the petaflop barrier broken!

IBM has just made public Blue Gene/P, a 294912 processor machine that claims a 1 petaflop performance that I am sure will be used to its full extent by the US Department of Energy (DOE) at Argonne National Lab (Illinois). Now that the US is going to have a petaflop facility I wonder how long it will take Japan to overtake them...

Speaking of which, the code I developed to run in Earth Simulator (well, the non-vectorial version of it) will soon be running on the Blue Gene/W at IBM's T.J. Watson Center, and I am looking forward to see the scaling over thousands of processors.

Hmm... at some point I should stop working on the code efficiency and focus on the physics of the problem... What can I say? I do like to play with code to improve its performance :)

Mr. C

Abduction of Alan Johnston

The BBC correspondent Alan Johnston was abducted in Gaza on the 12th of March and has still not been released by his captors.

It is brave people like this correspondent that bring up the news of what actually happens in places like the Gaza strip, and we should all show our support to him and his family.

I have added a link to the BBC site with information about this on my sidebar, and I urge you to click on it and sign the petition for his release.

Mr. C

Pfizer in Nigeria

OK, so I don't know how much of this is true, but even if only some of it is actual fact this company deserves to be seriously hit by international law. I am sure there is something written somewhere about doing testing on humans without their consent.

Apparently Pfizer run a test with what was at the time an unregistered anti-meningitis drug on 200 children in the Kano State, Nigeria, in 1996. The name of this drug was Trovan, and although the Nigerian government claims that this test lead to more than 50 deaths, the pharmaceutical company says it was "only" 11 deaths.

"Only 11 deaths in 200 cases". Is that a joke? If so, it is a very bad taste joke. That is exactly 5.5% of the cases. And does not consider people who suffered serious side effects not leading to death. The use of the word "only" in this context is terribly wrong. As fas as I know 1 death in 10000 is considered acceptable for drug standards, but 1 in 20 cases isn't acceptable any way you look at it. No, the word "only" is definitely out of place.

I sincerely hope they acted in good faith, but what can I say? It sounds too much like an FDA-will-never-know test that abused a lax set of medical rules in a country where people count on foreign medical aid. That is as low as you can get.

Mr. C

blame the wine....

ok, this is my question to you...

when was the last time you had pure, unadultered fun?

hu?

No, that doesn't count. I mean of the kind you are so barely aware the world is still ticking around you that you don't care. A...ha... girlfriends/boyfriends not invited. One level beyond that. The moment when you start thinking smoking is a good idea even though you don't do that. Even dancing! Oh God, Life might be fun after all... Ok...

Hmmm... That may be the difference between southern european countries and the rest. We know know how to do that. We know how to have fun and ignore the shite that flies around. Music, alcohol, and suddenly the world makes sense and the moment you live in is the only one that matters.

What's your race? I don't care as long as you are dancing to the same tune that I am... What's your religion? Oh. Sorry, what was that?Oh, I see. But you're dancing, ain't you? So... We all cool and that? Ok...

Nevermind, the 007 movie is over and I am listening to some good Ana Free music in YouTube and thinking of my friends back home. I seriously owe this girl for her music. I wish I could play guitar like she does. Pipo and Co. I miss you brothers... Everyone takes himself too frigging' seriously here... Wish I was there with you guys. It's the wine, definitely....

By the way, since only drunks tell the truth and A. will read this at some stage, I'll say this:

A. : First thing that comes into my mind when I am truly happy is you. I close my eyes and all I see is you. Sometimes I can be a geeky asshole, but I love you. Please, please, never forget that. You are my world.

Mr. C

zodiac and F4: rise of the silver surfer

Cool dude the silver surfer, but a tad slow... Like most of us, I guess. Don't ask about that one, personal that is. I have been wondering lately what do we make our decisions on. We always find a reason. Most of the time is logical, or so we tell ourselves. Hmmm... Interesting. Anyway, the movie is nice enough, very cartoonish, not a single neuron fired during the whole thing. Good stuff for a weekend. Although Jessica Alba looked certainly thinner that when she was filming Dark Angel. A shame. What the hell is the problem with this the-thinner-the-better crap??? Oh well...

Zodiac was a good movie. Ambience captured 100%. A bit depressing, but I enjoyed every bit of it.

Now I am watching a 007 movie (The World Is Not Enough), and it seems that the old not-a-single-neuron-fired game works for me every time :)

G'night all....

Mr. C

some pictures from Hawaii

Who wouldn't like to live in a place with a coast like this (South Point) ...



rolling hills like these (along Hwy 250) ...



and beaches as beautiful as this one (Makalawena Beach) ?



Well, that's all folks, enjoy the images and go there if you have the chance. It is a wonderful place.

Mr. C

the Big Island...

is a fantastic place to go for a holiday! I just came back from Hawaii, were I spent a week sunbathing, kayaking, snorkeling and hiking. I had a great time and I find the islands very attractive. They have a fantastic climate, dryer than in Singapore and a few degrees cooler too.

The Big Island has an impressive landscape, and due to the volcanic nature of the place one can go from being 2000 feet up in the coffee growing areas to being at sea level in a few miles. It seems like a fantastic place to live, although to get to some of the beautiful little corners of the island one should have a car with a lot of clearance (or go veeery slowly...).

Absolutely beautiful.

Mr. C