On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 11:44 PM, Justin Jackson <jjackson385@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> I've been lurking for the past few months and I've really enjoyed
> reading the messages from this list. I'm looking for some ideas or
> advice---here's the story: I'm pursuing a Master's degree in computer
> science at a small school with limited options for classes. I'm
> enrolled in a graduate-level course in distributed systems, but the
> material isn't on my level. The professor understands my predicament
> and might allow me to do an independent study on the subject, but I
> would need something specific to work on. I would love to do something
> with Plan 9...I'm just not sure what. Compare and contrast it with
> other systems? Find a novel use for 9P?

Is there anyone at your university doing a big (computationally) project? Like a large artificial neural network, or something that could be easily decomposed or pipelined?

If so, you might be able to get some interest in finding a way to make (cheap) distributed computing available to those people right at home who need it. Maybe you could revive old hardware and save the department money.

I know that doesn't sound groundbreaking at all, but it could go over well for you and introduce you to some interesting problems.

>
> I'm not very good at coming up with creative topics, so any thoughts
> or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
>
> -Justin
>
> P.S. In what seems to be a grave injustice, the textbook only mentions
> Plan 9 on one page, and only points out the per-process namespaces and
> the ability to merge directories with bind. Absolutely nothing on 9P.
> Argh!
>
>