Doing The Math On Fractal HPC
At every key leap in processing capacity in high performance computing – and just rattling off more than two decades from teraflops through petaflops, and now on the verge of exaflops in two years or so – there has been this tension between custom-built systems that break through performance barriers and more general purpose machines based on more off of the shelf components that cost less and tend to be fast followers. …
Doing The Math On Fractal HPC was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.
The Art of Saying “No”
No.
It’s the shortest sentence in the English language. It requires no other parts of speech. It’s an answer, a statement, and a command all at once. It’s a phrase that some people have zero issues saying over and over again. And yet, some others have an extremely difficult time answering anything in the negative.
I had a fun discussion on twitter yesterday with some friends about the idea behind saying “no” to people. It started with this tweet:
Coincidentally, I tweeted something very similar to what Bob Plankers had tweeted just hours before:
The gist is the same though. Crazy features and other things that have been included in software and hardware because someone couldn’t tell another person “no”. Sadly, it’s something Continue reading
Equinix CEO Talks Edge: Friend or Foe?
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Money Moves: December 2019
Intel challenges Nvidia with its $2 billion Habana purchase; Cisco buys Exablaze; Fortinet snapped...
NetDev 0x13 on Software Gone Wild
The last Software Gone Wild podcast recorded in 2019 focused on advances in Linux networking - in particular on interesting stuff presented at NetDev 0x13 conference in Prague. The guests (in alphabetical first name order) Jamal Hadi Salim, Shrijeet Mukherjee, Sowmini Varadhan, and Tom Herbert shared their favorite topics, and commented on the future of Linux networking.
Read more ...Ten challenges for making automation a ‘team player’ in joint human-agent activity
Ten challenges for making automation a ‘team player’ in joint human-agent activity, Klein et al., IEEE Computer Nov/Dec 2004
With thanks to Thomas Depierre for the paper suggestion.
Last time out we looked at some of the difficulties inherit in automating control systems. However much we automate, we’re always ultimately dealing with some kind of human/machine collaboraton. Today’s choice looks at what it takes for machines to participate productively in collaborations with humans. Written in 2004, the ideas remind me very much of Mark Burgess’ promise theory, which was also initially developed around the same time.
Let’s work together
If a group of people (or people and machines) are going to coordinate with each other to achieve a set of shared ends then there are four basic requirements that must be met to underpin their joint activity:
- They must agree to work together (the authors call this agreement a Basic Compact).
- They must be mutually predictable in their actions
- They must be mutually directable.
- They must maintain common ground.
A basic compact is…
… an agreement (often tacit) to facilitate coordination, work toward shared goals, and prevent breakdowns in team coordination. This Compact involves a commitment Continue reading
Gen-Z Memory Servers Loom On The Horizon
We have been waiting for a long, long time for the ionic bond between compute and main memory to be softened to something a little more covalent and therefore allow for more complex storage structures to be formed within systems and across them. …
Gen-Z Memory Servers Loom On The Horizon was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.
Aruba SD-Branch Update Targets Retail
The update includes new branch hardware with built-in cellular capabilities, improved security...
Veeam Snatched Up by Insight for $5B
Strong growth, high customer retention, and expansion opportunities make Veeam "one of the most...
AT&T Clarifies Perplexing, Ambiguous Network Virtualization Goal
AT&T’s ongoing network virtualization effort, specifically the amount of core network...
HPC In 2020: AI Is No Longer An Experiment
If we could sum up the near-term future of high performance computing in a single phrase, it would be more of the same and then some. …
HPC In 2020: AI Is No Longer An Experiment was written by Michael Feldman at The Next Platform.
IPv6 Buzz 042: Why Wireless Is A Smart Place To Start With IPv6
If you're looking for a way to bring IPv6 into your environment, the WLAN may be your best bet. Find out why in the latest episode of IPv6 Buzz with guest Jeffry Handal. Jeffry cut his teeth with an early v6 deployment on the wireless network of Louisiana State University (LSU). This WLAN serves 40,000 users and over 100,000 devices. He shares his experiences and talks about how vendor adoption of v6 had advanced since that deployment.IPv6 Buzz 042: Why Wireless Is A Smart Place To Start With IPv6
If you're looking for a way to bring IPv6 into your environment, the WLAN may be your best bet. Find out why in the latest episode of IPv6 Buzz with guest Jeffry Handal. Jeffry cut his teeth with an early v6 deployment on the wireless network of Louisiana State University (LSU). This WLAN serves 40,000 users and over 100,000 devices. He shares his experiences and talks about how vendor adoption of v6 had advanced since that deployment.
The post IPv6 Buzz 042: Why Wireless Is A Smart Place To Start With IPv6 appeared first on Packet Pushers.
Strong Encryption Is Central to Good Security – India’s Proposed Intermediary Rules Puts It at Risk
Security and encryption experts from around the world are calling on the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTy) to reconsider proposed amendments to intermediary liability rules that could weaken security and limit the use of strong encryption on the Internet. Coordinated by the Internet Society, nearly thirty computer security and cryptography experts from around the world signed “Open Letter: Concerns with Amendments to India’s Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules under the Information Technology Act.”
MeiTy is revising proposed amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules. The proposed amendments would require intermediaries, like content platforms, Internet service providers, cybercafés, and others, to abide by strict, onerous requirements in order to not be held liable for the content sent or posted by their users. Freedom from intermediary liability is an important aspect of communications over the Internet. Without it, people cannot build and maintain platforms and services that have the ability to easily handle to billions of people.
The letter highlights concerns with these new rules, specifically requirements that intermediaries monitor and filter their users’ content. As these security experts state, “by tying intermediaries’ protection from liability to their ability to monitor communications being sent across their platforms or systems, the amendments would limit Continue reading
How to Add Approval Steps to Ansible Tower Workflows
Suppose you have a workflow set up in Red Hat Ansible Tower with several steps and needed another user to view and approve some or all of the nodes in the workflow. Or maybe a job is running inside of a workflow but it should be viewed and approved within a specific time limit, or else get canceled automatically? Perhaps it would be useful to be able to see how a job failed before something like a cleanup task gets set off? It is now possible to insert a step in between any job template or workflow within that workflow in order to achieve these objectives.
Table of Contents
A New Feature for Better Oversight and More User Input
How to Add Approval Nodes to Workflows
What Happens When Something Needs Approval?
Approval-Specific Role-Based Access Controls
A New Feature for Better Oversight and More User Input
The Workflow Approval Node feature has been available in Ansible Tower since the release of version 3.6.0 on November 13, 2019. In order to visually compare the additional functionality, examine the before and after examples of a workflow Continue reading
Worth Reading: Apple II Had the Lowest Input Latency Ever
It's amazing how heaping layers of complexity (see also: SDN or intent-based whatever) manages to destroy performance faster than Moore's law delivers it. The computer with lowest keyboard-to-screen latency was (supposedly) Apple II built in 1983, with modern Linux having keyboard-to-screen RTT matching the transatlantic links.
No surprise there: Linux has been getting slower with every kernel release and it takes an enormous effort to fine-tune it (assuming you know what to tune). Keep that in mind the next time someone with a hefty PPT slide deck will tell you to build a "provider cloud" with packet forwarding done on Linux VMs. You can make that work, and smart people made that work, but you might not have the resources to replicate their feat.
MobiledgeX, NTT DoCoMo Trial MEC for 5G Applications
The proof-of-concept aims to test multi-access edge computing for the global distribution of...