To Enable, Enlighten and Set Free

What is the role of a magazine like PCQuest? Is it just to inform and then forget about it? Or should it guide? Does it have to teach? Does it have to handhold? How much should it cover of any given topic? Should it just introduce the topic? Should it cover just the practical aspects? What about the theory and the underlying principles? Or should it go the whole hog and cover everything from end to end?

We face these questions every time we do a story. While we do try to inform, guide and even at times handhold, there is one overriding principle that I believe in–that our primary role is to enlighten, to enable and to facilitate. Let me explain that with an example.

Take our current story about supercomputers. One school of thought would be to explain in detail how, say, aircraft design is done on one, including covering the software that is used. Some of you may feel the story to be incomplete without that. The thought process we have used is different. What we have tried to do is to expose you to different types of supercomputers, to what they are made up of, to some examples of what they have achieved, and how you can build one out of commodity components. We have not covered the software that runs on them, nor have we covered the theory behind their design. Why? Because your application needs are diverse. Some of you may need to do financial modeling, while others would be into oil drilling, and yet others into molecular research. There is no way we can cover all of them in detail.

What we have tried to tell you is how you can harness the power of clustered computers to do intense calculations, without having to spend millions. We have attempted to try and tell you about the possibilities. What you do with this knowledge is entirely up to you. Every college and university can, for example, now think of setting up its own high-performance cluster. Medical institutions can now think of taking up computing-intensive research, which they would otherwise not have thought of. Indian financial institutions can now think of using inexpensive machines for financial modeling. Could corporate managers look for less expensive options for their data-mining requirements? A training institute can give training in parallel programming, a high-paying area for potential developers. The options are really endless. Just think about it. The Params, Anupams and Anurags are just a beginning. The fact is that you and I can also do these things. 

And if there are enough of you out there, who after reading the story will start thinking in these lines, then our stand would be vindicated. 

Our endeavor has been to enable more amongst you with the seeds and tools of change. To enable you to think of what all you can do in your chosen fields of operation. It is for you to tell me whether we are succeeding.