What Kind of Cloud Computing Project Would You Build With $32M?

Network World (10/14/09) Cooney, Michael

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) plans to build a large cloud computing test bed in an effort to determine whether cloud computing can help meet scientists’ demand for computing resources.  Approximately $32 million will be spent on the Magellan project, which will combine the commercial cloud offerings of Amazon, Microsoft, and Google.  The project also will link the 100Gbps Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) to the Argonne National and Lawrence Berkeley National laboratories to rapidly transfer data between geographically dispersed clouds.  ESnet will enable DOE scientists to access the computing resources regardless of their location.  As DOE scientists use the Magellan system for their computations, performance-monitoring software will be used to analyze the kinds of science applications being run on the system and how well they perform on a cloud.  The researchers say the project will help provide a better understanding of cloud computing’s potential as a cost-effective and energy-efficient tool for scientific discovery.  ”We know that the model works well for business applications, and we are working to make it equally effective for science,” says Argonne’s Pete Beckman.
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/101409-layer8-cloud-computing-doe.html

Why Desktop Multiprocessing Has Speed Limits

Computerworld (10/05/09) Vol. 43, No. 30, P. 24; Wood, Lamont

Despite the mainstreaming of multicore processors for desktops, not every desktop application can be rewritten for multicore frameworks, which means some bottlenecks will persist.  ”If you have a task that cannot be parallelized and you are currently on a plateau of performance in a single-processor environment, you will not see that task getting significantly faster in the future,” says analyst Tom Halfhill.  Adobe Systems’ Russell Williams points out that performance does not scale linearly even with parallelization on account of memory bandwidth issues and delays dictated by interprocessor communications.  Analyst Jim Turley says that, overall, consumer operating systems “don’t do anything smart” with multicore architecture.  ”We have to reinvent computing, and get away from the fundamental premises we inherited from von Neumann,” says Microsoft technical fellow Burton Smith.  ”He assumed one instruction would be executed at a time, and we are no longer even maintaining the appearance of one instruction at a time.”  Analyst Rob Enderle notes that most applications will operate on only a single core, which means that the benefits of a multicore architecture only come when multiple applications are run.  ”What we’d all like is a magic compiler that takes yesterday’s source code and spreads it across multiple cores, and that is just not happening,” says Turley.  Despite the performance issues, vendors prefer multicore processors because they can facilitate a higher level of power efficiency.  ”Using multiple cores will let us get more performance while staying within the power envelope,” says Acer’s Glenn Jystad.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/342870/The_Desktop_Traffic_Jam?intsrc=print_latest

Mobile Apps Give Students Instant Access to Information

Columbus State University News (09/24/09)

Columbus State University (CSU) has given its students access to the Google Apps Education Edition through their mobile phones, using on-campus Gmail, calendars, and other programs.  CSU says it is the first university to provide its students with so many mobile applications.  Students can use mobile phones with Web access to look up their academic status, class and on-campus bus schedules, financial aid and personal account information, student events, and a map of campus.  The mobile applications are so popular that students recently voted to increase technology fees to get the best service available.  ”Our ultimate goal is to duplicate all of the services that we now provide to students through our university portal,” says CSU’s Robert Diveley.  Diveley will write about the development of these applications on the Google Enterprise Blog as its weeklong guest writer.  He also will give a joint lecture with CSU chief information officer Abraham George on the same topic at the national Educause conference.
http://www.colstate.edu/news/viewnews.asp?ItemNum=1220

suatu contoh kolaborasi yang baik – BIN

Kalau kita lihat di berbagai belahan dunia termasuk di Indonesia, konon terjadi persaingan di antara perguruan tinggi untuk mencapai taraf lebih baik, lebih populer dan lebih xxx. Namun pada hal tertentu, kerjasama merupakan sesuatu yang juga tidak kalah baiknya untuk mencapai hal yang lebih baik dan lebih bermanfaat bagi masyarakat luas. Salah satu contoh di lakukan oleh perguruan tinggi di Canada dalam riset BIN. Dan bukan berarti perguruan tinggi di Indonesia dan industrinya tidak mampu melakukan kerjasama yang baik untuk mendapatkan manfaat bersama dan luas. Awalnya — mungkin — dengan niat dan inisiatif mengajak kolaborasi. Wallahu ‘alam, God knows well, wasalam

lafadz ringan namun bermakna

saya dapat link berikut yang mengulas arti kata kata yang pendek dan mudah diucapkan (seperti bismillah, insya Allah, masya Allah dsb) namun bermakna dan manfaat besar. Mudah mudahan bermanfaat bagi yang memerlukan dan mempraktekannya.

http://muslimah.or.id/fikih/lafadz-lafadz-yang-ringan-di-lidah.html

setiap habis Ramadhan – Bimbo

Nasyid dari Bimbo merupakan salah satu favorite saya terutama pada saat berakhirnya Ramadha setia tahun …semoga menjadi pemicu untuk dapat beribadah lebih baik di setiap tahun …  amin.

taqwa sepanjang waktu dan tempat

Assalamu’alaikum Wr. Wb.

