Prev: tomorrow
Next: 8 years post op and PSA rising
From: MikeHi on 30 Sep 2008 09:02
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article4842964.ece

or: http://tiny.cc/m8Xqc

Headline: "Grid of 100,000 computers heralds new internet dawn"

Here's some early seasonal good cheer - (my reindeer insisted on a
pre-Xmas romp to get his nose reddened up).

Story from The Times. Never mind the reporting (poor), read the
scientist's comments e.g.:

� "The Grid cannot find a cure for cancer, but what it can do is make
it quicker," said Dr Jones, explaining that what might have taken a
decade could now be done in weeks.

Eh, what? Decades of analysis done in weeeeks? Decades?? Let it sink
in. Whooooosh! (me, not the scientist).

The grid was built to analyse the avalanche of data from CERN's Large
Hadron Collider (LHC).

Well, now we've got our own L Pca C. There's an avalanche of data on
the molecular scale streaming from different cancer laboratories - but
not yet collided - or even collidable. Now they're for it! I've
queried in the past if any computer technology was being harnessed to
analyse, cross-check, all the different streams.

Well lads. Here it is! Our Big Bang! It really will be Xmas as soon as
we learn that the cancer research orgs. have worked out how to harness
it.

Alan - you're sitting plumb in the centre of the research Planet. Can
I tell Rudolf you've maybe heard a whisper that the Cancer Research
Institute is on to this? It will make his Xmas - and your chimney will
for sure get the first deliveries!

Xmas IS coming!

Good cheer, big hopes to everybody, stick in there!

MikeHi
"Exponential lightspeed". Def: The discovery of the cure for Pca at a
speed which defies Einstein.
From: Alan Meyer on 30 Sep 2008 10:23


<MikeHi(a)anon.com> wrote in message
news:bd84e4h54gqiod48ijrs9unm5dt2vktlqb(a)4ax.com...
> http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article4842964.ece
>
> or: http://tiny.cc/m8Xqc
>
> Headline: "Grid of 100,000 computers heralds new internet dawn"
....
> Well lads. Here it is! Our Big Bang! It really will be Xmas as soon as
> we learn that the cancer research orgs. have worked out how to harness
> it.
>
> Alan - you're sitting plumb in the centre of the research Planet. Can
> I tell Rudolf you've maybe heard a whisper that the Cancer Research
> Institute is on to this? It will make his Xmas - and your chimney will
> for sure get the first deliveries!

There is a project called folding(a)home
(http://folding.stanford.edu/) which uses a technique like this.
The purpose of the project is to use tens or hundreds of
thousands of computers running on people's home computers to
simulate protein folding. This enables the scientists to make
more educated guesses about the function of any specific gene
sequence that codes for a protein. The project outputs are used
in cancer research, Alzheimer's Disease research, and many other
types of medical research involving genetic disorders.

This is not a bad thing for all of us to consider running on our
computers. I've run it on mine. The program runs all the time
at the lowest priority setting, which means that when I try do
anything at all with my computer, the folding(a)home program
immediately stops and I get full use of the machine. When I
stop doing anything, for example when I pause for a few seconds
to think about the next word I'm going to type, or when I go to
sleep, or when I do anything at all other than use my computer,
it churns away performing protein folding simulations. On my
machine it is able to simulate a single protein fold in a few
days. Then it uploads its results to Stanford University and
downloads a new set of instructions.

I've never experienced any adverse events originating in the
program, and I've never noticed any slowdown in running any of
the programs that I normally run.

Alan


From: MikeHi on 1 Oct 2008 10:22
On Tue, 30 Sep 2008 10:23:21 -0400, "Alan Meyer" <ameyer2(a)yahoo.com>
wrote in reply to my post:

>.....There is a project called folding(a)home
>(http://folding.stanford.edu/) which uses a technique like this.
>The purpose of the project is to use tens or hundreds of
>thousands of computers running on people's home computers..../SNIP

I trust the cancer research world, wherein lies my interest, and this
newsgroup's, will quickly understand the CERN Grid is absolutely not
just another example of internet grid computing - or 'cloud'
computing, today's modish term.

The CERN Grid is a massive, quantum leap in applied power for
research.

I first became aware of personal computers donating unused resources
to create super computer power when used by SETI@ home about ten years
(to help search for extra-terrestrial signals). And I've been aware
of CERN using LHC(a)home across personal computers in the same way more
recently while awaiting its new network.

But The Grid is not just another piggy-backing the Internet. It is a
dedicated system. There is full, clear, detailed information on CERN's
own site:
http://gridcafe.web.cern.ch/gridcafe/gridatwork/hardware.html

Here is one extract from that page:

"��Grids testbeds are built on high-performance networks, such as the
intra-European GEANT network or the UK SuperJanet network, which have
10Gbps performance on the network "backbone", which links the major
"nodes" on the grid (like national computing centres).
One level down from the "backbone" are the network links, which join
individual institutions to nodes on the backbone. Performance of these
is typically 1Gbps. A further level down are the 10 to 100Mbps
desktop-to-institution network links.

So the backbone speed of this dedicated network - to dedicated
stations worldwide - is 10Gigabits per second. But that's only a part
of the whole. The project has to be read as a whole. New protocols
have been developed. Toolkits are available.

And the site sets out how this new power will be available for
research, including drugs.

It should be compulsory reading, today, for everybody in top level
research who may believe times, and the tools available to them, will
never change. (This is not aimed at you, Alan, who I respect. As I
commented earlier The Times article I quoted was poorly written and
could easily have misled into thinking "just another 'cloud'.)

But the comments of the scientists in the article were a dimension
different - and led me to more Googling.

If the Grid is not immediately under study by Cancer research
Organisations, working out how best it could be applied, I would
regard it as a serious dereliction of duty to those with any form of
cancer.

My very best wishes to all.

MikeHi
"Exponential lightspeed". Def: The discovery of the cure for Pca at a
speed which defies Einstein.



 | 
Pages: 1
Prev: tomorrow
Next: 8 years post op and PSA rising