Sign in

NON-TOXICNo ads · No shady algorithms

iiinova is part of the Atmosphere — an open, public network where you own your identity.

Alan Sill

@AlanSill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy
62 followers 3 following 243 posts

Physics/cloud/data center energy efficiency/HPC. This one's for personal viewpoints and technical stuff I find cool. Open to questions and try to reply to […] 🌉 bridged from ⁂ mast.hpc.social/@AlanSill, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact

PostsRepliesMedia
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 4h
Hanging Lake, Colorado. #silentsunday
A crystal clear lake with a turquoise tint is framed by a shoreline and bare log extending into it on the left and a multiple-stream waterfall to the right.
011 1
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/09/2026
Yep.
Scene from Doctor Who episode “Partners in Crime” showing hundreds of Adipose characters resembling the Meta Muse mascot, with the subtitle “(Crowd Screams”.
001 1
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/09/2026
Am I the only one who thinks this seems like the cute-looking creatures in a Doctor Who episode that turn up later in a huge swarm to try to eat you?
Muse mascot resembling a fuzzy doll with a smooth smiling face.
422 4
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 20/09/2026
Wait, so the Greenland treaty distraction is over already? But I made this meme!
"Pawn Stars" meme image showing two of the characters from the show behind a counter with one looking down and the other saying "Best | can do is a treaty you already signed and some worthless guarantees for stuff no one would do".
100 1
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 08/08/2026
This is, of course, totally unacceptable. But it’s the natural consequence of Republicans giving this rogue agency hundreds of billions of dollars with no oversight or accountability.
From PBS News @PBSNewsHour@flipboard.com
ICE will only release body camera video when in agency's best interests
001 1
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/07/2026
This is brilliant! Click on your region to see the pattern of days in which low-emitting resources — wind, solar, nuclear, and hydro — won the day against fossil fuels for electrical power generation, including how this has been changing from year to year […] [Original post on mast.hpc.social]
The image displays a chart as described in the post showing in this case 8 rows of stripes for the overall power generation source from 2019 to 2026. The pattern of stripes starts our mostly orange in 2019 and slowly changes to much more blue, especially in the fall, showing that clean power generation exceeds fossil fuel generation oaveraged over each day on an increasing basis versus time in Texas.
010 1
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 14/07/2026
"Sometime earlier this decade, we passed some invisible line where it became cheaper to produce energy from the sun and the wind than from setting stuff on fire." (Bill McKibben in this outstanding interview with Ezra Klein.) Highly recommended! […] [Original post on mast.hpc.social]
Scientist Bill McKibben talks into a microphone in the interview referenced in the post.
012 2
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/07/2026
I am returning to work today after a couple of months off and switching from managing the High Performance Computing Center at Texas Tech to full-time as a Research Professor and co-director of the repacss.org project. This very active project is […] [Original post on mast.hpc.social]
Interior view of the test cluster for the Remotely Managed Power Aware Computing Systems and Services (REPACSS) project. The photo shows a row of computer racks containing CPU and GPU nodes interspersed with cooling and power control systems in a transparent containment enclosure. A sliding door is at the far end of the row.
000 0
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 22/05/2026
Me and a buddy hanging out in Vail.
Author with a relaxed-looking bronze statue of Albert Einstein on a park bench looking up.
000 0
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 17/05/2026
Even better in the video view. This was an extremely restful and beautiful location.
000 0
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/05/2026
Rifle Falls, Colorado
The photo shows a triple waterfall flowing down from the upper left to the lower right, ending with the streams rejoining.
100 1
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/04/2026
This is, of course, like so much else driven by the current Trump administration, a complete f*cking disaster. www.aaas.org/programs/r-d-budget-an…
Snapshot from AAAS Federal R&D Budget Historical Dashboard, an interactive tool for exploring long-term federal funding trends within the context of the broader budget. The dashboard allows users to examine federal R&D spending data by agency, program, type of R&D, function, field, and funder over multiple decades. The chart selected here shows the overall federal R&D speding dropping by more than a factor of two from 1976 to 2026 in a slightly oscillating but steadily downward trend over this time, and a steep further drop in 2026 so far based on the FY2026 Presidential Budget Request. Note that Congress overrode the FY2025 presidential request last year, but the trend overall is still down, especially for non-defense R&D spending.
000 0
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 19/03/2026
@admin @plantarum And here's one to list high-level summaries by job status for each partition:
# slurm-partition-totals-by-status.sh 
#!/bin/bash
# Simple script to list the count of jobs by status for each partition
# 5 Sep 2025 Alan Sill
# Updated 14 Sep 2025 to add reservation
# Updated 11 Jan 2026 to add core counts
echo "Job totals by status for occupied partitions:";
echo "PARTITION          RESERVATION     TOTAL JOBS AND CORES BY STATUS";
#for p in nocona quanah xlquanah matador toreador himem-ivy; do
for p in $(scontrol show partition -o | awk '{print $1}' | awk -F "=" '{printf $2" "}'); do
  for v in $(/usr/bin/squeue -h -p $p -o "%v" | sort | uniq); do 
    /usr/bin/squeue -p $p -o "%2t %v %C" \
      | grep "${v}" \
      | awk -v p="$p" -v v="$v" \
        'BEGIN {abbrev["R"]="Running"; abbrev["PD"]="Pending"; abbrev["CG"]="Completing"; abbrev["F"]="Failed"} NR>0 {a[$1]++;c[$1]+=$3} END {{printf "%-15s %14s", p, v}; for (i in a) {printf "%12s %5s %8s", abbrev[i], a[i], c[i]} }'\
      | grep "[0-9]"; 
  done;
done;
100 1
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 19/03/2026
@admin @plantarum Here's one for summarizing pending job reasons by user, partition, and reason (see alt text for script contents):
# pending-job-reasons.sh 
#!/bin/bash
# Summarize numbers of jobs including total nodes and cores by user and partition for pending jobs
(echo "USER|PARTITION|REASON PENDING|JOBS|NODES|CORES"; 
  while read u p r; do 
    echo -n "$u|$p|"; 
    squeue -h -u $u --format="%.12P %.4D %.6C %R" -t pd \
      | sort -k1,1 -k2,2 \
      | grep "${p}" \
      | grep "${r}" \
      | awk -v p="$p" -v r="$r" 'BEGIN {} NR>0 {j[$4]++;n[$4]+=$2;c[$4]+=$3} END {{printf r}; for (i in j) {printf "|%s|%s|%s", j[i], n[i], c[i]}}'; 
    echo; 
  done < <(squeue -h -o "%u %P %R" -t PD | sort -u) )\
| column -t -s\| -R4,5,6 \
| ( sed -u 1q; sort -k2,3 -k1,1 ) \
| (GREP_COLOR='01;33' grep -i --color=always "Priority\|$") \
| (GREP_COLOR='01;33' grep -i --color=always "Resources\|$") \
| (GREP_COLOR='01;31' grep -i --color=always "DependencyNeverSatisfied\|$");
100 1
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/12/2025
Responding to a support request on a weekend when one of the dogs starts roughhousing with the other one sitting next to me. I've been experimenting with voice input so this happened.
Compose 
Comments (Customer visible) ~ Work notes (Internal) Knowledge Article

