[blu] Big BLU Super Computer

[jc at trillian.mit.edu (John Chambers)]

So have there been any more messages on this  topic  that  I  haven't
seen?  It all seems to have died off after the last meeting.

I've  been  thinking  about  the  relic computers that we have in our
house, and wondering if I should contribute them.   Or,  alternately,
I've  wondered  how much fun it might be to offer my basement for the
project.  That would be one way to encourage myself to get involved.

My wife has been talking about  doing  a  general  cleanup  job  down
there,  including getting rid of all those silly computers that we're
not using any more.  Meanwhile, I keep thinking that it could be  fun
to  do  the  cleanup  but  keep  the computers and try to learn about
building clusters.  I do have a number of things that I could  use  a
cluster  for,  especially  now that we've changed our ISP from RCN to
speakeasy.  This was triggered mostly by a month of repeated failures
for  part  of a day, plus several weeks of packet losses up to 30% to
nearby places like MIT.  But now I have service that promises not  to
block  ports,  while RCN was blocking ports 25, 80 and 110.  It feels
like I'm really on the Internet finally.

Anyway, has the discussion perhaps moved somewhere else  without  the
rest of us knowing?  Or did people decide it's not a good idea? Or is
everyone just enjoying the nice weather?