Hello all, just wondering if anybody does anything with "distributed computing" projects. Specifically the "BOINC" project. It's designed
to let you contribute your computer's "wasted" CPU cycles for something beneficial. If you have any computers that are always on but not really
doing all that much, they might be a good candidate for something like
this. I've been doing the projects known as "Einstein" and "Universe"
for a couple of years now, and maybe they've gotten some benefit from
it. In my case I have an Raspberry Pi 4 running for some random tasks
like periodic dynamic DNS updates, idling in some IRC channels, sending
me some automated reminder emails from cron jobs, and working on the
BOINC projects. Most of these tasks run in TMUX windows/panes, so I can detach from them and they continue running until I re-attach and
check/use them again. Very handy to just SSH back into the RPi and
resume where I left off.

Anyway, if you have, or are, also participating with BOINC, I'd like to
hear about it. It's one of those things that can make you feel like
maybe you've done a little bit of good in advancing some scientific
research. Kind of satisfying stuff.

If you're interested in some more info on this, their website is here: https://boinc.berkeley.edu/


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Re: The BOINC Project
By: Gamgee to All on Sat Jul 16 2022 07:15 pm

Hello all, just wondering if anybody does anything with "distributed computing" projects. Specifically the "BOINC" project. It's designed

Anyway, if you have, or are, also participating with BOINC, I'd like to hear about it. It's one of those things that can make you feel like
maybe you've done a little bit of good in advancing some scientific research. Kind of satisfying stuff.

I've used BOINC for a long time, on and off. And when you say "the BOINC project", there isn't just one single project using BOINC, there are many distributed computing projects using BOINC. BOINC is just a framework & program to manage computational workloads distributed by various projects.

In 1999 (even before BOINC), I had heard about SETI@Home, a distributed computing project for analyzing radio signals from the Arecibo Observatory to find patterns that might indicate signals coming from intelligent extraterrestrial civilizations. SETI@Home had their own distributed computing software, and eventually they decided to change that and it became BOINC. BOINC is now used to manage other distributed computing projects - SETI@Home was one that was available through BOINC for a long time, but SETI@Home decided to stop distributing work units a couple years ago.

With BOINC, I had also signed up for a couple other projects, including Rosetta@Home (for analyzing 3-dimensional protien shapes, to help with finding vaccines), World Community Grid (similarly, to analyze medical data related to disease research), and others.

I've basiclaly been involved with BOINC projects on and off since BOINC started. In 2019, when I built my current desktop PC, I chose a fairly high-end consumer CPU and dedicated graphics card because I wanted to continue running BOINC projects. It can generate significant heat with your PC though, as it can push your PC to its limits. That's one reason I don't run it all the time (plus, of course, it can push up your electric bill).

Nightfox

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Nightfox wrote to Gamgee <=-

Re: The BOINC Project
By: Gamgee to All on Sat Jul 16 2022 07:15 pm

Hello all, just wondering if anybody does anything with "distributed computing" projects. Specifically the "BOINC" project. It's designed

Anyway, if you have, or are, also participating with BOINC, I'd like to hear about it. It's one of those things that can make you feel like
maybe you've done a little bit of good in advancing some scientific research. Kind of satisfying stuff.

I've used BOINC for a long time, on and off. And when you say
"the BOINC project", there isn't just one single project using
BOINC, there are many distributed computing projects using BOINC.
BOINC is just a framework & program to manage computational
workloads distributed by various projects.

Yes, I know. Probably not the right choice of words there on my part.
BOINC is sort of an umbrella or gathering point for projects.

I've basiclaly been involved with BOINC projects on and off since
BOINC started. In 2019, when I built my current desktop PC, I
chose a fairly high-end consumer CPU and dedicated graphics card
because I wanted to continue running BOINC projects. It can
generate significant heat with your PC though, as it can push
your PC to its limits. That's one reason I don't run it all the
time (plus, of course, it can push up your electric bill).

