OT: Anyone interested in Distributed Computing

[flere-imsaho]

Distributed Computing, in the sense I'm talking about, is a project harnessing the power of hundreds, if not thousands or millions, of computers to complete a processing goal. The best example is Seti@Home, where a screensaver client runs on people's PCs to churn through data and return the data (about potential extraterrestial signals) to a main computer at the project.

I did Seti@Home for a while, but have recently switched over to IBM's new World Community Grid (http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/index.html). There are several things I've liked about this so far:

1. It amalgamates several projects, and as such chooses the processing project that's best for your machine. Thus, if you have a fast machine, it might do something that is optimized for a fast processor. If you have a slow machine, likewise.

2. The screensaver client is really easy to install and hasn't given me any problems at all.

3. IBM have always had a history of innovation, so I feel confident in them.

4. IBM have much better bandwidth resources than Seti's Berkeley, which is nice.


Anyway, here's the question: Since you can group people together as teams in WCG, is there any interest in putting together a FOFC team? I'd be happy to set it up, and joining is easy - just go to your member page, browse to the team and sign up.

Any interest? Thoughts?

[SlapBone]

Let me grab my tin-foil hat.

[flere-imsaho]

As far as I'm aware, though WCG isn't doing Seti. My current work units deal with protein folding for science.

So, no tinfoil hat necessary! :D

[SlapBone]

My current work units deal with protein folding for science.


Interesting, tell us more.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Count me in. I'm currently doing Folding@Home, but I'm willing to swtch over to this, as WCG may do the same work. Set up the FOFC team, Frere Jacques, and we can get this moving.

[flere-imsaho]

Interesting, tell us more.

The "brief" description of the project from the WCG client is this:


This project is determining how proteins coded by human gene sequences are most likely to fold. This knowledge will help scientists build the understanding needed to develop new treatments for diseases.


Anyway, more links:

Right now the only project is Protein Folding, described in detail here. (http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/projects_showcase/human_proteome.html) They plan to add more projects in the future (all accessible from the same client).

One past project was on smallpox, details here. (http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/projects_showcase/projects_archive.html)

One of the largest computational projects ever undertaken, the Smallpox Research Grid Project shaved years off the time required to perform screening of this scale.

In the first 72 hours, 100,000 results were returned. Overall, the project identified 44 strong treatment candidates, which were handed to the U.S. Department of Defense for further evaluation.

Based on the success of the Smallpox study, World Community Grid was created with the goal of creating a technical environment where other humanitarian research could be processed.

Download Link and Technical Details (http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/join_now/join_now.html)

FOFC's Team Page (http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/team/viewTeamInfo.do?teamId=L18H4J4QPN1) - Once you download and install your client you can go here to join (I hope that's OK that I just went and set it up).

[Buzzbee]

I've been doing this for about 4 years, although through a different (but possibly related) site. It originally started as a distributed Cancer research project done through Oxford University and sponsored by Intel. It is transparent, and hasn't caused me any problems at all. I recommend it for anyone interested.

http://www.grid.org/home.htm

For those who don't know about the project, info is sent to your PC. When your CPU isn't processing anything, the software utilizes that downtime to process complex mathematical computations related to chemical bonds. Once your PC has finished the computations, it sends the results to the host. By 'distributing' the processing to millions of computers worldwide, the computations can be done much faster and much more cheaply than if dozens of supercomupters were to attempt the same tasks.

The software runs as a background process, so your normal tasks take priority in using the CPU's time. It basically only uses your CPU during it's idle time.

More detailed info:
http://www.grid.org/about/gc/

[flere-imsaho]

Bump.

[SirFozzie]

I think we need a distributed computer project to run Football Manager 2005 with a Huge database and all nations playing <Grins>

[hhiipp]

I wouldn't do this at work, worked with a guy who was doing a similar thing, wasn't built into the screensaver but just ran all the time using very little processor. Security people found out, said it 'could' be sending work related info to them and canned him. Just a little warning so you don't lose your job over something as trivial as this.

[jeff061]

Yes, speaking as somone in the IT biz, don't run this at work. I've also heard of people getting fired and sued for wasting company bandwidth(stupid, I know)..

I'm up for doing it on my home PC though.