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coljohnhannibalsmith
October 26th, 2015, 04:32 AM
Hello,

I was just watching a NetFlix program about hacking, which covered many subjects. One of them was about governments using networked supercomputers as a force multiplier for whatever purpose they choose. I'm also aware of a project called SETI@Home (Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence At Home) which networks thousands of personal computers and spare Satellite antenna dishes as a massive distributed radio telescope farm, so that they can cover more of the sky at once and exploit the power of massively parallel processing. Some people within our discipline also build Beowulf clusters, which are sometimes used for password cracking among other uses.

Why can't Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, create a massively distributed peer-2-peer parallel processing framework that will allow whatever application we're using at the time, whether it be video compositing, computational fluid dynamics, astronomical calculations, large semi-prime number factoring, anti-eavesdropping, threat simulation, data-security etc work as a plugin to this framework, in much the same way that browser plugins work. I believe that this would require some standardization of the API's of apps intended to be used inside of this hypothetical framework; but why not?

Sincerely, Hannibal

QIII
October 26th, 2015, 05:06 AM
I'm too busy having one of my Linux machines dedicated 24/7/365 running SETI@Home on a Phenom II 1100T at full blast. So I'm already there. Over a million work units.

If you can get people behind some other project, propose it and get people to take part. It can, and is, being done already. But a browser plugin would be a pretty bad idea. Terribly insecure.

And since 95%+ of supercomputers in the world run Linux, if they are interconnected to distribute effort, Linux is already being used as you have proposed.

Oh ... Um, let's not promulgate the stereotype of Linux users as hackers and crackers all.

CharlesA
October 26th, 2015, 05:20 AM
Don't forget about BOINC (https://boinc.berkeley.edu/).

QIII
October 26th, 2015, 05:22 AM
Or, BOINC (https://boinc.berkeley.edu/) ... :)

coljohnhannibalsmith
October 26th, 2015, 06:10 AM
Yes, I certainly wouldn't mind proposing apps for the framework I described. But, yeah; I think the framework would be the first step; so we can all propose and write apps for it, through a common API. I guess what I'm trying to say, is that WE don't have anything like that that we have access to. BTW, the browser plugin metaphor was just that. I didn't mean using a browser literally. It was more of a relational model.

Yeah, I was afraid I might invoke the stereotype.. I'm really more of a data-security guy myself.

SantaFe
October 26th, 2015, 07:21 AM
Please, don't give the I.R.S. any ideas, or we'll be having to run Taxing@Home. ;)

QDR06VV9
October 26th, 2015, 07:53 PM
<snip>
Oh ... Um, let's not promulgate the stereotype of Linux users as hackers and crackers all.
I'm so glad you added that, I get so sick of that stereotype.:p:D

CharlesA
October 26th, 2015, 11:44 PM
I'm so glad you added that, I get so sick of that stereotype.:p:D

But but but green text on black background == hacker, right??

*hides*

coljohnhannibalsmith
October 27th, 2015, 02:50 AM
But but but green text on black background == hacker, right??

*hides*

No no no. You've got it all wrong. Green text on black background =|= hacker && <= banana;)

QIII
October 27th, 2015, 03:05 AM
Green text on black background for me is a "comfy, old time feelin'" from Unix in the 70s, so that's how I have my terminal set up.

SantaFe
October 27th, 2015, 06:29 PM
Green text on black background for me is a "comfy, old time feelin'" from Unix in the 70s, so that's how I have my terminal set up.


265199

What, you don't have your browser set that way? :D

coljohnhannibalsmith
October 27th, 2015, 06:32 PM
Please, don't give the I.R.S. any ideas, or we'll be having to run Taxing@Home. ;)

Agreed, but how about FederalReserve@Home, so we can all print money?;)

Swagman
October 30th, 2015, 11:21 AM
I've been running various Boinc projects for a while

Seti@Peterborough (http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/team_display.php?teamid=53597) and Rosetta - Tuxycrunch (http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/team_display.php?teamid=6077)

There are Plenty of Linux teams to join if you wish to participate

Penfold1971
October 30th, 2015, 03:13 PM
Folding at Home? (http://folding.stanford.edu/home/) - 'a project devoted to the mysteries of protein folding (http://folding.stanford.edu/home/the-science/) '.

The second link takes you to a page with a basic explanation of protein folding.

coljohnhannibalsmith
November 1st, 2015, 03:47 PM
I've been running various Boinc projects for a while

Seti@Peterborough (http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/team_display.php?teamid=53597) and Rosetta - Tuxycrunch (http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/team_display.php?teamid=6077)

There are Plenty of Linux teams to join if you wish to participate

I signed up for GridCoin; but I'm still investigating the project I described earlier.

coljohnhannibalsmith
November 5th, 2015, 07:33 AM
I've been running various Boinc projects for a while

Seti@Peterborough (http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/team_display.php?teamid=53597) and Rosetta - Tuxycrunch (http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/team_display.php?teamid=6077)

There are Plenty of Linux teams to join if you wish to participate

I've taken a couple of screenshots of my PC running BOINC. Conky shows all cores pegging-out! I think it looks kind of neat. Please see attachments.

Swagman
November 5th, 2015, 07:25 PM
Very kewl desktop

Here's a screeny (you might have already seen from another thread) of system monitor displaying all 8 cores processing boincs

265382


http://i.imgur.com/Iw425Zk.jpg

coljohnhannibalsmith
November 11th, 2015, 04:22 PM
I've been running various Boinc projects for a while

Seti@Peterborough (http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/team_display.php?teamid=53597) and Rosetta - Tuxycrunch (http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/team_display.php?teamid=6077)

There are Plenty of Linux teams to join if you wish to participate

I picked up a Linux distro called "Rocks" the other day. It's supposed to be purpose built for running a Beowulf cluster. Is BOINC basically a distributed Beowulf cluster? I'm thinking about running Rocks on a pen drive. I'm hoping it'll have features for distributed networks.

Since I've been running a GridCoin project for BOINC, I've been investigating BitCoin mining. Apparently, there are dedicated ASIC units for this, that can be purchased on Amazon for about $600.00. At present they generate about $250.00/month in wealth and consume about $100.00 power. That's still a net gain of $150.00/month. Maybe, I'll just Beowulf some of these together and let them pay some of my bills:D