Yes, it can really give the computer a workout. You probably know this,
but for others' info - the amount of CPU/GPU load can be configured and limited as you see fit. I keep mine at about "half-load", meaning that
at any given time, 2 of the 4 cores can be operating at 100% capacity.
That leaves enough resources available for other tasks. Obviously the
more powerful the computer is, the more "work" can be done per day.

Thanks for the reply, Nightfox!



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Re: The BOINC Project
By: Nightfox to Gamgee on Sat Jul 16 2022 05:44 pm

Re: The BOINC Project
By: Gamgee to All on Sat Jul 16 2022 07:15 pm

Hello all, just wondering if anybody does anything with "distributed computing" projects. Specifically the "BOINC" project. It's designed

Anyway, if you have, or are, also participating with BOINC, I'd like to hear about it. It's one of those things that can make you feel like maybe you've done a little bit of good in advancing some scientific research. Kind of satisfying stuff.

I've used BOINC for a long time, on and off. And when you say "the BOINC pr orkloads distributed by various projects.

In 1999 (even before BOINC), I had heard about SETI@Home, a distributed comp Home had their own distributed computing software, and eventually they decid SETI@Home decided to stop distributing work units a couple years ago.

With BOINC, I had also signed up for a couple other projects, including Rose thers.

I've basiclaly been involved with BOINC projects on and off since BOINC star generate significant heat with your PC though, as it can push your PC to its

Nightfox

I never had the bandwidth to participate with distributed computing. Living
in the boondocks sucks.

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Re: The BOINC Project
By: Gamgee to All on Sat Jul 16 2022 07:15 pm

Hello all, just wondering if anybody does anything with "distributed computing" projects. Specifically the "BOINC" project. It's designed

My primary computer runs Fedora and I'm currently running Folding@Home which I believe runs on top of Boinc. I haven't checked into my stats on it for a while but have been running it mostly non-stop for a couple years now.
Don't know how much it helps if at all, but I love the concept of it. -----------------------
CDP
- The Diamond Mine BBS
-----------------------

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CDP wrote to Gamgee <=-

Hello all, just wondering if anybody does anything with "distributed computing" projects. Specifically the "BOINC" project. It's designed

My primary computer runs Fedora and I'm currently running
Folding@Home which I believe runs on top of Boinc. I haven't
checked into my stats on it for a while but have been running it
mostly non-stop for a couple years now. Don't know how much it
helps if at all, but I love the concept of it.

That's excellent! I didn't realize F@H had it's own client software,
may have to look further into that. Thanks for helping and for your
reply!



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Re: The BOINC Project
By: Moondog to Nightfox on Sun Jul 17 2022 01:39 am

I never had the bandwidth to participate with distributed computing. Living in the boondocks sucks.

I didn't think most of the distributed computing projects required much bandwidth. When I first started doing SETI@Home, I had dialup internet with a 56K modem.

Nightfox

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Re: The BOINC Project
By: CDP to Gamgee on Sun Jul 17 2022 01:40 pm

My primary computer runs Fedora and I'm currently running Folding@Home which I believe runs on top of Boinc. I haven't checked into my stats on it for a while but have been running it mostly non-stop for a couple years now. Don't know how much it helps if at all, but I love the concept of it.

My main concern with running distributed computing projects (with BOINC etc.) is how hot my computer gets. I have decent cooling, but I still get nervous about having my computer run so hot for too long, especially in the summer when it can be a little more difficult to keep the temperature down. I also wonder if doing so could make my CPU or GPU prematurely fail at some point.

Nightfox

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Nightfox wrote to CDP <=-

My primary computer runs Fedora and I'm currently running Folding@Home which I believe runs on top of Boinc. I haven't checked into my stats on it for a while but have been running it mostly non-stop for a couple years now. Don't know how much it helps if at all, but I love the concept of it.

My main concern with running distributed computing projects (with
BOINC etc.) is how hot my computer gets. I have decent cooling,
but I still get nervous about having my computer run so hot for
too long, especially in the summer when it can be a little more
difficult to keep the temperature down. I also wonder if doing
so could make my CPU or GPU prematurely fail at some point.

