Yes, it was my intent to be humorous and also to over simplify the whole effort.

As I said in my note, I did spend days reading, looking at pictures, movies and animations, so I am also aware that the machine will be hosting a number of different experiments. In fact, two of the experiments may prove to be useful in discovering Higgs Boson in addition to other things.

The amount of data to crunch will in fact be enormous. You suggest months, it could stretch into years. It is possible that they will end up using a cloud to process the large data sets, similar to the process used by SETI.

I'll bet though, that if I were a Nuclear Physicist, sitting on the edge of my seat, with baited breath, waiting for an announcement from the folks at CERN, well, I'd want to hear about Higss Boson first.

rtt