Open Source Initiative

Last week I read the book small is possible. It's a great read, and I heartily recommend it to anyone who enjoyed books like The Tipping Point, The Wisdom of Crowds, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and other books that powerfully explain the world from a new perspective.

I was happy to learn on Monday that the Petaflop barrier has been broken. IBM's Roadrunner supercomputer achieved this feat with commodity hardware and open source software (including Red Hat's Enterprise Linux).

I just read the story of Helmer, a Fedora 8 linux cluster in an IKEA Helmer cabinet. The story begins

3D computer rendering are very CPU intensive and the best way so speed up slow render problems, are usually to distribute them on to more computers. Render farms are usually very large, expensive and run using ALLOT of energy. I wanted to build something that could be put in my home, not make too much noise and run using very little energy... and be dirt cheep, big problem? :) no computer stuff cost almost nothing these days, it just a matter of finding fun stuff to play with.

Business Week has written a series [1], [2], [3] of articles on the One Laptop Per Child project this week, and none are too favorable. I myself have blogged my disappointment with the apparent direction of the project.

I first met Dr. Phatak at the Red Hat Summit in New Orleans in 2005. Dr. Phatak exemplifies what Amartya Sen lovingly calls The Argumentative Indian. Dr. Phatak is passionate, well educated, articulate, and most of all, sincerely committed to raising the standards in India to the highest levels. After spending time with him in Mumbai (aka Bombay), I truly envied those students fortunate enough to have him as a mentor and a teacher.

This report is a summary of Zak Greant's Open Source Initiative activities from April 13th to May 17th, 2008.

These Weeks

• Dropped the ball on my OSI volunteer work due to client emergency.
• Found great sysadmin to manage our infrastructure for us (I now just need to get budget approved.)
• Lightweight community service (chasing after the board on a private matter, answering a few community questions)
• Attended board meetings. Lightweight participation on board mailing list.