Slashdot Mirror
Distribute Stuff: Cosm Project's CS-SDK
Duncan3 writes: "After almost 3 months of public testing the Mithral Client-Server Software Development Kit is now officially out. The Mithral CS-SDK is a part of the Cosm Project which longtime slashdot readers will remember, and is fully buzzword-compliant with "distributed computing", "peer-to-peer", "file-sharing", and "cycle-sharing" - meaning you can easily build any of those types of applications in a weekend. So I expect to see slashdot readers put out at least 20 projects by next Thursday.
The Folding@home project based at Stanford has been running for a couple months now doing protein folding and uses the CS-SDK. You can visit them at and download their client software or OpenGL screensaver for Linux x86/Alpha, Tru64, and Win32." Interesting to see how mainstream distributed computing has become even in just the past 12 or so months. Fold proteins, find aliens, break crypto ... what else?
Maybe some of you will remember this article, reposted on alt.humor.best-of-usenet...
---------------
You may have heard or Echelon, the worldwide computer system that
monitors all electronic communications.
Well, don't believe what the conspiracy crackpots tell you - it does not
automatically detect messages containing sensitive keywords. Using voice
recognition software on all the data that's been recorded needs a lot of
computing power.
But now you can help. Download the new Echelon@Home screensaver - it
regularly retrieves recorded conversations from the archives at Menwith
Hill and, while your computer is idle, scans them for keywords.
If you want a copy of the screensaver, simply send a message with the
subject line "Echelon Wiretap" and you will be emailed a copy.
It doesn't matter who you send it to, we'll get the message.
----#('!(- ECHELON AUTOMAILER ----------
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
Karma Whore
<post type="lame">Mention XML</post>
I run LARGE analysis jobs on my workstation, which I would dearly love to foist on the other several hundred computers on our companies network. However, I am using canned stress analysis code (writing my own is not a true option) which I can not modify to take advantage of distributed computing techniques. I propose a program which emulates the hardware and allows NT or Linux or WHATEVER to be installed on it and then goes ahead and distributes work out to other computers as if they were merely more cpu's in parallel with the servers own... Can the boys and girls say 'cluster'? But this time only one cpu is always there, the others check in and out as their screen-savers switch on. Someone just go ahead and write this, I and many others would pay money for this sort of thing!!
Just out of curiousity, what hardware/software did you use to do that, I get bored sometimes and already have the software, any help would be appreciated :)
Someday I'll make devildog.org into something.
Someday I'll make
WWJD -- What Would Jimi Do?
WWJD -- What Would Jimi Do?
(Smash amp, burn guitar, take home the groupies)
All of the proteins in my body are already folded! And I didn't use even 1 computer to do it. In fact, I did it all before I even knew the word protein.
So, ha!
You never really know how close to the edge you can go until you fall off.
"That's all well and good, but searching ads doesn't require distributed computing. It requires 10 seconds on a 386."
There are other concerns where the distribution might help. For example, how many ad sites are out there with stale ads? By maintaining your own ad on your own "servlet" app, ads should be better maintained. If you don't want people looking for that used TV you were offering because you sold it, you nuke the ad on your machine. Presto! No more appearing in search results! Compare this with the week or so worth of phone calls in a paper after a sale, or the tendency for people to convieniently "forget" to delete an ad at, say, Excite after it has served its purpose.
Use of an appropriately flexible format (I work with XML, so I'm biased as some have noted, but whatever works...) can make this a reasonably effective "distributed classifieds", IMUO.
-TBHiX-
Not to nickpick, but shouldn't that be:
<poster type="Karma Whore">TBHiX<poster>
<post type="lame">Mention XML<post>
;)
-TBHiX- ;)
Who regularly gives up his seat on the bus to just about anyone, so I guess you're right.
I tried to build it and I get an error running the configure script:
./configure: line 1928: syntax error near unexpected token `;'
./configure: line 1928: ` for ac_config_dir in ; do'
Has anyone figured out how to fix this?
How about exploring the fundamental forces of nature and structure of the universe? That's what the GriPhyN project (Grid Physics Network) will be supporting. Some other related grid projects and forums can be found on the Links page.
Another good description of GriPhyN, maintained by one of the principle investigators, is here.
