Anyone still doing anything like this?
I've just started looking at it again as I've got a pretty powerful rig sat here that doesn't do a fat lot most of the time and is on 24x7 so I figure I might as well set it onto background tasks doing something useful.
I'd be interested to hear from anyone still into this about what they're doing, what projects are still active/getting big attention. The main ones I'm aware of at the moment are the UD Cancer Research (although I don't know if that's still going) and Folding@Home, SETI@Home, MilkyWay@Home (sounds interesting and I might look more into that) and Einstein@Home which is also quite interesting.
If anyone knows of anything a bit out of the ordinary/new or undersubscribed to they think is interesting or worth mentioning that would be good to look at post it up.
Also any 'service' type distributed computing like browsershots.org and things like that that are providing useful tools to people.
I had 17years of CPU time on UD when they shut down.... couldn't be bothered to start up with another...
but would give another one a go if it sounded interesting/worthwhile :-)
I just read through a list of projects on wikipedia, seems the ones I've mentioned already are the biggest, I'm tempted to setup a Tek Group again and we can plough into MilkyWay/Einstein as they seem like the biggest/most current projects to get into. :)
if you do setup a tek group, I'll stick it on my main rig.
Why not make a tek bit coin group? Earn a bit of dosh from your monster rigs.
I did that for ages and have now pulled out, Bitcoins are not worth the time now unless you have dedicated hardware, regular graphics cards are being phased out.
I'll setup a Tek group tomorrow for Milkyway@Home.
I've signed up and got it running now, will be interesting to see how stable my pc is these days been along time since I had 24/7 100% cpu usage.
Just realised I should really set this up on my work computer. It's left on most of the time. Don't fancy something astronomy related though, much prefer something biological I think. Had a *very* quick look at milkyway, but didn't quite get how a 3d model of the galaxy would benefit mankind as much as other projects?
So does anyone know of any successes f@h or whatever have had? Or is it all just wasted cycles?
SETI is the only one I think that has had any degree of success so far.
Quote from: zpyder on January 13, 2013, 23:26:08 PM
Just realised I should really set this up on my work computer. It's left on most of the time. Don't fancy something astronomy related though, much prefer something biological I think. Had a *very* quick look at milkyway, but didn't quite get how a 3d model of the galaxy would benefit mankind as much as other projects?
Just a quick grab:
QuoteBy mid-2009 the project's main astrophysical interest is in the Sagittarius stream,[3] a stellar stream emanating from the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy which partially penetrates the space occupied by the Milky Way and is believed to be in an unstable orbit around it, probably after a close encounter or collision with the Milky Way[4] which subjected it to strong galactic tide forces. Mapping such interstellar streams and their dynamics with high accuracy is expected to provide crucial clues for understanding the structure, formation, evolution, and gravitational potential distribution of the Milky Way and similar galaxies. It could also provide insight on the dark matter issue. As the project evolves it might turn its attention to other starstreams.
I guess its not an 'immediate issue' but still is helping towards our understanding of the universe and isn't over subscribed like Folding@Home, I'd be more interested in something like that or Rosetta@Home if the end goal wasn't going to be something pharmaceutical. I guess we could always set up on both and people can choose what to put work into.
There's a big list of all the available projects, take a look and see if you think any others are of note:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_distributed_computing_projects (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_distributed_computing_projects)
Looking at the wiki list, the two I'm most inclined to contribute to are either Einstein or Rosetta. I know Rosetta is like Folding, but something about it is more appealing, not least the fact that it's smaller.
Enigma@Home looks interesting.... doesn't really do anything worthwhile.. but I'm not sure if that's still running... last update to the website was in May saying the server was down...
if you guys pick something to run and make a team, I'll stick 4 computers running it 24/7 ;)
my pc has been running the milky-way one for almost 24hours now and has been 100% stable.
CPU temps are probably a touch on the high side, but its been along time since I paid attention to stuff like that so don't know what is normal these days and I'm running a pretty old, heavily overclocked cpu on air.
Think the mobo temp sensor has failed much?
(http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s81/robdav99/highmobotemp_zpsfad875ad.jpg)
56'C cpu tamp at 100% load isn't bad at all, anything sup 60 is good, sub 70 is fine and you don't need to worry till they get over 80tbh
(at 100% load anyway)
I've made team Tekforums.net. The global team should be team ID 2439.
It looks like whatever people are working on will be added to the stats regardless, I don't think I have to activate any particular projects. Only way to find out for sure is for people to join though :)
joined.
BOINC doesn't like my wussy GPU :'( wont let me use it :p
I thought it might notify me of new members, etc but apparently not. I can't even run the client yet as I need to reboot and have too much work open at the moment, so it'll have to wait until tomorrow now.
For some reason I thought Boinc would allow cross-project teams, apparently not. I seem to be a partisan faction running Rosetta@Home?
You shouldn't be as the team is set to be BOINC-wide, I think it can take a while for all of the projects to update their records though. According to the emails I'm getting the team has been automatically registered with a number of projects I didn't even know existed
(http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/556/teamsc.png)
Just a thought, have you tried using the team finder and joining that way if possible?
I'm searching from here:
http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/team.php
No joy for tekforums yet
I also don't get a join option on:
http://boinc.berkeley.edu/teams/team_display.php?teamid=2439
I do get a join link for other teams. only difference I can see between the above and a normal team is that they have the TYPE set to something, we have it set to "none".
Maybe it'll take time for it to get validated or something?
DEViANCE is on this team (http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/team_display.php?teamid=4881) which was set up from Milkyway@Home first so I don't know how it works for him. They have structured the team/accounts section in a very odd way that makes it hard to guage what's going on, but I think it must just be that the Rosetta team hasn't been put in place yet.
