The 2009 eScience Workshop will be held at the Gates Center for Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA,  October 15-17, 2009.  The call for papers closes on July 31, 2009.

Call for Papers

We invite contributions from all areas of eScience and e-Research including:

• Computational support for scientific research in life sciences, biomedical computing, environment, energy, and other scientific grand challenges
• Knowledge discovery and merging datasets
• Large-scale scientific data analysis, mining, and visualization
• High-performance computing applied to solving problems in a variety of scientific disciplines
• Dissemination of scientific literature/results and the discovery, curation, and sharing of data
• Scientific sensors, data-gathering tools and technologies
• Collaboration/workflow tools and technologies
• Data-intensive science
• Emerging multidisciplinary fields such as Digital Heritage and eEconomy
• Research implications of computational thinking
• How strategies for semantics and ontology formulation enable scientific discovery

eScience Workshop 2009

The eScience Workshop, to be held October 15-17, 2009, will provide a unique opportunity to share experiences, learn new techniques, and influence the domain of scientific computing. Scientists and researchers will explore the evolution, challenges and potential of computing in scientific research, including how the latest tools, Web services and database technologies are being applied to scientific computing.

Workshop Theme
Facilitating Scientific Discovery through Data-Intensive Computing

Hosting and Location
Co-hosted by Microsoft Research and Carnegie Mellon University, this workshop will take place in the Gates Center for Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA.

eScience Workshop 2009 - Microsoft Research

Michael Kordahi created a way to see how Bing search results compare to the other big search players - it gives you 3 columns of results and you can vote which one has the best results.  If you’re using IE you can also add BlindSearch as a IE search provider.

The “Search Taste Test” – do you really know the difference?

So there is plenty of talk about Google being the best search engine out there, but with some pretty amazing improvements recently made to Live Search, and now particularly the launch of Bing, our new “decision” engine, it’s really time to see if Google really is the best – for you personally. One fun way of doing this is to use this fun little utility that Michael Kordahi wrote (a teammate of mine) called Blind Search.

Basically, you head over to http://blindsearch.fejus.com, enter your search term, and click the search button. The tool goes off and searches for your terms at Google, Bing and Yahoo. You get the three sets of results back – all formatted anonymously so you don’t know which column of results was returned by which search engine. Then you can either “vote” for the search engine that gives you the best, most appropriate results for you personally, or you can simply click on one of the results themselves and head off on your way like you would if you were using the actual search engine.

One really cool thing is that if you’ve been using Google and want to try out Bing, but aren’t quite ready to make the switch (personally I now use Bing as my favoured search provider but hey, you never know), you can actually use Blind Search as your default search provider.

The odd ramblings of a geek pretending to not be "all grown up" : The “Search Taste Test” – do you really know the difference?

I really enjoyed Dan Reed’s latest posting - HPC: Making a Small Fortune - and the need for real innovation in this space, especially with the rise of new technologies – that’s part of the reason we looked at at combining HPC and Databases via the GrayWulf Project…

HPC: Making a Small Fortune

N.B. I also write for the Communications of the ACM (CACM). The following essay recently appeared on the CACM blog.

There is an old joke in the high-performance computing community that begins with a question, "How do you make a small fortune in high-performance computing?" There are several variations on the joke, but they all end with the same punch line, "Start with a large fortune and ship at least one generation of product. You will be left with a small fortune." Forty years of experience, with companies large and small, has confirmed the sad truth of this statement.

Reed's Ruminations: A Blog by Dan Reed: HPC: Making a Small Fortune

There’s a new drop (v 1.0.1.86) of NodeXL Excel template available. 

I’ve been seeing the Bing Trucks around town – take a look if you haven’t seen them

If you ever wonder what how normal citizens can have an impact in science – take a listen to the latest Podcast from 365 Days of Astronomy and how a mild manner school teacher from the Netherlands found a strange object while participating in Galaxy Zoo.  Now with the Hubble servicing mission complete – we’ll hopefully see future pictures of the Hanny’s Voorwerp.

Check it out on WorldWide Telescope with the tour I made after I first heard about it.

May 21st Podcast: Hanny’s Voorwerp and the Galaxy Zoo

In 2007 Dutch school teacher Hanny van Arkel discovered a unique deep space object never before described... from the comfort of her computer chair! Learn about how her love of music led her down a path of astronomical discovery.

May 21st: Hanny’s Voorwerp and the Galaxy Zoo

Sometimes you need doctors to give human consumable descriptions – and Bill Crounse’s post on Windows 7 – summed up my experiences with Windows 7 much more eloquent then I could :-)

I especially love the DirectAccess feature – which let’s me have access to all my corporate resources (web sites, SharePoint, file shares, etc) while working from home or on the road - no need to VPN/RAS into corporate.

Windows 7—A Healthy Choice

Let me be perfectly honest.  At some level, an operating system is just an operating system.  Whether you hang out in the C-suite, in the IT department, on the ward, or in the operating room; you just want your  computer to work.  Having said that, I think anyone who truly enjoys computing as I do and how the personal computer helps us do our work (communicate, collaborate, locate the information we need, improve clinical practice, patient safety and the quality of patient care) will simply love working with Windows 7.  Why?

HealthBlog : Windows 7—A Healthy Choice

Just saw this posting on WindowsForDevices.com for the the Gecko EduBook that will be available in July for approximately $200.  The modularity of the device is quite interesting, since the CPU and RAM are on a replaceable allowing the CPU to be reused or upgraded.  It mentions it can run between 4-6hours (depending on battery type), one must assume that drops a bit once a user adds an optional wireless or wifi card. 

