back into that business after a two-decade hiatus. The Heathkit website says that they will be releasing Garage Parking Assistant kit (GPA-100) in late September followed by a Wireless Swimming Pool Monitor kit. Amateur radio kits may be coming by the end […]
• Sept. 2, 1859: Telegraphs Run on Electric Air in Crazy Magnetic Storm 2 September 2011
  1859: A magnetic explosion on the sun causes bright auroras on Earth and upends the the fledgling telegraph network. On Sept. 2, 1859, at the telegraph office at No. 31 State Street in Boston at 9:30 a.m., the operators' lines were overflowing with current, so they unplugged the batteries connected to their machines, and kept ...
• First Von Neumann Architecture Quantum Computer 1 September 2011
  holy_calamity writes "The first computers with a von Neumann architecture, where a processor has access to RAM, appeared in the 1940s. Now the first quantum computing system with a von Neumann design has been made, at University of California Santa Barbara. Their quantum processor made up of two superconducting quantum bits can use a 2-bit "quantum […]
• Video: New Atomic Clock Reaches A 100 Quadrillionth Of A Second Accuracy 29 August 2011
  A team of researchers at the University of Tokyo has developed a new type of optical atomic clock that boasts a 100 quadrillionth of a second accuracy (one quadrillion has 15 zeros). The optical lattice clock is the brain child of Professor Katori who says his device observes a million atoms simultaneously whereas conventional atomic clocks measure time by u […]
• Video: Time-Lapse Super Installation at Boulder 28 August 2011
  www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_y7WZnOk3E Our Video Sunday feature continues with this time-lapse installation of a Dell Container datacenter at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Related posts:Time-Lapse Video: Tokyo As a Dark CityVideo: Extreme Data Intensive ComputingTime lapse of assembly of world’s tenth largest super
• Ask Slashdot: Could We Deal With the End of Time Zones? 27 August 2011
  First time accepted submitter hairyfish writes "Do we still need time zones? Time zones are a relic of the past, when different parts of the world were isolated, and 12 p.m. was whenever the sun was directly above your specific location. Now, in the Internet age, time is just an arbitrary number, and time zones are just unnecessary complexity. Why can […]
• Using GPS To Detect Secret Nuclear Tests 26 August 2011
  Harperdog writes "This article details how GPS can help detect secret nuclear tests, giving the US more reason to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Here's a quote about the 2009 North Korea test: 'At the time, however, the May 25 bomb also sent a different signature, this one into the atmosphere. It did not release radioactive gas or d […]