The jobs you listed in the first screen shot appear to be running in the interactive
portal. This portal is intended for interactive use. For long-running jobs, we
recommend that you continue to use batch job submissions. Hey hey no get down
down!
010 1
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 23/11/2025
I really enjoyed my time at #SC25. Thanks to everyone who stopped me in the halls, took time to talk with me about things you thought were important, or stopped by to visit us at the Texas Tech booth. It was a really enjoyable experience. Thank you!
Photo of Alan in front of the main sign at Supercomputing 2025, with the locatin St. Louis, Missouri and the conference slogan "hpc ignites."
000 0
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 20/11/2025
@glennklockwood and @willkill07 in the house! #SC25 #HPC
Photo of Will Killain, Glen Lockwood,a nd Alan Sill at the Texas Tech booth at SUpercomputing 2025.
001 1
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 20/11/2025
A highlight of the #SC25 exhibit for me was explaining our x86-based small-scale #HPC mini-clusters that run a full true software stack to a living legend, Jack Dongarra. These were used to prepare postdocs and students to run the much larger cluster for the NSF ACCESS repacss.org project.
152 5
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 18/11/2025
Made my day when @geerlingguy stopped by the Texas Tech #SC25 booth to take a look at our x86 mini-clusters that run Warewulf, Ansible, Spack, and complete scientific #HPC applications with the same software stack as on our main clusters.
Jeff Geerling at a table with two small mini-clusters along with Texas Tech giveaway items.
111 1
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 14/10/2025
Unexpected surprise visit from a former student. He dropped by after 10 years to say that I had inspired him and given him the confidence to pursue what he wanted to do, that he and his wife are both doing well and that after several years of growing salaries […] [Original post on mast.hpc.social]
A large flower pot filled with yellow roses and ferns sitting on a desk.
003 3
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 23/07/2025
Dear Web Programmers: I will never, ever, ever click on either of these options or anything like them that you force onto a page. I will stubbornly scroll content under it to read past it, or just nope out of the whole web page entirely if that's the only […] [Original post on mast.hpc.social]
Web pop-up box saying "Subscribe to our notifications for the latest news
and updates. You can disable anytime." and giving the options "Later" and "Subscribe" (the latter selected by default).
100 1
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 08/06/2025
Sorry to see this Kickstarter fail. It was an effort with noble ambitions! www.kickstarter.com/projects/cerebr…
Cerebro; the next generation clusterboard (Canceled) 
Use Pi CM4 & CM5, NVIDIA Jetson or Radxa CM5 modules for your project. Internal HDMI and 10Gbs USB multiplexer and up to 3x M2 per node 

