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Put Your Computer to Work

Submitted by: M_Goat
Created: Aug 2, 2006, 7:29 pm

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The Idea

Commercialize grid based processing to offer super computing horsepower with micro payments to contributors. Based on the success of grid based computing used by SETI, Cancer Research, and others; create a framework for computer owners to harness idle computing cycles for problem solving. Then, once a large network of users is available, sell number crunching and pattern matching services and channel the proceeds (after expenses) back to the grid contributors. Micro payments could be in cash or reward points redeemable for merchandise / goodies. Cash payments would be small (fractions of pennies) but it would be nice for users to see a growing pile of funds/points from their computers idle time. Create some competition for the most cycles contributed, a community web site of network statistics (billions of CPU cycles, years of computer processing) and the computing problems solved.

I thought of this idea when I was...

Reading Alvin Toffler?s ?Revolutionary Wealth? book discussion the concept of ?Prosumers? people who both produce and consume goods and services. A trend that, according to Toffler, is set to explode. Another way to think of it is a legalized bot-net, using only idle time, to do good work for approved projects. If there are millions of PC?s switched on and idle, think of the processing power going to waste. Many similarities to the Cambrian House model of distributed co-operation & royalty points. Hopefully ?techy? enough to generate passionate contributors from the Open Source / Crowdsource arena.

Comments Posted

weasel Posted: August 3, 2006, 2:48 pm

Sounds like a really good idea I'd actually use; a lot of effort would have to be made, however, to write the software to implement it. I'd be very interested to see how this pans out.

LogicX Posted: August 3, 2006, 4:28 pm

Good idea -- you just need to make it compete with things sun as the Sun Grid Cluster:
http://www.sun.com/service/grid/

Their model is $1/CPU-Hr
so, if you can be competitive under that price, and people are still interested, its all good.

Can anyone tell me power consumption differences on a PC idle vs 100% CPU? is it anything to care about?

Mongo Posted: August 8, 2006, 2:20 pm

you beat me to it I think, I have a similar idea. O well voted for your since it had been around longer:)

scrollinondubs Posted: December 17, 2006, 10:14 am

yes, this is an excellent idea and i don't know who was first but there are a couple versions of this already floating around CH. search ideas for "seti."

I made a handful of comments on what needs to be solved on this one->
http://www.cambrianh...ter/ideas-id/bTkppdQ

If this could be pulled off it would be extremely valuable. Expose the service in such a way that render systems and statistical packages could directly send jobs to the cloud. Once you've done that, you have disrupted an already disruptive technology- the new Amazon EC2 service...I wonder how dispute resolution will work if one of these gets selected... they're all the same essential idea.

This would comment the distributed virtual renderfarm perfectly if it existed.
nice. voting it up.

sean

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