Polarizing Net Neutrality

In this episode, the Radio Free HPC team splits on the topic of Net Neutrality. The FCC will soon publish its new rules for ensuring an even playing field for Internet Bandwidth.

Dan doesn't like the idea one bit. Henry disagrees and thinks we need Net Neutrality to keep the Comcasts of the world from running amok. As for Rich, he just finds the whole argument rather amusing since it's pretty much a done deal.

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Lenovo Superfish Scandal

In this episode, the Radio Free HPC team looks at the recent Lenovo laptop scandal involving Superfish malware. The company intentionally installed the program, which replaces security certificates so that the company could serve up ads on encrypted web pages.

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Archive Debacle at WGBH in Boston

In this episode, Radio Free HPC looks an archival horror story from WGBH in Boston. As the PBS affiliate attempted to move its archived video footage to the American Project, the organization was horrified to discover that many of their files on LTO4 tapes were unreadable.

Does your archive strategy match up with today's storage economics? Henry contends that this is really worth a look as the notion that "write once to tape and forget" is a recipe for disaster. In an era where this WGBH archive could easily fit on 38 hard drives, does migration to tape still make sense?

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Sorting through the HPC News Grab Bag

In this episode, the Radio Free HPC team digs into the Grab Bag for Topics of the Week"

• Dan attended the Lenovo Analyst Conference, and they have him convinced that the company is Going Big on HPC.
• Rich notes that D-Wave Systems has just landed an additional $29 Million in financing. Is Quantum Computing ready for Prime Time?
• Henry is looking forward to seeing what the President's science priorities are going to be when his budget comes out this week. 

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Cloud Harmony Rates Provider Service Uptime

In this episode, the Radio Free HPC team looks at Cloud Harmony, an online service that measures and compares cloud provider uptime.

We simplify the comparison of cloud services by providing reliable and objective performance analysis, reports, commentary, metrics and tools.

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RF-HPC74: Modding the Student Cluster Competition

In this episode, the Radio Free HPC team discusses how they’d change the current Student Cluster Competitions in order to make them a more comprehensive test for aspiring HPC professionals.

Henry wants to codify rules that span all competitions in order to provide a level playing field and to satisfy his authoritarian nature. Dan isn’t so sure that would work, given that each of the sponsoring organizations have their own ideas about how to best run a competition. However, both of them believe that the competitions need to become more real world when it comes to systems, applications, and how they’re used. One of the first steps along this road, the guys agree, is to add a storage component to the competitions.

Since Rich isn’t around for this show, the boys take the opportunity to make fun of his Apple addiction and how Rich is probably all worried about bending his phone on his European jaunt.

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Network Security and the Big Data Breaches of 2014

In this episode the Radio Free HPC Team looks at Network Security in light of the recent series of breaches at places like Sony, Home Depot, and Target

Our special guest this week is Security Expert Linda Millis, who has a day job as Senior VP of Sol-Pass.

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