[QUOTE=Dylan14;527264]Now since you say that you’ve talked to several people with varying levels of education, some may not be well versed with python or with working with Linux commands.[/QUOTE]

The PhDs knew, the others not so much...

[QUOTE=Dylan14;527264]So before we’d ask people to build from source... At least, if I was teaching programming to people...[/QUOTE]

Absolutely.

It would be ill-advised to drop someone not comfortable with the environment into the "deep end". But you might be a little surprised by just how comfortable some people are in this "space".

Directly to your point: Surely ("Don't call me Shirley" - Airplane) there are already online courses on how to get comfortable with Python (shudder) and Linux (yeah!).

[QUOTE=chalsall;527265]. . .
Surely ("Don't call me Shirley" - Airplane) there are already online courses on how to get comfortable with Python (shudder) and Linux (yeah!).[/QUOTE]
I'm comfortable, and yet, for some odd reason I haven't figured out how to initiate a Colab session, even after watching the video and even signing in with my Google account. I'd like to think I'm not too dense, but it sure seems so ATM. . .

[QUOTE=EdH;527269]I'm comfortable, and yet, for some odd reason I haven't figured out how to initiate a Colab session, even after watching the video and even signing in with my Google account. I'd like to think I'm not too dense, but it sure seems so ATM. . .[/QUOTE]

Ummm... Video. What video?

I'm sincere when I say this: I don't understand what you are telling me.

To put on the table... Programmers tend to be a little bit intense, and at the same time, profoundly stupid.

The next time you interact with a programmer, please consider this. We *really* like data. :smile:

[QUOTE=chalsall;527253]Over the last few days, I've talked with several different people involved with several levels of education -- grade school to post-grad. They all ***immediately*** "get it".
[/QUOTE]
I assume you mean that they have worked out how the profits are being made from this.

[QUOTE=Nick;527283]I assume you mean that they have worked out how the profits are being made from this.[/QUOTE]

Google is third in the cloud, behind Amazon and Microsoft. They have to try some new approaches.

Machine learning is one of their strengths, and "Colaboratory is a research tool for machine learning education and research." They want it to be a success. They will point to the usage statistics and hope for a network effect to establish it as a top platform.

If those usage statistics are inflated a wee bit by computation rather than machine learning, I'm sure that will be explained in some footnote somewhere in the quarterly reports.

[QUOTE=chalsall;527271]Ummm... Video. What video?

I'm sincere when I say this: I don't understand what you are telling me.

To put on the table... Programmers tend to be a little bit intense, and at the same time, profoundly stupid.

The next time you interact with a programmer, please consider this. We *really* like data. :smile:[/QUOTE]
Sorry! I was a bit general with my response. In searching to discover what Colab was about, they provided a [URL="https://colab.research.google.com/notebooks/welcome.ipynb"]Welcome to Colab[/URL] page, which did me no good, apparently due to my profound ignorance in this area. But my interests bounce around anyway and I'll probably revisit Colab at another time, perhaps even making it further.

[QUOTE=EdH;527300]In searching to discover what Colab was about, they provided a [URL="https://colab.research.google.com/notebooks/welcome.ipynb"]Welcome to Colab[/URL] page, which did me no good...[/QUOTE]

Hmmm... Because I have Javascript seriously constrained, I didn't even see that video. I had to spin up a local sandboxed VM to do so.

Yeah, I agree. Quite awful! I've been using Colab for about a month now, and most of the video confused me. Way too fast.

I'm hoping to have some time to dedicate to "writing this up" soon, but quickly:

1. On that same Welcome page, click on the "Connect" button in the upper right-hand corner.

1.1. You will have to sign-in with your Google credentials.

1.1. This connects your browser with a running Virtual Machine (VM) somewhere "in the cloud".

2. Next, click on the "+ Code" button in the upper left-hand corner.

2.1. This inserts a new "Code Section" into the "Notebook".

2.2. You should see a "Play" (">") button, and then to the immediate right a blinking vertical cursor inviting you to type in code.

3. The Colab Notebook accepts Python (which I personally can't stand for ideological reasons ("Don't you dare tell me how I'm allowed to format MY code!!!")).

3.1. If you're comfortable with Python, type in some code and click run. Rinse and repeat.

4. Python can easily launch command-line programs and functions. Starting a line with a "!" tells Python to launch the rest of the line as a Bash shell command.

4.1. For example, type in the following into the afore created new Code section:[CODE]
!whoami
!pwd
!df -h
!ls -lah[/CODE]

...and click on the "Run Cell" ("Play") button (or press "Cntl-Enter"). You'll see something like:[CODE]root
/content
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
overlay 49G 25G 22G 54% /
tmpfs 64M 0 64M 0% /dev
tmpfs 6.4G 0 6.4G 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs 6.4G 8.0K 6.4G 1% /var/colab
/dev/sda1 55G 27G 29G 48% /etc/hosts
shm 6.0G 4.0K 6.0G 1% /dev/shm
tmpfs 6.4G 0 6.4G 0% /proc/acpi
tmpfs 6.4G 0 6.4G 0% /proc/scsi
tmpfs 6.4G 0 6.4G 0% /sys/firmware
total 16K
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4.0K Aug 27 16:17 .
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4.0K Oct 4 20:13 ..
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4.0K Sep 27 15:12 .config
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4.0K Aug 27 16:17 sample_data[/CODE]

Anyone comfortable at a Linux console will immediately have a hoot exploring. Oh, and BTW, the "whoami" command above returns "root". You can do ***anything*** you want in the VM you just spun up!!! :tu:

Just what I needed - Thanks!

I see some things scroll instead of refreshing in place, such as top. This should let me play for a while. . .

No more work?
 

This morning (UTC time), I keep receiving
[CODE]20191005_104336: Installing needed packages (1/3)
20191005_104341: Installing needed packages (2/3)
20191005_104342: Installing needed packages (3/3)
20191005_104343: Fetching initial work...
20191005_104345: Running GPU type Tesla K80

20191005_104345: running a simple selftest...
20191005_104350: Selftest statistics
20191005_104350: number of tests 107
20191005_104350: successfull tests 107
20191005_104350: selftest PASSED!
20191005_104350: [B]ERROR: get_next_assignment(): no valid assignment found in "worktodo.txt"[/B]
20191005_104350: Bootstrap finished. Exiting.[/CODE]

(emphasis mine) and the worktodo file is desolately empty. Are we the victims of Colab's success in crunching gpu72's allotted work? :smile: :smile:

Couple of questions:
1) Should I keep the browser tab open while things are running? What happens if I close the browser?

2) Tesla K80 is a 2x GPU in a single package. Anyone tried to run a second copy using device 1, to effectively double the throughput?

[QUOTE=ric;527346] and the worktodo file is desolately empty[/QUOTE]

Solved by now: thanks chalsall!