Distributed.net Joins United Devices

Nugget94M writes "distributed.net announced today that it is joining forces with United Devices, a commercial distributed computing company. Several of the distributed.net volunteers are trading in their old, boring day jobs for new jobs working on distributed computing with United Devices. The agreement between the two organizations provides for ports of current and future distributed.net projects to run on the United Devices commercial network, and provides distributed.net with server hardware (new stasbox!) and hosting services."

Comments

Pay

[Fervent]

Does this now mean Distributed.net will pay to use our computers for commercial services, like Popular Power?

Re:Pay

[SeanCier]

United Devices isn't planning to pay for compute (they have 'rewards' like frequent flyer miles) as far as I know. Nobody pays providers (people who run compute engines) directly yet; a few are planning to pay, and Parabon (disclaimer: my employer) is already running a sweepstakes, giving away $100/day + $1000/month to providers.

-spc

Can't resist

[JurriAlt137n]

Thanks to the sudden ubiquity of the internet, computer users can join forces in tackling great and seemingly insurmountable computational challenges - all while their computer sits idle.

The Internet, safe when used as directed.

Complementary Press Release

[Malicose]

United Devices has posted its own press release covering the same arrangement but with new quotes and details.

Competition with ProcessTree?

[Geek Dash Boy]

With ProcessTree getting their first paying client, is the timing of this annoucement a coincidence?

The annoucement claims that they'll distributed.net will continue on with non-profit biz as usual, but that could change at anytime.

The field of for-pay dist. computing is going to see some competition in the near future, methinks.

New projects

[SeanCier]

Others are doing new projects: for instance, Parabon (disclaimer: my employer) is doing cancer research, 3d rendering, bioinformatics (e.g. gene sequencing), et cetera (and anything you code up and run: our SDK is available).

-spc

Re:New projects

[cetan]

now that is funny. i point out a spammer and i get modded down. Sheesh, it really is true that most mod points go to morons.

Oxymoron?

[Stott]

Distriduted and United kind of like Postal and worker?

Just a thought.

OT Thread

[Karn]

I signed up for Process tree recently, and a question came to my mind:

How much does it cost to run your computer idle vs. pegged? I leave my 2 computers on always, and they are using some power, but the cpu's are idle. Has anyone ever researched this? I wonder if the amount of $$ it takes to keep my Duron 850 at 100% utilization for a month will be less than what companies like Process Tree will pay. I don't mind donating CPU cycles to charity (SETI) but I don't think I want to donate to a profit org.

Re:OT Thread

[wnissen]

I've been on the rc5 mailing list for distrbuted.net since fairly early in the rc5-56 contest, and this topic seems to come up every few months or so. If you look at the load on a single user linux machine, it's pretty low, .1 or something even for pretty heavy users. So almost all of the time it sits idle, meaning that it doesn't have to consume any power. The stuff for dnet is almost entirely CPU, so the power consumption from the disk, etc. is almost nil (neglecting the face that hard drives won't spin down due to checkpointing). So a naive calculation would be 30W * 24 hours * 365.25 days = 262980 W*h or 262 kWh. At ten or so cents per kWh, that's US$26 for a year of CPU time. Now, we can argue that the power supply isn't 100% efficient, or maybe you have a 1GhZ Athlon drawing 68 W, so it could be up to US$100 for power.

But look at it from the purchasing company's point of view: when you factor in the cost of maintaining all those computers, the fact that a US$2000 computer is worthless in 4 years, and multiply it all by 100-200% overhead, a year of CPU time is worth a lot. US$1000? It's worth even more in the context of a big computer. Look at the per-CPU price on the supercomputers on the top500 list! 10,000 CPUS for US$110M! Despite the fact that they're slower and one generation out of date, they're expensive in aggregate. Yes, a lot of what you pay for is communication between nodes or clusters, but the raw CPUs aren't cheap. I bet this sort of sale becomes very lucrative, although I am not entirely comfortable with dnet being the ones to do it.