$13,699 @ pledged of $1,232,717 goal 

 Funding Canceled: Funding for this project was canceled by the project - | creator on Jun 6 2025 

 Last updated June 6, 2025 @ Hardware  Q Zeewolde, Netheriands
000 0
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/06/2025
Turns out if we had just asked the professionals, there was no need to worry about the trolley problem all this time. (Hat tip: @vaurora) (This is a message about science funding and decision-making.)
IWW IU 520 (Railroad Workers) PRESENTS: 
TROLLEY PROBLEM SOLUTION 

"Slip the switch" by flipping it while the trolley's front wheels have passed through, but before the back wheels do. This will cause a controlled derailment bringing the trolley to a safe halt.
001 1
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/05/2025
Here are some photos of our new project, along with some of the High Performance Computing Center staff and one of the students who are helping the co-PIs and research team at the Department of Computer Science at Texas Tech to put it into use. Iʻll say more […] [Original post on mast.hpc.social]
Four people stand in front of a computer cluster enclosed in a see-through metal and plexiglas enclosure.Four people wearing sunglasses stand near the edge f a large solar power array.An outdoor view of three wind turbines and some meteorological towers.An outdoor view of large solar array, power lines, and some steel buildings.
031 3
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/04/2025
Believe in yourself! You can move the earth - even if just a little at a time.
Mud flaps on the back of a dirt-moving truck saying 'R&R Ditching - Moving the Earth A Little At A Time.)
000 0
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 11/04/2025
Those of you who know me know what this is. It’s midway through its initial qualification test runs now.
A row of computers in an enclosure.
110 1
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 24/03/2025
This is a lie.
Screen shot of a dialogue window from Microsoft asking "Stay signed in? Do this to reduce the number of times you are asked to sign in." with a checkbox labeled "Don't show this again." and a Yes/No response option.
100 1
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 07/03/2025
Completed Power-over-Ethernet powered Radxa X2L 4-node mini-training-cluster build. The goal for this one was to build something inexpensive, self-contained, compact, and in a robust enclosure for better transportability and handling. The PoE adapters shown […] [Original post on mast.hpc.social]
A view form the top left corner of the mini-cluster described in the post.
001 1
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/03/2025
New test cluster in progress. It will be four PoE-powered Radxa X2Ls. The extra boxes on top next to the switch are the PoE to 12V PD splitters. Pretty proud of this one!
A black metal case holding one of a planned four Radxa X2L nodes, with a power over Ethernet switch and the four splitters mentioned in the post mounted on the top.
122 2
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/02/2025
This is just fucking awful.
265 6
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 22/02/2025
I'm with you, ssa.gov I'd like to report DOGE.
(Social Security logo)
National Slam the Scam Day
March 6, 2025 

On National Slam the Scam Day and throughout the year, we give you the tools to recognize Social Security-related scams and stop scammers from stealing your money and personal information. Help protect your loved ones and people in your community this Slam the Scam Day by:

o Learning about the latest scams. Information can empower you to quickly recognize a scam. Signs of a scam include:

o An unexpected problem or offer of a prize or benefit increase,

o Pressure to act immediately, and

o A request for an unusual payment like cryptocurrency, gift cards, gold bars, and wire transfers, even with the promise of keeping your money “safe.”

« Reporting scams as soon as possible. Victims shouldn’t be embarrassed if they shared personal information or suffered a financial loss. We are all vulnerable.

« Sharing our fact sheet and helping educate others about how to protect themselves.

