Many of you will already be aware of the concept of grid or cloud computing, even if you don’t recognise the term. SETI@home is the famous example – I’m not sure if it was the first, but certainly the first to become really mainstream.
For those still looking slightly bemused, SETI (short for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) analyzes radio telescope data to look for a certain kind of signal that is known not to occur naturally. Unfortunately, their computer capacity was limited and the amount of data they needed to analyze was huge.
The solution? Combine a whole load of geographically distant computers that weren’t actually being used at that moment (such as when the screensaver kicks in), and get them to do the work for them – a kind of virtual voluntary supercomputer.
Now if you were anything like me, when SETI@home first came out, you got very excited… installed it, forgot about it for a while then either did a complete reinstall or bought a new computer and never bothered to put SETI@home back on, or you decided you wanted a different screensaver.
Anyway, recently a scientific podcast I was listening to reminded me of the project, so I thought I’d go and see if there was a Mac version of the client to run it. What I discovered is that it’s now run using a completely different type of client – BOINC.
The exciting thing about BOINC is that it’s not tied to any one project – it’s a gateway to a whole host of scientific endeavors that need help processing their data. At last count there were over twenty different projects covering a variety of scientific disciplines.
Also, it no longer seems to be tied to the screensaver. Sure, there is a screensaver provided so you can see pretty graphics of the data you are processing – but if you’d rather see snaps from your photo collection or flying toaster whizz by, that’s no longer a barrier to volunteering your computer’s resources.
It’s also available for Windows, Mac or Linux.
I don’t know about you, but I have very little spare cash I can donate to anything and with two children very little spare time. But my computer has oodles of time when it’s doing nothing in particular so there is something significant I can contribute at least.
So my computer at the moment (in moments of boredom while I’m off elsewhere) is helping look for ET (seti@home), analysing protein structures from diseases such as HIV, malaria etc (rosetta@home), searching the skies for new pulsars (einstein@home) and creating a complex computer model to analyse climate change (climateprediction.net).
What’s your computer doing when you aren’t there?
9 responses so far ↓
1 wintermute // 28th Apr 2008 at 3:38 pm
I used to run Folding@home. I ought to sign up for that again, now that I have a machine that doesn’t overheat and shut down every 5 minutes.
Thanks for reminding me.
2 Pete // 28th Apr 2008 at 3:56 pm
Ironically, a number-crunching computer consumes far more energy than a computer that’s sat there doing nothing. So unless all your electricity comes from a renewable source, these number-crunching programs are actually contributing to climate change. And they’re increasing your electricity bill.
See here.
3 wintermute // 28th Apr 2008 at 4:28 pm
That’s not actually irony.
Irony would be if running massive numbers of computers 24/7 somehow reduced the number of alien signals waiting to be discovered.
4 Pewari // 28th Apr 2008 at 4:50 pm
Pete: yes you do have to factor that in (and yes, we’re on a green electricity tariff for the record, that guarantees that for all electricity we use an equivalent amount of renewable energy is created).
However, I think it’s also worth pointing out that I think it’s absolutely VITAL that we have the science to help us out of the sh*t we got ourselves into. We desperately need decent computer climate models (the ones we have really aren’t up to scratch despite what some journalism would have us believe) and climate science is still very young.
Research into various diseases is also hugely important for medical science. Whether pulsars or extra-terrestrials are important – well you can probably argue whether they are “worthy” and important to the human race, but as an astrophysics graduate you can probably guess my response. Either way, you can pick and choose which research you support out of the 20+ projects so you can completely ignore any you don’t find to be helpful or relevant.
On the whole, I believe that if we are to save ourselves then science will be the crucial link for that to happen.
5 Pewari // 28th Apr 2008 at 4:52 pm
wintermute: I imagine Pete is referencing the fact that one of the projects I’m supporting is climateprediction.net.
6 wintermute // 28th Apr 2008 at 6:47 pm
Ah, right. I missed that one. Sorry.
7 Radioactive Jam aka bc // 30th Apr 2008 at 1:29 am
When I’m not home my computer is– er. I… don’t know. I’ve always assumed it’s amusing itself in some mostly harmless manner, but it might be plotting world domination with other silicon-based entities.
Probably via flying toasters.
8 Pewari // 30th Apr 2008 at 8:11 am
Sounds like a sensible pastime to me…
9 Radioactive Jam aka bc // 30th Apr 2008 at 12:15 pm
Yes, we do have that in common, although I prefer monkeys over toasters.
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