From we should do, we will do, we are doing, to we have done

Power. Unprecedented Power.

Tongue twister. I know.

Unfathomable by many. I know.

Incomprehensible by most. I know.

Attainable by only a select few. Obviously.

Most folks never go beyond the first step. It always is about what needs to be done. Whereas nothing ACTUALLY gets done. [That is why I sabotaged the ConnectedKE conference. But that is a story for another day.] It is a Kenyan culture. It is infectious. Even foreigners are not immune.

Hang around Kenyans long enough, and you start being an expert on how things will NOT work. What we can NEVER be able to do as Africans.

How your idea to open a shop in town will fail because Kanjo will come for you. How you should not go to town because of traffic. How you should not talk to a gal in a club because she is too hot.

Speaking of gals, I met this hot chic last week and she had a big and juicy … [Naah, serious stuff only in this blog post. Sorry.]

We are a society of all these bright ideas. A culture inundated with egos that can never fail to take a chance to yap all day in forums. On twirra. In discussions. Oh, look how bright and intelligent and informed about everything I am. I am the best. All these ideas are mine. But what have you achieved so far in life? A big FOOKIN nothing.

A culture of predictors and speculators.

Full of ‘I-studied-in-the-US/UK-and-you-should-all-xuck-mi-deeq’ celebrities and ‘spokespersons’.

Full of ‘They-studied-in-the-US/UK-and-we-are-brainless-idiots-compared-to-them’ self-doubters and meek beings.

But then there is YOU. Yes, you are one of the 1200 people who read this blog daily. Because you know the content is informative. Because you know the content is contextual to your purpose. Because you know that, here, your ego will not me massaged. You will be hit hard with the bare and blunt facts of life.

YOU are fed-up by being Kenyans. Since being Kenyan means being satisfied by a paltry 6-digit salary at the end of the month and showing off to your friends. YOU are fed-up by being Kenyans. Since being Kenyan means you just need to grow a pot-belly to be seen as successful. YOU are fed-up by being Kenyans. Since being Kenyan means hating on those who have more/better/bigger/faster than yours and despising and labeling anyone as a loser and a fookin idiot who has less than you.

YOU want to do something big. Something tangible. Such that if you die TOMORROW, everyone will sing about you and how much you have touched your lives.

“Salim! Give us an example. Please!”, I hear your soul shout, despite some resistance from the Kenyan ego.

So, let me talk about the ISIOLO cluster. Finally commissioned. USD 50k signed off. 70% of the required bleeding-edge hardware not available in Kenya. Some technical details first:

• A 16 Node monster.
• 1 NVidia GTX 680 GPU per node [Each with 1, 536 cores].
• 1 Intel® Core™ i7-3820 Processor – (10M Cache, up to 3.80 GHz) per node [each with 4 cores and 8 threads]
• 1 64 GB Samsung SSD for scratch-disk per node.
• Combined power of 48 Tera Flops. [2 TeraFlops short of the 500th fastest super computer on earth.]
• InfiniBand for I/O throughput [Network I/O] – No Ethernet.
• Power will be direct from UPS to Monitor. No power unit. Less power usage.
• The setup will need a minimum dedicated 9.3 KW of power as input.

So. Yes. Kenya will finally be in the map. The most POWERFUL computer in Africa will be completed in the next 60 days. So what? How does it help you as YOU. So hii ISIOLO cluster itanilipia rent? You ask.

For the cooks, watchmen, shoe-shiners, website designers and computer-monitor dust wipers, all this is greek na Salim anajifanya mnoma. Hit the door. Bye. Thank you.

For those still reading, the use of such a computer monster is only limited to your imagination. We have spoken about this alot. I won’t bore you with repetition.

But, ohh no! We will not keep the spoils and knowledge to ourselves. We are not THAT Kenyan. Everything will be documented. 5 people EVERY month will be exposed to this awesomeness. Tick… tock…!

And for the next 2 months, this is what I am going to do. What about you? Do something bana. Don’t see life just waste by.

Back to HPC.

Wazi.