I also like computing power... but i must tell you... nothing is so elegant as algorithmic efficiency... will you use a cannon to smash a cockroach when you can do it with your shoe...?

When i was in Mech Eng BSc i had a small handheld calculator ( comparatively... ) HP 49 Gx, with I Gb of RAM... this is programmable in HPGL, which is a stack-oriented language, quite similar to Forth... Lots of teachers and colleagues of mine were amazed by the size of the problems that a tiny handheld could solve...

All a matter of data preconditioning and storage, and efficient design of the numerical algorithms...


... now, if one can combine algorithmic efficiency with computing power... that's great...

Oh dear - children all .... lol.

We were allowed slide rules, but no programmable calculators - the best of which at the time was probably the HP 65. Any calculator had to be turned off (and checked) prior to entry to the exam room. That way nothing could be punched in prior to the exam.

You kids ...

When I have to smash a cockroach I use excessive force, because I have to. There were some roaches in one of my college classes, and the girls in the class were disgusted by them, so I took action. I tried smashing one with a force that I deemed enough to kill it ... it did not die, in fact it was unaffected. So, frustrated, I smashed it as hard as I possibly could and cut it right in half ... but the two pieces continued to move... After more smashing at full force, the were obliterated. The girls were happy, but the teacher was not (not that I cared, there's shouldn't have been roaches anyway).

It would probably sell well.

You know.. there are several ways to do things... no need to reset calcs...

1. ) Make a practical plus theoretical exam in which someone must detail the sequence of calculations, not just spit numerical results...

2. ) Use numerical data in such that round-off error propagation renders most algorithms useless...

3. ) Make a kind of exam in which one is supposed to deduce all formulas used... and evaluate that, not just the mere use of formulas..

4. ) Etc, Etc...

...more.. in real life... no one performs calculations by hand, nonetheless, one must KNOW how to build formulas that will be used in automated calculations... so what is the pedagogic value of training people not to use calculators/computers...?

... that particular kind of workflow, simply does not exist... IMHO

Couldn't agree more actually.
I get paid to know where/how to find answers, not have it all crammed in my head. Uni professors (in my time) didn't seem to understand that ...

...So, you need a strong theoretical math/physics background, AND the means to deploy/simulate some kind of scenario fast and efficiently...

... I do not immagine what was Naval Engineering back in the thirties...

... I just cannot immagine what was the workload of designing such an engineering project as Yamato Senkan, or Akagi with Slide rulers, Drafting tables and math function tables...

... no Excell, no Matlab, no Solid Works, no Abaqus or Ansys... no Catia...

Can you immagine...?!

These men were REAL engineers...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Yamato
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanes..._carrier_Akagi

Only time my lappy gets that hot is when I'm doing something that involves more than one processor core (or 100% of just one over a long period of time), e.g. video transcoding, virtualization (if the boot-up takes forever ), XaoS (--with-pthread=yes FTW), etc.

Didn't say it was new.. Just the term "cloud computing" is new to the masses of people who don't work with servers or have few limited computer knowledge. Which is the target audience for this NEW "cloud".

They can call it the new cloud or the old mainframe ... it's the same.

Right. We know that. But your mom and dad or aunt and uncle or grandparents don't know that. Its "new" and "awesome". But they have no real idea what it is.

"Cloud Computing" is just some marketeer's tag for a service... IMHO