What I said/did:
- Release to staff users. Set up HCC campus-wide.
- Volunteering at TIP conference for most of the week, and there's a holiday on Monday, so I'll work in eCAFE/BSAR specs as I can, but I'm not expecting much.
I did send out the notice to the staff users. HCC needs a bit more work as I'm trying something new with setting them up which needs more testing but hopefully will save me effort later in the semester.
I'm still holding on the BSAR specs as I've only gotten three responses so far, and not all of my questions have been addressed. Darrel sent an email to all probable users yesterday, asking them to provide feedback. I'll give that a week and then put out a final plea if I don't get much back.
The eCAFE specs are coming along nicely.
Had a meeting with Hae regarding eCAFE. She's going to talk to some faculty organization about a plan we discussed regarding who gets to see results. She opines that any faculty who is mandatory likely has to share their results, so we could allow the dept to see those without having the instructor send it. She'll be looking into it, meanwhile, I'll write it into the specs and see if instructors flip about it or what.
We also discussed the advisory board. She told me about hers, and I told her about mine. We've agreed that I'll publish the new specs to the blog, gather feedback from both boards, and then we'll set up a meeting with her official board to discuss and make any needed decisions.
Next week:
- Finish eCAFE specs rewrite and post to blog
- Test new HCC setup
- Work on setting up the schema in eCAFE MySQL db.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Session: CERN
David Foster of CERN
A Brief Tour of Grid Computing for the LHC.
Particle Accelerator
1/8th of the tunnel was already the largest superconductor ever.
1.9 Kelvin
15 PetaBytes of new data each year (that's what's stored, but it produces a PB/second)
Tier 1: (CERN) data acquisition, initial processing, and distribution
Tier 2: (Distributed World-wide) data heavy analysis. Managed mass storage.
Tier 3: Simulation and End-user analysis - batch and interactive
Any Tier 2 may access data at any Tier 1.
Middleware: Security, data management, job management, information system
EGI: European Grid Initiative. www.eu-egi.org
The accelerator is constructed, but still needs to be proved. Two sections have been cooled, with the remaining six to go. CERN is the largest consumer of liquid hydrogen in Europe. Each magnet is 10 meters in length and weighs 30 tons, they expand/contract so the connections are tricky. After multiple cooling/warming cycles, the fingers connecting the magnets got bent, causing a multi-year delay. The plan is to cool it once and leave it cold.
The target to open is this year. April 6th is the last day for the public to go to the tunnel because after that it will be radioactive. There's a press event later in the year (September?). The reality is they will be delighted if it ever works.
Cost so far: 10-15 billion Euro.
Can run about 100 days a year, the rest of the time it's in maintenance. Have robots to go into the radioactive tunnels and do work. Although the radiation dissipates to a point where people can go in on occasion.
The energy in the bean is equivalent to 100kg of TNT. And since it's in a very small space, it can drill a hole through anything imaginable. So the energy of the beam needs to be distributed over the target.
600 million proton collisions per second.
100 meters underground.
We had time at the end, so a discussion regarding the beginnings of the Internet was sparked. The funny part? It was originally for academic and research, if you put anything commercial on there, "You were shot."
A Brief Tour of Grid Computing for the LHC.
Particle Accelerator
1/8th of the tunnel was already the largest superconductor ever.
1.9 Kelvin
15 PetaBytes of new data each year (that's what's stored, but it produces a PB/second)
Tier 1: (CERN) data acquisition, initial processing, and distribution
Tier 2: (Distributed World-wide) data heavy analysis. Managed mass storage.
Tier 3: Simulation and End-user analysis - batch and interactive
Any Tier 2 may access data at any Tier 1.
Middleware: Security, data management, job management, information system
EGI: European Grid Initiative. www.eu-egi.org
The accelerator is constructed, but still needs to be proved. Two sections have been cooled, with the remaining six to go. CERN is the largest consumer of liquid hydrogen in Europe. Each magnet is 10 meters in length and weighs 30 tons, they expand/contract so the connections are tricky. After multiple cooling/warming cycles, the fingers connecting the magnets got bent, causing a multi-year delay. The plan is to cool it once and leave it cold.
