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Liverpool University in the UK have announced they are to use a cluster of 940 Dell PowerEdge servers to help study and make new developments in physics, or – as silicon.com have said – “Scousers with mouses gird up for grid”.

The servers, loaded with RedHat Linux, will be used to examine things such as the collision of particles, which will help investigate the ago old mystery of the orgins of the universe. They also claim they will be using the cluster to examine other areas such as the spread of disease.

The system will be up and running in July. Dell was chosen as they could provide the system at a price the university could afford, they manage to keep prices down by using processors and standard PC components from companies like AMD and Intel. This type of setup is sometimes said to be less able at some tasks than a supercomputer, but the price allows institutions like this to afford such huge computational power.

This is a relatively small cluster compared to the one Dell announced previously at the State University of New York in Buffalo, which has over 2000 of the same machines, also running RedHat.

News source: Silicon.com

Your Microsoft Corporation Employee Agreement

Dear Mr. Rao:

I represent Microsoft Corporation. You have recently announced that your company, Esiod Systems, plans to release a product called Schnazzle on June 10, 2003. Based on the published description of the Schnazzle product, Microsoft believes that the product is competitive with Microsoft products you developed and/or obtained confidential information about during your tenure as a Microsoft employee. As such, your creation and announced release of Schnazzle is in direct violation of the promises made to Microsoft in the Employee Agreement you executed on September 17. 2001. (A copy of this Agreement is enclosed for your review.)

Paragraph 10 of that Employee Agreement provides in relevant part as follows:

While employed by MICROSOFT and for a period of one year thereafter, I will not (a) engage in any competitive activities or accept employment by or agree to provide services to any person or entity that engages in competitive activities (“competitive activities” meaning the development, production or provision of any product, service, technology, product feature or project that is or is intended to be competitive with one or more products, services, technologies, product features or projects, including actual or demonstrably anticipated research or development, on which I worked or about which I learned confidential or proprietary information or trade secrets while employed at MICROSOFT or a MICROSOFT subsidiary) . . .

As you know, prior to your termination from Microsoft, you were instrumental in the development of the Fjord Media Service project and associated media server technologies. In addition you had access to and worked with the source code to Windows, and were familiar with the development and various features associated with the planned update of Windows known as Longhorn – including the Sidebar client features developed as part of Longhorn. The Schnazzle product appears to use media server technology that is very similar to Fjord, and a client that is similar to Sidebar. As such, there is little doubt that your product is in competition with “one or more products, services, technologies, product features or projects, including actual or demonstrably anticipated research and development, on which [you] worked or about which [you] learned confidential or proprietary information . . .” You are in direct violation of your contractual promise to Microsoft, and the only question that remains is whether you have used Microsoft confidential or proprietary information in the development of Schnazzle. To the extent you have done so, you are also likely in violation of both civil and criminal statues protecting such information.

Microsoft also fears that you developed the Schnazzle product in cooperation with another former Microsoft employee – Caleb Doise. As you know, Mr. Doise is bound by the same non-competition agreement that you are and the same civil and criminal statutes would be applicable to his conduct. To the extent Mr. Doise has assisted in this project, both you and he may also be liable to Microsoft for such involvement. If Mr. Doise is involved with Esiod and/or the development of Schnazzle, then we ask that you share this letter with him.

The purpose of this letter is to inform you that Microsoft fully intends to enforce its legal rights, and expects you to honor the promises made in the Employee Agreement. Microsoft plans to bring a lawsuit seeking, amongst other things, a temporary restraining order that would prohibit you from releasing Schnazzle and from any future violation of the Employee Agreement. Such a motion will be brought in the Ex Parte Department of the King County Superior Court at 2:00 P.M. on Monday, June 9, 2003. In order to avoid such action, you will need to do the following by 12:00 P.M. on Monday, June 9, 2003:

(1) Contact me (at the above) number or XXXX XXXXat Microsoft Law and Corporate Affairs XXXXXXXXXX

(2) Provide Microsoft a copy of the Schnazzle source code for review; and

(3) Agree to the indefinite delay of the release of Schnazzle or any related product while this matter is under review.