HPCwire: (December 16, 2008) more about SIMDAT

Grid technology developed by European researchers offers a new way to do business, with partners working simply, seamlessly and 'virtually' around a common goal. It is already having a big impact, in a variety of applications.

IT-Online - New ICT association set up

Monday, 22 December 2008, 13:46

A new industry body, the South African Information & Communication Technology Association (SAICTA), has been established to act as a forum of all the ICT lobby groups, distributors, retailers and professionals in the country.

The association has a mandate the face up to, and co-ordinate, the many challenges the ICT industry is confronted with. SAICTA will use the ICT Charter as the backbone of its constitution.

IOL amongst other news agencies are running a story of government meddling in S&T (November 26 2008 at 11:56AM).

Suspended Council for Scientific and Industrial Research scientist Dr Anthony Turton said on Wednesday he had extended an "olive branch" to the organisation.

"I have no anger in my heart, I have no belligerence," he said.

"I have no interest in pursuing this to a higher level: I just want to continue doing my work as a scientist."

Turton was suspended last week after the CSIR ordered him not to deliver a hard-hitting presentation on South Africa's water crisis at a CSIR conference in Pretoria.

I have never met Dr Turton, or even heard of him. And this article certainly is not with regard to HPC. I am commenting here, because this to me is the principle of academic freedom, pure and simple. Further, the issues do touch a nerve, because other experts I know personally, and many trade organisations such as the SA Institute of Civil Engineers (SAICE) and here have been making claims for a long time as to the security of our drinking water.

He seems to be quite well published and here. I am not a civil engineer, but the volume and forums in which Dr Turton published seem quite extensive and reputable.

You can read it at the M&G or here. The article looks solid. There are certainly questionable sections - like the sensationalist Xenophobic pictures. However that is surely his prerogative. It seems that his paper was peer reviewed and accepted. The tone of the article does appear to indicate frustration and questions the wisdom of current policies. This is not wrong. Further, although he does put forward some forthright judgements, ultimately he is constructive.

There is a petition too. I signed the petition on principle.

Thanks to Slashdot here are some awesome photos of the Large Hardron Collider (LHC) at CERN.

In fact Peter introduced me to the Boston Big Picture web site - they have some great photos, like Life of yore.

The Mail and Gaurdian (nogal) has an article on 10 June 2008 08:04

Roadrunner was always expected to be fast out of the blocks. And after a test run one night in the city of Poughkeepsie, New York, its creators were far from disappointed.

Built from microchips originally destined for games consoles, Roadrunner is the world's latest supercomputer. On Monday it was officially crowned the fastest computer around, having performed a record million billion calculations per second.

As an indication of how fast this is, manufacturers explained that if six billion people were to do one sum a second on calculator, it would take 46 years to do what Roadrunner could do in a day. The world's first supercomputer, the Cray 1, built in the mid-1970s, would take 1 500 years to finish a calculation that Roadrunner would perform in two hours.

I have just been referred to a paper written in the 19 Century called "The tragedy of the commons" by William Forster Lloyd and reviewed in Dec 1968 in Science by Garrett Hardin or here. The title of this blog relates to Hardin's lament to what he saw as a more relevent title.

This is how Wikipedia summarises the tragedy

Here is some good news from the Innovation Fund. (This is not strictly computing, but bare with me.) I am very critical of the IF, but they seem to have been involved in the production of a strategic *product*. Batteries are critical components of modern life - not because of Eskom, but because of the myriad of reasons ranging from the cost of transmission, to their use in mobiles....

Duncan McLeod has the following news SA to produce battery-powered car (June 1st, 2008)

An SA-designed, battery-operated passenger car is to be unveiled early next year, deputy science & technology Minister Derek Hanekom announced on Friday. Unfortunately, the vehicle will need to be charged from Eskom’s mains supply.

The development of the vehicle could not have come at a better time, Hanekom told MPs during debate in parliament on the science and technology budget vote. “The project … involves a range of stakeholders, including SA universities and industry. The first prototype of this vehicle will be launched by the end of this year, or early next year.

“Given our economy’s vulnerability to volatile oil prices, and growing concerns about the pollution resulting from fossil-fuel transport, the timing of this development could not have been better,” Hanekom said.

I wonder if it is the research group from the University of Venda that were involved in the CHPC? (This is where computing comes in!)

IT Web reports in an article Johannesburg, 28 May 2008

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is teaming with the Meraka Institute's Centre for High Performance Computing (CHPC) to develop indigenous computational fluid dynamics software.

Dr Arnaud Malan, the CSIR's principal researcher and project leader for aeronautics systems research, says SA currently pays enormous amounts to companies abroad for CFD software and this “project will allow us to develop our own”.

This sounds like an excellent challenge. I am sure that developing the tech will be hard, but finding the right niche / business model will be harder. I can see a lot of applications - from pbmr, onwards. Good luck!

I would assume that they will develop this project with the ordinary aspects of software engineering: testing, source control, architecture, performance. Unique patentable IT get my attention. I wonder how they intend to licence it - I assume the "Open Source" business model will be dropped.