I've always been a fan of trying to speed my system up and learn how to do it.
But apart from the pure enthusiastic interest - there really wasn't anything in it for me.
Yes I did run Quake demos, and 3DMArk and good old ZD benching tools.
And I kept a long log of all my results.
I even tried writing my own little perfrormance monitors.
But it was all pure interest.
Until I heard about grid computing.
I'm sure most will know or even be using it already.
But for those who doesn't - it's a way to construct a supercomputer by splitting the task into many many small workunits, and use PCs of those who volunteer to process them.
All one has to do is run this little agent in the background that work at low priority and uses you unused CPU time.
And I thougt - what a great idea - when we're not playing our games and not running our endless tests - we can actually do some real useful work with our fast computers.
( I'm not trying to advertise anything here, lol, I'm just sort of sharing my own thoughts and experience. )
First I spent about 5 months running SETI@Home which is project that analyses radiosignals from several nearby stars trying to search for something that might be a radiotransmission by other intelligent creatures.
Well, it's radioastronomy used for searching for extraterrestrial intelligence.
I'm an amatur astronomer myself, that that was my first scientific input, even though I'm not a scientist. It made me feel like I'm a part of something actually useful.
I had 2 PCs running at the same time.
But then later on I found out about another grid computing project, hosted by the Oxford University, and IBM Corp.
It's the same idea, except that they are trying to find chemicals that might be used to cure cancer, smallpox, and maybe fight some bioterrorist weapons, like anthrax.
It's true that until now we don't have any cure for any of those.
And it's also true there are people out there who know they are infected, and who also know that they bsically have no hope.
And I decided that it's more valuable to us right now than astronomical research, nomatter how you look at it.
To find out more - go to www.grid.org
I have 7 PCs running currently, and I find it pretty good in a sense that I never notice it slowing my work down.
Please don't take the above as forcing my opinion or anything like that.
I just finally have a real incentive for putting more work and money into my computer.
But apart from the pure enthusiastic interest - there really wasn't anything in it for me.
Yes I did run Quake demos, and 3DMArk and good old ZD benching tools.
And I kept a long log of all my results.
I even tried writing my own little perfrormance monitors.
But it was all pure interest.
Until I heard about grid computing.
I'm sure most will know or even be using it already.
But for those who doesn't - it's a way to construct a supercomputer by splitting the task into many many small workunits, and use PCs of those who volunteer to process them.
All one has to do is run this little agent in the background that work at low priority and uses you unused CPU time.
And I thougt - what a great idea - when we're not playing our games and not running our endless tests - we can actually do some real useful work with our fast computers.
( I'm not trying to advertise anything here, lol, I'm just sort of sharing my own thoughts and experience. )
First I spent about 5 months running SETI@Home which is project that analyses radiosignals from several nearby stars trying to search for something that might be a radiotransmission by other intelligent creatures.
Well, it's radioastronomy used for searching for extraterrestrial intelligence.
I'm an amatur astronomer myself, that that was my first scientific input, even though I'm not a scientist. It made me feel like I'm a part of something actually useful.
I had 2 PCs running at the same time.
But then later on I found out about another grid computing project, hosted by the Oxford University, and IBM Corp.
It's the same idea, except that they are trying to find chemicals that might be used to cure cancer, smallpox, and maybe fight some bioterrorist weapons, like anthrax.
It's true that until now we don't have any cure for any of those.
And it's also true there are people out there who know they are infected, and who also know that they bsically have no hope.
And I decided that it's more valuable to us right now than astronomical research, nomatter how you look at it.
To find out more - go to www.grid.org
I have 7 PCs running currently, and I find it pretty good in a sense that I never notice it slowing my work down.
Please don't take the above as forcing my opinion or anything like that.
I just finally have a real incentive for putting more work and money into my computer.
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