Again, you can (easily) configure the software as to how much
CPU/GPU/Mem/HD it is allowed to use. I run mine at 50% loading (CPU)
and it runs only slightly warmer than when idling. It runs at about 53 degrees (C), and when idling it's about 43. The warning limit for that
system is at 105C, so it's nowhere near anything dangerous. Setting the
usage lower would decrease that temperature rise even more. Really not
an issue in my opinion.


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Re: Re: The BOINC Project
By: Gamgee to Nightfox on Mon Jul 18 2022 02:33 pm

My main concern with running distributed computing projects (with
BOINC etc.) is how hot my computer gets. I have decent cooling,
but I still get nervous about having my computer run so hot for
too long, especially in the summer when it can be a little more
difficult to keep the temperature down. I also wonder if doing
so could make my CPU or GPU prematurely fail at some point.

Again, you can (easily) configure the software as to how much CPU/GPU/Mem/HD it is allowed to use. I run mine at 50% loading (CPU)
and it runs only slightly warmer than when idling. It runs at about 53 degrees (C), and when idling it's about 43. The warning limit for that system is at 105C, so it's nowhere near anything dangerous. Setting the usage lower would decrease that temperature rise even more. Really not
an issue in my opinion.

That's true. I do have it set to not use 100% of my PC, but I just like to feel like I'm making good use of my PC with the software I run. Maybe I'll try lowering its usage even more.

Nightfox

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Re: Re: The BOINC Project
By: Nightfox to Gamgee on Mon Jul 18 2022 02:56 pm

That's true. I do have it set to not use 100% of my PC, but I just like to feel like I'm making good use of my PC with the software I run. Maybe I'll try lowering its usage even more.

I definitely feel like BOINC and other distributed computing projects are well suited to low-power, highly efficient mini-PCs, like the Arduinos or the Raspberry Pis. I have a few of those laying about and may dedicate one to this sort of selfless pursuit.

Thanks for sharing!
_____
-=: Kaelon :=-

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Re: The BOINC Project
By: Nightfox to CDP on Mon Jul 18 2022 08:23 am

My main concern with running distributed computing projects (with BOINC etc.) is how hot my computer gets. I have decent cooling, but I still get nervous about having my computer run so hot for too long, especially in the summer when it can be a little more difficult to keep the temperature down. I also wonder if doing so could make my CPU or GPU prematurely fail at some point.

Nightfox

How early do you consider "premature"?

They should be able to run warm for quite some time without issues. They would more likely faily due to repeated heating/cooling cycles, than through staying warm.

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Re: Re: The BOINC Project
By: Kaelon to Nightfox on Mon Jul 18 2022 03:25 pm

That's true. I do have it set to not use 100% of my PC, but I just
like to feel like I'm making good use of my PC with the software I
run. Maybe I'll try lowering its usage even more.

I definitely feel like BOINC and other distributed computing projects are well suited to low-power, highly efficient mini-PCs, like the Arduinos or the Raspberry Pis. I have a few of those laying about and may dedicate one to this sort of selfless pursuit.

I'm not sure if I'd say they're best suited for computers like that.. The projects I've been running lately can max out my Intel CPU and make good use of my Nvidia graphics card. You could potentially run BOINC projects on any system though. I imagine the tasks might take quite a bit longer on a Raspberry Pi or Arduino machine though.

Nightfox

---
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Re: Re: The BOINC Project
By: Nightfox to Kaelon on Mon Jul 18 2022 06:10 pm

I definitely feel like BOINC and other distributed computing projects are well suited to low-power, highly efficient mini-PCs, like the Arduinos or the Raspberry Pis. I have a few of those laying about and may dedicate one to this sort of selfless pursuit.

I'm not sure if I'd say they're best suited for computers like that.. The projects I've been running lately can max out my Intel CPU and make good use of my Nvidia graphics card. You could potentially run BOINC projects on any system though. I imagine the tasks might take quite a bit longer on a Raspberry Pi or Arduino machine though.

