A quick review of modern memory storage and processing

Modern computer memory manipulation and storage is transistor based. Information is stored in bits, and each bit represents a one or a zero. Essentially, the modern computer’s logical processes are limited to the two dimensional one and zero paradigm. Also, the speed at which processes can take place is limited by the speed the electrons can pass through the wires/circuits that make up the guts of the computer.

What the heck is a quantum computer?

Quantum computers are based on what is called a quantum Turing machine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_computer). Essentially, the original Turing machine was a strip of paper divided into little squares. The programmer would designate each square as a 0, 1, or leave it blank.
In the early days of computers, this literal strip of paper would be fed into the computer that would then read and interpret the 0’s and 1’s. In a quantum Turing machine, the “strip of paper” is quantum sized and the potential designation for the boxes are 0, 1, and what’s called a superposition of 0 and 1. In other words, there’s a third state that allows the box to exist as 0, 1, and everything in between.

Instead of bits, quantum computers will work on the principal of qbits. These qbits will be able to exist in three different states instead of two, and are composed of atoms, ions, photons and electrons.

3D+ logic and multitasking

The nature of the qbits would allow a quantum computer to exhibit parallelism, running multiple computations simultaneously. Our current computers can only a few computations at a time. Imagine this: a 30-qbit computer would run at 10 teraflops. Today’s most advanced super computers don’t even come close to that level of computing power.

What does this mean?

To say that quantum computers will revolutionize technology is an understatement. Algorithms that are too time-intensive to run will become accessible for data gathering. One quantum computer would be able to quickly break into our most advanced encryption programs and network security systems, rendering them obsolete. Some even believe that truly sentient AI’s will become possible, as our biological brains most likely work on a similar set of principals.

Computer science will continue to be the science of the future, but the next generation of computer scientists might well have to moonlight as quantum physicists.

Bio: Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at onlinedegrees.org, researching various accredited online degree programs. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

*note* I’ve also tried to the hexxeh version of chromium, but for some reason it won’t boot on my laptop, and I also prefer to be able to compile from source rather than using a pre-built image.

The lab where I TA the C programming class

I’ve definitely learned a lot from my last attempt at TA-ing the previous semester. That time around I helped with an m68k assembly language class. It was quite difficult, especially since it was a class that many students found challenging. It ended up being a good experience though because it helped teach me the importance of being prepared for the weeks labs. The biggest challenge was trying to anticipate what types of questions would be asked and how to prepare myself. By the end of the first couple of labs, I started to get the hang of it and made myself a routine. Since it had been sometime since I last worked with m68k assembly, I decided the best way to prepare was to fully complete the labs myself before the students. While it made for quite a bit of work, I got to learn quite a bit, and I could answer the questions with confidence. In the C class, since I work with it quite a lot more often than assembly, I didn’t need to review the labs nearly as much. I found just bringing a textbook that I could quickly reference was always useful.

It’s amazing how ta-ing helps you to remember and cement concepts in your mind. Certain things that might have been a bit fuzzy or hard to remember have been recalled and re-clarified since I am forced to know the material in-depth in order to prepare for the weekly labs and assignments. Also the questions from the students help me to consider things I wouldn’t normally. I would definitely recommend being a TA for any CS grad student (or upper year undergrad) who might be considering it!

Next is the price for these things. While they seem to be too expensive (monthly) to me, I am willing to pay it since I understand the costs of setting up a network in a country as spread as Canada. However if I try to tether a Blackberry or iPhone to my computer, all of the major carriers in Canada seem to add on extra costs which make it impractical. The other reason why I do like some of the blackberry models is for international use. For instance when I was in UK this past month, I couldn’t use my LG8100 phone at all. Some of the newer Blackberries supported by Rogers and Telus that I have looked at support many technologies and seem like they make work.

