[school-discuss] Grid Computing &c

[Joel Kahn <jj2kk4@xxxxxxxxx>]

James Kinney wrote:

>Are we doing more with the new machines
>that replaced the ones now being stripped
>by 8-year olds in Bangladesh? No. But we
>are doing it faster so there are more dead
>cpu cycles between mouse actions.

James, surely you (and a lot of other people
in this group) know that those unused clock
cycles can be put to good use:

http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/

As I write, my grid software is telling me
that my Celeron's free cycles are helping
out in the battle against cancer.

When those fancy new multi-core CPUs with the
individually controllable cores come out,
maybe the user will be able to choose: do you
want to keep your hardware charging heavy and
helping to find a cure for AIDS, or do you
want to go down to minimum power and save the
juice? Which choice will be more beneficial
for humanity? Decisions, decisions . . . :-)

Now if they can just get this grid software
running on the DVRs connected to all those
cable & satellite systems--that could add tens
of millions of boxes to the effort. After all,
my Tivo is really nothing more than just a
specialized kind of Linux machine. I sent a
communication to my provider (DirecTV) on this
subject, but I never got a response. Are any
of you in a position to pursue this?

Joel