[Beowulf] value of parallel programming experience (was: Checkpointing using flash)

[Lux, Jim (337C)]

-----Original Message-----
From: beowulf-bounces at beowulf.org [mailto:beowulf-bounces at beowulf.org] On Behalf Of Igor Kozin
Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2012 8:16 AM
To: Bogdan Costescu; Beowulf Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Beowulf] value of parallel programming experience (was: Checkpointing using flash)

It is not so much about parallel programming experience but about scientific software development career path. Quite often parallel skills are needed anyway. A former colleague and a good friend of mine explains it quite nicely here:

http://software.ac.uk/blog/2012-04-23-work-scientific-software-engineers-recognised-academia

Yes, we had a number of long debates about the topic. There is a feeling that scientific software is much better funded in the US than elsewhere and respectively software developers are a more valuable asset there (hence the brain drain). But then again they spend a lot more on the hardware too. The software spend is still insufficient if you listen to Jack Dongarra and others.


--> Because you can *see* and *touch* your big fancy computer: it's a capital expenditure.  Software is mostly salaries which doesn't produce anything tangible, and the "investment", such as it is, walks out the door every night.  For all the talk of "Human Capital Management", the phrase Human Resources is a more accurate reflection, in the business community, at least:  resources are consumed.