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World Community Grid computing - BOINC FlyerTalk Team

World Community Grid computing - BOINC FlyerTalk Team

Old Sep 11, 2011, 10:31 am
  #1  
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Lightbulb World Community Grid computing - BOINC FlyerTalk Team

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

How would you like to make a personal difference and participate in solving global problems like malaria, Leishmaniasis, childhood cancer, dengue fever, AIDS, muscular dystrophy, schistosomiasis, safe potable water, clean energy, and the challenge of human proteome folding, etc. by becoming involved in a non-profit multi-disciplinary approach while partnered with IBM, Sony, international universities, etc. - while doing absolutely nothing?

The Worldwide Community Grid uses your computer while you are not using it in a process known as "distributed computing" joining our computers in a massive network, issuing small bits to solve - sidestepping the use of expensive and scarce supercomputers. If we haven't been able to rid ourselves of it, let's Grid it!

World Community Grid runs on software called BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing, developed at University of California, Berkeley, USA with funding from NSF (National Science Foundation).

The FlyerTalk team has twenty-four members currently (founded in 2007, Kremmen is our Team Captain,) and is in need of members to donate their "dead" computer time. (My quad processor computer works on four different problems simultaneously while I am away, but it all politely goes to sleep while I am calling on my computer's power.)

Go to the World Community Grid and use the following link to register and automatically join the FlyerTalk team, and put your computer to work solving some of the most tenacious global problems. Don't forget to download the safe app, install it to fully join the Flyertalk team. Become part of the solution - donating your unused computer capacity and time!


From the World Community Grid:

"Can one person make a difference?
Why not donate your unused computer time to World Community Grid and the finding cure for one of the most neglected tropical diseases in the world that is infecting more than two million children and adults in 97 countries each year."
How Grid Computing Works
"Grid Computing: The Basics
Grid computing joins together many individual computers, creating a large system with massive computational power that far surpasses the power of a handful of supercomputers. Because the work is split into small pieces that can be processed simultaneously, research time is reduced from years to months. The technology is also more cost-effective, enabling better use of critical funds.

Changing Our World Now
Grid computing is not a futuristic technology. World Community Grid is at work right now applying this technology to exciting research projects that can benefit us all.

Our first project, Human Proteome Folding, is identifying the proteins produced by human genes. With this information, scientists can understand how defects in proteins can cause disease, making it easier to find cures.

In 2003, with grid computing, in less than three months scientists identified 44 potential treatments to fight the deadly smallpox disease. Without the grid, the work would have taken more than one year to complete."
In one year, we have nearly doubled our contributed runtime! For a tiny team of 24, we have had amazing impact!^

Totals (29 Sep 2012 2359 hrs):
  • Current Members 24 (#1,201)
  • Total Run Time (y:d:h:m:s) (Rank) 27:103:02:46:38 (#1,507)
  • Points Generated (Rank) 16,823,707 (#1,782)
  • Results Returned (Rank) 37,199 (#1,625)
FlyerTalk Team Totals Sep 2011:
  • Current Members 9 (#2,904)
  • Total Run Time 14:289:16:38:24 (y:d:h:m:s) (Rank #2,005)
N.B. I haven't been able to figure how we can gain miles or points from this, but... sometimes, other things actually do take priority! (I know, heresy from a FlyerTalker!)

Last edited by JDiver; Sep 30, 2012 at 11:48 am Reason: correct, update, shake and bake...
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Old Sep 11, 2011, 5:39 pm
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Interesting. I've participated in other distributed computing projects (Folding@Home etc.) but will throw some of my unused cycles at this project for now!
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Old Sep 11, 2011, 6:19 pm
  #3  
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I am in, will give it a go.
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Old Sep 13, 2011, 12:14 pm
  #4  
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Welcome! BrewerSEA and 1000k00.

I had to figure out how to detach and reattach under my previously established account to credit the FT team, so now I am in for more credit with the quad processors enabling four projects assigned segments to process.

We are up to 10 members and 14 years of CPU time; I predict we will soon be up to 100 members, then more.

Totals:
  • Current Members 10 (#2,420)
  • Total Run Time 14:303:01:26:20 (y:d:h:m:s) (Rank #2,005)
  • Points Generated (Rank) 4,736,310 (#3,410)
  • Results Returned (Rank) 15,533 (#2,513)
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Old Sep 13, 2011, 7:33 pm
  #5  
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Good to see I'm a member of this team! I saw this thread and was worried we were bifurcating our efforts (see our thread about the BOINC-wide team here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/flyer...oinc-team.html), but it appears that the BOINC-wide team and this specific WCG team are one and the same.

Keep crunchin'!
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Old Sep 13, 2011, 8:12 pm
  #6  
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Hi, jackal! The stats seem a bit different, so it may be time to check with the Grid folks. There have been many changes - the Grid was originally United Devices, BOINC and World Community Grid joined forces (Grid uses BOINC software, for one). so it's a bit confusing. One team on the Grid is presumably captained by Kremmen, and you also have a team.

