… if it was ever needed that the ability to read and understand basic concepts is not required to be a) journalist b) and editor or c) science editor:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article3689881.ece
The above is a piece written by Jonathan Leake science editor at The Times (you know the serious, broadsheet newspaper).
Before I start anyone reading this should know I work for GridPP the UK group building the Grid for the UK physicists working on the LHC and I know Tony and Dave who are quoted in that article. So after my declaration of interest:
Firstly he has equated the worldwide web and the Internet as one and the same thing. They are not the web is a tool which uses the physical network that is the Internet i.e. the computers and cables etc.
This is because the Internet has evolved by linking together a hotchpotch of cables and routing equipment, much of which was originally designed for telephone calls and therefore lacks the capacity for high-speed data transmission.
First half is true the Internet is a constantly evolving heterogeneous system and was originally designed for telephone calls. However as many even home users know this is not true, fibreoptics is old technology now and makes up most of the IT backbone in western countries like the UK, US and Ireland so is very capable of high-speed data transmission.
By contrast, the grid has been built with dedicated fibre optic cables and modern routing centres, meaning there are no outdated components to slow the deluge of data. The 55,000 servers already installed are expected to rise to 200,000 within the next two years.
Now this is where it gets just plain funny. The Grid is analogous to the the Web it is a tool which uses the Internet it will not and is not designed to replace the Internet. We and our colleagues have installed some dedicated links between computing centres but this is not the Grid this is just wanting a very highspeed dedicated link so we paid for it. The Grid is the dedicated "servers" running Grid software which use the Internet to communicate. Nothing more nothing less, this will do many things and will have many unseen applications in the future.
That network, in effect a parallel internet, is now built, using fibre optic cables that run from Cern to 11 centres in the United States, Canada, the Far East, Europe and around the world.
The network he is referring to is the dedicated links I have mentioned, they are not a parallel Internet, anyone can set these up if they want and use them. Next it is CERN not Cern but yes there are those links but they are still technically part of the Internet.
From each centre, further connections radiate out to a host of other research institutions using existing high-speed academic networks.
Wait so first there is a parallel Internet but now you say there are only 11 links and then after that they use the "existing high-speed academic networks" which are actually a major part of most countries Internet infrastructure?
It means Britain alone has 8,000 servers on the grid system â?? so that any student or academic will theoretically be able to hook up to the grid rather than the internet from this autumn.
No, no, no. Yes academics and students will be able to use the Grid (actually they already can as we have a working infrastructure) but they will not be choosing the Grid over the Internet, they will be using the Grid on the Internet exactly like they use the Web.
Computers on the grid can also transmit data at lightning speed. This will allow researchers facing heavy processing tasks to call on the assistance of thousands of other computers around the world. The aim is to eliminate the dreaded â??frozen screenâ? experienced by internet users who ask their machine to handle too much information.
I’m sorry what now? The computers on the Grid are pretty bog standard boxes, usually with a high spec CPU but they are no different from your desktop machine bought at the same time except your machine will probably have more storage and a better graphics and not be running Linux. They do not transmit data faster. The user’s job is split into separate task which can be done independently of each other, set to different "servers" wherever has free time, run on these machine so the job is done quicker. I suppose in theory this could prevent a "frozen screen" but not at the moment. That will not happen till the user is on a dumb terminal getting all its resources from the Grid so that it always has enough RAM, CPU and disk to run all the tasks the user wants but that won’t be happening today or tomorrow. Also again the Web is not the Internet.
The LHC has been designed to hunt out this particle
That is one of its aims not its only one and as a science journalist you really should know something about the LHC by now.
The article then delves into using facts *shock, horror* but with a great bent:
the grid itself is unlikely to be directly available to domestic internet users
Those pesky scientists in their ivory towers keeping the new Internet away from the public, their employers. Seriously guy the software (because that is all the Grid is) is not needed by the public, there is no person on this planet who at the weekend processes 15PB of data every year for fun. When the applications appear which the public can use and the Grid has matured so that companies can offer it to the public they will. The worldwide web was created in 1989 and by 1994 was mainstream because it had found a use outside the academic communities it was designed for. When there is an application found for the Grid/Grids outside the academic community it will go mainstream very quickly.
OK I’m done but just to reiterate this is not written by some random hack journoscum from some small time local rag. This is written by the science editor of The Times (of London) and he has obviously taken no time to understand the basic concepts behind Grid technology, the Internet or the Web. I have no problem with him putting a slant on the story "Academia hides new Internet from lumpen proletariat" that is what he is paid to do but just do it using the actual facts please.
Thanks,
Halo.
very good post halo.