tech

Data is an extremely valuable resource. That's a little vague, but it's probably the most profitable asset of our era. Businesses such as Google and Facebook live or die based on the data at their disposal - and they carefully guard this data. There have been lawsuits filed over unauthorized use of these data sets, even just for using publicly available data.

That being said, Google does make their search data available. It's not provided in a convenient format, but you can learn very interesting/humorous/scary things. And it provides a window into what your neighbors have on their minds.   read more >>

When working on high performance supercomputers, network latency and bandwidth are of utmost importance. If messages cannot be sent quickly enough between compute nodes, a supercomputer may actually perform more poorly than a standard server or workstation. So much time is spent waiting for input from other locations that nothing is actually accomplished. These days, more time is spent optimizing latency than bandwidth since most clusters have all the bandwidth they need (2-4GB/sec).

I've discovered that an analogy can be made with traffic on the highway. Computers keep getting faster, and now maybe traffic can too. I promise you'll notice this the next time you head out on the road.   read more >>

There are a lot of user interface inefficiencies that we've all been forced to get used to. Moving and resizing windows is definitely one of them, as you have to carefully position the mouse cursor over a tiny section of a window.

However, there's no need for Linux users to do this. X-Windows supports moving and resizing windows by clicking and dragging on any portion of a window - the mouse cursor can be over any portion of the window, no matter what's underneath.

Here's how:

• To move: Hold down ALT while clicking and dragging with the left mouse button
• To resize: Hold down ALT while clicking and dragging with the right mouse button

You'll find that even though it's a small tip, your work will be just a little more efficient.

You may not often think about it, but the appliances/tools/toys/etc that we think of as hardware have many software components - and almost all software has bugs or idiosyncrasies. If the manufacturer fulfilled their duty and properly tested the device, you hopefully won't find a bug. But humans are ingenious - through malice or ignorance, a user will likely try something "out of the box". When this happens, the results vary: a bug in your microwave can hurt you, a bug in your car can kill you, and a bug in your ATM will cost you money.   read more >>

You may know of Moore's law, which predicts that electronic transistor density will double every 2 years. This prediction has been accurate for decades, and is often taken as a law of nature. The results: cheaper, faster computers every year are a staple of modern technology and life. We expect constant improvement will continue indefinitely. But how long can this continue, and what should we expect to see years down the road?   read more >>

I've had to use VNC many times to bridge the gap between Windows and Linux systems. It's not always the prettiest or most efficient way to get things done, but it can be quicker and less complex than virtualization or X11 through Cygwin. One stumbling block in my workflow has been the clipboard - you become so accustomed to moving data from one application to another that you really miss it when the functionality is missing.

Fortunately, there are VNC clients that will take care of this for you. I typically choose TightVNC, as it offers very good performance (including some accelerated Windows drivers) and is available for a variety of platforms. The details below may be specific to TightVNC.   read more >>