Cool/Weird Stuff To Do On a Cluster? 608
Gori writes "I'm a researcher at a university. Our group mainly does Agent Based Modeling of interdisciplinary problems (think massive simulations where technology, policy, and economics meet). Recently, we managed to get a bunch of money for a High Performance Cluster to run our stuff on. The code is mostly written in Java. Our IT support people are very capable of setting up a stable cluster that will run Java perfectly. But where's the fun in that? What I'm trying to figure out are other, more far-out and interesting things to do with this machine — think 500+ Opteron cores, 2 GB RAM per core, a gigabit interconnect with some badass switches, a massive storage array, plus a bunch of UltraSPARC boxes. So at times when there's no stuff to crunch, I'd like to boot the thing up with a 'weird' system image and geek around in the name of science. Try fancy ways of building models, dynamically adding all sorts of hardware to it, etc. Have different schedulers compete for resources. Imagine a Matlab vs. Boinc vs. ProActive shootout. Maybe run plan9 on it? Most of us are not CE/CS people, but we are geeky enough. So, what would be the coolest and most far out thing you would do with this kind of hardware ?"
Vista? (Score:5, Funny)
You can hope (Score:4, Funny)
that it will be fast enough to run Duke Nukem Forever when it gets released.
Imagine . . . (Score:2, Funny)
Gentoo DistCC (Score:2, Funny)
Because Gentoo is just hours of fun....
compiling.
Donate it to a CS Dept.? (Score:2, Funny)
:-)
power it down (Score:2, Funny)
power it off and go get a blow job. You might like it.
high performance java? (Score:3, Funny)
You have a high-performance cluster, and you're running Java? I bet the OS in windows, too.
Easy one. (Score:3, Funny)
Get it to play a game of Tic-tac-Toe against itself. Give us some WOPR love!
How about a game? (Score:5, Funny)
Poker
Fighter Combat
Guerrilla Engagement
Desert Warefare
Air-to-Ground Actions
Theaterwide Tactical Warfare
Theaterwide Biotoxic and Chemical Warfare
Global Thermonuclear War
??
Super photogenesis (Score:5, Funny)
Logic dictates that one of the resulting pictures would have to be of John Lennon kicking George W Bush in the nuts, find that picture and post it on failblog.
Voila.
Well.. (Score:5, Funny)
There was this one incident when me and this girl turned a cabinet over on it's side and used it as a surface for sex play. That was different. It didn't get weird until she insisted that I tie her wrists with some Cat 5 though.
"We're gonna need a bigger map..." (Score:5, Funny)
Anyone else think a 2^16 vs. 2^16 Team Fortress game would be pretty cool?
Emulation (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Vista? (Score:5, Funny)
Obviously, it should be used to find The Ultimate Question [wikipedia.org].
They don't call it a cluster FUCK for no reason. (Score:1, Funny)
Do it!
jump on the doesn't-know-what-scaling-is bandwagon (Score:2, Funny)
"So, what would be the coolest and most far out thing you would do with this kind of hardware ?"
Get Rails to scale?
Hide and Seek (Score:2, Funny)
Re:How about you don't? (Score:5, Funny)
Overclock the Hell out of them (Score:2, Funny)
Simple answer to simple question (Score:2, Funny)
What to do with it? Thats easy. Build a hot chick like they did in Weird Science then GPL the code.
Quake 4 raytraced (Score:2, Funny)
Re:How about you don't? (Score:4, Funny)
>> And save the environment a little bit?
>
>That is one of the sanest postings I've come across on slashdot. So why is it marked as a troll?
Hippies are the worst kinds of trolls.
Re:Super photogenesis (Score:1, Funny)
You know that would take like a billion years, right?
Re:Well.. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Super photogenesis (Score:1, Funny)
For you? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:better yet (Score:5, Funny)
Best idea yet.
We need to learn to hack reality, and take over the simulation.
Plus hacking reality just sounds awesome.
Re:Super photogenesis (Score:1, Funny)
OMG SRSLY
Re:Vista? (Score:5, Funny)
Program a strong AI and then ask it if entropy can be reduced.
Re:Vista? (Score:2, Funny)
With Aero disabled, of course.
Re:Super photogenesis (Score:5, Funny)
Re:How about you don't? (Score:3, Funny)
Right on!