The target to open is this year. April 6th is the last day for the public to go to the tunnel because after that it will be radioactive. There's a press event later in the year (September?). The reality is they will be delighted if it ever works.
Cost so far: 10-15 billion Euro.
Can run about 100 days a year, the rest of the time it's in maintenance. Have robots to go into the radioactive tunnels and do work. Although the radiation dissipates to a point where people can go in on occasion.
The energy in the bean is equivalent to 100kg of TNT. And since it's in a very small space, it can drill a hole through anything imaginable. So the energy of the beam needs to be distributed over the target.
600 million proton collisions per second.
100 meters underground.
We had time at the end, so a discussion regarding the beginnings of the Internet was sparked. The funny part? It was originally for academic and research, if you put anything commercial on there, "You were shot."
Session: NorStore
NorStore - A National Distributed Storage Infrastructure for Research & Education
By Jan Meijer
Norway is a mountainous country, rocks. Hard to dig to lay cable. 4 High Performance Computing Locations.
Why? separate long term storage from HPC. Can lose information when changing computers. Need a strategy, policy, and practice regarding the creation, management, and long term storage of data.
Trends: Size of data has increased to terabyte scale. IT tools evolve rapidly and the flexibility in using these tools put the very data they create and transform at risk. Survival of digital scientific information depends on a hierarchy of constantly shifting technologies.
Reasons to keep data:
- retention of unique observational information which is impossible to recreate
- retention of expensively generated data which is cheaper to mainteain than to recreate.
- reuse data for new or future research purpose
- validate and account for publicly funded research
- for compliance with legal requirements
- for educational and teacher purposes.
Objective: establish and maintain a broad and sustainable infrastructure for the curation, archiving,... [?]
Goals:
-operate storage resources and peripheral equipment
-provide support to researchers needing storage capacity, digital repositories, and curation services.
-promote a set of standard services and establish best practices and polices that aim to improve the reuse and reusability of scientific data
-provide easy, secure, and transparent access to distributes storages resources, provide access to larger aggregate storage.
Non-technical issues: security, confidentiality and continued privacy, ownership, assured provenance, authenticity and integrity. How to guarantee the quality of the primary data and associated metadata? One solution to some of this is to only handle data that has open-access, so ownership, etc goes away.
Initial consortium: Universities in Bergen, Trondheim (NTNU), Oslo, Tromso, UNINETT (NREN), UNINETT Sigma
2007: initial specs, choice of technologies, levels of curation, roadmap for 2008, and accumulation of experience
2008: investment in hardware for initial infrastructure.
Initially two locations with 600TB each.
http://www.norstore.no
http://www.terena.org/activities/storage
By Jan Meijer
Norway is a mountainous country, rocks. Hard to dig to lay cable. 4 High Performance Computing Locations.
Why? separate long term storage from HPC. Can lose information when changing computers. Need a strategy, policy, and practice regarding the creation, management, and long term storage of data.
Trends: Size of data has increased to terabyte scale. IT tools evolve rapidly and the flexibility in using these tools put the very data they create and transform at risk. Survival of digital scientific information depends on a hierarchy of constantly shifting technologies.
Reasons to keep data:
- retention of unique observational information which is impossible to recreate
- retention of expensively generated data which is cheaper to mainteain than to recreate.
- reuse data for new or future research purpose
- validate and account for publicly funded research
- for compliance with legal requirements
- for educational and teacher purposes.
Objective: establish and maintain a broad and sustainable infrastructure for the curation, archiving,... [?]
Goals:
-operate storage resources and peripheral equipment
-provide support to researchers needing storage capacity, digital repositories, and curation services.
-promote a set of standard services and establish best practices and polices that aim to improve the reuse and reusability of scientific data
-provide easy, secure, and transparent access to distributes storages resources, provide access to larger aggregate storage.
Non-technical issues: security, confidentiality and continued privacy, ownership, assured provenance, authenticity and integrity. How to guarantee the quality of the primary data and associated metadata? One solution to some of this is to only handle data that has open-access, so ownership, etc goes away.
