On 27/11/13 13:23, Lux, Jim (337C) wrote:
From: John Hearns <hear...@googlemail.com <mailto:hear...@googlemail.com>>
Date: Wednesday, November 27, 2013 4:35 AM
To: "beowulf@beowulf.org <mailto:beowulf@beowulf.org>"
<beowulf@beowulf.org <mailto:beowulf@beowulf.org>>
Subject: Re: [Beowulf] Docker in HPC
On 27 November 2013 12:29, Tim Cutts <t...@sanger.ac.uk
<mailto:t...@sanger.ac.uk>> wrote:
Yes, Pete, Guy and I have been debating this stuff for some time,
together with some of our informatics coders.
Should virtualisation ever also be necessary (for example to ship ...
to another site to analyse some of their data)
Well why not just clone your informatics coders?
I'm sure you have all the necessary technology at the Sanger Centre -
line up your coders, take a DNA sample,
clone them and send off the clones on low cost airline flights to
where they are needed.
I suppose the nine-month lead time might be a bit problematic from a
project planning point of view.
---
I took a project management class on task planning, and we worked in
fungible work months. (I think the instructor was born after Brooks
wrote his book) Why can you not divide the reproductive work among 9X
workers and get your toilers in a month? OK, I recognize that this
isn't possible today (although see below for a better idea).
Perhaps a bigger concern is the latency from birth to "productive
coder". Is there a potential application of computational chemistry
here to produce pharmacological agents that will reduce that 10 year
latency (minimum) to something smaller? Perhaps with selective
breeding or genetic manipulation? Chickens and cows reach marketable
size much faster today than they used to. Software developers (or STEM
graduates in general) are next. Conceivably, one could reduce the
gestation period as well. These physically smaller coders (make em
smarter faster, but don't waste energy on growing large bodies) will
occupy less space in the office, so we can turn today's space wasteful
cube farms with their 8 foot ceilings into something more reasonable.
Perhaps not to the size of the cages for battery hens, but still
smaller than today's cubicle.
This made me smile. Sort of Futurama heads in jars meets Big Bang Theory
--
The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is operated by Genome Research
Limited, a charity registered in England with number 1021457 and a
company registered in England with number 2742969, whose registered
office is 215 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BE. _______________________________________________
Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org sponsored by Penguin Computing
To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit
http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