For some of these projects, a lot of the work is carried out by the graphics card, using CUDA/OpenCL and the like. As these devices have very low powered graphics card, the contribution would be much less.

Not saying is it not worthwhile, but what you achieve will be more a sense of self-satisfaction than any significant computation.

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Re: Re: The BOINC Project
By: Boraxman to Nightfox on Tue Jul 19 2022 11:56 am

I'm not sure if I'd say they're best suited for computers like that..
The projects I've been running lately can max out my Intel CPU and
make good use of my Nvidia graphics card. You could potentially run
BOINC projects on any system though. I imagine the tasks might take
quite a bit longer on a Raspberry Pi or Arduino machine though.

For some of these projects, a lot of the work is carried out by the graphics card, using CUDA/OpenCL and the like. As these devices have very low powered graphics card, the contribution would be much less.

Yes, a couple of the projects I've been a part of have versions that run on Nvidia cards. With a graphics card in a desktop PC, they can usually get the task done within minutes, whereas the CPU-bound tasks can take many hours.

Nightfox

---
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Boraxman wrote to Nightfox <=-

I definitely feel like BOINC and other distributed computing projects are well suited to low-power, highly efficient mini-PCs, like the Arduinos or the Raspberry Pis. I have a few of those laying about and may dedicate one to this sort of selfless pursuit.

I'm not sure if I'd say they're best suited for computers like that.. The projects I've been running lately can max out my Intel CPU and make good use of my Nvidia graphics card. You could potentially run BOINC projects on any system though. I imagine the tasks might take quite a bit longer on a Raspberry Pi or Arduino machine though.

For some of these projects, a lot of the work is carried out by
the graphics card, using CUDA/OpenCL and the like. As these
devices have very low powered graphics card, the contribution
would be much less.

The use of the graphics card is completely optional and configurable. Generally speaking, it's only possible on fairly high-end Nvidia and AMD/Radeon discrete graphics cards. So, as you said, on a Raspberry Pi,
the "GPU" is not even an option to be used.

Not saying is it not worthwhile, but what you achieve will be
more a sense of self-satisfaction than any significant
computation.

This is absolutely true. The stronger the computer being used, the more
work will be done per given time period. The sense of satisfaction for contributing is not necessarily tied to the amount of work done, though.
:-)



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Nightfox wrote to Kaelon <=-

That's true. I do have it set to not use 100% of my PC, but I just
like to feel like I'm making good use of my PC with the software I
run. Maybe I'll try lowering its usage even more.

I definitely feel like BOINC and other distributed computing projects are well suited to low-power, highly efficient mini-PCs, like the Arduinos or the Raspberry Pis. I have a few of those laying about and may dedicate one to this sort of selfless pursuit.

I'm not sure if I'd say they're best suited for computers like
that.. The projects I've been running lately can max out my
Intel CPU and make good use of my Nvidia graphics card. You
could potentially run BOINC projects on any system though. I
imagine the tasks might take quite a bit longer on a Raspberry Pi
or Arduino machine though.

The projects can run on a wide variety of platforms and their
corresponding differences in computing power. Yes, the stronger
computers contribute more work per day, but one of the fundamental
principles of this kind of thing is that "every little bit helps".

I think the tasks allocated to the various platforms/architectures vary
with relation to the computing ability. The two projects I'm currently working on my RPi (Einstein and Universe) tend to have work segments
that take about 4-5 hours to complete.


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Re: Re: The BOINC Project
By: Gamgee to Nightfox on Tue Jul 19 2022 07:56 am

The projects can run on a wide variety of platforms and their corresponding differences in computing power. Yes, the stronger
computers contribute more work per day, but one of the fundamental principles of this kind of thing is that "every little bit helps".

I think the tasks allocated to the various platforms/architectures vary with relation to the computing ability. The two projects I'm currently working on my RPi (Einstein and Universe) tend to have work segments
that take about 4-5 hours to complete.

