[BioPython] large data distribution (was: versioning, distribution and webdav)

[EMBL - Rune Linding]

On Thu, May 17, 2001 at 02:05:27AM -0600, Andrew Dalke wrote:
> Rune Linding <linding@EMBL-Heidelberg.DE>:
> >to be short.... i think its time that we jump onto this project:
> >
> >http://www.eu-datagrid.org
> 
> Possibly.  Problems I have with it are:
> 
>  - I really didn't like the word 'grid' when I heard it a few
>      years back as GRiD.  But then, I didn't like "www" so I'm
>      not the best judge of this.

i think this is irrelevant

> 
>  - their current site is poorly designed, their new one uses
>      a Shockwave plugin and their brochure seems to have froze
>      my PDF reader.  Ah, no, it's just a 4MB file it had to
>      suck down through my modem to read 4 pages of text.  Lots
>      of pretty color pictures though.

iam sorry but i dont see that using flash or placing a 4meg pdf document
is a problem.

> 
>  - It falls in the category of Grand Projects, and I've found that
>     those require a lot of time, research, politics and money.
>     Tracking what's going on means going to a lot of meetings in
>     person, knowing the right contacts (which I don't have) and
>     reading and writing a lot of boring reports. Last time I was
>     involved in a Grand Project I got pretty frustrated.

well what you are talking about solving involves highspeed networking, offshore multiplexing, new routing methods etc and YES its expensive, takes time etc.
but so was the creation of the www backbone as its standing today




> 
>  - I don't think anything they are proposing would work over a
>      T1 line, which means I couldn't ever use it over DSL or 56K.
>      Actually, I can't find a solid statement of the details of
>      how this will work (because it's still all research) so I
>      could be wrong.

ofcourse not, its a new backbone structure and i think some of the technology will come from projects like myrinet who is deeply involved in cluster networks

you have to differ between accessing a backbone(which move the big data around) and accessing the data....the last is a matter of structuring data and creating good interfaces...the first is a matter of fiber and cisco's :)


> 
>  - Those last two together mean that I personally would have somewhere
>      between zero and zilch influence.  Why should I get involved?
> 
> > perhaps its time for biology to raise a hand in the voting?
> 
> It does say that CNRS will work on using the grid for humane genome
> exploration.



> 
>                     Andrew
>                     dalke@acm.org
> 
> 
--
Rune Linding 					linding@gandalf:~$
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