Distributed Computing Apps: Our Members' Favourites

[Beren]

Do any of our members use any distributed computing apps? If so, what do you use, and for what reason? What are your favourites?

I ran SETI@home (like almost everyone else on earth, I think. ;) ) for quite a while, achieving 221 data units in 7,000 hours. But recently I've switched to http://www.ud.com/home.htm agent, which is working on a cure for cancer.

 

[redrogue]

I thought United Devices was referring to Distributed.net's secret-key challenge for RC5-72, but it looks like it's not.

Maybe add a choice for www.distributed.net (a partner with United Devices). They're involved in breaking RSA Lab's 72-bit encryption scheme by seeing who can find the 72-bit secret key code.

I'm participating in the project and have got four machines at home dedicated to the effort:

2 Sun Ultra 5's under Solaris 8,
1 Pentium under Win2K
1 Pentium under Debian Linux

 

[dduardo]

What about a poll option that says: "My computer is too busy compiling my own linux distro"

 

[lavalamp]

Thank-you for reminding me that there are programs out there like this. It's seems somehow satisfying to watch this seti program work it's magic.

 

[MathematicalPhysicist]

finding e.t with seti doesn't fit me.











p.s
i have used seti only once and i used the mersenne prime search.

 

[lavalamp]

Although I think that this seti thing is good to watch, I think that I'm going to switch to the cure for cancer one as soon as this Data Unit is completed. 76% after 15hr 30min 34s, and most of that time was when I was asleep or at school, so it was running the task on a dedicated computer.

I think that looking for a cure for cancer is probably a better cause to donate my cpu time to, I've also got another PC at home that this PC connects to the internet through so I think I'll run the cancer one on that PC as well. They should be happy to acquire the processing power of an Athlon MP 1800+ and a Pentium 4 1.7GHz, and I'll be happy to donate it.

 

[russ_watters]

Originally posted by lavalamp
Although I think that this seti thing is good to watch, I think that I'm going to switch to the cure for cancer one as soon as this Data Unit is completed. 76% after 15hr 30min 34s, and most of that time was when I was asleep or at school, so it was running the task on a dedicated computer.

FYI, if you run it minimized its about 4x as fast.

 

[lavalamp]

I'm running the cure for cancer one now on both machines, I've not uninstalled the seti program but I don't think I'll be using it from now on.
Unfortunately, for some reason when my computer is inactive for so long, both the programs go into full screen mode and act as a screen saver. So if I leave them going throughout the day I don't have a choice about whether they are displayed on screen or not, even though I turn the monitors off, it will still render the images.

If you're interested, the seti data unit completed in just under 17 hours.

After 4hr 15 mins the cancer one on this machine is 42% done.

 

[FZ+]

There's a new one (at least in the UK) about future climate simulation as well. Google for it...

Sadly my computer is too crap for any of these. Last time I tried seti@home, it took 11 weeks for one work unit.

 

[russ_watters]

Originally posted by lavalamp
Unfortunately, for some reason when my computer is inactive for so long, both the programs go into full screen mode and act as a screen saver.

Right click your desktop, click properties, click screen saver, and disable the screen saver.

 

[lavalamp]

I didn't realize that it went into screen saver mode once the program was running. I'll dis-able that then.

I'll also have a look for that weather simulation one, although I can't see why they would confine the program to english people only. It would make sense to get as many people as possible involved.

 

[Beren]

Originally posted by lavalamp
I didn't realize that it went into screen saver mode once the program was running. I'll dis-able that then.

I'll also have a look for that weather simulation one, although I can't see why they would confine the program to english people only. It would make sense to get as many people as possible involved.

It's not confined only to English people. XD

I should have added a poll option for "math-related" projects. And in fact, I think I will.

Edit: Then again,

The administrator has specified that you can only edit messages for 30 minutes after you have posted. This limit has expired, so you must contact the administrator to make alterations on your message.

 

[lavalamp]

I also discovered this problem yesterday. I tried to change it but it was having none of it.

I just got to know. What is the mokey shakespeare simulator?

Edit: I found it, possibly the most useless waste of time that I've ever seen.

 

[STAii]

Wow, this seems cool (unfortunately my PC is too 'handicaped' to do anything usefull).
I remember that the Google toolbar had something similar built in, or maybe it actually had SETI@Home built it ...
The google toolbar did sth like, "study protein structures".
Let me check anyway ..

 

[STAii]

Yeah, i was not dreaming :P
See here
The aim is to "try to understand the structure of proteins", and it is part of Folding@home not SETI@home (sorry).

 

[Beren]

Originally posted by STAii
Yeah, i was not dreaming :P
See here
The aim is to "try to understand the structure of proteins", and it is part of Folding@home not SETI@home (sorry).

Folding@home had a big score with that one. Their user base nearly doubled from being included in the toolbar.

And Yes, the monkey-shakespeare simulator is a pointless waste of time. =P