We will spend a bit of time on this issue now because its usually left out of the larger scale discussion but it is quite relevant. In fact, the anecdote presented in the text is apropos'



At issue here is the time efficiency of the scientist and there are two extremes, both of which are bad:

• The NSF National Supercomputing Thing (no longer exists). The idea was that individual researchers would not have adequate access to high performance oomputing (HPC) on their campus so the NSF decides to create about 10 facilities across the country (e.g. Pittsburgh, UCSD, etc). Then the queing system got in the way; now its feasible for individual Universities to own HPC, so in the end this was a good transition.
  
  
• Univerities don't have the funds, in general, to invest in professional facilities. CAMCOR, a very good professional facility was largely due to a privat donation.