Reed's Ruminations: The Past, Present, and Future
Reflections on science, technology, and computing — leavened by personal experience
Category: Arkansas Stories
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What Really Matters
With a seven year old’s theological certainty, I knew she in heaven, and the preacher did too. The only question in his mind and mine was whether the rest of us were good enough to get there with her. With the bar set this high, the preacher and I both had some serious doubts.
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Serial Dismay, Parallel Excitement
Cloud services now operate on the largest computing systems we have ever built on this planet, with service reliability expectations far higher than what we demand from scientific applications. Thus, I also believe there are lessons from cloud computing that are potentially applicable to computational science applications.
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That’s One Small Step for {a} Man …
On Sunday afternoon, July 20, 1969, I rode my AMF Roadmaster bicycle to the local Gulf gas station and asked for their cardboard model of the Apollo Lunar Module. I pedaled home in time to watch the Apollo 11 lunar landing later that afternoon, holding the cardboard model of the LEM in my hands. That…
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The Power of Plum Jelly
The dilapidated two story house marked the corner of two single lane roads in the Arkansas hills, and it was old and weather-beaten long before I was born. The windows stared sullenly at the sky, covered only by cheap roller shades that had never seen better days. A rusted tin roof (iron actually, but we…
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The (Scientific) Good News
I am no behavioral psychologist, but I suspect that all children are born with the insatiable curiosity that sustains scientific curiosity. All too often, though, I fear that our educational system punishes curiosity and rewards conformity. Only a small fraction remains sufficiently iconoclastic and self-confident to resist, asking those seemingly annoying questions that defy authority…
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A Taste of Sherbet
When you lead a hardscrabble life, you learn certain things early. Life is not fair. Don’t expect things you can’t possibly have, even if others do. Don’t ever shame your parents in public – the hurt in their eyes is punishment enough. Above all, don’t dream things that can’t come true.