So I thought I'd do one last SC blog, I know it's been over for a while but I haven't actually stopped travelling. I had 3 hours in my flat in London on Sunday (apparently, I thought it was still Saturday) then had to fly to Lyon that evening for ICT2008.
SC went well from my point of view, all my photos from it can be seen here. I thought I'd mention the source of my post titles as well (because I know you have all been dying to know :-)):
Movin' Right Along - Fozzie and Kermit from the soundtrack of the first Muppet Movie
Carbon Wings - Charger from their album "Confessions Of A Man (Mad enough To Live Amongst Beasts)", not for the faint hearted
Art of Balance - Shadows Fall from their "Art of Balance" album, one of the first New Wave of American Heavy Metal bands which quickly morphed into metalcore
Realist Surrealist - Johnny Truant from their full length "In The Library Of Horrific Events", a UK based band about to start their final tour, self described as "Toni & Guy"core as a jab at the new breed of fashion bands
Computer God - Black Sabbath from their 1992 album "Dehumanizer", proof that there was life after Ozzy and could be contentiously called better
Final Thoughts - Obituary from "World Demise", only Florida could produce the Death Metal sound that practically defined the genre with Obituary and Morbid Angel being prime examples.
This week I'm at ICT as mentioned and the sessions are really interesting. This morning I heard some great things about the Large Knowledge Collider (LarKC) which harnesses the power of the Grid to "remove the scalability barriers of currently existing reasoning systems for the Semantic Web" by using "massive distributed incomplete reasoning". Incomplete reasoning may sound like a poor goal but the semantic web just needs "good enough" like Google search it isn't perfect but gives you enough information to help get the knowledge you need. Also as resources (but computing and metadata) increases the results get better and better.
The last session I was in (I decided I should check my mail and do some real work) was on creative learning, with a talk from Lego (basically my childhood) and another project about learning and creativity with disadvantaged groups(of various kinds from homeless children to the adults with mobility problems). It was very interesting and the latter featured music by Kila a fantastic contemporary Irish traditional band (check them out, everyone's cup of tea unlike the artists above).
It's almost home time here so I will wrap this up, hopefully they'll let me post here in the future but I haven't received any death threats from GridTalk so far ....
Later days,
Neasan
Showing posts with label SC08. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SC08. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
swag-of-the-day: wednesday
Possibly the best conference swag *ever*: its a hand-crank USB charger, with built in LED lights, siren, and compass. This one I might actually keep rather than sending to the landfill.
Here it is as a light:
and here it is with phone:
Here it is as a light:
and here it is with phone:
Computer god
How have I not used this title before?
Anyway it's the final day of the exhibition, we are working towards a state of having no freebies or leaflets, so that's a good sign. It has quietened down a little and I may actually get some emails sent today.
Strange story from last night though. We ended up in a bar on 6th st where we were getting a 3 beer round for $6 (including a $1 tip) after getting a few in we were approached by a young lady who told us we could earn ten dollars for 3 minutes work. Being cynical we declined initially but watching the other tables it was a 5 question "quiz" where they hand you a $10 bill afterwards (the equivalent of 2 rounds). We decided to do it th next time we were asked and we were $10 richer.
Oh yeah the pigeon returned yesterday too:
And I threw up some more pictures.
Later days,
Neasan
Anyway it's the final day of the exhibition, we are working towards a state of having no freebies or leaflets, so that's a good sign. It has quietened down a little and I may actually get some emails sent today.
Strange story from last night though. We ended up in a bar on 6th st where we were getting a 3 beer round for $6 (including a $1 tip) after getting a few in we were approached by a young lady who told us we could earn ten dollars for 3 minutes work. Being cynical we declined initially but watching the other tables it was a 5 question "quiz" where they hand you a $10 bill afterwards (the equivalent of 2 rounds). We decided to do it th next time we were asked and we were $10 richer.
Oh yeah the pigeon returned yesterday too:
And I threw up some more pictures.
