Dr Ruediger Berlich gave two very interesting talks to CLUG on Monday 24 January 2005, firstly on grid computing, secondly on SuSE.
Ruediger works for Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe http://www.fzk.de/. This is a research institute of proportions unknown in NZ. Ruediger is involved in solving the IT needs of particle physicists, which involves recording and analysing massive amounts of data created when fundamental particles meet head on. I didn't take notes on the volumes of data or the amount of processing power involved, but both were massive. There is an allied problem of allowing scientists all over the world view and process the data. Clearly these people are not paying Xtra's dsl data rates! Grid computing is the current "answer" to the problems of accessing and processing this massive data on a worldwide scale. At its simplest grid computing involves running a "cluster of clusters". Data is shifted around supercomputing centres in universities and research institutes all around the world. I hear you ask: "Whats this to do with Linux?" Well as Ruediger said "clustering is linux" - there really aren't any other clustering solutions out there. Ruediger's talk started off detailing the experiments conducted at the research facilities, and it was in the latter part that he neatly segued into the implementations of grid computing, which use our favourite OS. He spoke about two particular implementations of grid computing, one open source and the other not. The whole talk was fascinating, I would have enjoyed it just as much if there had been no tie in to linux. The discussion of the particle physics experiments, the amount of data and the needs for worldwide processing and viewing was fascinating enough. The link to linux was an added bonus! (Then again as a former electrical engineering student (failed) I had studied physics to stage 3) The second talk was a very brief intro to the SuSE corporate world where Ruediger worked, being involved in the English support area, and setting up foreign branches in the US and the UK. Clearly Ruediger was involved at a high level in SuSE. It was interesting to see the climb of corporate existence from startup to world leader - a company which started its linux experience copying floppies and now distributes mainly on DVD! A warm thanks to Ruediger who gave up an evening of his holiday to speak to CLUG. I think everyone there enjoyed his insights and knowledge. You are welcome back here any time. On Mon, January 24, 2005 10:53 pm, Richard Graham said: > Hello, > > I was just wondering if following Ruediger's talk tonight, someone might > be kind enough to post their impressions and a quick summary of what he > talked about. > > I see that he will be presenting the same talk this Friday at the Sydney > LUG, and since that is where I am at the moment I should be able to go > along (provided I can find the place ;-). I am a physicist myself so it > would be nice to be able to think up some relevant questions before > hand. > > Cheers, > -- > Richard Graham <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >
