Need advice on convincing

[GT1999]

Any of you guys have experience convincing a school to run distributed computing? Specifically RC5. I somewhat know the guy who maintains some macs at school, and he's a pretty cool guy. Curious as to what the key points I should explain to a newbie to have it installed.

 

[Engineer]

Never really convinced anyone to run the client other than co-workers...But Viztech has some key points in other threads:

I would first explain the concept of Distributed computing..The bringing together of a large number of computers to research or solve a specific problem/question that would otherwise take either large amounts of money, powerfull super-computers, and time...

RC5. Mention that RC5-64 is a designed test to prove that the internet security encryption codes are safe. The concept is sponsered by RSA, the creator of the encryption code in use today.

Viztech also mentioned that the term "cracking" shouldn't be used as it may cause uneasiness to the person being presented to...Decoding, solving, and others might be a better choice...


You might want to read this thread also:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=39&threadid=235251 as some of the same discussion is here.

If I think of anything else, I'll respond again...

Good Luck and take care! I hope others can respond to this with their input as it would be nice to have a few of those PC's woring for TA!

GOOD LUCK G|T...😀

 

[vi edit]

Tell him that it's a great way to see if a machine is up and running and is connected to the 'net.

If you set up a pproxy, you will have information constantly streaming into the proxy telling you the status of all the machines in the heard. It's a nice way of determining both keyrate, and the load that that the machine is under. If it's not reporting blocks, then you know the machine is down, or your connection is down.

Or, if you choose to go the individual setups, and not go through a proxy, with the logging feature you can see if your machine is maintaining a network connection.

I know that your admin can probably do this with some expensive software, but can he do it with free software that only takes up a couple hundred k? 😉

 

[GT1999]

I think there is already a proxy set up for the network, but I'm not sure. I'm really walking itno this half blind, and I'm leaning towards the fact that he'll say no, since he doesn't know much about it, and, that I only know him a little bit. I'm not too sure on how to set up a proxy, but I do know how to just copy the client onto each computer from a floppy all setup already - ready to update to and from dnet.

 

[RaySun2Be]

You might also mention that some technical review sites use RC5 as a benchmark for reviews (Anands, etc..) and they would not use something that would be illegal, as it could hurt their business.

List some of the well known company teams, IBM, Compaq, etc. They definitely wouldn't be involved if the client wasn't stable and if it was illegal.

Try to anticipate his/her questions and concerns, and do research that would address those questions and concerns.

Some of those I can think of are:
1. It's illegal
2. It will hurt the PC
3. it's a virus
4. It's a trojan, and important information will be sent out
5. It poses a security risk
6. I'm very busy and don't have time to add other duties
7. etc..


Remember he/she is risking their job (from their standpoint) so they need to be assured that this is on the up and up, and there are benefits from it. Sooth their fears and your that much closer to getting a yes. Once you have stated your case, politely ask them to run it. (close the deal, in salesspeak 😉)

There has been numerous threads, and even news articles on distributed processing and even RC5.

If they still have concerns, suggest they load it on a PC that isn't used much or isn't critical, as a test.

Offer to help manage it so they don't have to do one more thing in a very busy day, etc..

If they still say no, accept it gracefully and let it go.

Good luck, if you don't ask, it will never happen. 😀

 

[BurntKooshie]

sorry GT - got your PM a 'lil late 😱 But, there are some jewels of information at http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=39&threadid=235251 😀

 

[GT1999]

Thanks for the help guys! If I don't post back, then you know it didn't go through. If I did, then you'll know and I'll have around 150 or so Mkeys/sec added onto my stats. 🙂

I know he has around 300+ macs, but I don't know the speeds. He said 12 are G4s. Wish me luck.

G|T

 

[Viztech]

Geekish-

Hopefully you have read this link that Engineer previously mentioned.
Since they are Macs, you might want to seek some advice from SS59, who assimilated a high school lab of macs last year when he was a senior. They named the project "The Garden" and they really flew until the end of the school year.
Anyway Macs don't behave as well as Win32 machines at multitasking, so users can notice some performance issues when running RC5. I don't want to scare you away from trying, but prepare for this possibility.
This leaves the use of the client in screen saver mode, like the classic SETI configuration, which is a very good project to consider as well since it is fairly well known.
At our school, it was very easy to convince the net admin (me)
I have run Dnet on nearly every PC in my control. It never causes a lick of trouble, and contributes to various scientific projects at no cost to the school.

As for Proxy issues, let me clarify a couple of terms here. The school probably uses a 'Proxy Server' on a central server that is used for Network Address Translation, filtering of porn sites, caching of popular web pages, and system security. You will almost undoubtedly not be able to get access to this machine.
The 'Personal Proxy' program that many of us talk about here, is like a keyserver on your own private network. It provides a central machine that can be used to bridge firewalls/network permissions and the like in all sorts of various ways. (Adul is a good recent example of this)
If your Macs have internet access at all, we can get the clients to flush directly with a Dnet keyserver or a TA proxy even if the default port 2064 is blocked by a firewall.

Personal proxies can use stats programs that will tip administrators to various computer problems with the herd. MWalkden has been doing some research on this side benefit of DC, and I have used the proxy to detect off line machines just by watching the log files. That is beyond your situation right now however.
One side benefit along these same lines is that the Dnet client has helped in recovering stolen computers. If the computer can connect to the Internet, the IP address is reported in the proxy log files. It can then be traced back to the source.

Good luck
viz

 

[MWalkden]

Geekish Thoughts;

Looks like all the best information is already here. Good luck on your endevaor!🙂 You may want to ask the admin if he uses AnandTech's website. If he is already familure then it will be easy to point him to the distributed computing section. Even if he isn't interested in letting you do anything, he may be interested in it himself. You may need to start a mini-team so you can do it together. Involvement is the absolute best way to get results.

We can start a thread in the admins honor, thanking him for joining! It would make him feel good! Keep us up on how it goes!🙂

 

[GT1999]

He said since they're the school's computers he can't run anything other than educational software, and stuff the school board approves. I didn't push him at all so it's ok.

🙁 Oh well I gave it a try.

 

[ss59]

talk to someone who knows what they are doing, if it's not the instructor of the lab, then someone who is familiar with technology and you know somewhat.
-tell them the project is to find all possible answers to a 64bit encryption scheme. to better prepare for future ones, 128 bit, 256 bit etc.
-the client runs idly in the backgroud, and program the user of the computer is using takes presedence on what is not used.
-This is being run by a private company called D.net and is being sponsored by RSA labs (the makers of RC5). if one of their machines finds the answer then they get $1000<---usually is the clincher
-The client is written by some very talented programmers and have refined the code to almost perfection over 3 years. They won't even know it is running. It doesn't compromise security in any way either.

just use some of these and they'll buy it. Just don't say &quot;cracking&quot;

use decryption, or something that doesn't sound like a &quot;crime&quot; to the average village imac idiot.

if it doesn't work see how good there security is and use a trojan
😀

also tell them that compaq, dell, Sun, AMD, and many other computer/network/technology companies have all put some of their idle cpus to work on the project as well.