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gabeiscodingon GPU Map Reduce

It may be putting two hot topics togeher (MapReduce and GPGPU), but they sure don't make it easy. One of the strong sells of the MapReduce feature was how it reduced the amount of code something as complex as PageRank was written in and made most programs fairly straitforward.

There is a lot of challenges of programming CUDA (disclosure: this is what my ongoing MS thesis work is on), but their code examples show they add no abstraction layer and because of the generality they force on their kernels (all must have the same signature) will be near impossible to reach full GPU performance.

tl;dr Unlike MapReduce, this does not make programming GPUs easier or accessing their hardware potential easier.

gabeiscodingon How Humans Ran Comfortably and Safely Before the Invention of Shoes

There seems to be a wave of media attention on this following the release and popularity of "Born to Run".

If you are a runner or would like to be one, it's a good read. And if you haven't found out about it yet, check out Vibram Five Finger "shoes" which allow you to start barefoot running without the callouses and hard skin: http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/

gabeiscodingon Ask HN: Where are all the Python jobs?

I doubt this is representative, but we are a C++/Qt4 ISV and I'm looking for a Python/Django intern for the summer to help with some internal web sites and possibly setting up a customer portal (read $12-$15 an hour, no benefits)

In other words, Python is an on-the-side language for us that I would look for say a CS undergrad student to fill the need, where as for our C++ devs I have a much higher bar of required experience/education.

gabeiscodingon Chrome 5 Beta Released

Cool, and there I discovered a plug-in for my default zoom issue, if anybody is interested:

https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/jgfonhdeiaaflpgp...

gabeiscodingon Chrome 5 Beta Released

> Also, in the Under the Hood tab for Chrome Options, there is a new Content section for fonts, language and Google Gears settings:

This is not new as these settings are available in the 4.x version, but I was really hoping they would add a setting to set a freaking default zoom level finally. I've been wanting to use Chrome on my high-DPI HTPC for about a year. Chrome will DPI scale flash, while Firefox does not but the no-default zoom means every tab you create you have to zoom in to get your 6' interface.

Also, I tried downloading from the beta channel on windows and got Chrome 4.x (beta). Is there a trick to getting on the 5.x stream?