Other computing programs

[Meh_Lay_Lay]

I've just learnt that there are a lot more mass-computing programs out there other than F@H, like SETI. Though I have no idea what they calc. Could anyone give me more names, and tell me what those calculations are aimed at? (I think SETI has something to do with space??)
I would also like to ask if we, and those other programs are at competition to one another? Though personally, I think proteins are the most important ;D!
One more thing, does anyone know what the supercomputers around the world are calculating? Assuming that they aren't being left idle lol~ (Maybe we should see how much ppd they can get from F@H ;P)

[7im]

Google is your friend... http://www.distributedcomputing.info/projects.html

HP tested their new Cloud Computing Center using FAH. You can see their PPD here: http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/ ... =&u=601623 It peaked at 25 Million PPD, folding more than 3100 work units per day.

[Jesse_V]

I'd recommend looking at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_di ... g_projects

There are many sources of information about each supercomputer, including Wikipedia articles. Anton and Blue Gene are the big ones that I know are working on protein-related research. We outperform both (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F@H#Compar ... ar_systems). The K supercomputer, which some claim as a fastest computing system in the world, (I disagree, I think there's reason to believe that F@h is) aims to have an impact in global climate research, meteorology, disaster prevention, and medicine.

[Aardvark]

I did SETI for several years. I finally came to the conclusion that the program was based on some rather obtuse logic. What advanced civilization is going to sit around broadcasting the hydrogen frequency?? Having reached that conclusion I had to find another Distributed Computing option and Folding@Home somehow came to the Top. I have had no regrets in the choice. As 7im indicates above, there are many choices "out there" if you want to hunt for one. Be forewarned that it takes a good organization and some good equipment to operate a Distributed Computing Project successfully. Pande Group and Stanford have such and need I say more???

[7im]

It speaks well for Folding@home that HP used this project to test their new data center, and continue to fold today. They must believe FAH to be a worthy project.

Shop around all you want. You'll be back here soon enough.

[Jesse_V]

I did SETI for several years. I finally came to the conclusion that the program was based on some rather obtuse logic. What advanced civilization is going to sit around broadcasting the hydrogen frequency??

They way I figure it, they are probably bound by the Prime Directive, which prevents interference with the internal development of alien civilizations, which includes any exposure that alters our natural development.

Setting aside the Prime Directive, if we are going to make irrefutable contact with extraterrestrials, we should be able to demonstrate that we have advanced technology, social connections, and signs of good will. We need to first be able to make the case that we can extend peace and problem-solving desires and skills to the outside. In general, I think that the participants are good examples. Donations to a greater cause and all that. We're getting there, but we're not ready just yet. Cure cancer first, hunt for aliens later. Patrick Stewart apparently has a similar opinion.

[7im]

Hilarious how humans apply human values and human faces to everything, like their morning toast, or a geological outcropping on Mars. They even anthropomorphize their own deities. They still think of themselves as the center of the universe, applying human values to aliens. Prime Directive? Really? The Prime Directive for the next visiting alien will be survival of their own race, not ours.

As Mr. Stewart alluded, space travel is wasteful, and traveling light years is extremely resource intensive. There are only 1 or 2 motives to spend those resources. 1, survival, again, not likely our survival, but theirs. 2, they are a race so advanced, the resources mean nothing. But then they are also so advanced, the earth means nothing either. To them, we'd be little more than an ant farm.

[Meh_Lay_Lay]

Cure cancer first, hunt for aliens later.

That was exactly what I was thinking when I first heard of SETI and when I started the post. It kinda seems like a waste when so much computing power is going to so many different projects around the world . Saw some really useless ones in http://www.distributedcomputing.info/projects.html... Breaks my heart.
And no, I was never planning on leaving F@H, just interested in what other projects are doing and stuff. I think we should take care of our own survival before going further in other aspects.
Well thanks for the links and infos everybody.

[Meh_Lay_Lay]

@@" there are only around 400k processing units for F@H? D: I gotta help promote more haha

[JimF]

I did SETI for several years. I finally came to the conclusion that the program was based on some rather obtuse logic. What advanced civilization is going to sit around broadcasting the hydrogen frequency??

SETI used to operate on the paradigm that we would listen in to their radio or TV communications, but they have long since given up on that one. The last time I checked, we would be lucky to be able to hear anything beyond 100 light-years even if it were a powerful beacon, much less a 50 kw radio station. And there probably aren't that many (if any) advanced civilizations in that rather small region. But more to the point, any communications they use would be far more advanced that what we use. We have already gone from simple CW and analog modulation techniques to highly compressed and encrypted spread-spectrum digital communications, which would be largely indistinguishable from random noise, in the space of only 100 years. Anything they would use would be much more advanced.

Better to spend our electrical energy crunching molecules, which we know are there.

[RMouse]

Google is your friend... http://www.distributedcomputing.info/projects.html

HP tested their new Cloud Computing Center using FAH. You can see their PPD here: http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/ ... =&u=601623 It peaked at 25 Million PPD, folding more than 3100 work units per day.

At what point would the Pande group be swamped with data. That must have been a bit surge of data once HP switched that monster on.

[bruce]

A surge like that was an unusual situation but I'm not aware that there were any serious problems of swamped servers.

FAH expects a gradual growth in the number of clients and the average speeds of those clients. Their growth plan includes ordering new servers and/or more powerful servers to anticipate the growth in FAH, hopefully staying far enough ahead of the user growth curve that nobody is bothered by total server capacity limitations. I do remember this being discussed a number of years ago when something happened in the funding for a server buy or something like that (didn't ever learn the details) and the user growth curve did saturate the work severs that were on-line until the hardware was received and brought on-line. At the time VijayPande said something like "That's the kind of problem we LIKE to have"

[7im]

Dr. Pande has stated they have contingency plans to handle work loads at more than double the current rate. So the "getting swamped point" is quite high.

[artoar_11]

At what point would the Pande group be swamped with data. That must have been a bit surge of data once HP switched that monster on.

I interpret RMouse question in the following manner. Not a problem with PG assignment/accepting servers, but swamped with data from many calculated WUs

[7im]

I am sure any contingency plan to handle double the donors also handles double the donor's data.