[lit-ideas] Re: This is actually the link I intended to send first...

  • From: JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2006 12:32:36 EDT

I have a couple old computers  that are repairable but I don't want to  put 
the money/energy into them to fix them -- they have low memory (256K), I  think 
and small fixed disks.  The article implied that older computers that  are 
not currently very functional for today's software could be used. Is that  the 
case?  If I wanted to donate one to this medical project how would I go  about 
it?
 
I'll take a look at the Stanford link.
 
Julie Krueger

========Original  Message========     Subj: [lit-ideas] Re: This is actually 
the link I intended to send  first...  Date: 6/5/06 12:40:01 A.M. Central 
Daylight Time  From: _andreas@xxxxxxxxxxxx (mailto:andreas@xxxxxxxxxxx)   To: 
_lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (mailto:lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx)   Sent on:    
From: <JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx>

>  _Click  here: Researcher looks to PCs for medical cures - Yahoo!  News_

Yes, that works. It's possible to take a task, break it up into  smaller 
tasks, and then use 
tens of thousands of volunteer computers to  solve the task. The computers do 
this when 
they're not doing anything else.  For example, when a screensaver comes up, 
the computer 
switches in the  background to the task and works on it.

This is called distributed  computering.

I've been participating in the SETI project since 1999. It  was the first 
distributed 
computering project.

Often at various  dotcoms, I set all of the computers to the SETI project, so 
at night, when  
everyone went home, the entire dotcom's computers were working on the  
problem.

I just checked my account; it shows 23,286 hours of computer  time.

Google is sponsoring a project to process the gene folding problem.  Various 
universities are 
sponsoring distributed computering projects.  See  
http://folding.stanford.edu/  There's a 
very good FAQ  there.

yrs,
andreas
www.andreas.com


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