From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Message-ID: <9c0e37bf2bf7a2b79776cd5cdbb72e0c@bellsouth.net>
To: 9fans@9fans.net
Date: Sun, 19 Apr 2009 15:52:01 -0500
From: blstuart@bellsouth.net
In-Reply-To: <00037dfb4d26b0d653b0c6be36fbee99@quanstro.net>
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Subject: Re: [9fans] VMs, etc.  (was: Re: security questions)
Topicbox-Message-UUID: e967103a-ead4-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025

> people's ideas about what's complicated or hard don't change
> as quickly as computing power and storage has increased.  i
> think there's currently a failure of imagination, at least on
> my part.  there must be problems that aren't considered
> because they were hard.
>
> as an old example, i think that the lab's use of worm storage
> for the main file server was incredibly insightful.
>
> what could we do today, but don't quite dare?

That's a very good question.  I'm afraid my imagintion
may be failing here as well.  When I think about how
to use cycles, my mind tends to gravitate toward simulation
tasks that need cycles by virtue of scale: things like
weather forcasting, protein folding, etc.  One other
thing that periodically gets my attention are some
ideas in the AI realm.  But none of those are particularly
novel.  Maybe that's why I don't find myself longing
for more performance than the current crop of machines.

Ultimately, I think you're right though.  Someone
more clever than I will likely identify a use for the
cycles that is more original than my thoughts and
more intellectually interesting than eye candy.

BLS