Later days,
Neasan
swag-of-the-day: tuesday
no swag, apart from a flimsy ruler. wtf. too busy working or something. I've got a good one for Wednesday, though.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Realist Surrealist
Day 3 - It's 4.30pm at home but only 10.30am here (which I suppose isn't too bad). The exhibition is only opening but we're already busy with people checking out the freebies, a few informal meetings and the sheer amount of Italians on the INFN stand (who we are co-located with). We may see business peak today as people slowly move towards the back and corners having swarmed over the booths near the front yesterday. I said I'd get some photos of our freebies so they are up on my Flickr with more photos from yesterday.
Yesterday was good I think we got a lot done and talked to a lot of people. Afterwards there were invites to a Platfrom/Red Hat/Dell/Intel food partay (yes a partay) in a bar/restaurant called Iron Cactus. Where I'd actually gone to lunch that day so myself and two of the other UK people decided to skip it (for our sanity? No comment). Instead we decided to do that most American/English of pastimes, shopping.
Off we went to Barton Creek Mall. Thankfully I had no real need to get anything as my bank had decided to lock my ATM card so I couldn't get any money out and didn't have the bank's number, hmmmm. Thankfully computers and Cupertino saved the day, into an Apple store quick check of the free Internet and ta-da an unlocked bank card. Andy who was with me had the same issue so thanks Apple even if we did look uber-dodgy constantly entering and leaving the store on our phones :-) .
Once the money issue was sorted I didn't actually buy anything other than dinner:
Hotdog and chili cheese fries, tasty. It was actually quite nice, OK it's not real cheese or chili and the hotdog meat didn't necessarily have a definitive origin but isn't that what mall food is about? Well apparently not my colleagues had a sensible freshly cooked Japanese meal.
At this stage the mall was closing so we went off to the cinema and saw Madagascar 2. Yes the kids film, not much else on I swear. Quick review? Needs more penguin.
Well I better go make sure everything is sorted for the rest of the day.
Later days,
Neasan
Yesterday was good I think we got a lot done and talked to a lot of people. Afterwards there were invites to a Platfrom/Red Hat/Dell/Intel food partay (yes a partay) in a bar/restaurant called Iron Cactus. Where I'd actually gone to lunch that day so myself and two of the other UK people decided to skip it (for our sanity? No comment). Instead we decided to do that most American/English of pastimes, shopping.
Off we went to Barton Creek Mall. Thankfully I had no real need to get anything as my bank had decided to lock my ATM card so I couldn't get any money out and didn't have the bank's number, hmmmm. Thankfully computers and Cupertino saved the day, into an Apple store quick check of the free Internet and ta-da an unlocked bank card. Andy who was with me had the same issue so thanks Apple even if we did look uber-dodgy constantly entering and leaving the store on our phones :-) .
Once the money issue was sorted I didn't actually buy anything other than dinner:
Hotdog and chili cheese fries, tasty. It was actually quite nice, OK it's not real cheese or chili and the hotdog meat didn't necessarily have a definitive origin but isn't that what mall food is about? Well apparently not my colleagues had a sensible freshly cooked Japanese meal.
At this stage the mall was closing so we went off to the cinema and saw Madagascar 2. Yes the kids film, not much else on I swear. Quick review? Needs more penguin.
Well I better go make sure everything is sorted for the rest of the day.
Later days,
Neasan
cool tech: scinet
Scinet is an opportunity for the vendors at the conference to chip-in to the network infrastructure and showoff their goods. They try to use Scinet as a demonstration of the latest technology that they are developing.
So from year to year you're bound to see new stuff. Refer to the pictures that follow to get an idea of what's here. There is a large wall of networking equipment behind plexiglass that is the Network Operations Center of the conference. In addition to that, there are satellite locations that contain a single rack with networking equipment that supports the booths in the area.
In addition to the networking, Scinet runs security related tools on the network. Tools like Bro to detect various intrusion related events. They also have a wall-of-shame being continually updated with passwords that have been collected off the wire due to poor computer security practices. It's an effective way of showing the attendees just what is possible if you're ignorant of proper compsec practices.
Most (all?) of Scinet is fiber (or I didn't see much copper) and since it's the biggest iron that the vendors can provide, I think many of the switches and routers you see in the pics are at least 10 Gig; probably more 40+ though.