WIndows netbook runs on AA batteries 

NorhTec announced a netbook that operates on eight AA batteries, has an internal power supply, and runs Windows XP on a 1GHz SoC (system on chip). The "Gecko EduBook" has an 8.9-inch display, has an easily reconfigurable modular design, and will cost under $200, says NorhTec.
(Click here for a larger view of NorhTec's Gecko EduBook)
With its 8.9-inch, 1024 x 600 keyboard, NorhTec's Gecko EduBook looks like any number of netbooks based on Intel Atom N270 or N280 processors. But, unlike any netbook we've encountered previously, the EduBook is claimed to be capable of running for four hours on eight, off-the-shelf NiMH (nickel metal hydride) AA batteries. In addition, the device has an internal power supply, capable of recharging the system via a simple, easily replaced AC line cord, according to the company.

WIndows netbook runs on AA batteries

Graywulf is the natural evolution of Beowulf Clusters – it brings together HPC clusters and databases to do efficient processing and data management.  It’s name and design also pays homage to Jim Gray – who helped  champion the use of relational databases in the scientific projects.

At it’s simplest form Graywulf is having a database installed on each of the HPC compute nodes – this brings the data to the computation – one of the points Jim made quite often and utilizes the power of databases (queries, stored procedures, etc).  Since it’s a generic architecture Graywulf clusters can be built using any OS and any database…the ones in the case study below implemented them using Windows HPC Server and SQL Server and the motivation was to be more efficient in doing the science – it’s always great to have innovative folks using technologies to do good work. 

“To put it simply, a scientist needs to be able to live within the data,” says Alexander Szalay, a cosmologist-turned-computer-scientist at The Johns Hopkins University (JHU) in Baltimore, Maryland. The power of information, Szalay says, is determined not by its quantity so much as how easy it is to access, manipulate and analyze.
“It’s not just about doing the numerical calculations,” adds Andrew Simms, a biomedical health informatics graduate student working on protein structure analysis in Valerie Daggett’s bioengineering laboratory at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle. “It’s also about assembling the data so we can run calculations while performing analyses and ad hoc explorations and then feed it all back into the data warehouse.”

Graywulf Takes Byte Out of Data Overload

Astronomers at The Johns Hopkins University and protein scientists at the University of Washington are using inexpensive computer hardware combined with powerful computing and database software to help manage and analyze a growing volume of scientific data.

For details, read the Graywulf case study.

Project Principals

• Alexander Szalay, Alumni Centennial Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University
• Valerie Daggett, Professor of Bioengineering, University of Washington

Graywulf Takes Byte Out of Data Overload - Microsoft Research

One of the most hidden features in Word 2007 is the equation editor – it allows you to input equations using the linear format and the equations that are generated are truly visualizing appealing. 

There are some videos showing the use of equation editor, but I just see that Murray Sargent is the “star” in a new video walking through some complex equations and showing some of the other formatting/alignment features that are included. 

Silverlight version of Video 

Word 2007 Math Overview

NASA released some out of the world Photosynth collections today – highlighting the International Space Station (inside and out) and the next Mars Rover.  The photos by NASA astronaut Sandra Magnus really show off all the details of such a complex “flying machine” both internally and externally. Now I just need to find time to do the ISS Scavenger Hunt – I’m really interested in finding the Space dude

This robot toy action figure appeared on the Space Station. He or she stands guard to ensure that the stations robots are well cared for and used.

The Mars Rover is in JPL's robot-testing Mars Yard and you can see some real details of all the equipment it has on board.

NASA - International Space Station Photosynth collections

The Azure folks have setup the new CloudApp() challenge – I’d like to see some Science apps created on Azure and see how it changes the way to work with different datasets. 

new CloudApp() - The Azure™ Services Platform Developer Challenge

What Is It?

new CloudApp() is a US-based developer challenge for .NET & PHP developers creating cloud applications or services (hereafter "application") on the Azure™ Services Platform. Have your application judged by industry leaders Om Malik and Michael Cote and share your cloud coding skills with other developers. Grand Prize Winners will be announced on stage at Structure 09 and featured on azure.com.

new CloudApp(): The Azure™ Services Platform Developer Challenge - Home

I just updated two of my machines to Windows 7 RC and one of the neatest features is the ability to have Federated Search Providers – simply run an XML configuration file (.osdx) to add a search provider to your machine and you can search directly from windows explorer.

So for fun I created two: One to search the Microsoft Research website and one to search my blog.  I also created one to search against internal SharePoint sites…really handy.

BHandler has a post with some links to other .osdx files and David McGhee has other ones…

Windows 7 Federated Search Providers

Microsoft MSDN Blogger, David McGhee, is recommending adding Windows 7 Federated Search Providers from the Windows Seven Forums.  (Support: How to Video & Implementer's Guide)

MSDN Blogger Recommends Free Windows 7 Federated Search Providers - Windows Live

Just saw some of these great UI concept ideas by Cullen Dudas’ on istartedsomething and it’s a fun watch.

Also – some some footage that shows off some of the previous Windows launches.

Copenhagen User Experience from Copenhagen Concept on Vimeo.

Just tried out the DeepZoomPix Technology Demo – it’s pretty amazing – brings together Azure, Silverlight and Deep Zoom.

I tested it out with some Astronomy photos…

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