| Index | Recent Threads | Unanswered Threads | Who's Active | Guidelines | Search |
 |
World Community Grid Forums
Category: Support
Forum: Suggestions / Feedback
Thread: how exactly does it work |
| No member browsing this thread |
|
Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 12
|
|
| Author |
|
|
The-Rotaractor
Cruncher UK Joined: Oct 22, 2007 Post Count: 6 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
|
Hello good people. I have run WCG on boinc for some years now. Now that computers are at the point where even a pc that is a few years old can handle any WCG project and Ican testify to that I'd love to suggest my friends join. But really I don't know how to explain it. I mean "it helps research"..... they will be like what ?
Does each project have a description somewhere of what exactly it does ? so that I can give examples of juast what an idle pc can do to help. I'm also curious myself |
||
|
|
Sid2
Senior Cruncher USA Joined: Jun 12, 2007 Post Count: 259 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
|
Does each project have a description somewhere of what exactly it does ? On this page click on the research tab. . . . all of the WCG projects, current and retired, are explained.  |
||
|
|
The-Rotaractor
Cruncher UK Joined: Oct 22, 2007 Post Count: 6 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
ah great thanks
|
||
|
|
mikey
Veteran Cruncher Joined: May 10, 2009 Post Count: 821 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
Hello good people. I have run WCG on boinc for some years now. Now that computers are at the point where even a pc that is a few years old can handle any WCG project and Ican testify to that I'd love to suggest my friends join. But really I don't know how to explain it. I mean "it helps research"..... they will be like what ? Does each project have a description somewhere of what exactly it does ? so that I can give examples of juast what an idle pc can do to help. I'm also curious myself I do not know of a Project that details exactly how they do what they do, just generically. Seti said something many years ago and what they said was along the lines of 'we take a math problem, split it into many small chunks, sending those small chunks to many pc's. Once those pc's have analyzed the data they return the results and it is then put together with all the other chunks to give the result to the math problem. Now it can take many hundreds of thousands of pc's working together each analyzing their own small piece to come up with a solution. The key is to then analyze the data and see if the original problem was written correctly or if all you got back was junk! Think of the Boinc software as a piece of software that can be used in many different ways, it is then up to each Project to put something into that software so something useful can come back out, like a word document. I can write a word document, like this one, but a professional speech writer can make it look and sound OUTSTANDING!! We all know what the software Photoshop is, but in the hands of the Disney folks it can do magical things! Boinc is similar, it is just software, it is how they make it work that makes it useful. There have been projects looking for a better beer recipe, projects looking for a way to hack a cell phone, projects to map the MilkyWay, math projects, clean water projects, climate projects, etc, etc, ETC!!! WCG has just gotten several together and put them under one roof instead of each one being a separate entity. Here is a link to alot of Distribute Computing Projects: http://www.distributedcomputing.info/projects.html The Boinc ones are noted, although not all are currently active.   [Edit 1 times, last edit by mikey159b at Dec 30, 2011 2:19:30 PM] |
||
|
|
The-Rotaractor
Cruncher UK Joined: Oct 22, 2007 Post Count: 6 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
well you see to lay people some of the things that can be simulated may sound a bit far fetched. One chap I told about it when he said he could no understand why I bought a quad core processor said it sounded like a con.....
|
||
|
|
gb009761
Master Cruncher Scotland Joined: Apr 6, 2005 Post Count: 2977 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
One chap I told about it when he said he could no understand why I bought a quad core processor said it sounded like a con..... Unfortunately, there are people out there, who simply don't know/understand (or even are willing to open their minds to the possibility) - hopefully, what you're doing for them, is 'opening the door' to the possibilities that what we're doing here is making a difference.Thankfully, we're now getting papers published from the scientists etc., who are stating it as a fact that we ARE making a difference. Boy, have we progressed from the days when people thought the earth was flat...  |
||
|
|
mikey
Veteran Cruncher Joined: May 10, 2009 Post Count: 821 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
well you see to lay people some of the things that can be simulated may sound a bit far fetched. One chap I told about it when he said he could no understand why I bought a quad core processor said it sounded like a con..... I was talking to a friend who is a psychologist the other day and he said "you don't have to understand how to split the atom to understand that it can be done", we were talking about Religion and the beliefs people have, but I think it applies equally to Distributed Computing. I don't need to understand HOW they make Boinc work for each Project, I just need to believe that they can. Some people think the moon landings are fake, some people believe the sky is falling, some people will just never believe anything! Oh and those that think the moon landings are fake need to watch the show on Discovery about this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunokhod_programme |
||
|
|
The-Rotaractor
Cruncher UK Joined: Oct 22, 2007 Post Count: 6 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
I have to admit that I'm surprised by how few machines there are running distribuited computing. I run it on my work pc (well it just qualifies as a usable PC in my book) and I put it on a collegues pc as well not that he knows a thing about it ;)
Now that the average computer is more than capable of running boinc/WCG I was thinking of putting the word around an organization i belong to called rotaract. |
||
|
|
Mysteron347
Senior Cruncher Australia Joined: Apr 28, 2007 Post Count: 179 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
I have to admit that I'm surprised by how few machines there are running distribuited computing. I run it on my work pc (well it just qualifies as a usable PC in my book) and I put it on a collegues pc as well not that he knows a thing about it ;) Now that the average computer is more than capable of running boinc/WCG I was thinking of putting the word around an organization i belong to called rotaract. Spreading the word is a good idea. Be very careful about putting any software - including BOINC - on a colleague's machine without their knowledge and permission. Unless you have the express permission of the machine's owner - preferably in writing, you're playing with fire. People have been dismissed for less (or at least, so goes the rumour.) The problem is that the Luddites are in control. No matter how much they nod sagely, they simply don't understand - worse, they don't want to. They will look for any excuse to get rid of anything they don't understand - their secretary's hairdresser's friend's third cousin says it MIGHT be a virus... is all it takes - and such people are more interested, unfortunately, in exercising power and forcibly demonstrating who is boss. |
||
|
|
Hypernova
Master Cruncher Audaces Fortuna Juvat ! Vaud - Switzerland Joined: Dec 16, 2008 Post Count: 1908 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
A more "fair/legal" way is to convince your organization that they could use a partnership with WCG as a positive marketing and communication criteria to improve their image in the public.
----------------------------------------For that you have to go top down. Unfortunately it is a winner taks all approach: Either you get your point and all company machines get Boinc/WCG as a standard feature or you fail and ...zero, nothing. But it is worth trying.  |
||
|
|
|