So from year to year you're bound to see new stuff. Refer to the pictures that follow to get an idea of what's here. There is a large wall of networking equipment behind plexiglass that is the Network Operations Center of the conference. In addition to that, there are satellite locations that contain a single rack with networking equipment that supports the booths in the area.
In addition to the networking, Scinet runs security related tools on the network. Tools like Bro to detect various intrusion related events. They also have a wall-of-shame being continually updated with passwords that have been collected off the wire due to poor computer security practices. It's an effective way of showing the attendees just what is possible if you're ignorant of proper compsec practices.
Most (all?) of Scinet is fiber (or I didn't see much copper) and since it's the biggest iron that the vendors can provide, I think many of the switches and routers you see in the pics are at least 10 Gig; probably more 40+ though.
Interesting movements within HPC
As a real sign of the times the most prominent stand within the SC08 exhibition floor has been taken by SiCortex. During the press openeing they held another demo of how one of their medium sized machines can be run using a team of cyclists. This time instead of how they had previously used the UCLA team they used the team from Lance Armstrongs home bike show, Mellow Johnnys.
SC is again an interesting mix of stands, Oak Ridge show how much money you can get from the US DoE.
SC is again an interesting mix of stands, Oak Ridge show how much money you can get from the US DoE.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
cool tech: 8 megapixel projector
It's funny that I say this, but after about the 10th booth showcasing 40 Gb/s technology, the technology suddenly seems old-hat (didn't think I'd ever say that).
Here's something that isn't networking related, but will probably set you
back about as much in cash : )
It's an 8 megapixel projector being used at the Sgi booth. They were running some graphics simulations on the projector screen where they would manipulate in real-time some big 3D shapes. In theory it doesn't sound spectacular I guess, but the technology behind it was definitely cool.
The projector has 4 video inputs on it. It shoots the image at a first mirror which then reflects the image back behind and over the projector to a larger mirror. That mirror then reflects the image onto the projector screen which you get to see. The image is shown through the screen; see the pictures.
All this happiness is driven by this rack of systems. I was told that it's not a terrible technical burden, but the rack was just as cool to see as the projector and the equipment behind that.
Behind the scenes access to cool setups is appreciated.
Here's something that isn't networking related, but will probably set you
back about as much in cash : )It's an 8 megapixel projector being used at the Sgi booth. They were running some graphics simulations on the projector screen where they would manipulate in real-time some big 3D shapes. In theory it doesn't sound spectacular I guess, but the technology behind it was definitely cool.
The projector has 4 video inputs on it. It shoots the image at a first mirror which then reflects the image back behind and over the projector to a larger mirror. That mirror then reflects the image onto the projector screen which you get to see. The image is shown through the screen; see the pictures.
All this happiness is driven by this rack of systems. I was told that it's not a terrible technical burden, but the rack was just as cool to see as the projector and the equipment behind that.
Behind the scenes access to cool setups is appreciated.
cool tech: wall of monitors
This is the first Supercomputing conference that I have attended, so I didn't really know what to expect.
In any event, I'm a technology junkie and really like computer "stuff" that makes me say "wow".
So among the myriad number of things that made me go "wow" this week was this wall-o-monitors back near booth 381. It's driven by something like 13 Mac Pro systems that are stationed behind the display and controlled by a single mini which sends signals to the Pros.
The display can run a single picture/video/whatever across all the monitors at once. So, for instance right now they are running a video displaying the concentration of dark matter in the universe several million years after the big bang.
In any event, I'm a technology junkie and really like computer "stuff" that makes me say "wow".
So among the myriad number of things that made me go "wow" this week was this wall-o-monitors back near booth 381. It's driven by something like 13 Mac Pro systems that are stationed behind the display and controlled by a single mini which sends signals to the Pros.
The display can run a single picture/video/whatever across all the monitors at once. So, for instance right now they are running a video displaying the concentration of dark matter in the universe several million years after the big bang.
credit crunching freebies
Well we're finally here at SC08. Our worries about getting our freebies into the states were unfounded - a very nice customs man waved us through and we made our connecting flight to Austin and to SC. Austin is a pleasant change from Reno, last year's venue. And its 25 degrees and sunny!