Puasa di bulan Ramadhan 1430 H ini dalam beberapa hari lagi akan berakhir, kita tidak tahu apakah kita akan mendapatkan kesempatan bertemu dengan Ramadhan di tahun mendatang. Kita berdoa dan sangat berharap kepada Allah SWT agar kita masih diberi kesempatan untuk bertemu dengannya di tahun mendatang sehingga kita dapat mengisinya dengan ibadah ibadah yang lebih berkualitas sebagai sarana pendekatan diri padaNya dan bekal di akhirat nanti. Amin.  Lanjut? klik di sini

Artificial Intelligence Helps Diagnose Cardiac Infections

Mayo Clinic (09/12/09) Nellis, Robert

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic have trained an artificial neural network (ANN) to evaluate the symptoms for infections involving the valves and chambers of the heart, and they believe the software has the potential to replace diagnosis with more invasive exams.  The team trained the ANN on three separate occasions by introducing as many situations related to endocarditis infections as possible.  Then the researchers tested the software on 189 cases involving device-related endocarditis between 1991 and 2003.  On cases with known diagnosis of endocarditis, the best-trained ANN was correct in 72 of 73 implant-related infections and 12 of 13 endocarditis cases, with a confidence level greater than 99 percent.  And for an overall sample of both known and unknown cases, the software accurately excluded endocarditis in at least half of the cases, eliminating such patients from an unnecessary endoscope and insertion of a probe down the esophagus.  ”If, through this novel method, we can help determine a percentage of endocarditis diagnoses with a high rate of accuracy, we hope to save a significant number of patients from the discomfort, risk, and expense of the standard diagnostic procedure,” says study leader M. Rizwan Sohail.
http://www.mayoclinic.org/news2009-rst/5411.html

SC09 Draws Many New Faces to World’s Premier Supercomputing Event

Business Wire (09/09/09)

Approximately 11,000 researchers, scientists, engineers, and computing experts from around the world are expected to attend SCO9 high-performance computing (HPC) conference, which takes place Nov. 14-20 in Portland, Ore.  More than 275 organizations have signed on as exhibitors, including 40 first-time exhibitors.  ”This is an amazing testimony to the importance of the SC conference series as the premier gathering of HPC ecosystem stakeholders who assemble each year seeking education, technology, and science information, and networking with colleagues, peers, and industry leaders,” says Wilf Pinfold, general chair of SC09.  The conference’s lineup of featured speakers includes Intel’s Justin Rattner, who will give an opening address; Leroy Hood, president and co-founder of the Institute for Systems Biology, invited plenary speaker; and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who is a conference keynote speaker.  The theme of SC09 is “Computing for a Changing World,” and there will be special focus discussions on bio-computing, sustainability, and the three-dimensional Internet.
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20090909005483&newsLang=en

Virtual Maps for the Blind

Virtual Maps for the Blind
American Friends of Tel Aviv University (09/10/09)

BlindAid, developed by Tel Aviv University’s Orly Lahav, is a new program that helps the blind navigate through unfamiliar locations.  BlindAid digitally maps real-world places and, with the help of a pre-existing three-dimensional haptic device, enables blind users to navigate them virtually before visiting them in person.  The program uses a joystick that produces different sensations under a user’s fingertips.  ”Walking” around a virtual room, blind users can feel a digital wall ahead when the stick tenses; it also recreates the feeling of grass, sidewalks, asphalt, and tiled floors.  Moreover, the device replicates sounds, such as the hiss of an espresso machine to indicate a nearby coffee shop, or the ringing of phones for a customer service desk.  Lahav gave the program to several volunteers from the Carroll Center for the Blind.  After three or four uses of BlindAid, a partially blind woman successfully visited 12 unknown, real-world locations while wearing a blindfold.  Lahav says that blind users “get feedback from the device that lets them build a cognitive map, which they later apply in the real world.  It’s like a high-tech walking cane.”  She says that with the help of a geographic information system, the program could help blind users explore any unknown area virtually before visiting it alone in the real world.
http://www.aftau.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=10467