The BBC's Distributed Climate Prediction

CongoJoe writes "The BBC has teamed up with Oxford University to conduct the world's most ambitious climate modeling experiment." From the article: "Trying to predict climate change is hard. There are lots of factors involved - air temperature, sea temperature and cloud cover all play a part - as do dozens of other variables. Therefore, there are a huge number of calculations involved ... Using a technique known as distributed computing, we're hoping to harness the power of thousands of PCs around the world. If 10,000 people sign up, we'll be faster than the world's biggest computer. And we're hoping to be even better than that."

Comments

outsourcing

[reptilian biotech]

I am concerned about sending my spare CPU time overseas, i mean, they say they are "climate modeling", but could they not just as easily be selling this "distributed" computer network to the black market, or Iran, or doing nuclear weapons simulations?

I mean, they ARE british, and you all know what happened last time they got their hands on a bunch of CPU time- that poor kursk...

How bout the dental hygene simulator project?

sorry, just had to rip on some of my brit friends today :)

Re:I wonder what would happen

[j-cloth]

So, 10.1 million computers would be 1.21 gigawatts! But the only power source capable of generating 1.21 gigawatts of electricity is a bolt of lightning. Unfortunately, you never know when or where it's ever gonna strike.