I love the authenticity he states his beliefs. I believe I could talk him into believing a 286 is a supercomputer.

I believe this is from Missler's "Genesis and The Big Bang", I can't believe someone actually wrote a nit-pick guide to these movies. I must say I admire the man's efforts.

I think you guys are being too negative, sure Sony probably made the whole Folding@Home crap, just like we have SETI@HOME a few years ago and everyone thought they will be finding alien contact some time. Well no.

But there differences in cost and operation of using PS3s as computational machines in research are great. We are talking about a sophisticated piece of electronics for under 1000 dollars. Just a few facts from Harpers:

Minimum number of PlayStation 3s whose spare processing power will be used next year for biological research: 10,000
Factor by which the interconnected game systems will be faster than the world’s most powerful supercomputer: 5
- Vijay Pande, Stanford University

It is mostly marketing hype. The "big thing" about the PS3 is its Cell processor. But in essence, all it is is a combination of an ordinary CPU and a GPU. (Well, it's a bit more than that, but that's a good way to summarize it.) Sure it does some mathematical computations faster since it doesn't have to send the data out to the GPU, but the speed gained is offset by the fact that you have to communicate it back to the remote server (for the Folding application). So in the end, a high end PC using both the CPU and GPU (as ATI cards can now be implemented to do) for folding will be on par with a PS3. Add to that a dual core processor and you're easily going to beat the PS3s calculation speeds. (And now we're moving along to quad-core computers, so . . . yeah.)

Add to that what was mentioned above, about leaving the PS3 on while not in use, and it's pretty clear that this is mostly marketing.

Oh, and the whole thing about the PS3 being a supercomputer is more marketing hype. Some planned supercomputers will use MODIFIED cell processors (plural), but the PS3 is nothing like that.

I agree on the bullshit at work when they are talking about it running when you aren't playing. It's just more logical to buy them wholesale as they are cheaper then more powerful supercomputers. Set up a distributed data computation network and do your research, this whole oh buy a PS3 and you will be contributing to the world is just marketing bullshit.

Considering we've only had sophisticated space satellites since the mid-60's I would like to know where the dataset for the first 80 years came from! Surely it is interpolated from supercomputer simulations. Still, the 60's to now data is convincing enough.

She fully admits she doesn't know simple math from her own asshole only to still insist that "our" math is right and yours is not because Mr.Calculator(sponsored by Verizon's training or lack thereof) says so. Apparently she thinks calculators are like these self-aware/self-correcting supercomputers given to us from baby Jesus who run on their own? The difference of opinion thingy was just grand.

Sony PS3 is not a gaming console, it's a cheap supercomputer that is only worth purchasing if you know how to boot linux into it.

I know what you mean SMA about the leg walkers, but it is a game, I used to wonder why war games were so over blown and unrealistic. Because obviously if we had real world conflict replication, Battlefield 2 rounds would last 10 hours as everyone will be too scared to get shot and lose their ranked online character for life.

About the beta...

Yes there is a public open beta running for Supreme Commander, but it's on FilePlanet. Whose name drop would mean about 90% of you would stop reading right now. For the rest...

You will need a FilePlanet Account, then you will need to register with Supreme Commander Beta test, then you pick out your system specifications only to be told that the Beta will not run optimally (obviously), then you reach a character entry point. This all takes too bloody long.

Finally you think you come to the download page, only for FilePlanet to decide that you can't download the file until you of course you register as a paid member of FilePlanet (step not required but lead to by the confusing over complicated interface).

At which point you will punch your screen in frustration, and download the cracked beta off the Internet. For anyone willing to go through this, you have to remember it is after all a BETA, the game is for LAN play only and play testing. There are no hardware optimizations so the game runs and looks like poo even on those supercomputers they use to plot weather patterns on.

I honestly recommend waiting for it's February 2007 release. See how it falls down by visiting the forums, and then deciding if you want to take the plunge.

I will be getting it. I just don't want to seem like am selling it to you.

Same thing with smashmyxbox.com. BTW the amount of technology that's put into both xbox 360 and ps3, 600 is, dare i say, reasonable. They are true supercomputers.

The name of this video is "Panspermia", it was presented at SIGGRAPH in 1990 and did NOT feature music by Jan Hammer. It was created by Karl Sims and Thinging Machines Corporation. It was rendered on their Connection Machine, a massively parallel supercomputer featuring 64000+ processors. The original video is available on Archive.org.

I loved this, amazing documentary. I still like to believe that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively.

I personally can't wait to pass on and see what happens. Will life go on when I die? Will I just live in a dream state in those few seconds as my organs stop functioning? Will I experience something that our simplistic rational processes cannot understand?

If we are all just part of a large supercomputer bought by mice I will be so sad.