Friday, May 31, 2013

CIS(2012-2013) May Update II



Computing Independent Study 2012-2013


MAY UPDATE II

Eureka!!! We finally got the new Shadowfax Cluster running up to 24 nodes, 96 cores and 48 GigaFLOPs! The fastest cluster in the world, Titan, has 150000 cpu cores and 150000 gpu cores running at 20 PetaFLOPs. Maybe we could run 100 cpu cores and 100 gpu cores next year at 100 GigaFLOPs! 

Next year, CIS(2013-2014) has 8 members! We are going to look into making a little MandelZoom, POV-Ray or Blender movie!

BTW, we'll never catch up to Titan, especially since they are going to upgrade it to 20 ExaFLOPs. They ran into a SNAFU, however, as they will need a nuclear reactor right next door just to boot up this monster!







APRIL-MAY UPDATE
We didn't get to meet in April due to Easter break. We just met today, the day after returning to Room 429. 429 had to be rebuilt from the roof down for the last 6 months since Hurricane Sandy destroyed the cluster. We have all new lighting, wiring and PCs. We tested these Linux Boxes today for the first time using flops.f and MPIF77. We now have Intel quad-core i5s. We clocked each core at over 530 MFLOPS. We also got all 4 cores running at over 2.1 GFLOPS per node. However, there's a DHCP server conflict on the LAN, so we couldn't make the jump from multi-core to grid today. We are hoping to have 100 cores running simultaneously next time. Let's see if we can break 50 GFLOPS for a ShadowFax/CIS(theta) all time record!


MARCH UPDATE

We only had only one meeting and all we did was set up for Game Day! We had an OpenArena LAN Party all day yesterday. Thanx to KyleS (period 1), fun was had by one and all! All the brownies and cup cakes were great too! Thanx to JessicaP (period 6) and LeslieM (period 8), noone left hungry! 

Yesterday (3/22/13) was the Friday before break. It had the feeling of a celebration like the day before XMas break. I suppose that's because we haven't had a break since then. 


Not only did Hurricane Sandy close the school for 10 days and condemn the Math building, but it cancelled Midterm Week and February Break too! Thanx a lot, Sandy....


FEBRUARY UPDATE

We finally got around to writing mandelSeq.py and mandelMPI.py using MPI4PY, mathplotlib() and spectral but only on 3 cores. Our work is based on Lisandro Dalcin's excellent materials listed below. We ran mandelSeq.py as an executable file from the terminal just like any standard python program. To accomplish this we added:
#!/usr/bin/python
as the first line of the file and ran:
chmod 755 mandelSeq.py
to make an executable. mandelMPI.py is executed like helloMPI.py:
mpiexec -n 3 python helloMPI.py







JANUARY UPDATE #3

OOPS, we got our signals crossed and had to postpone this meeting! Next time I think we'll try to render some Mandelbrot Fractals. If we ever get back to our old room, we could make a FractalZoom movie using 100 cores instead of just 3....


JANUARY UPDATE #2

Finally, we got helloMPI.py working today on a single node with 3 cores! We wrote the following code:

1 from mpi4py import MPI

2
3 rank = MPI.COMM_WORLD.Get_rank()
4 size = MPI.COMM_WORLD.Get_size()
5 name = MPI.Get_processor_name()
6
7 print ("Hello, World! "
8 "I am process %d of %d on %s" %
9 (rank, size, name))

We saved this text in the file helloMPI.py in the pelicanHPC home dir. Then, from a shell in the home dirm we executed this code by:

mpiexec -n 3 python helloMPI.py

We downloaded the new ISO with mpi4py from http://www.pelicanhpc.org and followed this tutorial: http://pareto.uab.es/mcreel/PelicanHPC/Tutorial/PelicanTutorial.html and this one too: http://pareto.uab.es/mcreel/PelicanHPC/pelicanhpc.pdf and http://pelicanhpc.788819.n4.nabble.com/How-can-i-find-out-which-are-processes-are-being-sent-to-which-node-td3034955.html and http://www.linuxpromagazine.com/Issues/2009/103/CLUTTER-TO-CLUSTER