Report Social Security-related scams to the Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General (OIG). Report a Scam Visit for more information and follow SSA OIG on . X, and to stay up to date on the latest scam tactics. Repost #SlamtheScam information on social media to keep your friends and family safe.
011 1
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/02/2025
Finally had time to build a decent back door for the 20-node Radxa X4 mini-cluster 10-inch rack. It's not perfect but it's much better than our previous placeholder.
Quarter view from the right back corner of a 16-inch tall 10-inch rack showing a hinged door with a magnet strip latch that holds two 140-millimeter computer fans to take warm exhaust air out of the rack.
011 1
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/02/2025
Mini-cluster with DIN rail mount, nearly complete. Palmshell (Radxa X4L) head node connected to four X4 worker nodes by 2.5 GbE, Jetson Orin Nano gets connected at its maximum 1 GbE by a USB to Ethernet adapter, 1 GbE to the outside world. Each of the X4s […] [Original post on mast.hpc.social]
Front view of the mini-cluster described in the post showing GPU node to the left, flat wide power over Ethernet switch at the bottom with only the power supply connector in view, four Radxa X4 worker nodes at the middle level, and a Palmshell SlimX4L (Radxa X4L) head node at the top of the stack.View from the front left corner of the mini-cluster described in the post showing GPU node to the left, flat wide power over Ethernet switch at the bottom with only the power supply connector in view, four Radxa X4 worker nodes at the middle level, and a Palmshell SlimX4L (Radxa X4L) head node at the top of the stack.View from the back right corner of the mini-cluster described in the post showing GPU node to the right, flat wide power over Ethernet switch at the bottom with all Ethernet connections in view, four Radxa X4 worker nodes at the middle level and a Palmshell SlimX4L (Radxa X4L) head node at the top of the stack, all connected to the switch, and two USB to Ethernet converters, one connected to the GPU node and one left free for a connection to the outside world.Back view of the mini-cluster described in the post showing GPU node to the right, flat wide power over Ethernet switch at the bottom with all Ethernet connections in view, four Radxa X4 worker nodes at the middle level and a Palmshell SlimX4L (Radxa X4L) head node at the top of the stack, all connected to the switch, and two USB to Ethernet converters, one connected to the GPU node and one left free for a connection to the outside world.
101 1
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/02/2025
Here's the DIN rail mount mini-cluster idea in progress. I'm using standard metal DIN adapter clips and a small aluminum piece to attach them to the Radxa X4 standard heat sink and fan. The Jetson Orin Nano Super development kit gets mounted on a standard […] [Original post on mast.hpc.social]
3 out of 4 Radxa X4 worker nodes for a test cluster assembly showing a small aluminum plate with threaded holes used to clamp the X4 heat sink housing to a standard aluminum DIN rail.Close-up of the attachment point between a standard DIN rail and a Radxa X4 heat sink with stand showing the aluminum backer plate that is screwed to the DIN adapter clip to clamp the stand in place. The PoE HAT for the X4 is visible in the upper portion of the photo.A standard DIN clip used as a portion of the X4 clamp described in the other pictures.The worker node components of a small mini-cluster consisting of four Radxa X4 nodes with power over ethernet HATs mounted to a DIN rail along with a Jetson Orin Nano Super development kit attached to its own commercially available DIN rail adapter plate.
013 3
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/01/2025
In progress— parts for 16 nodes plus a head node so far. Intended target: a classroom cluster. Stay tuned! #sbc #hpc #cluster #education
Seventeen 30-watt USB-C power adapters plugged in to a multi-outlet AC power block.Back view of a ten-inch rack showing power cables entering the rack and a rear exhaust fan. Front view of a ten-inch rack showing heat sinks installed for fifteen nodes, one node not yet installed, a larger head node, and a 24-port 2.5 gigabit Ethernet switch Another view of a ten-inch rack and a 24-port Ethernet switch, with no nodes installed yet.
2212 21
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/01/2025
2025 starting out looking like the opening scene from a GhostBusters film. I’m not sure this is a good sign.
A Home 0 P WeatherMatrix (Jesse Ferrell) ® 9m L—z @weathermatrix@mastodon.wor...

Lightning has struck the Empire State Buildings in

NYC during the New Years Eve celebrations. VERY

loud thunder on CNN live!

twitter.com/DanTVusa/status/18...

Also, the Washington Monument got hit earlier.

(T Do Martons ST The @EmpireStateBldg getting pummeled with lighting bolts on New Year’s Eve. It’s non stop. Crazy light show and it’s not even midnight. #NewyorkCity #NYC #lightning #weather

1 LT AT
112 2
Alan Sill @alansill.mast.hpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 31/12/2024
Meme for my next university IT internal management meeting. Feedback welcome!
“Choppers” argument meme:
Person 1: HPC and Al are needed by all portions of the university
Person 2: Make the researchers pay for it!
Person 1 (more angrily):They already pay for their dedicated use!
Person 2 (throwing chair): But the computers are really expensive
Person 1 (points and shouts): So are buildings and classrooms!
000 0