Hardware:
350mhz B&W G3 Mac - 192mb/15gig
Sony TRV900 Camera (great camera! a cheaper one chip camera would work just as well for digitizing though)
Apex 600A DVD player (with macrovision turned off - this is important)
Software:
Apple's Final Cut Pro (for editing. a great program!)
MediaCleaner (for compressing, kinda sucky but the best thing i've found)
Have fun!
Hacking SDMI (so that we can once again make legal fair use of purchased material). (That is, after it's been released and gone into use, of course...)
Generating .ogg's of every public domain bit of audio available and DivX:) recordings of every public domain video clip(old newsreels and such, for example) to be placed in a huge central repository somewhere to be preserved?
Seems like good use of clock-cycles to me...
Joe Sixpack is dead!
Hacker Public Radio is our Friend
As soon as I read the license I deleted the CVS tree from my disk. I don't even want to be tempted to use this thing with its current license.
It's called electricsheep - a distributed screensaver.
This one is called "electricsheep" and uses a distributed approach to preventing burn-in of your monitors. Looks pretty cool.
What else? Common! ID Software hasnt even *STARTED* development on CS-Quake!
anyone wanna take john and build a distributed password cracker from it ? john's still single threaded and single cpu based...and the hacks that turn it into distributed are fairly shitty and crash a lot.
CS now has a SDK?
A monkey is doing the real work for me.
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
My favorite distributed project is at http://www.mersenne.org where you can help find a mersenne prime number. If you are the first one to find a 10 million digit one you can win $55,000. It has support for Windows 95-2000 (& NT), Linux, FreeBSB, OS/2, DOS, and Windows 3.1. You can download it here.
When you first heard of random access memory, did you wonder how that could possibly be useful?
--
Fuck the system? Nah, you might catch something.
How about someone coming up with a decent distributed development environment. I mostly work on fairly large software systems (100's of source files) and there is no reason I should have to wait for more than a few seconds for a project to compile and link, especially when I have a largely untapped 100 megabit network and numerous computers setting around doing nothing 99% of the time. There's no reason source files couldn't be replicated over an entire compilation farm every time they are saved to disk and then when I kick off a build, I could have everything compiled almost immediately.
How about using some of that untapped processing power to help me develop code faster. It wouldn't be easy, but some real time code analysis tools might be pretty handy too.
Yeah! That's the aim of the InterSAINT Project! Imagine Artificial Neural Networks algorithms running in millions of distributed computers. They would learn from different data inputs to achieve good goals. There's also a mailing list for the project. NOTE: The power of all the computers connected to the Internet could now be very near to the power of one human brain (in terms of speed, memory,... ).
--
ACid
--
ACid
Calculate Pi, of course!
Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
If you really want to just edit and do compositing with DVD movies, you don't need to (and shouldn't) convert them to DivX. Just use them in as uncompressed a format as you can. Or if you have a DVD player that can output without copy protection (like the Apex), your best bet would be to record the svideo out directly to your DV camera, and then firewire that into your computer (along with the shots you made yourself). I did this with some shots from FightClub (to make an incredibly lame "Wassup" spoof), and the quality was great.
- Isaac =)
Here's a whole bunch. That'll be $14.95.
--
Does narcissism count as a hobby? --Shawn Latimer
hell yeah it would take forever. but why not?
ahh, but can you stop the acid from the command line? also, can your acid handle dpms mode? we must be concerned about saving power here.....
-------------------- the list is long. dirac angestung gesept
A distributed screen-saver! All these monitors that auto-power-off don't need to spend their precious CPU cycles on a screensaver for themselves, so use them to run a screensaver on another computer! Imagine how fluid a single screensaver coudl be if it has the processing power of twenty CPUs behind it? Imagine, real-time-rendered flying toasters! Video-quality fish! You could fly through space just like you see on Star Trek!
Now I can start gearing up for that Massive DDoS I've been dreaming about!
In addition to seeing a rise in internet-based distributed computing projects, Cosm (as I understand it) will enable companies to use their vast internal network for real-world business applications. This is pretty exciting stuff.
Now, if I could only convince my PHB...
In Soviet Russia...michael would be rotting in Siberia!
The Internet 2000 Sept 21 - In a bold move toward a new economy, Everquest has declared that they are releasing a new Distributed computing component, where-by those who wish can log-in and help the company make money at home, by racking up huge on-line times.