JANUARY UPDATE #1
We tried to isolate our LAN from other DHCP servers but could not. So we still only have individual 3-core SMP boxes running at about 1.2 GFLOPs. We also tried our hand at mpi4py, but we have a way to go in that department too!
UPDATE: mpi4py was left out of the current pelicanHPC by mistake! No wonder mpi4py didn't work! Look here:
http://pelicanhpc.788819.n4.nabble.com/pelicanhpc-2-9-amd64-and-mpi4py-td4650446.html



DECEMBER UPDATE
We finally had a chance to meet this month in our new PC Lab! We got pelicanHPC to run 3 cores at about 1.2 GFLOPS. We have AMD Phenom IIs. These CPUs are supposed to be quad-cores. It seems one core is dead. Even so, that's not a bad start. However, we could only run pelican in SMP mode. We could not PXE boot any other nodes. We are also looking into Flame Fractals.
********************

NOVEMBER UPDATE

Sorry to say that we had no meetings this month. I was hoping for 3 meetings, but Hurricane Sandy changed everything! We are in a new room where we may be able to try out liveLinux CD based MPI clusters next month. Stay tuned!
********************

OCTOBER UPDATE #2
That was a great meeting today! We burned 8 CDs of Precise Pangolin and reinstalled the whole back row of our PC LAB/Classroom. Many thanx go to Jeremy for coming to vist today and lending a hand! 
RELATED POST: http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com/2012/11/pc-lab-period-of-reconstruction-at.html

Here's the steps we followed for a minimal install of the Student Stations (64bit Athlons):

Step1: 
Reboot each Linux box with the current  CD. Answer some basic questions about time zone, userid, passwd, no login on bootup, etc.
Step2:
Reboot each Linux box without the CD. Make sure to configure the gigE cards and proxy server:
IP: 10.5.129.x
NetMask:255.255.0.0
GateWay: 10.5.0.254
DNS: 10.5.0.254
Proxy: 10.0.0.125
Step3:
Configure System Settings as desired (unit circle trig calculator background, no screensaver, etc).
Step4: 
We had to switch Software Sources in the Ubuntu Software Center (edit/source) to Main before this would work:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
Step5:
Now, we could use the Ubuntu Software Center to install WINE.
Step6:
I copied my VTI83 and VTI89 directories from my memory stick to the Desktop. Then, after editing preferences to have VTI open with WINE, I configured each calculator.
Step7:
I will edit my /etc/crontabs tomorrow....
Step8:
We haven't decided what else we may have to install (local SAGE server, JRE, openSSH, openMPI,etc). We'll have to think about that! Here's some info on install fests from prior years:
http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com/2011/05/2-so-many-hard-drives-so-little-time.html
http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com/2011/01/then-god-mage-midterm-week-and-saw-that.html
http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com/2010/06/so-many-linux-distros-so-little-time.html
********************


OCTOBER UPDATE
We decided to try out the new Ubuntu Linux 64bit Desktop 12.04 nicknamed Precise Pangolin. So we surfed on over to http://www.ubuntu.com and downloaded the latest ISO. We burned the CD, rebooted a guinea pig box and reinstalled it. This should be a simple procedure as we no longer use dualboot or dualnic boxes. However, we ran into a SNAFU right away! Intranet gigE works fine, but we can't get on the Internet? OOPs, we forgot the network proxy. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!

Ubuntu Release History

4.10 Warty Warthog (mammal)
5.04 Hoary Hedgehog (mammal)
5.10 Breezy Badger (mammal)
6.06 Dapper Drake (bird)
6.10 Edgy Eft (amphibian)
7.04 Feisty Faun (mammal)
7.10 Gutsy Gibbon (mammal)
8.04 Hardy Heron (bird)
8.10 Intrepid Ibex (mammal)
9.04 Jaunty Jackalope (mythical beast)
9.10 Karmic Koala (mammal)
10.04 Lucid Lynx (mammal) 
10.10 Maverick Meerkat (mammal) 
11.04 Natty Narwahl (mammal) 
11.10 Oneiric Ocelot (mammal) 
12.04 Precise Pangolin (mammal) 
12.10 Quantal Quetzal (bird) release: 10/18

Guardian, our ssh server, is running 10.04 32bit. Guardian has a dualcore 32bit intel Xeon processor with 2GB RAM and a 512GB RAID drive.


Caprica, our ftp server, is running 10.04 32bit. Caprica has a dualcore 32bit intel Xeon processor with 2GB RAM and a 512GB RAID drive.


