tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1208196493518969640.post1165470170412022055..comments2015-08-10T11:33:19.185-07:00Comments on Reproducible Scientific Computing: Reproducibility, Data Curation, and Cost-Constrained DomainsDouglas Thainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10046446527813216338noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1208196493518969640.post-11793910021844144422015-06-29T11:00:16.079-07:002015-06-29T11:00:16.079-07:00Eric, I share your concern about the focus of our ...Eric, I share your concern about the focus of our profession. Computer science as an academic discipline spends a lot of effort producing technology, training students, and burning coal that ultimately supports nothing more than the optimization of advertising within social networks. Our educational systems could do a better job of demonstrating more important applications of computing.<br /><br />But there is the converse problem: we have seen many times that specialized areas of computing cannot take advantage of economies of scale, and are better off riding the commodity wave. Specialized supercomputers have largely been supplanted by commodity clusters. GPU technology driven by video games has far better energy/performance density than any bespoke parallel hardware. Soldiers in the gulf war preferred using personal smartphones to military-issue GPS units. More examples abound.<br /><br />So, can we advance science, sustainability, governance, and public health using commodity technologies? Or do they need something fundamentally different?<br /><br />Douglas Thainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10046446527813216338noreply@blogger.com