World Community Grid

[FireFoxDown]

Hi All,
For those of you who haven't heard of it I thought I'd let you know about the World Community Grid (http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/index.jsp). To quote from the site:
Making a difference has never been easier! Grid technology is simple and safe to use. To start, you download and install a small program or "agent" onto your computer.
When idle, your computer will request data on a specific project from World Community Grid's server. It will then perform computations on this data, send the results back to the server, and ask the server for a new piece of work. Each computation that your computer performs provides scientists with critical information that accelerates the pace of research!
I like the idea that when I'm not using my computer that it's doing something useful with its time. There are nearly 250,000 people and nearly 500,000 computers on the grid running calculations on worthy causes such as combatting Muscular Dystrophy, Cancer, AIDs and more.
For more info on Distributed Computing in general here is a link to a Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_computing) on the subject.
For more info on the WCG click here (http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/index.jsp).

[Keef]

I'd not heard of that one!

For the last 8 years, my computers have been sharing their spare capacity with SETI and then a whole bunch of applications, via BOINC. That has many of the same worthwhile users, and a vast number of people connecting.

It seems BOINC now has competition!

[FireFoxDown]

Yeah I've heard of Boinc - must do some more investigation of it, I believe it has quite a few worthwhile causes. In my house we often leave the computers on when not in use and I like the idea of turning that idle power into something useful.
Edit: I see you can use Boinc on the World Community Grid here (http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/help/viewTopic.do?shortName=bnc#204).

[Keef]

Thanks! It looks like WCG is the new kid on the block - they don't have a "results" page implemented yet. Good causes, though.

I like BOINC because I can distribute my spare computer capacity round a long list of projects. Then, if one has a glitch, the machines are still busy doing something else.

It works with Linux, too http://www.mundogasol.com/foro/clap.gif

[FireFoxDown]

Hey Keef,

It sounds interesting - Ill have to look into Boinc. WCG currently has around 5 projects going.

Were you referring to the WCG when you said it doesnt have a results page? Because I believe it does under "My Statistics" or "Device Manager" - I may be talking about something different! :cool:

Anyway great to hear you are putting your idle computer time to good use - I hope this thread might encourage others to look into these worthwhile projects! :ok:

[Saab Dastard]

While I don't think there can be any objection to making computer users aware of these possible uses for their "idle CPU cycles", I would simply point out that allowing the thread to remain here does not in any way imply that PPRuNe endorses these sites, or encourages users to participate in the research.

SD