That's probably true.. They can detect what platform you're running on and I imagine they probably tailor the work units to the platform.

Nightfox

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Re: The BOINC Project
By: Nightfox to Moondog on Mon Jul 18 2022 07:59 am

Re: The BOINC Project
By: Moondog to Nightfox on Sun Jul 17 2022 01:39 am

I never had the bandwidth to participate with distributed computing. Living in the boondocks sucks.

I didn't think most of the distributed computing projects required much band

Nightfox

I can't imagine getting much done over dialup. The best connection I could
get was about 33k baud.

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Re: Re: The BOINC Project
By: Kaelon to Nightfox on Mon Jul 18 2022 03:25 pm

Re: Re: The BOINC Project
By: Nightfox to Gamgee on Mon Jul 18 2022 02:56 pm

That's true. I do have it set to not use 100% of my PC, but I just like feel like I'm making good use of my PC with the software I run. Maybe I' try lowering its usage even more.

I definitely feel like BOINC and other distributed computing projects are we it.

Thanks for sharing!
_____
-=: Kaelon :=-

Wouldn't a full sized pc with a more powerful cpu and larger memory benefit distributed computing? Your pc can fold all night while you sleep and during the day when you're at work

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Re: The BOINC Project
By: Nightfox to CDP on Mon Jul 18 2022 08:23 am

My main concern with running distributed computing projects (with BOINC etc.

Anecdotal evidence, of course, but I mined a ton of Dogecoin back in 2013/2014, and none of those machines suffered any ill effects. Some of that
hardware is still in use today.

(Unrelated, but even if they had developed issues, the money I made by selling during the boom a few years back would have been totally worth it.)

o
(O)
BeLLy

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Moondog wrote to Kaelon <=-

That's true. I do have it set to not use 100% of my PC, but I just like feel like I'm making good use of my PC with the software I run. Maybe I' try lowering its usage even more.

I definitely feel like BOINC and other distributed computing projects are we it.

Wouldn't a full sized pc with a more powerful cpu and larger
memory benefit distributed computing?

Yes, it would. It can do more "work" per day than a lesser computer.
But, that doesn't mean the lesser computer isn't also benefitting the project(s). That's the whole point of distributed computing, you get a
lot of individual contributions that add up to something powerful, and
every little bit helps.

Your pc can fold all night while you sleep and during the day when
you're at work

Yes, that's the idea, no matter how powerful the computer is.



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Re: The BOINC Project
By: Nightfox to CDP on Mon Jul 18 2022 08:23 am

My main concern with running distributed computing projects (with BOINC etc. ore difficult to keep the temperature down. I also wonder if doing so could

Nightfox

I've had the occasional issue in the past that I'm not 100% sure I can chalk up to the Folding@Home software but I suspect may have been. When my system does start bogging I chalk it up to that or the Microsoft Teams. When I quit out of Teams for a while I notice performance seems to get better.

The plus side at least with the package I'm running (and if I remember correctly I think Boinc in general allows for this) you can throttle how much the cpu is used so that if it's dragging your system you can have it only run when it is idle (instead of all the time). That should help address performance issues.
-----------------------
CDP
- The Diamond Mine BBS
-----------------------

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Belly wrote to Nightfox <=-

Anecdotal evidence, of course, but I mined a ton of Dogecoin back in 2013/2014, and none of those machines suffered any ill effects. Some of that hardware is still in use today.

Oh, those were the days - I mined bitcoin in my spare time on a low-end GPU back in 2010 or so, and was shocked to see how much it was worth at the
peak.

I should call the profits 'compensation for wear and tear' and buy a nice
new system. :)


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Re: Re: The BOINC Project
By: poindexter FORTRAN to Belly on Wed Jul 20 2022 07:11 am

I should call the profits 'compensation for wear and tear' and buy a nice new system. :)

I put $10k of it towards a new car for my wife, and some more towards one for me.

o
(O)
BeLLy

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