Ian Foster

Blog on Virtualization and Grid

I discovered today Tim Freeman's interesting blog on virtualization and grid. Well worth monitoring, even though I was sad to find a pointer to a debunking of the "blue pill myth." If we can distinguish virtuality from reality on computers, what's next? Is The Matrix a myth also?

To Err is Not Always Human

I'm co-teaching "computer networks" this quarter, with my colleague Anne Rogers. While preparing, I came across the following anecdote about how a "system" must be able to tolerate imperfect behavior:

Larry David (on the show "Curb Your Enthusiasm") was frantically looking for a DVD case, but could not find it.

LD: "I don't know what happened. I have a system. I put the DVD in the player, and I put the case on top of the player. But now it is gone."

Friend: "That's not a system. A system is - you buy a bunch of empty DVD cases and put them next to the player."

More seriously, I read yesterday a fascinating article by Richard Cook on the causes of errors in complex systems such as hospitals, and the tendency to blame these errors on "operators." Cook notes that:

Grid in Trib

One of my hometown newspapers, the Chicago Tribune, ran an article "Grid Computing Gaining Acceptance," by their lead technology reporter, Jon Van, on Tuesday. The online version has just one deficiency: it is missing the nice picture of a more youthful me that appeared in the print version (-:

The article emphasizes cycle stealing, which as I have often said, is a nice application for grid, but certainly not the main story. (Systems like caBIG and Earth System Grid, and of course the grid systems being deployed in corporate data centers, will ultimately be far more important.) But cycle stealing is certainly making a big difference, and systems such as World Community Grid (and the many Condor pools around the world) are making real contributions to science.

Digital Humanities

I'm back from a pleasant week's vacation in Vancouver, including two day's skiing at Whistler. One more year and I think my 9-year old son (and my now-8-year old daughter) will be faster than me ...

As a start to the new year, here is an interesting perspective on digital humanities (and what sounds like a fun course) from Michael Shanks, an archaeologist at Stanford:

Are information technology and digital media fundamentally changing the Humanities? I argue that the changes we are seeing in Humanities disciplines are not about new technologies, as conventionally understood. The quantitative expansion of information technology in contemporary society is precipitating reflection upon some age old questions in the humanities - the distinctiveness of the human, the role of science and technology in cultural production, authorship and creativity, the sharing of knowledge, the conservation of cultural resources for the future, the character of a community's public sphere, the propagation of a community's memory. Digital and analog media both prompt such questions. The questions sometimes historically become more urgent, but this is not because of technology.

Say "no" to technological determinism!