Reasons Not to Crack RC5

[Diffusion]

Reasons Not to Crack RC5
1) Small increase in network traffic (A few dozen kilobytes A day)
2) One more app running in the background

Reasons to Crack RC5
1) It is really fun to watch stats
2) You have a chance of winning 1000$
3) The distributed.net client is a great burn in program
4) You are assisting in getting 6000$ for charity
5) Through running distributed computing programs you demonstrate that the power of the idle time of peoples PCs.

So what reasons do you have not to join team anandtech?

 

[Yo Ma Ma]

73 OM gud luk in the contest

 

[ArkAoss]

hmm have no systems that i can put it on that people will leave it alone, my bro can run his add cr@p and msngrs on my server, but i cant run rc5.... man get caught loading it on a few sys's that aint mine and, wammo

 

[Wedesdo]

reasons not:

[*]takes up processor time
[*]delays computer response time
[*]decrease processor lifespan due to extra use
[*]why should distributed net get the money
[*]wastes electricity, costs money (a computer system can suck more than 500W including the monitor. .5KW*24 hours*30 days*$.25/KW = $90!!!)

i rather spend my $90 somewhere else. the chance of winning $1000 is WAY too small

 

[Diffusion]

It doesn't delay response time, it uses purely idle time, unless you configure it otherwise, and, unless you have a REALLY slow machine that will make no difference. The idle time it uses would be unused otherwise, so why waste those cycles? Distributed.net should get the money because they have spent quite a bit of money building infrastructure with the key servers, the stats servers, etc, on top of the fact that they wrote the clients. The purpose is not to run the machine 24-7, it is to only run the machine when you are using it, but the unused time while you are on it is used for the dnet client. Therefore if you use your machine normally I fail to see how that wastes power. On top of all this, as I understand it Windows generates random functions to cause 100% CPU utilization anyway. So once again, why not join?

 

[fragarific]

I haven't done this yet, although Wednesdo's reasons are really bad. I hope you don't acually think they are valid reasons!

<edit> You pay $.25/kWh. Where do you buy that?! £bay??

 

[Wedesdo]

i was joking about the power situation in Cali...

 

[Diffusion]

Try joining up Frag, its rather fun keeping track of your stats, nearly to the point of addiction, though at only 3-4 minutes a day it is an easy addiction to satiate ;P. Check it out, The TA Site, The TA Guide to starting

 

[Prodigy^]

Reason I don't run RC5, but SETI@Home:

RC5 is pointless number calculations.....SETI at least has a point to it

 

[fragarific]

Do your stats run(oops, i mean rise) faster with a fast connection or higher cpu mhz?

 

[Diffusion]

Well, seti having a point is kind of debatable, if the age of the universe is really 15 billion years, and our planet is 4.9 billion years old, and civilizations capable of transmiting radio signals last only a couplle hundred thousand years (And that seems optimistic to me) then the chances are essentially zero. RC5 does have a purpose, cracking strong encryption and demonstrating the use of large quantities of machines for a fixed goal. Right now Seti apparently has more machines then it does data, it was only meant as a short term project. Just my .02$,

 

[Diffusion]

A fast CPU is the most important factor, the amount of data is so trivial that my total daily output from a half dozen machines can be sent in under a minute on my dial up connection. However, any speed machine is helpful, the last encryption project completed was finished on a 90mhz pentium, hardly a fast machine .

 

[SmiZ]

I'm not against the RC5 effort at all....in fact, I have thought about doing it, but....

Just a question diffusion, why so much effort put into this cause? Why not world hunger, or a soup kitchen?

You and others have obviously invested large amounts of time into this goal. (webpage building, etc, etc.) If it's just an enjoyment thing, I understand. I like to play fantasy football, but I don't feel the need to 'recruit' others. There's enough people here with links in their sigs, websites, and a whole forum, all of which get the point across. If anandtech members want to crack, they deffinately have the opportunity to do so.

 

[Diffusion]

You often recruit people to your hobby if you do not have enough people. For instance, my big thing (Aside from programming and hardware) is role playing games. Sure, I don't try to recruit people, but thats only because I have enough people in my gaming group. For the RC5 effort we are losing ground to another team. And in terms of world hunger, well, I have talked to a variety of people from 3rd world countrys and they all agree, if we would just get the hell out of africa and the middle east they would work it out without our intervention. We are exacerbating the problem by offering israel and palestine guns when they are peaceful. And in africa, the food we are always sending them accomplishes nothing, they eat it, and then they have children, furthering the problem, but thats a subject for another thread. (IMHO If we sen't birth control over instead of food we would have solved the problem by now). Anyway, if in your fantasy football league you only had 2 people involved you would probably recruit more (Sorry, I have never b een involved with fantasy football, correct me if I am dead wrong).

 

[SmiZ]

No, I understand your position completely, I just wanted some clarification.


(It's so much nicer when people are polite in threads instead of flamming the hell out of each other)

 

[Russ]

<< Why not world hunger, or a soup kitchen? >>



Because CPU cycles have no nutritional value.

Russ, NCNE

 

[SmiZ]

Russ:

I meant time involved. I know you can't feed someone with a processor.......or maybe, just maybe.....you can!!!! I am the smartest man alive!!!!












nope, I'm an idiot.

 

[Diffusion]

Well, if you wan't those processors extra crispy you might have to go ask Kyle over at HardOCP about it, I'm certain he has a flame broiled T-Bird somewhere ;P.

 

[Russ]

SmiZ,

That's the beauty of it. There is no time involved (unless, of course, you're a whacko like me). You just set it, and forget it. Then, you still have all the time you would have had.

Of course, when it comes to charity, money is much more effective then time anyway.

Russ, NCNE