SC08 exhibition is remarkably like SC07 exhibition - when I walked in on the first day it felt just like I'd stepped back a year. Austin Convention Centre is a huge conference centre and the exhibition is in a number vast halls with over efficient air con and no natural daylight. But the stands are impressive - this is no ordinary exhibition! EGEE has done well on a budget and plenty of people have been over to talk to us. And the 300 t-shirts the NGS brought over are going down a treat. That's a relief because there's no way I'm re-importing them into the UK!
SC08 exhibition is remarkably like SC07 exhibition - when I walked in on the first day it felt just like I'd stepped back a year. Austin Convention Centre is a huge conference centre and the exhibition is in a number vast halls with over efficient air con and no natural daylight. But the stands are impressive - this is no ordinary exhibition! EGEE has done well on a budget and plenty of people have been over to talk to us. And the 300 t-shirts the NGS brought over are going down a treat. That's a relief because there's no way I'm re-importing them into the UK!
The Art Of Balance
Halfway (or so) through the day, some very interesting demos so far, the EDGeS one was very interesting will be talking to them later in the year about some work we need done at QMUL.
Went through my photos from yesterday, they weren't the Mae West (I'm still learning) but have selected a few and using Flickr Uploadr to send them to Flickr now. They should appear here very soon. It seems to be spitting the dummy a bit when sending though, will keep trying.
Being on the stand is quite interesting, you get to meet and talk to a great range of people from Grid experts to social scientists (oh yeah have to send some of the work Pegasus have done on GridPP to him later in the week).
I have to do some video podcasts but it has been pretty hectic (don't worry I will get them done). As I said earlier we are a bit hidden away but our sister(?) project EGI is buried in some (almost) secret location in the bowels of the convention centre. Freebies have slightly improved as the foam finger flyers NASA (apparently) had last year are on a different stand this year and look like eye-endangering fun.
Right EGI and NGS are given demos on the stand better go back and make sure they know what they are doing. If you're around come up and have a chat and learn about EGEE.
Later days,
Neasan
Went through my photos from yesterday, they weren't the Mae West (I'm still learning) but have selected a few and using Flickr Uploadr to send them to Flickr now. They should appear here very soon. It seems to be spitting the dummy a bit when sending though, will keep trying.
Being on the stand is quite interesting, you get to meet and talk to a great range of people from Grid experts to social scientists (oh yeah have to send some of the work Pegasus have done on GridPP to him later in the week).
I have to do some video podcasts but it has been pretty hectic (don't worry I will get them done). As I said earlier we are a bit hidden away but our sister(?) project EGI is buried in some (almost) secret location in the bowels of the convention centre. Freebies have slightly improved as the foam finger flyers NASA (apparently) had last year are on a different stand this year and look like eye-endangering fun.
Right EGI and NGS are given demos on the stand better go back and make sure they know what they are doing. If you're around come up and have a chat and learn about EGEE.
Later days,
Neasan
Carbon wings
The EGEE stand is running a competition to win an iPod this week. Just guess how many jobs have been submitted to the EGEE Grid between 9am (local SC time) today and 6pm (again local SC time) tomorrow to be in with a chance. Just come down to the booth (588) and pop your guess on the back of a business card. Nearest guess wins.
It's 8:00am (or so) here in Texas and is the morning of the first full day of Supercomputing. My body is still a bit confused by the 6 hour time difference, I should have had lunch by now, not to mention breakfast.
Yesterday was a bit manic on the floor as this is my first SC and I'm in charge of the EGEE booth I had to make sure everything had turned up, was ready to go and our freebies were on display (the most important part of any SC booth). However we did have one tiny problem, they neglected to lay carpet on a 30ft by 2ft strip in the middle of our booth. So for most of the day I was chasing that up.
I did get to see outside for a while at lunchtime. It is gorgeous over here, it may almost be winter for Texas but it was a heavenly summer's day in Ireland. We ended up walking along the river and saw lots of birds, terrapins and squirrels pretty much in the heart of the city.
As evening, and the official opening approached, you could sense the pace quickening up on the booth and around us as everyone made last minute adjustments, double checked all arrangements and grabbed a bite to eat (the food for the evening was laid out slightly early for the exhibtors to enjoy before the mayhem began).