Shadowfax, our teacher station, is running 11.10 32bit. Shadowfax has a dualcore 64bit amd Athlon processor with 2GB RAM and a 256GB hdd. We use a 32bit OS here as SmartNotebook doesn't run on 64bit....


Alpha-Omega, our student stations, are running 11.04 64bit. These Linux boxes, like Shadowfax, have dualcore 64bit amd Athlon processors with 2GB RAM and a 256GB hdd.


We are only upgrading Alpha-Omega to 12.04 (or 12.10 if it's available when we upgrade in a couple of weeks). We are also waiting for a hardware upgrade for Alpha-Omega to amd quadcore Phenoms!
********************

SEPTEMBER UPDATE
We had our traditional first organizational meeting:

(1) Wreath of the Unknown Server: 

We visited our first ssh server, Colossus, which is still in the switch room though dormant. I set it up for the first time in 1995 running Slackware Linux. Colossus ran for 12 years straight, 24x7 never having to shut down, reboot or even have anything re-installed! Colossus would not die. We finally just replaced Colossus with a dual-core Intel Xeon box complete with a RAID drive running 1TB. Old Linux boxes never die, they just fade away...


(2) Display Case Unveiled: 
We took down a ton of fractal prints and ray tracings from Room 429 to the 2 cases on the 1st floor near the art wing. We decorated both cases as best we could and left before anyone saw us. Must have been gremlins.

(3) Recruiting 2012: 

We decided that we did not have a good pool of candidates to recruit more CIS(theta) members for this year's Geek Squad, so we tabled that topic.

(4) Planing 2012: 

Next meeting would have been 9/28 but that's Yum Kipur. So, we have to wait another 2 weeks after that for 10/10 at which point Ubuntu Precise Pangolin 64bit release 12.10 Desktop Edition should be available for a mini install fest. After that, we may use bootable cluster Linux CD distros to learn MPI.
==================================
What we are researching I (Sept)
(look what this school did in the 80s): 
Thomas Jefferson High courses
http://academics.tjhsst.edu/compsci/parallel/
Thomas Jefferson High paper
http://www.tjhsst.edu/~rlatimer/techlab07/BWardPaperQ3-07.pdf
Thomas Jefferson High ftp
http://www.tjhsst.edu/~rlatimer/techlab07/
Thomas Jefferson High teacher
http://www.tjhsst.edu/~rlatimer/


What we are researching II (Oct)
(clustering environments): 
Parallel Virtual Machine
http://www.csm.ornl.gov/pvm/
openMOSIX
http://openmosix.sourceforge.net/instant_openmosix_clusters.html
Message Passing Interface
http://www.open-mpi.org/


What we are researching III (Dec)
(instant MPI clusters via liveCDs): 
Cluster By Night
BCCD
pelicanHPC
Flame Fractals
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal_flame


What we are researching IV (Jan)
mpi4py
http://mpi4py.scipy.org/



What we are researching V (Feb)
mandelSeq.py and mandelMPI.py


==================================
Today's Topic:
CIS(theta) 2012-2013 - flops.f and Intel i5s


Today's Attendance:
CIS(theta) 2012-2013: Kyle Seipp


Today's Reading:
Chapter 8: Building Parallel Programs (BPP) using clusters and parallelJava
==================================
Membership (alphabetic by first name):
CIS(theta) 2012-2013: 
Kyle Seipp

CIS(theta) 2011-2012: 
Graham Smith, George Abreu, Kenny Krug, LucasEager-Leavitt

CIS(theta) 2010-2011: 
David Gonzalez, Herbert Kwok, Jay Wong, Josh Granoff, Ryan Hothan

CIS(theta) 2009-2010: 
Arthur Dysart*, Devin Bramble, Jeremy Agostino, Steve Beller

CIS(theta) 2008-2009: 
Marc Aldorasi, Mitchel Wong*

CIS(theta) 2007-2008: 
Chris Rai, Frank Kotarski, Nathaniel Roman

CIS(theta) 1988-2007: 
A. Jorge Garcia, Gabriel Garcia, James McLurkin, Joe Bernstein, ... too many to mention here!

*nonFB
==================================







Sunday, May 26, 2013

Quarter IV, Weeks 7-9: ScreenCasts, SmartNotes and Code oh my!




