Jim, Just re: "If one wanted to design revolutionary distributed/parallel computing algorithms, one could probably work with floppy disks and sneakernet. If it works there, it will certainly work on any faster mechanism. See.. true computer science doesn't need a 1000 processor cluster."
I agree of course, I grew up on paper and pencil, but there's one proviso: the process of trial and error is just murder with floppies and sneakernet. If trial and error is part of your development process, then a thousand processor cluster (whatever powerful hardware) is so convenient as to be qualitatively necessary. It still astounds me that Holland came up with Genetic Algorithms in the sixties, though; so you're right it's possible to do without. Peter
_______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