The EGEE booth is down near the back so it took a while for the crowds to reach us but we did get our first guest quite early on. They were a representative from the PIGEON project, they scavenge resources trying to find a niche which they can exploit and make use of what others don't want. I got a hastily taken shot of them:
It didn't take too long till we got some actual attendees to the booth and our freebies (I'll post some pictures later) disappeared quite quickly as we met some new faces, talked about their work and our work and made some contacts. For us exhibitors the night was three hours long as they let the journalists in from 6 to 7 and then everyone else from 7 to 9, it was pretty exhausting but fun.
I'm not sure what today (and the next two) will bring, I need to go on a freebie hunt, no one on the stand brought back anything amazing yet from their travels but it is early days.
Today on the stand we are running the following demos:
11:00 to 12:00
Demo 1 – European Grid Intitaive
Demo 2 – University of Westminister
12:00 to 13:00
Demo - EDGeS
13:00 to 14:00
Demo 1 – European Grid Intitaive
Demo 2 – UK National Grid Service Overview
14:00 to 14:30
Demo – SRM/SRB Interoperability
14:30 to 15:00
Demo – Grid Application Portal
15:00 to 16:00
Demo 1 – University of Westminister
Demo 2 – OGF/EGEE/WLCG/OSG interoperability
16:00 to 17:00
Demo – OXGRID
So come on down and learn about EGEE and grab a freebie or two.
Later days,
Neasan
It's 8:00am (or so) here in Texas and is the morning of the first full day of Supercomputing. My body is still a bit confused by the 6 hour time difference, I should have had lunch by now, not to mention breakfast.
Yesterday was a bit manic on the floor as this is my first SC and I'm in charge of the EGEE booth I had to make sure everything had turned up, was ready to go and our freebies were on display (the most important part of any SC booth). However we did have one tiny problem, they neglected to lay carpet on a 30ft by 2ft strip in the middle of our booth. So for most of the day I was chasing that up.
I did get to see outside for a while at lunchtime. It is gorgeous over here, it may almost be winter for Texas but it was a heavenly summer's day in Ireland. We ended up walking along the river and saw lots of birds, terrapins and squirrels pretty much in the heart of the city.
As evening, and the official opening approached, you could sense the pace quickening up on the booth and around us as everyone made last minute adjustments, double checked all arrangements and grabbed a bite to eat (the food for the evening was laid out slightly early for the exhibtors to enjoy before the mayhem began).
The EGEE booth is down near the back so it took a while for the crowds to reach us but we did get our first guest quite early on. They were a representative from the PIGEON project, they scavenge resources trying to find a niche which they can exploit and make use of what others don't want. I got a hastily taken shot of them:
It didn't take too long till we got some actual attendees to the booth and our freebies (I'll post some pictures later) disappeared quite quickly as we met some new faces, talked about their work and our work and made some contacts. For us exhibitors the night was three hours long as they let the journalists in from 6 to 7 and then everyone else from 7 to 9, it was pretty exhausting but fun.
I'm not sure what today (and the next two) will bring, I need to go on a freebie hunt, no one on the stand brought back anything amazing yet from their travels but it is early days.
Today on the stand we are running the following demos:
11:00 to 12:00
Demo 1 – European Grid Intitaive
Demo 2 – University of Westminister
12:00 to 13:00
Demo - EDGeS
13:00 to 14:00
Demo 1 – European Grid Intitaive
Demo 2 – UK National Grid Service Overview
14:00 to 14:30
Demo – SRM/SRB Interoperability
14:30 to 15:00
Demo – Grid Application Portal
15:00 to 16:00
Demo 1 – University of Westminister
Demo 2 – OGF/EGEE/WLCG/OSG interoperability
16:00 to 17:00
Demo – OXGRID
So come on down and learn about EGEE and grab a freebie or two.