If you're looking for something weird to with on a cluster, try fucking it. At least, leave a dead fish/mouse inside one of the cases.
Hentai? (Score:2, Funny)
How about simulating tentacles physics for future 3D hentai games?
Re:Super photogenesis (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Super photogenesis (Score:5, Funny)
1. Create every possible mp3 upto 5 minutes long.
2. Sue the record companies for every song they release from that point on.
3. Profit.
Re:How about you don't? (Score:1, Funny)
Errr... that should have read "something weird to do with a cluster". I guess the cluster fuck was exciting me a little bit too much.
Can't believe no one's said it... (Score:1, Funny)
/. is way to mature on this topic.
I'd set to work simulating the perfect pair of breasts on a trampoline.
Re:Vista? (Score:1, Funny)
7-way to get it running at a proper speed and it wont scale past 8-way.. no wonder its not selling well with such a small window of usefulness.
Re:How about you don't? (Score:3, Funny)
No, we're the best kind of trolls. Come on, who's better at pissing people off than a smug, whiny hippie like me?
Re:Quake 4 raytraced (Score:3, Funny)
"muhahaha look at those noobs with 15FPS"
"why, whats your FPS?"
"its over 500.0"
Re:How about you don't? (Score:5, Funny)
I would have to agree with you sir. Nothing pisses me off more than hippies.
Re:Make applications (Score:2, Funny)
root@supercomputer#./00001 ./0001: cannot execute binary file ./0002: cannot execute binary file ./0003: cannot execute binary file ./0005: cannot execute binary file
bash:
root@supercomputer#./00002
bash:
root@supercomputer#./00003
bash:
root@supercomputer#./00004
OMFG SO YESTERDAY I WAS AT THE MALL, AND TINA, CAME UP AND TOLD ME THAT SHE LOVES TOD'S NEW CAMARO, AND
I'M ALL LIKE, I DON'T CARE WHATEVER, AND SHE'S LIKE,
YOUR JUST JEALOUS, sll,,,,, segmentation fault.
root@supercomputer#./00005
bash:
Re:Super photogenesis (Score:2, Funny)
We'd start getting results before the iteration was complete. Honestly, I don't see why the government hasn't put trillions of dollars into this already.
Seeing as how this guy specializes in I've decided that he'd be better off using its vast resources to find the specific government form I need to fill out to get the taxes the government wasted giving this guy a cluster he doesn't need given back to me.
Re:Imagine . . . (Score:1, Funny)
I came here for this comment and was not disappointed.
Obviously (Score:4, Funny)
Re:How about you don't? (Score:0, Funny)
Re:How about you don't? (Score:2, Funny)
We don't want that kind of sense-making, TFA-reading rabble around here, thank you. We prefr to keep our minds free from such things in order to concentrate on such higher things as bad humour, MS-bashing, fanboism, and pseudo-intellectual ramblings.
Re:Nothing like hypocrisy! (Score:3, Funny)
Al Gore is that you posting from your CO2 spewing private jet?
Re:better yet (Score:5, Funny)
Buahahahaha! Make it recursive and STACK OVERFLOW THE WORLD!
Only the second time? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Quake 4 raytraced (Score:1, Funny)
"muhahaha look at those noobs with 15FPS"
"why, whats your FPS?"
"its over 9000!"
there fixed it for ya.
Re:How about you don't? (Score:5, Funny)
Cartman? Is that you?
Re:Vista? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Well.. (Score:5, Funny)
That *is* weird.
Cat 6 is much better.
Re:How about you don't? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:high performance java? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Nothing like hypocrisy! (Score:4, Funny)
Except that I'm posting this from my solar-powered Tandy Model 100, connected via serial to my hand-crank operated OKI-900, dialed into Suncoast Freenet...
Re:better yet (Score:3, Funny)
http://xkcd.com/350/ [xkcd.com]
Re:Well.. (Score:5, Funny)
So - you are suggesting a clusterf*ck?....
Re:How about you don't? (Score:4, Funny)
Hippies aren't REALLY trolls, they just smell like them!
Re:Vista? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:How about you don't? (Score:1, Funny)
Um. Why are you here?
Re:Well.. (Score:2, Funny)
Gives a new meaning to twisted pair......
also hope the pair was shielded.....
good way to get a virus....