Reasons why people don't participate...

[iMc]

Mulling over wether to base a uni assignment around Distributed Computing. Would just like to hear from people who don't participate in things such as seti, folding@home, WCG, UD etc, and why this is.

Feel free to turn this into an open discussion into the benefits/disadvantages of Distributed Computed if you like.

[yamangman]

What is the module called/about?

[silent ben]

Used to, but after a while i figured running 1 medium speed CPU wasn't gonna help much when some companies are sending out 10000 + Seti packets a day

[schrickvr6]

I used to run UD untill i learned they sell your cpu time to the highest bidder.

[Butuz]

I think the reason why people dont do it is that their either dont know about it, they dont care about it, or they have been put off doing it at some point.

Used to, but after a while i figured running 1 medium speed CPU wasn't gonna help much when some companies are sending out 10000 + Seti packets a day

Thats like saying whats the point of me giving a bit of blood when other people give lots? Its not how much you give per se its just the taking part in the first place that counts. If everyone in the world did 1 seti unit a day how many units would that be? Alot

Butuz

[iMc]

The module is called print journalism. For the assignment I have to create a front cover and a double page feature for a fictional magazine using Quark Express. I can base it on anything I like. Just looking at ideas atm.

I believe Distributed Computing can be a valuable asset to the scientific community and in turn to everyone in the world. It takes very little effort to install a program on your computer and to leave it running.

[Daymonkey]

Ive never tryed wtf is it, just seems a bit pointless to me tbh

[iMc]

Basically you are using your cpu's idle time (ie when it is not doing anything else) to analyse sets of data sent from a main server. Look at the link in the World Community Grid thread to read about that project.

[mr_anderson187]

i know what it is, but some people just dont bother as they dont se themselves getting anything from it, and they have no incentive to do so

[iMc]

So its basically a personal satisfaction issue at the end of the day?

[mr_anderson187]

the wider thing isnt entirely this, but sadly thats basically it, it has its advantages but they are not for the start user, they are for ethe end user, the SETI company or such

[funnelhead]

i used to run Seti, but after i got into overclocking, it was the only thing that crashed my thunderbird......considering all things and the value of discovering alien life - i kept my overclock and ditched SETI

I got a mobile 2500 6 months ago and considered going back to distro.... but was put off cos i only got dial-up.. and didnt like sitting around going online.

I know thats not the most sociologicaly interesting set of answers....so on a more moral and less practical note:

I did try the UD one, but it came across as pretty commercial and i didnt really want to give free money to some corp....i want to try and help people that cant afford large amounts of computer power. eg SETI even if the whole thing seems fairly bleak.

Imagine if Albert Einstein had his own client

Anyway ive got BB now, so i'm looking for a new project. Whatever the most altruistic one is, i will do. I just hope that its pretty, is all. and Rankings help .

good luuck with your project.

f

[Rave]

Find A Drug - excellent software, excellent support and community, small data packets, as far as I can see the most ethical policy regarding what happens to the drugs discovered from a commercial perspective, and has a linux client.

What's not to like?

www.find-a-drug.org

[Lee H]

UD runner here - got 2 systems running it nearly 24/7 and hopefully will install it on another 10 or so soon

The cancer research is onto phase 2 and working great looking for drugs that can tackle cancer, so even if 1% of the information processed helps them, thats another step to fighting this killer

Also they are doing some human genetics work - dunno what thats about but all the information is on www.grid.org

[stytagm]

A few years back during our seti years when I was at uni, we looked at a protein client from cambridge sponsored by Intel (is that UD?) but the first thing it did on install was insult your computer and tell you how much better the latest intel box would be. As a strictly AMD shop we uninstalled instantly on principle, back to seti.

Why I don't run it now? I used to run Seti, as did our whole house, because we were in a team and it was fun, but now I slightly object to the pointlessness of seti and am bewildered by the various folding / mathematical ones etc.

It's really just waiting for me to read up and find one I like (although I might just trust Rave's word as Find-a-drug sounds like it does exactly what it says on the tin).

[Rave]

A few years back during our seti years when I was at uni, we looked at a protein client from cambridge sponsored by Intel (is that UD?) but the first thing it did on install was insult your computer and tell you how much better the latest intel box would be. As a strictly AMD shop we uninstalled instantly on principle, back to seti.

Yeah, that was UD. It used to tell me that my OCed Duron was 88% as fast as their 'High End' 1.5GHz P4, which I quite enjoyed. I didn't enjoy being penalised for not having much RAM and a slow internet connection, when neither made any difference to the project.

You don't have to take my word on Find-A-Drug, the info is pretty much all there on their site. Ethically I think Folding is fine as well, I just don't like the project as much.

Rich :¬)