Can't speak for anyone else, but I've been out talking to some of the other teams and threads in between doing some gardening work now that it has finally stopped raining.

The Cybernaut thread is alive with some positive enrollment activity. It's a lot of fun to see some of the other teams doing so well.

Btw, thanks for posting the pictures of my labs on the website, Dave.

"They may be ugly, but they sure can fetch."

HOT NEWS FROM THE BBC

Investigative journalist Mr. C Dick of the BBC - British Barmy Crunchers uncovers a scandal.
Over the last 6 months, there has been a widespread increase in a new serious disease, dubbed "crunching".
Mr C Dick, has discovered the horrible truth and the origins of this new disease. Its victims come from all over the world, it knows no boundaries, the only initial common factor is a computer and an Internet connection. The end result is always the same - A hardened cruncher who will do anything to get more and higher powered computers. This enables them to obtain higher points and increase their rankings.
It always starts the same way.
Stage 1
A person has a wonderful computer that sits idle 95% of the time, the web has been explored, and there is nothing doing. Then along comes this "distributed computing" theory. After a search, the agent is installed and the computer is as happy as a pig in "poo". After a day or so, the points come in..... and how poor they are!
Stage 2
The person then leaves the machine on 24/7 - Sorted.
After a day or so, the points come in..... and how poor they are!
Stage 3
The person then adds his/her other home machines, running 24/7 - Sorted.
After a day or so, the points come in..... and how poor they are!
Stage 4
The person then adds his/her work machine, running 24/7 - Sorted.
After a day or so, the points come in..... and how poor they are!
Stage 5
Any machines within distance - Neighbors, work, friends, acquaintances, running 24/7 - Sorted
After a day or so, the points come in..... and how poor they are!
Stage 6
UPGRADE - Go out and buy the latest, greatest, most powerful, bells and whistles machine.
INFECTED

After months of research, Mr C Dick can uncover the full, despicable truth.... read on if you dare:
It all starts with the executive committee of the World Cosy Gang. Comprising of:
Mr Ian Bertie Morgan
Mr Mic R O'Soft
Miss D E LLoyd
Mrs A M Delore
Mr In T Eldorado

In 2004, a crisis was emerging in the computer industry. All consumers had their computers, and generally, they all performed without fault, carried out all the tasks quickly and without effort. People quite simply, did not need to upgrade.
Mr. Ian Bertie Morgan - "What can we do? Sales of new machines are plummeting off a cliff. Mr. Mic R O'Soft, you could always be relied upon to make sure that only the latest machines would work properly, older machines would always show that wonderful hourglass!"
Mr. Mic R O'Soft - "Blame the chip makers. We cannot keep up"
Mrs. A M Delore - "Blame Mr In T Eldorado"
Mr. In T Eldorado - "Blame Mrs A M Delore"
Mr. Ian Bertie Morgan - "I have an idea"
All "Go on, go on, please tell"
Mr. Ian Bertie Morgan - "Well, we all agree that the existing route is dead, peoples machines do their job?"
All "Yes, yes"
Mr Ian Bertie Morgan - "Well, say we developed this new system that helps the world.."
All "Yes, yes"
Mr Ian Bertie Morgan - "And then we gave it away..."
All - "WHAT - We give nothing away!!!!"
Mr Ian Bertie Morgan - "Hear me out. This agent will do wonderful things, like looking for the ultimate cure for cancers, aids, and other more horrible ailments."
All - "Yes, yes"
Mr Ian Bertie Morgan - "The math’s to do this work is huge and will need a lot of number crunching. We can award points to everyone depending on how much they do. Only the latest, fastest machines will cut it. People with lower spec machines will jealously look at the performance figures of their peers and think if only..."
All -"Yes, yes"
Mr Ian Bertie Morgan - "People with the latest machines, or several systems will become heroes, lower scoring people will look up in wide-eyed admiration, until they can resist no more and they will have to go and buy the very best available"
All - "Brilliant"
Mr Ian Bertie Morgan - "So even though they don’t really need that top-spec machine, they will HAVE to get it! We will then sell huge amounts of equipment. Ha, ha. And when the cure to cancer comes in, we can even say we helped. I am soo clever."
All - "Three cheers!"
Mr Ian Bertie Morgan - "It does have its problems, people become infected with "Crunching" addiction. They can be seen furtively checking news posts, forums to the early hours. Until their partner can be seen running round the room (or woods) shouting "sleep!, sleep! (sorry capt'n - That was funny though! ).”
No known cure exists.

Mr. C Dick reports that a lot of members from MyOnlineTeam are hopelessly infected!!

Loved it Gherm!

Your team mate,

Cheers Dave

Graphics Honours as ever to Graham.

Hi gherm Frans did warn you. Like you say it starts out innocent enough and then one day you find yourself thumbing through a PC Mag comparing the prices of Processors and Motherboards.

It's the start of a slippery slope.

Just remember it costs about the same to build 10 Athlon 2500+ PC's as it does to build 1 Athlon 4000+ PC.

With one setup you end up with a 4000+ processor with the other a 25000+ Processor.

You pays your money and you take your choice.

As for me I'm a cheapskate. The mobo running the MOT webserver cost me £18 (B-Grade - no fancy box) it's a nForce2 board has onboard graphics and sound and 100M ethernet. Fitted with a 3000+ Sempron it's VFM crunching.

Go for an ASUS A7N8X - VM400 MATX Mobo. I've got 2 running in the house at the mo. Not many options in the bios but they are very reliable and easy to set up and I've had no complaints from the kids yet on the graphics front. You could still plug in a AGPx8 Graphics card later.

Sempron 3000+ retail box + fan + delivery £76.16
Athlon 64 FX55 Retail box inc fan + delivery £627.67

No contest really. To build a crunching box you don't need a huge disk drive. 5 Gig is more than enough. I'm sure if you've had PC's for a while you will have the odd old disk just lying round the house. Remove one of the many sticks of ram from your current PC and with an OEM OS you're in business. You don't need another monitor or keyboard just use the built in Remote Desktop or download VNC for free.

"Crunching on the Cheap" by Dave Autumns, will be available in all good bookstores by Christmas

btw this info is top secret don't let any of the other teams know




Dave

.........A BIG ”My Online Team” WELCOME.........
...............to our newest team member! ..............
...................... Coingames .......................