A small little survey

[Robert G. Brown]

On Thu, 21 Jun 2001, Jim Windle wrote:

> Please do post a summary of your results to the list.  Speaking as a
> newbie, it would be very helpful to see how people have dealt with the
> questions on your survey and to get an idea about the range of sizes of
> the clusters people are using.

For what it's worth, I'm (finally!) working on a php-based webform that
will collect data on Duke beowulf clusters and cluster users.  I
hesitate to offer up the URL yet even for commentary, but when I get it
completed I will cheerfully give the whole thing to the Scyld guys.

There will be a form to "register" your beowulf/cluster (add it to a
mysql database of beowulfs) and a link to a tabular summary of
registered clusters.  There will be text boxes for freeform description
of things that are unusual or don't quite fit and for keywords to help
others with similar interests search you out.  If my energy holds out,
there will be some summary/stats engines that make cute little bar
histograms or the like.

The Duke form will obviously be for Duke beowulf users and owners only
(or at least for triangle users/owners) but a similar form on
www.beowulf.org would effectively completely automate the survey Jared
is undertaking and run it in perpetuity.  I, at least, think that this
would be very useful, provided that some sort of SPAM-barriers are
implemented (which shouldn't be very difficult).

   rgb

-- 
Robert G. Brown	                       http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/
Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305
Durham, N.C. 27708-0305
Phone: 1-919-660-2567  Fax: 919-660-2525     email:rgb at phy.duke.edu