When asked for comment those ISPs and local connection carriers responded favoriably with AOL even going so far as to commit to include the component in their new release "AOL 6.6.6", Codenamed 'The Beast' and due out October 31st.
Most users responded favoriably saying "More Everquest?!? Must play!! Can not sleep!! Food irrelivent!!" before hanging up on this correspondent.
Anallyst agree that it could be a risky move and have docked Sony Entertainment 3 Fig Neutons as collateral, in case they are unable to make this new business model make oodles of money.
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
The Folding@home people are "currenty working on" a screensaver for Linux. Right now it's just console.
--
Linux MAPI Server!
http://www.openone.com/software/MailOne/
Linux MAPI Server!
http://www.openone.com/software/MailOne/
(Exchange Migration HOWTO coming soon)
It sounds really good, but an API is just an API, providing foundation for potential work.
-- Hob - Java Spectrum Emulator
Render visual effects for cool movies of course!
--
-- SIGFPE
It was mithril in the book.
Larger N American farms are increasingly using satellite generated scans of their fields to tweak fertilizer inputs, spot the extent of insect infestation, etc.
A distributed computing application could crunch the data from flybys of developing world farms, and deliver low bandwidth digests to info kiosks.
Ben Masel: 51,282 votes for US Senate in the Wisconsin Democratic Primary
It's 42...
We just need the question.
What about a Distributed Chess tournament? You could have competitions against teams (Team Slashdot vs. Team Microsoft) or all clients against one person like the Deep Blue chess matches.
The real question is this: what do people like so much that they would be HAPPY to give you free access to their cycles?
I'd say something that entertained them, or made them feel like they were helping change things for the better (hopefully both).
Having said this, it would appear to me that a few obvious uses of this technology would be in online gaming. You could have distributed updating & rendering of a complex vector+bitmap environment, or maybe running game AI routines that required a lot of brute-force. You might, for example have a distributed Deep Blue that could kick some Russian Grandmaster's ass like he was some moron from shop class.
You could also use distribution of work as an Anarchist's dream: thousands of computers around the world working to stick it to The Man (whoever that might be). I can't think of any applications off the top of my head, but I would LOVE to know that my screen-saver was amplifying the voice of the Fringe.
As a last example, there might be some Health-related tasks that people could help with. Imagine an Open Source bio-tech effort that hurt the Pharma giants they way it hurts the Software giants. This protein-folding thing is only the beginning: modeling molecular interactions to screen candidates for a new cancer drug might make people feel they were "helping". Wouldn't it give YOU a warm, fuzzy glow?
Anything I've missed?
I would really like to see atempts to implement Artificial Intelligence over the network. Maybe the concept of "agents" moving between several machines, learning from each user and environment... You could deply several small programs with individual functions, make them fight to achive some objective, and melt their characteristics using genetic algorithms, could work to try to find the optimum software for a specific task.
"Network functions" is just one group of functions among 17 other groups like memory, UI, CPU etc... :
"distributed computing", "peer-to-peer", "file-sharing", and "cycle-sharing"? Here is a whole list of functions to easily build any of those types of applications in a weekend
v3NetOpen v3NetSend v3NetRecv v3NetSendUDP v3NetRecvUDP v3NetListen v3NetAccept v3NetClose v3NetDNS v3NetRevDNS v3NetMyIP v3NetACLAdd v3NetACLDelete v3NetACLTest v3NetACLFree
What is buzzword-compliant around here?
$ which date
/bin/date
There you go.
heheh... New moderation option? (-1,Bad Pun) :-)
OtakuBooty.com: Smart, funny, sexy nerds.
It's gonna take a lot more than the world's spare computing cycles to do that for you, buddy...
Hi, Adam!
I do not deploy Linux. Ever.
"Fold proteins, find aliens, break crypto ... what else?"
How about a distributed system where a given site is listed at a central site, and then everyone uses their machine to slow it down some with a few to many data requests...
Oh, hang on - I'm already in this project (and so, dear reader, are you ;-)
Regards,
He who takes the time to smell the roses
Hey hey. I just was thinking the other day about how useful a distributed network would be for encoding DivX movies.. those things take FOREVER. We have a bunch of DVDs that we want in DivX so we can chop up the video and play with it (I have a digital camcorder and would love to try to put myself inside of "Die Hard", for example.)