Initial consortium: Universities in Bergen, Trondheim (NTNU), Oslo, Tromso, UNINETT (NREN), UNINETT Sigma
2007: initial specs, choice of technologies, levels of curation, roadmap for 2008, and accumulation of experience
2008: investment in hardware for initial infrastructure.
Initially two locations with 600TB each.
http://www.norstore.no
http://www.terena.org/activities/storage
TIP Conference
I spent most of yesterday monitoring sessions at the Techs In Paradise Conference here at the UH Manoa Campus. Thus far, I'm afraid I haven't gotten much out of it. Still, for those who are wondering what a monitor does, it's pretty basic. I'm stationed in a room, provisioned with a radio. Any issues that crop up, I either deal with it, or call in someone who can. This can run the gamut from misbehaving electronics, noisy people in the halls, or random speaker requests. Also, given this is Hawaii, I'm also responsible for presenting the speakers with a lei.
Some lessons learned. 1.) Bring food. 2.) Bring a book or laptop or anything to work on during downtime. There's a lot of downtime. 3.) Keeping a memory stick with you isn't a bad idea should a computer malfunction, then you can transfer their presentation to another machine. 4.) Bring business cards, people expect it.
Observations:
There are an insane number of tiny little computers around here.
Business cards in Asian cultures are a very formal affair. They are presented with two hands and a bow, and received in the same way, accompanied by an inspection of the card. A far cry from the standard American action of immediately shoving it in a pocket.
Some lessons learned. 1.) Bring food. 2.) Bring a book or laptop or anything to work on during downtime. There's a lot of downtime. 3.) Keeping a memory stick with you isn't a bad idea should a computer malfunction, then you can transfer their presentation to another machine. 4.) Bring business cards, people expect it.
Observations:
There are an insane number of tiny little computers around here.
Business cards in Asian cultures are a very formal affair. They are presented with two hands and a bow, and received in the same way, accompanied by an inspection of the card. A far cry from the standard American action of immediately shoving it in a pocket.
Status report 1/14-1/18
What I said/did:
>
> - Monday is likely going to be all BSAR stuff. Tweaking the presentation,
> cleaning up some recent changes I made to the specs, and incorporating
> feedback from the meeting.
The meeting went as expected, I learned that while I had a good starting
point, there are quite a few changes that need to made. I've re-written
the specs since then and posted a list of questions on the blog. I'll
give a few days for answers, incorporate those, and send out the new
version of the specs for more comments.
> - There's a meeting Swee set up with the ODS people to discuss a specific
> issue we've been having. It's on Tuesday at 2pm if you care to join us.
Went well. Hashed out issues regarding dirty data and functional/organizational concerns.
> - The rest of the week is going to be spent wrestling with Photoshop (a
> new toy for me) and redoing the eCAFE specs with the goal of getting the
> first version out to current board members at the end of the week.
When I wrote this, I had forgotten that the next usage period for staff
starts this coming week. My time has been spent making sure accounts are
ready to go and other last minute setup stuff. This would be easier if
people were better about returning their phone calls.
I did do some work on the eCAFE specs, but there's a ways to go.
> - The caveat to the previous item is that Swee leaves on Thursday, so
> Thursday/Friday may be taken up with unknowns depending on where she is
> with the database stuff.
She did a good job. BTW, in talking to the people that used eCAFE last
semester, everyone has good things to say about Swee. The general
consensus is that she was very prompt in answering emails, conscientious
about her work, and in general left a positive impression. Thought I
would pass that on.
Next week:
- Release to staff users. Set up HCC campus-wide.
- Volunteering at TIP conference for most of the week, and there's a holiday on Monday, so I'll work in eCAFE/BSAR specs as I can, but I'm not expecting much.
>
> - Monday is likely going to be all BSAR stuff. Tweaking the presentation,
> cleaning up some recent changes I made to the specs, and incorporating
> feedback from the meeting.
The meeting went as expected, I learned that while I had a good starting
point, there are quite a few changes that need to made. I've re-written
the specs since then and posted a list of questions on the blog. I'll
give a few days for answers, incorporate those, and send out the new
version of the specs for more comments.