Quarter IV, Weeks 7-9: ScreenCasts, SmartNotes and Code oh my! 

Fare thee well, my Seniors, you will be missed!

Math 4R: preCalculus for Seniors
Math 4H: preCalculus Honors for Juniors
Math 5H: AP Calculus BC
CSH: preComputer Science Honors
APCS: AP Computer Science A
CIS(theta): Computing Independent Study
PAEMST: Presidential Award of Excellence
Ubuntu: Linux Install Fests, Fun and Games

Above you will find links to summaries of all my lessons for the past several weeks. So, this blog post serves as a weekly Table of Contents for all my other blogs from class!

In addition, CIS(theta) is a summary of my Computing Independent Study class that meets after school like a club. 


PAEMST details my trials and tribulations regarding my 2013 application for the Presidential Award of Excellence in Math and Science Teaching. 


Last, but not least, UBUNTU is a collection of blogs about installing, maintaining and teaching math and computer science with Ubuntu Linux on my desktop, on my smartboard and on my students' desktops in class!


YouTube Wednesday two weeks ago was about Computing Independent Study plans for the Shadowfax Cluster next year!







Last week's YouTube Wednesday featured guest speaker Neil deGrasse Tyson!




Our last YouTube Wednesday for this year features Michio Kaku:




Well, that's all folks!
Learning with Technology, 

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Teaching Math 4R: Finals are done!



Teaching Math 4R: Finals are done! 

preCalculus Honors for Juniors finished Calculus Unit 5 2 weeks ago. We used SAGE/python to write programs for Riemann Sums! Now we are finally done with finals!

Fare thee well, my Seniors, you will be missed!

ScreenCasts and SmartNotes and Code:


mySlideShare SmartNotes
mySage code for MATH4H2012!

Well, that's all folks!
Teaching with Technology, 

Teaching Math 4H: Finals are done!




Teaching Math 4H: FInals are done!

preCalculus Honors for Juniors finished the curriculum already 3 weeks ago. So, two weeks ago we went back to the old preCalculus book and started reviewing for the final! We finished Final Review last week and had our Final this week in class over a 3 day period!

We went way beyond the text. Our text does not go much farther than Limits, The Difference Quotient, The Product and Quotient Rules as well as the Power Rule for Differentiation and Anti-Differentiation. We also did all the Trig Rules, Log and Exp Rules, Chain Rule, Riemann Sums and U-Sub.

ScreenCasts and SmartNotes and Code.

UNIT5 - AntiDerivatives!
mySlideShare SmartNotes
mySage code for MATH4H2012!

Well, that's all folks!
Teaching with Technology, 

Teaching Math 5HBC: LAC2013 Complete!





Teaching Math 5HBC: LAC2013 Complete!

Fare thee well, my Seniors, you will be missed!

A couple of weeks ago, we started our "Life After Calculus 2013" final project. We focused on loose ends that I think should be in BC Calculus: Euler's Identity, Second Order DiffEqus, Hooke's Law, Air Resistance and Power Series Solutions! I used to cover Simultaneous DiffEqus with Slope Fields modeling competing populations during LAC, but I covered that earlier in the year this year.

Last week we ScreenCasted how to learn Calculus with SAGE! We ran out of time. So, I will continue UNIT3-UNIT12 at a later date. I'm preparing these Calculus Units on SAGE for a presentation at T^3 Molloy College 11/1/13. 

My Summer Project will include finishing UNITS 3-12 for my T^3 presentation at Molloy College next year. I will also update my EBay store with electronic copy on CD only based on this project! Stay tuned...

This week we finished our Post AP Exam Math Movie Madness with "A Beautiful Mind!"

ScreenCasts and SmartNotes and Code:














LAC2013 Day 06: Trighttps://sage.math.clemson.edu:34567/home/pub/442/

LAC2013 Day 07: More Trig
https://sage.math.clemson.edu:34567/home/pub/443/

LAC2013 Day 08: Calculus UNIT 1
https://sage.math.clemson.edu:34567/home/pub/444/

LAC2013 Day 09: Calculus UNIT 2
https://sage.math.clemson.edu:34567/home/pub/445/



mySlideShare SmartNotes
mySAGE code for MATH5HBC2012!

Well, that's all folks!
Teaching with Technology,