I'm on BOINC and WCG, but when I am logged into WCG I am also on BOINC, but the numbers vary. I will report back, so we have a unified effort there. FT is!
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Old Sep 13, 2011, 9:19 pm
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Originally Posted by JDiver
Hi, jackal! The stats seem a bit different, so it may be time to check with the Grid folks. There have been many changes - the Grid was originally United Devices, BOINC and World Community Grid joined forces (Grid uses BOINC software, for one). so it's a bit confusing. One team on the Grid is presumably captained by Kremmen, and you also have a team.

I'm on BOINC and WCG, but when I am logged into WCG I am also on BOINC, but the numbers vary. I will report back, so we have a unified effort there. FT is!
If I log into my account on WCG, I show I am part of the team captained by Kremmen. I also didn't see any other teams with the word "FlyerTalk" in them, although given how hodgepodge BOINC can be, I would not be surprised to see that I am the captain of a team that I am not even a part of!

Here's the team that shows up when I log in: http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/te...mId=1V463QK3S1

Ah, I see what might have happened. My username on WCG is different than the one I use on the rest of BOINC. I might need to mess around with my settings. We'll figure it out!
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Old Sep 13, 2011, 10:22 pm
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ROFL! I set up a new account, and realized my old one was still active and had to do the following:
  • double click on the World Community Grid or BOINC icon in your system tray and then select "Advanced View" (if not already on Advanced View)
  • go to your "projects" tab and click on World Community Grid an then from the left hand menu select "Detach"
  • go to menu's at the top of your screen and select Tools -> Attach to Project
  • this will bring up a panel that asks you to enter in a project URL. Please select World Community Grid: http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org (Note they are not in alpha order)
  • enter the member name that you want to contribute under and the appropriate password and finish
  • click again on your "projects" tab and verify that the correct member name now appears under "Account"
But it would be best to integrate both teams, I think. OTOH, I know accounts can not be merged, so...

Originally Posted by jackal
If I log into my account on WCG, I show I am part of the team captained by Kremmen. I also didn't see any other teams with the word "FlyerTalk" in them, although given how hodgepodge BOINC can be, I would not be surprised to see that I am the captain of a team that I am not even a part of!

Here's the team that shows up when I log in: http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/te...mId=1V463QK3S1

Ah, I see what might have happened. My username on WCG is different than the one I use on the rest of BOINC. I might need to mess around with my settings. We'll figure it out!
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Old Sep 22, 2011, 8:23 pm
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4 Cores doing 4 work units.
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Old Oct 18, 2011, 4:11 pm
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Joined. Don't really know what I am doing, but is clearly for many a good cause at no inconvenience to me.

The only thing that would stop me participating further would be the amount of data down/uploaded via the internet. Is it intensive? Unfortunately, I'm not on a plan with unlimited data so would need to keep an eye on that.

Great idea though.

Mark
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Old Nov 10, 2011, 5:40 pm
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I'm in. Quad Core i7 seems to be doing 8 work units (hyperthreading?)
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Old Nov 10, 2011, 7:10 pm
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Originally Posted by jasonvr
I'm in. Quad Core i7 seems to be doing 8 work units (hyperthreading?)
Sweet!
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Old Nov 10, 2011, 8:41 pm
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It's a PowerPC application, so OSX Lion doesn't support

I would have done it if it worked...
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Old Nov 10, 2011, 9:02 pm
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Originally Posted by PVDtoDEL
It's a PowerPC application, so OSX Lion doesn't support

I would have done it if it worked...
I'd be very, very surprised if BOINC didn't natively support Intel Macs.

Have you downloaded the latest version of BOINC from http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download_all.php (6.12.35)?

Individual projects may not have updated to Intel yet (though I'd be very surprised if that's the case with any of the major projects). You should be able to find at least some projects that run natively on Intel.

Regardless, the BOINC application itself should work fine on Intel. (Caveat: I do not have an Intel Mac, so I have not tested it myself.)
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Old Nov 12, 2011, 8:19 am
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Originally Posted by jackal
I'd be very, very surprised if BOINC didn't natively support Intel Macs.

Have you downloaded the latest version of BOINC from http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download_all.php (6.12.35)?

Individual projects may not have updated to Intel yet (though I'd be very surprised if that's the case with any of the major projects). You should be able to find at least some projects that run natively on Intel.

Regardless, the BOINC application itself should work fine on Intel. (Caveat: I do not have an Intel Mac, so I have not tested it myself.)
I went to this page:
http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/index.jsp
Signed up, and downloaded the program. I got the "Intel Mac's don't support PowerPC Applications" error.

Therefore, I assume that the program is PowerPC.
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