So this is the first I've done anything with parallel dev in a rather long time. This week I did some hacking to get a multithreaded version of a Pi estimator done using the Monte Carlo method. Of course it is a rather trivial program/example to use, and its almost always the first thing that books on HPC have you try. But I did it in a very weird (pronounced poorly) implemented manner and had fun with it. I will post that some time later.
JPPF was something I found when looking for ways to do parallel with Java. I know BSU started a project and actually was looking for that. So today Brian and I spent the time and effort to install and explore it a bit. And in not much time at all (30-40 minutes?) we had an actual cluster running some sample programs they provided. Our main limitation was the lack of a "30 second setup and trial" document and getting Ant installed and running on our laptops. After that it was rather straight forward. I'm very impressed with the administration tool and how much detail it gives about everything. I will try to get this installed on my networked computers at home this weekend and maybe re-write the monte carlo program for the cluster to give it a try.
A cluster of computers in a coffee shop! A BEOWULF cluster... how cool.