I need more compute
Jul. 8th, 2006 10:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bolsonRedistricting is pretty computationally intensive. Also the solver I've written has randomized search in it, and is vulnerable to getting stuck at locally optimal solutions. So, I have to run it many times and it takes about four hours to settle a mapping of California using a 3.4 GHz P4. Right now I have my machine at work and my iMac G5 at home spending their idle cycles searching for optimal redistricting maps.
The last time I got serious about running big compute jobs it was for election method simulation to determine which method had the highest expected social utility. Eventually that became an excuse to buy a new computer. Sigh. But I ought to wait right now because the rumor mill (and conventional wisdom) says that Apple is going to release some awesome new machines next month. Also it's time to replace my aging iBook G4 1GHz. It still feels odd to think that a laptop will be my fastest computer (possibly by a large amount) and would be a good machine to do heavy computation on.
The last time I got serious about running big compute jobs it was for election method simulation to determine which method had the highest expected social utility. Eventually that became an excuse to buy a new computer. Sigh. But I ought to wait right now because the rumor mill (and conventional wisdom) says that Apple is going to release some awesome new machines next month. Also it's time to replace my aging iBook G4 1GHz. It still feels odd to think that a laptop will be my fastest computer (possibly by a large amount) and would be a good machine to do heavy computation on.
