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A technology blog for The Economist Group IT team

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Grid computing online now 

Is it just me or when viewing SunGrid's demo are you reminded of sending punched cards off to some univeristy and then getting your results back later?

I guess I'm showing my age here.
Comments:
If you go through to the registration process, the terms&conditions include the following restrictions which I suppose are very valid concerns if you're going to make massive CPU power available over the internet for $1/hr. The detail they go into to describe what exactly they're trying to prevent is quite surprising.

"1. We will not sell, otherwise transfer or re-export the Service contrary to U.S. law.
2. We will not use the Service for any of the following activities, nor will we perform research using it for any of the following activities:

Nuclear Explosive Activities
Developing, designing, manufacturing, constructing, testing or maintaining any nuclear explosive device, or components or subsystems of such a device.

Unsafeguarded Nuclear Activities
Developing, designing, manufacturing, constructing, operating or maintaining any nuclear reactor, critical facility for the fabrication of nuclear fuel, facility for the conversion of nuclear material from one chemical form to another, or separate storage installation, where there is no obligation to accept International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards at the relevant facility or installation when it contains any source or special fissionable material (regardless of whether or not it contains such material at the time of export) or where any such obligation is not met.

Safeguarded and Unsafeguarded Nuclear Activities
Safeguarded and unsafeguarded nuclear fuel cycle activities, including research on or development, design, manufacture, construction, operation or maintenance of any of the following facilities, or components for such facilities:

1. Facilities for the chemical processing of irradiated special nuclear or source material;
2. Facilities for the production of heavy water;
3. Facilities for the separation of isotopes of source and special nuclear material; or
4. Facilities for the fabrication of nuclear reactor fuel containing plutonium.

Foreign Maritime Nuclear Propulsion Projects
Maritime nuclear propulsion plants, their land prototypes, and special facilities for their construction, support, or maintenance, including any machinery, devices, components, or equipment specifically developed or designed for use in such plants or facilities.

3. We will not use the Service for activities related to chemical or biological weapon research, design, development, production, testing, stockpiling, sale, installation, operation, maintenance or use.
4. We will not use the Service for activities or research related to missile research, design, development, production, testing, stockpiling, sale, installation, maintenance, operation or use. (The term 'missiles' includes but is not limited to rockets and unmanned air vehicle systems.)
Also, we will not use the Service for activities relating to ballistic missile systems, space launch vehicles, sounding rockets and unmanned air vehicle systems (including cruise missile systems, target drones and reconnaissance drones) capable of delivering at least 500 Kg payload to a range of at least 300Km.
5. We will not knowingly resell, re-export or transfer the Service to entities involved in any of the above mentioned activities."

 
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