I just wanted to give everyone an update on a distributed computing program that some Xterra owners are participating in.

Over at Grid.org, 22 of us from XOC are donating our spare computing cycles to the fight against cancer, as well as to combating bioterrorism by finding cures for anthrax and smallpox.

We created the Xterra Owners team two years ago and have done pretty well, donating over 16 years of processing time and returning over 13,000 results!

If you want to join the team or just come over and check us out, click the link below. No one gets paid for this work and of it is all done through donations by organizations like Accelrys, IBM, Oxford University, the National Foundation for Cancer Research, and others.

http://www.grid.org/services/teams/team.htm?id=E9AC9278-4D0B-48B5-974D-EB4DB04D38BB

Cool! Someone else joined. The statistics haven't updated yet - who was it?

Color me stupid, but I don't really understand how it works?

Simple. You download the client. Run it on your computer - it runs at low priority when your computer is idle. It downloads work units from a central server, completes them and then uploads them.

Distributed computing. 1,000's of computers make short work of complex computations.

Ah, no security issues or anything?

Nope. There was quite a fuss when SETI@Home first debuted over 8 years ago. If you are really concerned, there are proxies that will go between the client on your machine and the remote server to ensure that only work packets are being exchanged (they can also que up multiple work units).

I've run either SETI or now United Devices for years. While SETI is cool on a geek level (Search for Extra Terrestrial Inteligance) finding reactive protiens to hopefully cure cancer seems like a more worthwhile project to me.

That and I have had three friends in the last two years die from cancer

Thanks, sounds good!

Sorry to hear about your friends. I've lost a three friends from cancer too; and my Mother when I was 8. Also lost a friend to Diabetes. I try to help when I can.

I think most people have known someone who lost the battle with cancer, or at least who have had cancer and are in danger of being diagnosed with it again. That's why I donate my processing time to the cause.

My grandfather died of prostate cancer, my aunt has had breast cancer twice, and my mom is at a high risk for it due to family history. Plus, there are so many people out there who have to deal with it on a daily basis.

I volunteered in a cancer research laboratory for several years and for a plasma donation organization for a while. Those took a lot of time, but this doesn't take any!

I was just looking through the teams - there are some huge ones! The largest has accumulated 13,815 years of processing time. I think that's pretty amazing.

Here's the link:
http://www.grid.org/services/teams/team.htm?id=270E60B7-EC7B-4389-BA40-8C473D6C5A5B

The largest vehicle-related team seems to be for the Subaru Impreza owners. They have about 397 members:
http://www.grid.org/services/teams/team.htm?id=4B4667E4-95B8-4747-800F-F7E54398A3C2

Well, I joined last night, so maybe someday you'll get that many people in your group!

Errr, actually I just joined. I'm a dumbass and signed up last night but didn't actually join your group! I just assumed that it automatically did it.

I just put four systems on it.. will add another 3 or so today.

I joined... what the heck.

Thanks for joining, guys - we can at least be inside the top 1000 now.

Bump

You're up to 28.

No Mac version? Shame. I've got it on my PC (dual PIII 800), but the Mac (Dual G4 1ghz) would have been better.

We have another.

Thanks for joining, guys!

Interesting. Joined today, will add a few PCs this afternoon.

Just don't forget - there is some network traffic and drive space used by this stuff.. don't be suprised if your IT departments get PO'd if you go overboard at work doing this and forget to notify them...

-=RB

Yes, definitely get permission from supervisors before installing this on your work computer(s). I have heard stories of people getting in trouble or even fired for "stealing company processing time and bandwidth".

This team is huge - they have about 30,000 members more than the next largest team:

http://www.grid.org/services/teams/team.htm?id=270E60B7-EC7B-4389-BA40-8C473D6C5A5B

I guess if we get enough Xterra owners, we could pass them. How many Xterras has Nissan sold?

Edit: Wow - they have over 16,327 years of processing time.

Im in

Thanks for joining, Weasel!

Every time distributed computing, and specifically this cancer research project, is brought up, the Xterra Owners team grows. When I originally started this thread, we added five members and grew by about 23%. Since this thread was resurrected by Socalpunx, we've added eight members and grown by another 30%. I think it's pretty cool that people keep donating their computing time.

Let's grow another 30%!

I wanted to add this as a note:

If you have a connection that is not always on, such as dial-up rather than cable or DSL, you can cache more than one work unit at a time for the UD Agent. This way, your computer has work units to process even if your computer can't connect to the Internet at that moment.

See the thread on the Grid.org forums:
http://forum.grid.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=4849

I wanted to welcome ruger3717 to the team.