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The people I know who program super computers do it to * simulate nuclear explosions * model the internet [1] [1] http://phys.org/news/2009-09-scientists-suc

The people I know who program super computers do it to * simulate nuclear explosions * model the internet [1] [1] http://phys.org/news/2009-09-scientists-successfully-boot-million-linux.html http://phys.org/news/2009-09-scientists-successfully-boot-mi... Neither of which, nor similar activities, I need to do on the train.

noja 11y ago
Traditionally, supercomputers were used to do those things.
- moconnor 11y ago
  Currently supercomputers are used to do these things, because you can't do them on a mobile phone or desktop. The "supercomputer in your pocket" discussion is somewhat disingenuous - an iPhone6 from 2014 wouldn't even have made the top 10 in 1993 over 20 years earlier. A million-fold increase in transistor density and it still wouldn't rank as a supercomputer. There are a lot of fascinating things you can do with more computing power, but it's not really clear that doing so on a power- and heat-constrained mobile device brings a competitive advantage in a highly-connected environment.
haxel 11y ago
Those examples benefit their owners, providing competitive advantage on a national or corporate scale. What sort of example might benefit you as an individual?
- SixSigma 11y ago
  I don't think there is any kind of example that would benefit me as an individual, not for my personal life anyway. I don't need a render farm, I don't have complicated delivery schedules to calculate, I don't even want to use a spreadsheet solver very often away from my desk - and I study computational logistics.
taejo 11y ago
* model and forecast the weather (over the next days to months) and climate (over the next decades to centuries) * search/compare/cross-correlate DNA data * simulate chemical reactions, folding of proteins, ... * simulate materials, crystals, etc.
- SixSigma 11y ago
  I don't know those people. But again it only reinforces that I don't want to be doing those things in my pocket.

noja 11y ago

Traditionally, supercomputers were used to do those things.

moconnor 11y ago
Currently supercomputers are used to do these things, because you can't do them on a mobile phone or desktop. The "supercomputer in your pocket" discussion is somewhat disingenuous - an iPhone6 from 2014 wouldn't even have made the top 10 in 1993 over 20 years earlier. A million-fold increase in transistor density and it still wouldn't rank as a supercomputer. There are a lot of fascinating things you can do with more computing power, but it's not really clear that doing so on a power- and heat-constrained mobile device brings a competitive advantage in a highly-connected environment.

haxel 11y ago

Those examples benefit their owners, providing competitive advantage on a national or corporate scale. What sort of example might benefit you as an individual?

SixSigma 11y ago
I don't think there is any kind of example that would benefit me as an individual, not for my personal life anyway. I don't need a render farm, I don't have complicated delivery schedules to calculate, I don't even want to use a spreadsheet solver very often away from my desk - and I study computational logistics.

taejo 11y ago

* model and forecast the weather (over the next days to months) and climate (over the next decades to centuries) * search/compare/cross-correlate DNA data * simulate chemical reactions, folding of proteins, ... * simulate materials, crystals, etc.

SixSigma 11y ago
I don't know those people. But again it only reinforces that I don't want to be doing those things in my pocket.