Topic: Who here uses BOINC? If not, you should.
Anonymous A started this discussion 15 years ago #4,664
http://boinc.berkeley.edu/It uses your computer's idle time to donate computing power to a project of your choice.
You can donate it to...
Find cures to major human diseases.
SETI to search for extra terrestrial life.
Calculate large prime numbers.
Help process the data for the LHC (Large Hadron Collider).
And many other projects...
It will make good use of your computer, and you will be mentioned if your computer is the one to find something useful. It won't interfere with anything you do on the computer as it only goes into effect when it is idle, and stops when it comes out of idle.
Broseph !!fxnDb+Ve4 joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 9 minutes later[^] [v] #82,813
I did for a while, but your computer consumes more power when your CPU is running at 100% at all times, and I also find that it's better to just turn your computer off when you're not using it. Mine is set to sleep after being idle for 1 hour. That doesn't leave much time for BOINC. Also, I find that most of the projects are bullshit anyway.
Ninjj joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 9 minutes later, 18 minutes after the original post[^] [v] #82,817
Anonymous A (OP) replied with this 15 years ago, 3 minutes later, 22 minutes after the original post[^] [v] #82,819
@82,813 (Broseph !!fxnDb+Ve4)
> Mine is set to sleep after being idle for 1 hour. That doesn't leave much time for BOINC.
That's something.
> Also, I find that most of the projects are bullshit anyway.
World community grid uses BOINC, look at what they have done:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_community_grid#Completed_projects
> Mine is set to sleep after being idle for 1 hour. That doesn't leave much time for BOINC.
That's something.
> Also, I find that most of the projects are bullshit anyway.
World community grid uses BOINC, look at what they have done:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_community_grid#Completed_projects
Broseph !!fxnDb+Ve4 replied with this 15 years ago, 8 hours later, 8 hours after the original post[^] [v] #82,941
@82,817 (Ninjj)
That one is especially bullshit. Even if there is sophisticated life out there, and I highly doubt there is, they can't send a signal strong enough to reach us. The idea that our own broadcasts go out into space forever and will eventually be found by aliens is a myth. The strongest broadcasts go out about one light year before getting so weak that they're undetectable. Aliens from other solar systems would have to use the power of an entire sun to send out a signal that could reach us.
The people in charge of SETI know this, and just use the search for life thing as a way to get people interested in their project, which is really just a project for observing stars. That's it. They tell people it's about the search for life, because most people don't give a shit about the types of radiation that come from stars. Plus, like I said, it's a waste of electricity. They make it sound like your computer uses the same amount of power no matter what, so you might as well send that unused computing power to them, but your computer uses way more power under load than it does just sitting their idling, and would use close to nothing if you turned it off instead of leaving it on to run BOINC. You're spending 10 to 15 cents per kwh of electricity, so if your computer uses 200 watts when under 100 load, and you leave it on 24/7, you're spending 50 cents a day on BOINC. You're basically donating 50 cents a day to these projects through power consumption, so they don't have to spend that power. It's not your computing power that these projects want. They could easily get a hold of the computing power they need, but they don't want to spend the money on power, maintenance, and cooling costs, so you're doing that for them. If a commercial came on TV asking you to donate $15/month for these projects, would you do it? Because that's basically what you're doing.
For the projects that actually have value, they should buy there own damn computers and spend their own damn power. Or start paying people to use BOINC, as it might be a very efficient way of getting computing power, but it's still not free and people should be compensated. I bet that would motivate a ton of people to use BOINC. I think this method would be win/win, as they could still get computing power for half the cost, more people would use it since money is involved, and projects could compete with each other on an open market, as each project would offer people different compensation.
That one is especially bullshit. Even if there is sophisticated life out there, and I highly doubt there is, they can't send a signal strong enough to reach us. The idea that our own broadcasts go out into space forever and will eventually be found by aliens is a myth. The strongest broadcasts go out about one light year before getting so weak that they're undetectable. Aliens from other solar systems would have to use the power of an entire sun to send out a signal that could reach us.
The people in charge of SETI know this, and just use the search for life thing as a way to get people interested in their project, which is really just a project for observing stars. That's it. They tell people it's about the search for life, because most people don't give a shit about the types of radiation that come from stars. Plus, like I said, it's a waste of electricity. They make it sound like your computer uses the same amount of power no matter what, so you might as well send that unused computing power to them, but your computer uses way more power under load than it does just sitting their idling, and would use close to nothing if you turned it off instead of leaving it on to run BOINC. You're spending 10 to 15 cents per kwh of electricity, so if your computer uses 200 watts when under 100 load, and you leave it on 24/7, you're spending 50 cents a day on BOINC. You're basically donating 50 cents a day to these projects through power consumption, so they don't have to spend that power. It's not your computing power that these projects want. They could easily get a hold of the computing power they need, but they don't want to spend the money on power, maintenance, and cooling costs, so you're doing that for them. If a commercial came on TV asking you to donate $15/month for these projects, would you do it? Because that's basically what you're doing.
For the projects that actually have value, they should buy there own damn computers and spend their own damn power. Or start paying people to use BOINC, as it might be a very efficient way of getting computing power, but it's still not free and people should be compensated. I bet that would motivate a ton of people to use BOINC. I think this method would be win/win, as they could still get computing power for half the cost, more people would use it since money is involved, and projects could compete with each other on an open market, as each project would offer people different compensation.
(Edited 1 minute later.)
Broseph !!fxnDb+Ve4 double-posted this 15 years ago, 5 minutes later, 9 hours after the original post[^] [v] #82,942
@previous (Broseph !!fxnDb+Ve4)
In fact, BOINC should merge with Bitcoins so that you run BOINC to get Bitcoins, and the different projects compete with different Bitcoin rates. That way you're actually contributing something to earn Bitcoins instead of just running the stupid Bitcoins client.
In fact, BOINC should merge with Bitcoins so that you run BOINC to get Bitcoins, and the different projects compete with different Bitcoin rates. That way you're actually contributing something to earn Bitcoins instead of just running the stupid Bitcoins client.
Anonymous D joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 7 minutes later, 9 hours after the original post[^] [v] #82,945
Anonymous E joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 1 hour later, 10 hours after the original post[^] [v] #82,985
What about the minichan folding@home team, which currently only I, Depressionman and an anon are still contributing to?
Bitcoins !5qPJGR/JRI (OP) replied with this 15 years ago, 12 hours later, 23 hours after the original post[^] [v] #83,564
@82,942 (Broseph !!fxnDb+Ve4)
...What?
You do understand that Bitcoin generation is actually processing transactions, don't you? It's not just "using CPU for nothing."
Adding BOINC to Bitcoins wouldn't make any more sense than adding BOINC to Firefox, or any other application.
...What?
You do understand that Bitcoin generation is actually processing transactions, don't you? It's not just "using CPU for nothing."
Adding BOINC to Bitcoins wouldn't make any more sense than adding BOINC to Firefox, or any other application.
(Edited 2 minutes later.)