> - There's a meeting Swee set up with the ODS people to discuss a specific
> issue we've been having. It's on Tuesday at 2pm if you care to join us.
Went well. Hashed out issues regarding dirty data and functional/organizational concerns.
> - The rest of the week is going to be spent wrestling with Photoshop (a
> new toy for me) and redoing the eCAFE specs with the goal of getting the
> first version out to current board members at the end of the week.
When I wrote this, I had forgotten that the next usage period for staff
starts this coming week. My time has been spent making sure accounts are
ready to go and other last minute setup stuff. This would be easier if
people were better about returning their phone calls.
I did do some work on the eCAFE specs, but there's a ways to go.
> - The caveat to the previous item is that Swee leaves on Thursday, so
> Thursday/Friday may be taken up with unknowns depending on where she is
> with the database stuff.
She did a good job. BTW, in talking to the people that used eCAFE last
semester, everyone has good things to say about Swee. The general
consensus is that she was very prompt in answering emails, conscientious
about her work, and in general left a positive impression. Thought I
would pass that on.
Next week:
- Release to staff users. Set up HCC campus-wide.
- Volunteering at TIP conference for most of the week, and there's a holiday on Monday, so I'll work in eCAFE/BSAR specs as I can, but I'm not expecting much.
Friday, January 11, 2008
This week/Next week Status report
This week:
What I said I'd do vs. what I did:
> - The BSAR project documentation and db outline seems to be done for now.
> Next up is another meeting with Darrel followed by doing a presentation
> for the other BSAR people. There's no meeting scheduled yet, but
> hopefully I can get one in next week.
The presentation is this Monday at 2. Slides are done, but I imagine I'll
spend some time tweaking them before the actual meeting.
> - Rewriting the eCAFE specs as a starting point for the advisory board.
This turned out to be bigger than I thought. All my old "screenshots"
need to be redone, along with the site flow diagrams. Between that and
re-thinking how all the pieces fit together, this will be my big job for
next week.
- More reading.
Slow progress. I feel a little scattered right now between the usability
stuff and the MySQL stuff. Guess I need to set a priority.
Next week:
- Polish up the BSAR presentation, and incorporate feedback from the meeting.
- Clean up some recent changes I made to the specs
- There's a meeting on Tuesday @ 2pm with the ODS people to discuss a specific
issue we've been having.
- Rewrite the eCAFE specs with the goal of getting the first version out to current board members at the end of the week.
- The caveat to the previous item is that co-worker leaves on Thursday, so Thursday/Friday may be taken up with unknowns depending on where she is with the database updates.
What I said I'd do vs. what I did:
> - The BSAR project documentation and db outline seems to be done for now.
> Next up is another meeting with Darrel followed by doing a presentation
> for the other BSAR people. There's no meeting scheduled yet, but
> hopefully I can get one in next week.
The presentation is this Monday at 2. Slides are done, but I imagine I'll
spend some time tweaking them before the actual meeting.
> - Rewriting the eCAFE specs as a starting point for the advisory board.
This turned out to be bigger than I thought. All my old "screenshots"
need to be redone, along with the site flow diagrams. Between that and
re-thinking how all the pieces fit together, this will be my big job for
next week.
- More reading.
Slow progress. I feel a little scattered right now between the usability
stuff and the MySQL stuff. Guess I need to set a priority.
Next week:
- Polish up the BSAR presentation, and incorporate feedback from the meeting.
- Clean up some recent changes I made to the specs
- There's a meeting on Tuesday @ 2pm with the ODS people to discuss a specific
issue we've been having.
- Rewrite the eCAFE specs with the goal of getting the first version out to current board members at the end of the week.
- The caveat to the previous item is that co-worker leaves on Thursday, so Thursday/Friday may be taken up with unknowns depending on where she is with the database updates.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Tasks for week of Jan 7-11
Granted the week is almost over, but here's my plan for the rest of today and tomorrow.
- Practice the BSAR presentation, post the slides to the blog, and send the slides to remote team members.
- Working on rewriting the eCAFE specs.
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