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Question Is DC dying out?

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T

Traxan

Senior member
I'd like to think I'm wrong but it looks like distributed computing is falling way out of favor.

- The major DC page hasn't been updated in 3 years
- Folding@Home has all but vanished
- The World Community Grid page is broken ad out of date
- Very little discussion here.

Thoughts?
 
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Ars Technica said:
Twenty-one years later, SETI@home shut down, having found nothing. An incalculable amount of PC cycles and electricity wasted for nothing.
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Huh? I thought SETI@home's work distribution was shut down because they have piled up a large backlog of contributors' results which they have yet to post-process. And even if this will "find nothing", that's a scientific finding too.

I think their final Kirk Pearson quote says it well:
"Distributed computing is not dying any more than chemistry or mathematics are dying," he said.
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I'd say, as long as there are problems which can be approached via distributed computing, some of them will be turned into DC projects by scientists and will find a smaller or larger pool of computer time donors.
 
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PS,
excitement about distributed computing these days, specifically over at Ars Technica, actually measured in terms of PrimeGrid challenge standings:
2020 — 75th
2021 — 77th
2022 — 63rd
2023 so far — 43rd

Looks like excitement about DC is on a steep rise over at Ars Technica. :-)
 
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Let's see...
2020 — 75th of 243 ( = Ars is in the top 31% of the field)
2021 — 77th of 226 (top 34%)
2022 — 63rd of 227 (top 28%)
2023 so far — 43rd of 163 (top 26%)

Lower percentage means higher excitement in Ars's team relative to the other participating teams. ;-)

[Total number of participating teams in the 2023 season will only be comparable to the other seasons at the end of the season, as some teams show up only in some of the challenges of a season. Furthermore, a perhaps better figure might be number of individual participants, not teams...]

Edit, I acknowledge that 'excitement about competitive DC' is not exactly the same as 'excitement about DC'.
 
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Another possibility, based on the fact that DC did have an effect on covid research, and was popular for a while, we may have less people, but more dedicated people, and less people doing it for fun, but more people doing it for the research that may cure cancer, or save the planet from a rogue asteroid.

You all know I got serious about my contribution to medical research in 2019, when I lost my bladder, prostate, hearing and balance to cancer.
 
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Markfw said:
Another possibility, based on the fact that DC did have an effect on covid research, and was popular for a while, we may have less people, but more dedicated people, and less people doing it for fun, but more people doing it for the research that may cure cancer, or save the planet from a rogue asteroid.

You all know I got serious about my contribution to medical research in 2019, when I lost my bladder, prostate, hearing and balance to cancer.
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That's me. This recent Pentathlon was my first. It was interesting being in a competition, but i'm more interested in doing some good. Cancer can go jump off a cliff
 
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Hey guys. Arsian here. Its been so long that I forgot the user credentials I used when I would come taunt you about the early projects. Well,, anyway, DC at Ars is dead. Maybe 5 total people post about it maybe once a month. Those of us left mostly fold and run Einstein. The front page article wasn't written by one of the usual contributors, and kind of came out of left field. Almost everybody that commented on the news article are people I've never heard of, and I've been there 22 years. There's absolutely no competitive DC team there. We just plug along and occasionally pass or get passed. I'm just there out of pure inertia.

Well, anyway... Howdy.
 
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BurnedOut2 said:
Hey guys. Arsian here. Its been so long that I forgot the user credentials I used when I would come taunt you about the early projects. Well,, anyway, DC at Ars is dead. Maybe 5 total people post about it maybe once a month. Those of us left mostly fold and run Einstein. The front page article wasn't written by one of the usual contributors, and kind of came out of left field. Almost everybody that commented on the news article are people I've never heard of, and I've been there 22 years. There's absolutely no competitive DC team there. We just plug along and occasionally pass or get passed. I'm just there out of pure inertia.

Well, anyway... Howdy.
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Our team is fairly active. More than welcome to join us or just hang out with us.

Our forums don't get much attention, until someone makes a post. We're really active on our discord server though. All are welcome to drop in.

TeAm AnandTech BOINC and DC Discord

Everyone is welcome to join our Discord server at: https://discord.gg/E5z65jR5Ka You can be on the team or a visiting team just wanting to chat. Discord is free to use and can run on many devices from cell phones, laptops and desktop computers. You can even run it in a modern web browser such...
forums.anandtech.com forums.anandtech.com
 
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Ah is that where some of you hang out? 😉
I already have Discord, although I rarely use it, and usually only to co-ordinate with people playing Elite Dangerous.

Welcome back Arsian! 🙂
Sorry to hear about the Ars DC team being virtually dead though 🙁.
 
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Thanks for the welcome and the invite. Sometimes I really miss talking about DC, participating in gauntlets (or whatever this site calls them), and bitching and moaning about Stanford or whoever the target du jour is.
 
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BurnedOut2 said:
Thanks for the welcome and the invite. Sometimes I really miss talking about DC, participating in gauntlets (or whatever this site calls them), and bitching and moaning about Stanford or whoever the target du jour is.
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Its understandable if you don't wanna quit your team; but you are still welcome to drop in our discord and chat with us.
 
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I'd have to say there are 2 reasons DC may be in decline.

1.) FEW home computers are sold these days, as most phones fulfill people's needs, and laptops are more affordable than ever.
2.) Screen savers. Ain't nobody gots no screensavers no more! Nothing like watching SETI calculations happen visually. 🙂
 
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