Anyways, this post has mostly been a rant, so feel free to leave your experiences or some suggestions on what I might do to try to get some solution to my needs. I have tried asking the sales staff at some of the places to help me out and they have been useless so far. But thats another story.

Update: I have decided on a Blackberry Storm 9530 since it supports international roaming and has many of the features I would like in a phone. It looks like I will just settle on buying a separate mobile stick for use with my laptop. I don’t want to have to worry about all of the hassle of getting the extra software & the questionable legality that is involved with trying to get data through my phone. So far I am quite happy with the phone, it is quite a step from my LG8100.

Example Office Environment

10. Not Labour Intensive

In terms of physical labour, on a list of 100, a job in the computer industry would likely be ranked 98 or 99 behind participants in sleep studies. You will likely end up with a nice ergonomic chair and a more comfortable working environment than your own desk at home (unless of course your a researcher at a university, in which case it will be the other way around). If you manage to land a job at a large software company there are often ample breaks, lots of snacks and many other perks. On the other hand, if you are so inclined you might even be able to get gym memberships for free or on the cheap to make up for the lack of “real work” you do all day.

9. No Longer and Insociable Career Choice

While you still can be an isolated programming coding away for hours on end this is becoming more of a rarity. Projects are often large and require enormous collaborative efforts in order to be completed. Conferences and workshops allow you to connect with other professionals and keep up on the latest ideas in the field.

8. Surrounded by Motivated, Young & Intelligent People

Often times tech departments are full of young people fresh out of school who are still very motivated and get excited about new ideas. For instance I work with many people who are still students and we often exchange links to interesting new technologies we find on the Internet. Additionally, if someone gets stuck on something many people can end up searching through the vast information to find a solution quicker. This keeps the work going quickly and makes it more interesting. This is a good environment to work in as opposed to a factory / warehouse where most people hate their job and can’t wait to leave at the end of the day.

Always connected to the Internet, coworkers and valuable information

7. Always Connected

It is a requirement these days to be connected to the Internet if your business has anything to do with technology and this can be a very a good thing. As mentioned previously, this allows for easy communication and collaboration between people and departments. Even if the people are separated across the office, or in a different city / country etc they can still share files, reports and more. Techniques can be researched online and solutions can be found without having to reinvent the wheel each time. Eventually I suppose almost every career may be exposed to this type of thing once the Internet becomes completely pervasive.

6. Often Interesting

Computers in some form have become involved in almost every discipline around. This means that even if your passions isn’t necessarily computers, you could still apply computer science to your own field to help it improve. Computers can help with identifying chemicals in Chemistry, DNA, genes etc in Biology, complex equations and systems in Physics, calculate statistics for Political Science and the list goes on. In each of these fields however there are major obstacles that prevent the experts from doing an even better job at what they do because of the limitations of current computer systems. It may be that they aren’t user friendly enough, powerful enough, or that the problem is just plain impossible to compute in a reasonable time with the methods we have today. Even in the more “average” computer jobs like web design and programming, the job isn’t boring because each day there are new problems. There is always new content to be added to websites, new features to be added to programs and something will often go wrong. This problem solving is what makes it interesting.

IT / Computer Professionals often earn at
least average salaries or higher in Canada

5. Good Pay

In my experience, in Canada at least, most technology workers seem to earn at least the average income or higher. There are usually good promotions, benefits and perks because the companies want to retain the workers since they have paid to keep up their training and education. I’ve also heard a few stories about systems that are running ancient software. Apparently there is a nuclear power plant near where I live that is running COBOL code on a robot that changes the spent nuclear rods from the plant. Since this is a such a vital function they have avoided upgrading the system or changing as much as possible. Now it turns out there is only one person left in North America who knows how it works so they pay lots of money for him to fly in from the US to fix it whenever there is trouble. So the lesson here: outlive everyone else who has worked on the system you are building

4. All Skill Levels Required

Another reason why you may want to switch into computer science is because computer and IT jobs need people of all skill levels. You can get the jobs with everything from basic certification courses to community college diplomas, bachelor degrees or PhD’s. There is also a wide range of job titles you could hold: IT / Tech Support, Web Designer / Developer, Programmer, Analyst, Administrator, Database Designer, Resarcher, Team Leader etc… Once you are in the door at a company if you keep upgrading your education you should be able to keep climbing the ladder as well. Experience and Education are valued at many places.

