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By the description it appears computational chemistry is stuck in batch processing era. They are yet to discover their equivalent to REPL tight feedback loop workflow.
man 5 ssh_config /ControlMaster
> There is also a layer of friction between doing the computations and then analysing the logs that comp chemistry programs spit out. If you want to visualise orbitals or look at the outputs of your simulations, it's really awkward to run Python whilst being in the cluster, and the cluster has no GUI display. By the description it appears computational chemistry is stuck in batch processing era. They are yet to disco…
man 5 ssh_config /ControlMaster
how would multiplexing ssh connections help for this?
- Copy-paste link to browser
- Wait several minutes while page load hangs
- Click refresh a couple of times, page finally loads
- Type in work email
- Redirect to work portal, type in work email again
- Asked for work password: open KeepassXC and type in Keepass database password
- KeepassXC additionally demands that I enter my laptop PIN
- Copy work password into work portal
- Asked for Authenticator code: go look for phone
- Find phone, load up authenticator app, type into work portal
- Wait several minutes while page load hangs
- Click refresh a couple of times, eventually get code to paste back into Claude session.
> There is also a layer of friction between doing the computations and then analysing the logs that comp chemistry programs spit out. If you want to visualise orbitals or look at the outputs of your simulations, it's really awkward to run Python whilst being in the cluster, and the cluster has no GUI display. By the description it appears computational chemistry is stuck in batch processing era. They are yet to disco…
It seems like you’re so close but yet so far. It’s interesting that you concluded that Claude makes it easier to run tasks locally but did not conclude that claude makes it easier to use the cluster. Feels we’re in need of a part 2 where you use CC to automate all of the mundane cluster work. Also just a hot tip, if you’re able to keep any always-only PC on a university subnet (your PI should have some form of a serv…
Yeah I came to the same conclusion. Universities use all kinds of hard to setup stuff which are often custom built. Slurm configs, custom configured HPC servers etc. All of this pays off though if you need to do heavy computations which a local machine won't do. IMO it would be better to make Claude build out something that makes interacting with the HPC much easier. A web UI, Tailscale whatever.
Working on a cluster can be a pleasure if you use the right tools.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
how would multiplexing ssh connections help for this?
Not a help for the VPN part, but I have to 2FA for SSH, with an app or YubiKey, and that would be tedious to set up with multiple shells. With a control channel it's instant login for subsequent shells, sshfs mounts, etc.