January 2008 Archives

From a marginal note I made in class last term: talking about computers simulating emotions makes me think of virtual machines.

Is my iMac running VMWare Fusion creating a Windows box, or simulating one, or is it even attaining Windows?  An emulator like VICE doesn't somehow turn my Mac into a C64. Look at the difficulty of emulation: it takes a P2-400+ to emulate a C64, a 1MHz CPU with 64kb of RAM.

So what would it take to emulate a human brain?  Would that emulation be sufficient to simulate emotions?  (Ignore the obvious physiological issues; assume that those also are emulated, or are unimportant.)

Sun, for a company that wants to be open, you're sure good at hiding Useful Information.

I just discovered that I needed to be upgrading the LSI Logic controllers on my X4100s along with the System Processor firmware and system BIOS.  Fine.  The only downloads available are ISO images, which kind of defeats the purpose of having something like System Manager if I have to reboot servers by hand and point them at an ISO image (or worse, burn a CD).  So I go poking about, and find "Remote Installation of LSI software on Sun Fire[TM] x4100,Sun Fire[TM] x4200" - woo hoo, looks good.

Problem is: it's restricted-access.  We have a support contract on these things, but I've no idea how to properly associate them with my account, and what would it kill Sun to release this information publicly?  It's not like they suddenly would lose money on the 56 X4100s we purchased, about 20 of which right now are running an unsupported configuration because stupid me made an assumption.  I'm also referred to the documentation that "comes with the download", except there isn't any - just an ISO image which can only be booted from, not read.

Thanks a lot for making my life more difficult than it needs to be, Sun.  I suggest before trumpeting your new openness and ease of management, that you ensure *you really are open and easy to manage*.  Now I have a choice: spend another five or ten hours researching this from third-party sources and maybe not have a solution, or boot this fucking ISO 56 times.  Neither option makes me happy, not when I know somebody's playing the "I have some information but I'm not telling you" game.

Update: some more Google-fu brought me here, which says, basically, "LOL U CANT USE SYSTEM MANAGER TO DELIVER HALF THE FIRMWARE REQUIRED 4 UR PLATFORM".  Thanks a lot, Sun - remind me again why one uses N1SM?  I assume that what's behind the paywall is something along the lines of "This is unsupported, but..."

and all those other cliches.  I'm no fan of hitting from behind, and I'll admit if that was an Oiler lying on the ice instead of a Flyer, I'd be pissed.  But the Oilers aren't noted for hitting much at all this season, never mind about dirty hits.  While I don't entirely believe Laraque's protestations of innocence - he was quoted as saying "It almost looked like he dove . . . It was nothing intended, it wasn't even a hit," this is exactly what Downie got told would happen if he kept headhunting and acting like an idiot.  He can't say he didn't know.

Given what Bobby Clarke said, "McAmmond was a veteran player who was skating and watching his pass and got nailed. Sorry for it, too bad he got hurt but it was his own fault as much as it was Downie's."  Well, Downie went into the corner with his back turned, knowing a 250ish pound behemoth was skating around on the ice.  Clarke can't say too much about this hit - although I'm sure he will.

Will it make Downie slow down next time he sees a chance to hurt another player?  I doubt it.  Of course, I've not at all been a fan of his since he was beating up his own team's rookies after practise, so maybe I'm cynical.

While discussing with my boss the potential for purchasing (or rather, recommending the purchasing of) some HPC equipment for one or more of our research groups, something occurred to me while I was making observations regarding the usage of their existing equipment.  Mike's Law of Academic Computoring is still in a pre-natal form, but it goes something like this:

The problem with things like high performance computing is that it is about getting things done.  Academia is not (necessarily) about getting things done, it is about getting as many papers published as quickly as possible.  If learning how to better use computing resources gets in the way of paper publication, then the learning takes a back seat.

Pretty long and gross, but it seems to sum up my experience with both procurement and "real-world" usage patterns so far.  As with anything there are, of course, exceptions.  But, in my experience, the academics who really want to continually learn how to use new technologies in order to fulfill their real ends are much harder to find than the ones who want things to never change so they can continue doing things in the ways they're used to.

Note that this is not (really) a value judgement - it doesn't matter to me how academics produce their work, only that they do.  But where academic departments run into trouble is when those who want New Ways conflict with those who feel more productive using the Old Ways, which will inevitably pinch the system administrators who have to support them.

I know that sports reporters frequently write the story as the game is still playing out, then file quickly after the game is over so they can be first on the wire, but doing it so quickly that you report the wrong score is a bit much.