3. Retraining Encouraged

Retraining is often encouraged for technology workers. Especially at the larger, successful companies. They want to maintain a competitive advantage and do not want to be seen using old technology. This means they may even pay for you to take upgrading courses or even for portions of diploma or degree programs. This is also extremely beneficial for the employee because as training increases they can demand more money, and at the same time they become more valuable to the competition. It also ensures that if you do loose your job later that you may have an easier time being rehired somewhere else.

2. World is Dependent on Technology Now

Try imagining a world without any computers, calculators or modern technology. Think slide rules, pen and pencil calculations, tables of sin and cosines etc. It would be impossible for us to keep track of our economies, banking systems, inventories etc. There would be no more long range communications and global business would essentially stop. Technology is ingrained in our lives now and there is no way of going back anymore.

On the other there are still people who do not understand much of modern technology. There are still CEOs who are unable to understand how to apply technology to problems in an effective way. This is where people trained in computer science may be able to help. There is a strong need for people who can communicate highly technical ideas in a way other people can understand so they can make informed decisions.

Computer Researcher

1. Many Problems Still to be Solved

The most compelling reason why you should study computer science is because of the vast amount of problems still to be solved. Computer Science is extremely young compared to Physics, Chemistry and Biology. To me this means that popular ideas are easier to challenge, people are still willing to accept change fairly easily. On top of this, the computer field itself changes so rapidly that what works at one time may not be applicable later. For over the last fifty years or so we have developed many techniques that work wonderfully on “electrical” computers. What happens if we change to computers that use light, or if we use quantum computers? More specifically than that even there are questions like “What is the best way to schedule packets in a wireless network?” in the subfield of wireless research. There are many other questions in many other subfields of computer science as well.

Conclusion

Yet despite all of these questions, we do not have enough people to answer them. Enrolment in recent years in Computer Science hasn’t been great (except since video game courses became popular). Alot of people were afraid after the dot.com bust a few years ago and many people were probably discouraged from taking computer science then. I was fairly worried then as well since I was in the middle of my undergrad degree at the time. Now with the economy doing poorly, computer jobs are quite secure. In the area where I live some of the largest technology companies are still hiring thousands of people (RIM, OpenText). On top of that think of how many businesses require some form of computer expertise. Almost every business larger than a small business where the one person does the job of the technologist themselves. Now is the best time to go and get retrained in computers. If you are Ontario, many of the colleges are even offering money to support it through the Second Career Program.

Microwulf Cluster

Anyway, until I start to actually build thing I have decided that I would try to get suggestions through this blog and maybe through some forums on what materials I could use to get these motherboards organized in a reasonable way. (Note: I have extremely limited handyman type skills and a low budget since I’m a student.) Keep in mind that I need a way to not only house the motherboards but also power supplies, a couple of switches and maybe some hard drives. I have 15 working computers so far and do not want to use the standard pc cases because I don’t want a wall of computers in my house. Feel free to offer up any suggestions and check back soon for pictures of the progress!

Update: I have added a project page for the SCrappy Cluster

Once I get some time I think I’ll try it out. Since I’m on the topic of distributed screensavers… I seem to becoming more interested in distributed systems lately. The one that seems to be fascinating me the most is the DIY beowulf servers. I think this is because I just spent ages waiting for my last round of simulations because of one portion of the simulation that uses clique enumeration / maximal cliques. According to some papers I’ve quickly browsed over this problem is known to be hard to solve so perhaps I could make use of some sort of parallel solution to speed things up.