So.... What is this distributed computing stuff anyway?

[IJump]

Hey. I thought I would drop in and see what is going on and see if I can add something to a project or two.

 

[ZipSpeed]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_computing

What it comes down to is instead of organizations spending truckloads of money on supercomputers, they get individuals like you and I to donate unused CPU or GPU cycles through a distributed system. Depending on the size of the project, your computer(s) is but a small (but important) part of the network link.

Our team participates in numerous projects with Folding@home, World Community Grid, MilkyWay@home and PrimeGrid as examples. Personally, I'm involved with World Community Grid and our team is making a push to climb the charts and hope to attain #80 ranking by year's end.

Choose a project that has personal value to you. No project is more important than another. Myself, I have chosen biology-based projects due to people I have known stricken with cancer.

 

[petrusbroder]

IJump is an "old" member of the team ... he has crunched for us, but it was some time ago ... I think IJump has not crunched for the TeAm since May or June 2010.

Here is a link to IJump's stats ...

Welcome back! I rememeber you well, IJump!
How is life treating you? I hope you would join e.g. WCG ... but any project will be happy for your contribution, as will the TeAm!

 

[ZipSpeed]

IJump is an "old" member of the team ... he has crunched for us, but it was some time ago ... I think IJump has not crunched for the TeAm since May or June 2010.

Here is a link to IJump's stats ...

Welcome back! I rememeber you well, IJump!
How is life treating you? I hope you would join e.g. WCG ... but any project will be happy for your contribution, as will the TeAm!

Haha, I sure do feel like an idiot then! Compared to many of you, I suppose I'm just a baby on the team.

 

[IJump]

Life is life. I've got one in collge, one in middle school, and I am still trying to stay on top of an ever growing network at work.

Right now, I may try to get my #1 spot back in SoB, then move back to BOINC projects. Not really sure. Taking that top spot may be tough, I'm quite a bit behind right now..... Maybe I can get 30 on SoB and 30 on BOINC projects...

Until then, Hopefully I can at least stay a little more active around here...

 

[biodoc]

Welcome back IJump! :thumbsup:

 

[Neurodog]

Welcome back! nice to see you again!

 

[GLeeM]

Welcome back, IJump

 

[VirtualLarry]

Welcome back. I haven't crunched SoB myself in some time. I wonder if I'm still in 10th place for the TeAm, or if kimmyl took my spot.

I think a relative's rig still has the classic client running as a service on their machine.

I'm up to 55mil+ on PrimeGrid. For a while, I had my quad-GPU cruncher running that, rather than F@H.

I've pretty-much stopped F@H for the time being.

My power bill last month was ~$220, which I think is rather high for a single person. Trying to cut back a bit.

Last couple of winters, I heated my apt with crunching. Had to open the windows too, it was getting too hot in here. That's a lot of computing!

(Ask Petrus, he knows even better than I about that.)

 

[IJump]

Once I figure out BOINC as a service on Win 7, I will probably try to get that running on one of my labs. If anyone has a good place for info on unattended installs of BOINC as a service on 64bit Win7, with the projects set to run, and remote management of the clients, I would appreciate a link or two...

I have looked some, but haven;t found anything real promising. I may have to manually install a few and see how things go...

 

[petrusbroder]

Hmmm, IIRC: you can not install BOINC as a service in Win 7 - but I may be wrong ... at least there is no to me known option to do that.
You may check it out though ...

OK, I was wrong.
Link 1
Link 2

But you can only use CPUs ... BOINC can not run GPUs when in this mode.

 

[IJump]

CPU Only is fine. The lab computers are mainly used for Office applications and have on board video.

Any major differences in BOINC 6 and 7 that I need to be aware of? I may be able to get this going on a few computers on Monday....

 

[Rudy Toody]

But you can only use CPUs ... BOINC can not run GPUs when in this mode.

Somewhere I saw a thread that says you can tweak Windows services to access the GPUs.

Still can't be done on Linux.

The advantage to running as a service is BOINC runs without a login. Good for unattended mode.

 

[petrusbroder]

7 seems more stable - I have had less problems.

 

[Shuxclams]

Whoa.... There is no way I will be able to produce the numbers I had or the fleet itself like I used to, but a few here and there will add to it all.

 

[Spacehead]

Nice to see you again IJump :thumbsup:

I wonder if I'm still in 10th place for the TeAm, or if kimmyl took my spot.

Actually, i'm in 10th, you're in 9th & kimmyl is in 5th.