I validated my email address last night so it would pick up then started getting all those new team emails. What team ID does it show for the Rosetta Tekforums team you said it splintered off?
I've now joined the team, though this isn't reflected on Rosettas team thing. Maybe it's not propagated down.
Also concerned that I had to re-register on berkeleys boinc page to join the team. Hopefully it'll all sync up later!
Still nothing comes up if I search through rosettas page, only berkleys.
This is the only info they have on it on the Berkely site where I set up the BOINC-wide team after setting up the one on MilkyWay:
QuoteA 'BOINC-wide team' is one that exists on all BOINC projects, present and future, with an identical name and founder email address. This web site lets you create and manage BOINC-wide teams. To create a BOINC-wide team:
Create an account and a team on this site. If you already have a team on one or more BOINC projects, use the exact same team name and email address.
Validate your email address on this site (otherwise your team will be ignored).
The list of teams and accounts on this site is exported by this site, is periodically imported by each BOINC project. Teams and accounts that don't already exist on that project are added. If the team exists and is owned by you (i.e. its founder has the same email address), then its URL, description etc. are updated. It can take up to 48 hours for these updates to occur.
If some BOINC project is failing to import this team list, please notify them. Ask them to read this page and to update to the latest server software.
A BOINC-wide team is exported only if:
- The founder belongs to the team.
- The founder's email address has been validated.
I've done all of that so I'm guessing we simply need to wait another 24 hours for it to all finish propogating like you said.
Well, Tek has appeared in the Rosetta team list, though again no join link. Maybe that'll catch up later today!
Ok, now it does have the link. I've joined. I wonder if/when it'll all catch up and list all the members from the different projects?!
I'm glad its starting to come together, it will probably be a case that it only gets fully updated every 2 days it seems.
Have to admit....this is making me want to build a computer again...
I was surprised by how "efficient" my work computer was, chugging away on it's Core 2 Duo. Only just checked the link to the Milkyway team and saw that you guys are about 10x ahead in credit, despite this computer running 24/7 since Monday, and using my i7 laptop and parents computer to boot!
(I've stopped using the laptop as it just couldn't cope, think it was the ram more than anything else. Parents computer copes, but is too slow.)
If I had admin rights on all the computers in the office though, they'd all be running it, as we're told to leave our computers on overnight due to IT rolling out patches and updates etc (though we're meant to be logged out heh).
I would actually consider building a computer if it wasn't for the fact I might be moving country in the next 12-24 months :(
lol I only started running it yesterday afternoon as well, I've not even compared the stats yet :) Mine will be running 24x7 though, I don't even notice its going on in the background. 8 virtual cores helps I think! Does the work credit work out the same regardless of project though (as I'm assuming you're on Rosetta and we're on MilkyWay).
It does at least look like we are all flagging up on a team, just not altogether on the main BOINC-wide team yet. Maybe it will take a little longer to feed through.
Where are you thinking about moving to?
Don't really know to be honest. Canada, New Zealand, America, wherever Kathryn can find a decent post-doc position or something probably! Likely to go travelling first though, so again doesn't make sense to invest in a decent computer if it's going to be sat unused for months...
I'm surprised no one has mentioned it, but hasn't anyone thought of the extra power required to keep your CPU running at 100% 24/7??? On my micro server I noticed pretty much a 10watt difference running iTunes (not at 100% CPU)
Quote from: XEntity on January 17, 2013, 19:31:13 PM
I'm surprised no one has mentioned it, but hasn't anyone thought of the extra power required to keep your CPU running at 100% 24/7??? On my micro server I noticed pretty much a 10watt difference running iTunes (not at 100% CPU)
My cpu uses an extra 25w at 100% than it does at idle so not worth being bothered about.
A quick rough calc means that will cost me about £28 extra per year.
I was blasting my GPU for months mining bitcoins and didn't notice much difference at all in my bills, so I'm not fussed about doing this either. Plus I can have the heating on a bit less ;D
I did see an argument the other day regarding the cost of power used in Distro.Comp. projects, and that if you were to say everyone would pay £30-50 a year running their machines for a project, what that would equate to if people just donated that much money to the scientific community. It's an interesting thought that made me pause.
I decided there's no harm in running it at uni seeing as for the most part machines are left running 24/7 anyway, and the university haemorrages money like no ones business for minor things.
As clocked says about heating, it's actually keeping the office quite nice and warm too. Now we have some critters in tanks that's handy. Might have to reconsider in the hottest months of the year though.
If there is a need for heating then there is little point in not using it to do something. Otherwise it is probably better to switch off the computer to save power.
It's currently keeping my megasoma mars grub nice and toasty.
Milkyway @ home is wayyyyyyyyyyyy more generous with its credits than Rosetta @ home was/is!
I think you're right, looking at the stats I don't know how I've got massively more credit than you guys:
http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/team_members.php?teamid=4881&offset=0&sort_by=expavg_credit (http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/team_members.php?teamid=4881&offset=0&sort_by=expavg_credit)
Must be that i'm running 24x7 and you guys not so much?
Well I spent a month on Rosetta. At the start of this week I told Boinc to not download any more Rosetta tasks, and also joined Milkway. In the week I've been in Milkyway I've almost got the same amount of cresit as I got over a month on Rosetta!
So I think the main reason you've got so much compared to me, is that I was getting 1/4 the credit for the last month! Hopefully it'll shoot up now over the coming weeks.
I took a look at the computer specs too and I think my processor being a bit newer is probably helping, but yours and DEViANCE's should be pretty even as you're both running similar dual cores.