mike.mainguy

There are two widely known laws in parallel computing that are counterpoints to each other, but with thought they can be applied together to achieve dramatic improvements in parallel computing. They two laws are Amdahl's Law and Gustafson's Law . Roughly speaking, Amdahl's says you cannot speed a system up by parallelization to be faster than the the slowest portion. Using a simple metaphor, if you have a car, a bicycle, and a turtle, when traveling in a pack, you can only move as fast as the turtle. The counterpoint to this is Gustafson's law, which roughly states that for parallel problems, adding more resources can increase the net work completed. Using are above metaphor, if we add more turtles (or cars or bicyclists) we are still increase the amount distance travelled per unit time. I do apologize to Computer Scientists as this is a very rough approximation, but this way of thinking about the situation can help us understand how to use some trickery and sl...

P rior to writing code, I will search the internet, I will ask intelligent questions, and I will realize that many of the answers I get may not be correct. I will test the answers and validate them before repeating it to someone else. I will not reinvent prior art without adding value R evision control tools are my staple, I will live and die by version control tools. Distributed, Centralized, Lock and Release, or Update and Commit...they all work and they are the foundation upon which I build everything. I will strive to learn how to use these tools to manage branches, tags, and how to properly share my code with my fellow programmers which whichever tool my team happens to use O n all fronts I will respect the code that already exists and seek to understand why it is the way it is G iving credit when due, I will respect my peers, those who are less skilled, and those who are more skilled. I will not assume I'm smarter than everyone else, nor will I assume that esoteric a...

Often we are hampered because we think of a "simple solution" and it ends up being "simple to think about" but very complicated in practice. Something as simple as "Dig up the rock poking out of the front yard" seems really simple. All you need is a shovel and some ambition right? ...until you realize the rock is a 5 ton monster that, in fact, the utility company drilled a hole through to route your gas line. Sometimes, as in this case, it might be better to do the more "complicated solution" i.e. go to the store, get some dirt, and cover the rock up, and plant new grass... because the "first/simplest" thing you thought about has some unknown complexities. Put another way..."simple to think about" doesn't equate to "simple to execute".