Walt

Re: reimbursement

[James Manning]

Not at the present time, although Porivo Technologies has a sweepstakes running. This sweepstakes is currently a $2000 shopping spree from buy.com! Also, better than other sweepstakes that I've heard about, the second and third place winners even get $1000 themselves! I love great prizes :)

One of the nicest things I've noticed is that Porivo's client doesn't actually nail your CPU (and subsequently your power bill :) like other clients. Their main focus appears to be on Web site performance testing. Since I'm a big-time gamer that's much more interested in keeping my CPU free and latencies low, the very slight amount of bandwidth needed doesn't affect me. Combined with the bonus of a nicer sweepstakes prize, they've got me hooked :)

You may remember Porivo from their earlier coverage, here on Slashdot

Testing? What's that? If it compiles, it is good. If it boots up it is perfect -- Linus Torvalds

Re:About those other distributed computing project

[BovineOne]

Bringing the experience of greater platform support is one of many things that the distributed.net developers will immediately begin assisting United Devices with.

Re:Another good troll gets all melodramatic...

[cetan]

I agree. The parent to your comment is either paranoid, a troll, or just lacking intelligence. There is no "selling out" here. The founders of dnet have spent hundreds of unpaid hours building, enhancing and promoting distributed.net (along with lots of other people, yes) and now they get new and exciting jobs out of it... That's not selling out, that's fulfilling everyones dream. Do something cool, get noticed for it, and then get rewarded.

Re:Wow. Forget distributed.net

[cetan]

How could dnet, in keeping the same projects, getting support for new projects, getting a new stats server, getting more bandwidth, getting moneys for new projects, and getting more support /reduce/ your interest in them?

Either you're a troll or you're not very bright and need to re-read the press-release.

Re:Another 'good' np org sells out...

[American AC in Paris]

I gotta think long and hard about contributing to online projects nowadays. In the 'good old days', before the web and before script kiddies, the 'net was a place where it was more rewarding to give than receive, and people respected and appreciated the contributions of other, and the DIDN'T SELL OUT AND USE THE GIFT FOR PERSONAL FINANCIAL GAME! Make no mistake, the good old days are VERY over.

I don't know that I've ever seen somebody so angry at a group of people for trying to make a living out of what they do. It's not like they came to your house and shat on your doorstep; they're taking their own work and trying to get something more tangible than props from the geek community.

In the 'good old days' of the Internet, a good job meant a long term position at the local university helping to maintain their systems--the pay was OK, and it meant you got to play with the Internet, which was fun, seeing as you could talk to all the other sysops at the other universities on LambdaMOO. Stock options? Six-figure salaries? The ability to dictate terms to your employer at will? Bwa-hahahaha! Aww, that's cute. Now go over to the science building--the circuit breaker probably got tripped again...

But hey, don't let me stop you gnawing on that hand you got there...

$ man reality

I think that's an unfair description...

[Nugget94M]

I think that it's extremely unfair or uninformed to describe this as distributed.net "selling out". distributed.net is, and will always be, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit, tax-exempt organization. The projects and activities of distributed.net will continue to be cool, public-interest, and non-commercial in nature.

If you, as a distributed.net participant, are interested in running a commercial distributed computing client then you now have a way of doing that without turning your back on distributed.net, its community, and the past work you've performed. distributed.net will port its current and future projects to the UD platform, and you'll be able to download the UD agent software and continue to participate in RC5 or OGR alongside commercial projects. If you are as excited about the commercial potential of distributed computing as we are, then this will likely be a very attractive option to you. If, however, you're uninterested in the commercial applications for distributed computing (or your boss won't let you be interested in it on the company kit), then you can just continue to run the good, old dnetc cow and the only change you'll see is a faster, more reliable statsbox.

We are also optimistic that the support and assistance that this partnership can bring to distributed.net will also assist in its ability to develop and deploy new and exciting projects, which benefits everyone.

For me personally, it just means that I've traded in my old day job for a new day job which just happens to be something that I've enjoyed doing as an avocation for the past four years. For once, my day job will actually augment my contributions to distributed.net and not simply compete for my time and motivation. Finally being able to get paid to do the work I've been doing for free for so many years doesn't feel like "selling out" so much as it feels like a really great job.

If if you feel uncomfortable about my turning the work and time I've donated to distributed.net into an opportunity to work hard and contribute time into a commercial venture that I'm enthusiastic about, that doesn't change the mission, focus, and activities of the non-profit that has enjoyed your support and energies. distributed.net is larger than any of us, and will continue to be successful in its mission, hopefully with your continued support.