links for 2009-05-25

what is this thing /dev/dm-[0-6] ?

Bootstrap is a simple but powerful Monte Carlo method to assess statistical accuracy or to estimate distribution from sample's statistics.

In this paper, we show how to leverage largely commodity Ethernet switches to support the full aggregate bandwidth of clusters consisting of tens of thousands of elements. Similar to how clusters of commodity computers have largely replaced more specialized SMPs and MPPs, we argue that appropriately architected and interconnected commodity switches may deliver more performance at less cost than available from today’s higher-end solutions. Our approach requires no modifications to the end host network interface, operating system, or applications; critically, it is fully backward compatible with Ethernet, IP, and TCP.

Oracle RAC over InfiniBand

This site is a companion to the influential computer-science text Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, by Abelson, Sussman, and Sussman. Its purpose is to demonstrate the Web's potential to be a channel for innovative support for textbook users.

I recently came up with what I think is an intuitive way to explain Bayes’ Theorem. I searched in google for a while and could not find any article that explains it in this particular way.

“Everything You Ever Really Needed to Know About Personal Finance on Just One Page” is a 49 page personal finance book that weaves together most of my favorite ideas on personal finance and a lot of other goodies into one document. I’m making it available for download under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License, which means that this document is free - you can send it to your friends, put it up on your website, or print it out.

Processing is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to program images, animation, and interactions. It is used by students, artists, designers, researchers, and hobbyists for learning, prototyping, and production. It is created to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context and to serve as a software sketchbook and professional production tool. Processing is an alternative to proprietary software tools in the same domain.

"Personal finance has come to substitute for the role government should play for people," observes Nan Mooney, author of (Not) Keeping Up with Our Parents. "In the past 20 years the myth of the person succeeding on their own has gotten bigger and bigger. This myth is dangerous. It tells you if you can't balance everything and you are in debt, it is your fault."

Article from Cory Doctorow about IT policies and procedures.

I've just had a quick article on the wars between corporate IT and tech enthusiast employees published in the Harvard Business Review. I've been on both sides of that barricade, and while I understand the plight of IT, I think that it's against everyone's interest to give them to power to lock employees out of figuring out better ways of using their PCs and the Internet to get the job done.

Whether you are interested in picking up CSS to create your own website, or merely to tweak your blog’s look and feel a little - it’s always good to start with the fundamentals to gain a stronger foundation. Let’s take a look at some CSS Tips we thought might be useful for beginners.

SL is a Linux release put together by Fermilab, CERN, and various other labs and universities around the world. Its primary purpose is to reduce duplicated effort of the labs, and to have a common install base for the various experimenters. The base SL distribution is basically Enterprise Linux, recompiled from source.

Structural Biology Grid (SBGrid) is a computing collaboration of several X-ray crystallography, NMR and electron microscopy laboratories. Participating laboratories include groups primarily at Harvard Medical School, Harvard University and Yale Medical School, but our alumni often remain members after becoming principal investigators at other institutions.

The example programs shown below employ the SPMD paradigm, i.e., an identical copy of the same program is used for each of the processes. Examples for the less frequently used MPMD paradigm (in which more than one program are used among the processes) are demonstrated in a separate page.

The goal of this tutorial is to teach those unfamiliar with MPI how to develop and run parallel programs according to the MPI standard. The primary topics that are presented focus on those which are the most useful for new MPI programmers. The tutorial begins with an introduction, background, and basic information for getting started with MPI. This is followed by a detailed look at the MPI routines that are most useful for new MPI programmers, including MPI Environment Management, Point-to-Point Communications, and Collective Communications routines. Numerous examples in both C and Fortran are provided, as well as a lab exercise.