Buddy, can you spare a PC processing cycle? Intel has launched a scheme to turn your PC’s unused processing power into, possibly, a medical breakthrough or the answer to climate change. Progress Thru Processors is a Facebook app that allows users to donate their PC’s unused processor power to distributed computing projects, including one battling for cures to Alzheimer’ …
I don't get how this is better than the projects that have been around for the last 15 years or so, like seti@home, the BBC climate change experiment, etc, etc, etc.
In fact, fighting cancer was done like this in the late 90s.
So, how is this worthy of such a long article? Is it just the fact that they're deploying through the latest fad (facebook), or is it that intel is behind it?
... is the day I eat my hat. I am not qualified to comment on the climate change or malaria projects, but please don't get involved in Rosetta@home in the impression that you're helping with a medical project. You'd be better off giving the money you'd waste on electricity to a relevant charity.
Folding@home, the inspiration for these Facebook projects, is closed-source as well (for security reasons--they want to avoid too many hands in the cooking pot). And it's had heavy participation for years, and the fruits of their labors have appears in various reputed medical journals.
My quad core box draws about 45w when doing the usual work chores - reading el Reg, email, wordprocessing etc, and about 80w at full tilt. It also goes from silent to 'Jet Engine' and warms the office up nicely - to the extent that in winter, if it gets cold I just fire up a FaH process.
If you give me your email address, I will send you enough email to save a plethora of children from all kinds of awesome diseases including, but not limited to, aids, leukemia, foot and mouth, mutated apocalypse-enabling swine flu and radical conservatism.
All you need to do is forward these to 20 people in your address book and back to everyone you see in the email header.
Famines will be stopped and if you repeat this 3 times, the atmosphere will be purged of human-causing carbon emissions and the sun will be accesorised with a New Labour logo.
@ How is this newsworthy
Yes, 16 and a bit lines...phew, go have a lie down.
@ DarkNerd
I think the fact you used 'dumbster FaceSpace' generation says it all really. Still, at least you realised.
Seriously guys does it matter that it is Facebook? There are lots of ways to use this kind of application. Do you see the XBox'ers taking a pop at the PS3'ers for running Folding?
Surely the aim here is to get the app out there - by whatever means - so that more people can donate *spare* processing power to help solve those issues that affect as all?!
Sheesh, its not like they're asking you to actually physically *Do* anything!
There is a small and subtle point here : it is the Janus faced attitude of companies like facebook that really is the epitome of the cynical internet generation.
Your assertion that they are not actually asking us to /do/ anything is accurate, but mis-placed.
Laudable and altruistic endeavours like Boinc and Folding have one purpose : to resolve / understand something.
Face book et al have the ambition of driving advertising revenue.
Advertising is, frankly the bane of the internet, the scourge of the web', the most banal form of communication there is. Facebook does not have a product, it does not exist as an entity, and yet, on the back of advertising, it is worth something. And its assets : the user names and profiles of every moppet and toadying lackey who signs up and logs in.
Running these 'win-tel' applications only through facebook shows the value of giving away rubbish to entice the stupid, to filter web banners and email spam at them who, in turn, think the targeted marketing is, truly, the future of intellectual discourse.
Benny, you ARE a Benny.
Good bye.
I guess some people will never be happy unless what they want to see fail does fail. Therefore whatever is done is only deserving of criticism.
No, it's not a new idea, and maybe Facebook aren't being entirely altruistic, only have a limited range of F@H options, and there are legitimate criticism to be made and improvements which could be had, but at least they are doing something. Facebook is the latest fad; so what ? If that's where people are at today, that's the place to engage them.
But, no, let's not congratulate anyone for moving in the right direction, not when there's the option of being negative and critical rather than offering constructive comment and encouragement.
Yes, it's a BOINC client and yes, that's already been done. All you poorly socialised nerds are missing the point because you're only looking at the technology and have failed to recognise the human aspect. (You might care to straighten out your priorities in life a little.)
The "news" aspect is that it's a new use of the emerging social media to gather recruits for projects that until now have been very largely supported only by in-the-know geekdom. There are hundreds of times more laymen than geeks; if it works and suddenly there are ten or more times as many BOINC clients contributing to all these projects that will be a great success. If it doesn't work, it will be interesting to know why it fails as it might cast light on future strategies for engaging the mass public with science. Either way, it *is* news. Not earth-shaking news. Just news.
My thoughts exactly. Except my full-load power consumption is 147W, in comparison with 45W idle. And these programs tend to spend quite a lot of time writing fragments of data to disk, so your disks can't spin down.
I was surprised to hear someone from Intel describe an extra 100W as "very little incremental resource". Clearly a PR muppet.
woot! Intel have a facebook fan page for their own cut down version of BOINC [http://boinc.berkeley.edu/] - why not give some love to the real projects doing some good rather than "me too" press-release-ware in the neverending fight with AMD
bit disappointed that the only insights are in the comments today, not the articles
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