Later days,
Neasan
Monday, November 17, 2008
show floor
so here I am on the show floor sitting in the Argonne booth waiting for the official opening to roll around - there's a VIP and press hour at 1800, and then the official opening gala at 1900. However, I've left my drinks tickets in my hotel room so may struggle at bit during the gala. so sad. Maybe I can trade some globus stickers for drink tickets.
swag-of-the-day: sunday
One of the most fun things about SC compared to other conferences I've been to is the obscene amount of free stuff given away.
The best I got on Sunday is this USB lava lamp, given out at the end of the exhibitor reception:
There are also usually a bunch of USB memory sticks given away. So far, just one, with only 1Gb of space (containing the SC08 proceedings, I think).
The best I got on Sunday is this USB lava lamp, given out at the end of the exhibitor reception:
There are also usually a bunch of USB memory sticks given away. So far, just one, with only 1Gb of space (containing the SC08 proceedings, I think).
Friday, November 14, 2008
Movin' right along
Just finished packing for Supercomputing '08, this is my first SC and I haven't been in the states in over 7 years now so looking forward to it. I think I have all the essentials for the flight; my DS Lite (with Professor Layton and the Curious village), GameBoy Micro (with Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past), some videos (this week's The Daily Show and Colbert Report), a few magazines (last two issues of New Scientist and will pick up the latest GamesTM) and of course my MP3 player. I decided against bringing my DS Phat, Gameboy color or original Gameboy, that'd have been overkill.
My posts on this blog will be to try and give an exhibitor's eye view of the conference so I have my camera with me and will keep my Flickr updated with pictures from the floor. I'll tag them Supercomputing08, if you're attending and taking photos tag them the same and I will pick the best to be featured here. I was thinking of using just SC08 but that is already being used by other things. I'll also be twittering and using the the #SC08 tag so keep an eye on that too for musings from me and others.
I'm running the video podcasts from the conference so will be posting those as I get them edited and online and as practise I'm posting the inspiration for this post's title (I love this song and movie)
I hope to keep the titles of my post as song names (except maybe the video podcasts) but I won't think I'll be posting videos for all of them don't worry. Any comments leave them below or come see me on EGEE booth (#588). EGEE may even have an iPod up for grabs in a raffle.
Right I have an early flight tomorrow better finish preparing for it (i.e. sleeping).
Later days,
Neasan (posts will be syndicated at neasanoneil.com)
My posts on this blog will be to try and give an exhibitor's eye view of the conference so I have my camera with me and will keep my Flickr updated with pictures from the floor. I'll tag them Supercomputing08, if you're attending and taking photos tag them the same and I will pick the best to be featured here. I was thinking of using just SC08 but that is already being used by other things. I'll also be twittering and using the the #SC08 tag so keep an eye on that too for musings from me and others.
I'm running the video podcasts from the conference so will be posting those as I get them edited and online and as practise I'm posting the inspiration for this post's title (I love this song and movie)
I hope to keep the titles of my post as song names (except maybe the video podcasts) but I won't think I'll be posting videos for all of them don't worry. Any comments leave them below or come see me on EGEE booth (#588). EGEE may even have an iPod up for grabs in a raffle.
Right I have an early flight tomorrow better finish preparing for it (i.e. sleeping).
Later days,
Neasan (posts will be syndicated at neasanoneil.com)
this time tomorrow...
This time tomorrow and I'll be 35,000 feet above the atlantic and on my way to SC08... how exciting! It'll be my 2nd SC experience and my first visit to Texas.
Last year I was involved with the UK federation stand at SC07, Reno. What an experience that was! If you watched Top Gear this weeked they summed up Reno quite well: "its a town with lots of light bulbs. Like Las Vegas, only smaller... and worse!". SC itself was good, and staying in a hotel complex that included a victorian mining rig complete with hourly thunder storms and a full sized circus made a change to the usual conference surroundings!
So I wonder what Austin, Texas holds in store?
Last year I was involved with the UK federation stand at SC07, Reno. What an experience that was! If you watched Top Gear this weeked they summed up Reno quite well: "its a town with lots of light bulbs. Like Las Vegas, only smaller... and worse!". SC itself was good, and staying in a hotel complex that included a victorian mining rig complete with hourly thunder storms and a full sized circus made a change to the usual conference surroundings!
So I wonder what Austin, Texas holds in store?
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