I was going to look into it (just split the job up over my LAN inside my house here with 6 computers) and it seems the solution has come to me.. whoop! Anyone have any specific ideas how to go about making this distributed DivX encoding software quickly, now that this package is out?
--
The Mithral Client Server Software Development Kit allows developers to quickly and easily write large scale client-server applications including "distributed computing" and peer-to-peer types. Examples of what this will allow you to build with this technology are distributed.net, SETI@Home, Napster, Gnutella, and hundreds of other applications. The example code is an instance of an application that hands out work for the clients to do, then collects the results.
So will there now be [Number of Projects] * [Number of SETI@home users] users availiable now to run these programs, or will there be [Number of users] / [Number of projects] users, thus giving each project a fraction or the number or distributed computing users?
Or all programmers going to have to build thier own cluster of computers to run thier programs on?
Oh, that reminds me: Imagine a beowulf cluster of these (Or a beowulf cluster of clusters of these)!
Michael
...another comment from Michael Tandy.
"Goodness me, how unlike the FBI to abuse the trust of the American public." -- The Onion
Interesting to see how mainstream distributed computing has become even in just the past 12 or so months. Fold proteins, find aliens, break crypto ... what else?
What else?
HOW ABOUT FINDING ME A GOD DAMN DATE?
OtakuBooty.com: Smart, funny, sexy nerds.
Hmmm... good questions. Wanna brainstorm on this thread?
Believe it or not, I'm wondering if you could run a dating service or people-locator using a distibuted approach and, say, XML format. Create a file describing oneself and what/who they are seeking, then let the servers pass your profile around. If your "seeking" tags match someone's "is" tags, that profile is shuffled to you and yours is shuffled to the match.
Man, I've mixed too much coffee and Yahoo Chat to have come up with that little frivolity... ;) Mind you, it doesn't have to be dating... employer/employee matching, activity planning ( seeking=rock concert when=yadda where=New York, etc), and similar things. All you have to agree on is the XML file format. (And the software can always hide the grubby details...)
-TBHiX-
The Answer!
To Life... The Universe.. Everything!
wish
Vote for freedom!
---
MPAA lawyers issued a cease-and-desist letter to the makers of the piracy tool Mithral which, it is claimed, allows pirates to encode Divx copies of DVD films in only 20 seconds by using all of the bandwidth of the internet.
In related news, the RIAA has gone after Compaq, Dell, IBM and HP, manufacturers of the widely-used piracy tool the personal computer. Jack Valenti, spokesdroid of the media-industrial complex, said today that 'these cases are another example of our zero-tolerance policy towards anyone threatening our inalienable right to foist N-Sync on an unsuspecting public. Anyone who resists will be ruthlessly crushed. We shall firewall them at the routers, we will firewall them on the servers, we will firewall them on their PCs but we will never, never surrender.....our right to abuse our market-position as we see fit'
Hmmm, maaaaaybe. Rendering a final, finished frame is out of the question. If the scene they're rendering requires, say, 300mb of textures... you'd need to D/L all 300MB in order to render that frame. Also, people would find a way to hack the returned stream to grab screenshots of movies before they're released...
But maybe there's a way to have distributed clients work with some other CPU-intensive aspect of the rendering process. Radiosity calculations would be a good candidate! You wouldn't need to DL all the textures-- just the wireframe models, surface attribute info, and lighting info.
That's still a lot of bandwidth, but it might actually be feasible with broadband connections...whatever... :)
OtakuBooty.com: Smart, funny, sexy nerds.
As i recall, Mithral was a metal (to make mithral chain mail) in the Hobbit....As i recall, it was also the strongest and the best of all the chain mails....Is this in some way symbolic of the program itself? Or do we have some bored geeks that were running out of names and had just read LOTR recently?
The anti-salmon
He said you should be able to write a program over the weekend. That is assuming you have already written the software, and want to make it client-server. Otherwise, it's going to take you months of design and architecture just like any other program...
If you do convert existing programs to use this software, you better have written it, because it's not compatible with the GPL (yet? They mentioned a dual license in the future):
You may NOT make any change, removal or additions to the Software's underlying protocols or APIs without the prior written permission of Licensor.
You will use your best efforts to discontinue the use and distribution of earlier versions of the Software once a new version, update or upgrade is available. You will also use your best efforts to distribute such new version, update or upgrade to any third party to whom you may have distributed an earlier version.
I think it may have been a rendered, distributed flame fractal.