Month: July 2012

… and Oracle snarfs up Xsigo …

2012-07-31 by joe

Xsigo makes virtual network connectivity systems. Basically letting you build a virtual network, in a software stack, so you can avoid spending so much money on a fixed (and inflexible) network stack. Its a neat concept, but its utility is focused elsewhere than HPC. Even though they talk storage, I’d argue its a fairly expensive … Read more… and Oracle snarfs up Xsigo …

… and he's back!

2012-07-30 by joe

with a good article on a new license formulated for genomic code being distributed by a university research center. Glad to see the blog back up! Or rebooted … and +10 on your article. It (that license) is the wrong direction IMO. Goes against what publicly funded scientific code should be distributed as (IMO).

More M&A?

2012-07-28 by joe

I’ve heard OCZ being looked at by Seagate and others. That would make sense. Honestly I think my expectations are not that companies have fire sales going on … but that areas where some sort of force multiplication is possible … these companies will be snapped up to help grow larger companies. Acquirers are after … Read moreMore M&A?

A question a customer asked relative to Lustre and the Whamcloud acquisition

2012-07-28 by joe

Whats to become of Chroma (from Whamcloud)? I know its early, and I am sure that there won’t be answers just yet. Intel acquired Cilk, and its now available (and being integrated into gcc!) Intel acquired many others, and their bits are available. I’d expect Chroma to be made into an offering from Intel, along … Read moreA question a customer asked relative to Lustre and the Whamcloud acquisition

Some kernels don't like having non-assemble-able software RAIDs

2012-07-28 by joe

This one took me a while to figure out. I had to start probing why a system would crash the MD stack shortly after booting, but not in single user mode. So I started delving into the RAID. And found that the folks who set this unit up had a RAID0 with 0.90 metadata on … Read moreSome kernels don't like having non-assemble-able software RAIDs

ahh grub 0.97 + ext4 … how I loathe thee

2012-07-26 by joe

I had forgotten that some combinations of grub + file system could be rendered unbootable without lots of additional help. Grub is annoying. This is Grub legacy. Grub current tries to fix the mess, but fails as it is overly complex. And it appears to omit PXE and network boot options. Well iPXE helps us … Read moreahh grub 0.97 + ext4 … how I loathe thee

bad design + bad implementation = company success ??? Seriously ???

2012-07-26 by joe

We are often hired to work on existing systems, to see if we can help make them faster and better. I am working on such a project now, but this post is not about this project. I’ve noticed a tendency in the market to shoehorn a set of designs for storage/computing systems into areas they … Read morebad design + bad implementation = company success ??? Seriously ???

OT: things taken for granted, and relearned

2012-07-22 by joe

Sleep is the great rejuvinator. When you get good sleep, you feel generally much better when you wake up. Your body does repair functions, your brain works out (some issues). And occasionally you dream.
Going without sleep ages people, makes them less productive as they are more tired during the day. It limits the repair functionality. It hinders the “work through problems”. It prevents dreams.
Pulling all-nighters is one instance of doing without sleep. This is a voluntary effort.
But what if your efforts were non-voluntary? What if your lack of restful sleep was prolonged for, I dunno, 20+ years.
I have a severe case of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). I’ve had it for a while … my wife diagnosed it perfectly, some years ago, after reading the symptoms and comparing to her observations. I didn’t believe her.
Word to the wise. Listen to the boss lady.
I’ve not been getting good sleep for a while. Years … no … decades. I used to attribute it to one of my other oh-so-enjoyable maladies. In this particular instance, one is awakened to the nasty sensation of your vocal cords and esophagus burning, choking and inability to breath a highly acidic slurry … Yeah, that, kidney stones, and Gout are all things I have that I really don’t wish on anyone.

Insanely funny comedic response to "you didn't build that"

2012-07-21 by joe

This past week saw the president of the US in another major screw up … one he doesn’t quite understand why its a screw up … and many of his supporters don’t quite seem to get it either. The responses to the screw up have been coming fast and furious. This has become a major … Read moreInsanely funny comedic response to "you didn't build that"

Economic headwinds being reported

2012-07-21 by joe

HPC is a small fraction of the total computing market. The market in general experience forces from the state of the economy … in growing economic times, generally large portions of the computing market are refreshing and updating gear. Conversely, when we are treading water, or contracting as an economy, word from on high in IT organizations is usually “make do with what you have” for a while.
Many industries and economists have noted signs portending a downturn over the past few months. Purchasing has slowed, and this impacts IT, and HPC.
Intel and AMD, whose products are responsible for most of the HPC on the planet at this time, are noticing this market softening. The article casts this message in terms of the US presidential race, but regardless of whose in charge, or aspiring to be so, downturns suck.
Microsoft posted its first loss, ever.
There are several different things at work here, and not all of them are purely economic though.
Apple has posted massive gains. From everything I am seeing, reading, and hearing from people, lots of new “PC”s are being delayed in favor of pads and smart phones. If all you do is email and surf, a pad does the same/better job at a lower price. So to a pretty significant degree, I am thinking that those whom have been prognosticating the impending decline of the PC may finally be right (not unlike why a broken analog clock is right at least once a day, or twice a day if its a 12 hour clock).
Those are not Intel or AMD processors in the pads and tablets.
That is not Microsoft software on those tablets.
Clouds reduce the need to stand up your own gear, so you don’t have to buy more Intel or AMD gear.