Reed's Ruminations: A Blog by Dan Reed

Why Curiosity Matters

In my recent Computing Research Association (CRA) column, I reflected on the sense of wonder and empowerment that comes from informed curiosity:

• Realizing—for the first time—that you could read
• Standing in the stacks of a great library, marveling at the accumulated knowledge
• As a teacher, seeing enlightenment on students’ faces
• Realizing as a researcher that you knew something never before known
• Holding the galley proof of your first research paper
• Seeing your first program come to life
• Feeling the power of shared thought in a great research team

Each of us became researchers via personal paths. Our stories differ, and each is interesting as an example of computing’s intellectual attraction and vibrancy. Share yours – it matters.

Everyone Needs to Eat

Normally, I write about science and technology policy, the seeds of innovation and creating competitive advantage in a changing world. These are important topics, but as we remember and celebrate the important contributions of Martin Luther King, they pale in significance. The lens of history reveals our ongoing struggles to recognize, to embrace and to celebrate both our diversity and our uniqueness, and from our differences how we draw strength and unity.

HPC Clouds

This week’s HPCWire contains my article on the state of science research funding and the future of high-performance computing infrastructure, with some associated comments by the editor, Michael Feldman. In the article, I argue that we need to rethink the approaches, mechanisms and funding processes to deploy infrastructure in support of scientific discovery.  All of this is related to each group identifying their core competencies and focusing on what they do best. 

In this world of computing clouds, researchers and universities largely focus on the science, leaving resource provisioning to service providers who exploit economies of scale to deploy large hardware and software capabilities at lower cost.  As I noted in the article,

In the facility-less research computing model, researchers focus on the higher levels of the software stack – applications and innovation, not low-level infrastructure. Administrators, in turn, procure services from the providers based on capabilities and pricing. Finally, the providers deliver economies of scale and capabilities driven by a large market base.

Mobility, Transduction and Garages

This isn't an essay about plate tectonics, though I have moved much closer to an earthquake fault line, here in the Pacific Northwest. Instead, here are a few thoughts on the future of mobile devices, motivated by the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show and fact that my garage door does not trust my car.