Slashdot Mirror
PS3 Downtime To Fight Disease
Aerenel writes, "CNN reports that Sony has teamed up with Folding@home to use the PS3 to study how proteins are formed in the human body and how they sometimes form incorrectly. From the article: 'Donating [a gamer's] PS3's down time to researchers could help cure Alzheimer's, Parkinson's or mad cow disease.' PS3 users will be able to download a software package that tracks when the PS3 is not being used. While gamers are in school, at work, or asleep, their system's Cell processor can be used to perform simulations for research organizations. The PS3, due in November, has gotten serious negative press in the past few months, and this refreshing good news may win back the hearts of gamers still undecided about purchasing the system."
This definitely seems like a good thing. But I wonder, will gamers really let that influence their purchasing decisions? Honestly, I have my doubts.
Basilisk Digital
Well, I guess when all else fails, they can always go for the pity angle. "Oh!! Please help us ingrain Blu-Ray! We're fighting DISEASE!"
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
Don't forget shortening the useful life of the PS3 itself!
RTFA. It's on a voluntary basis. If you don't like it, don't do it. But it certainly is nice to have the possibility, and, as it seems, officially approved by Sony.
Basilisk Digital
Do I have Alzheimer's, or did I read about this last month?
The PS3, due in November, has gotten serious negative press in the past few months, and this refreshing good news may win back the hearts of gamers still undecided about purchasing the system."
If I'm already ambivalent about spending that much money on a game system, the question "What will the game system, which I bought to play games, do when I'm not playing games on it?" is not likely to be a significant influence on my decision.
Well, this article is kind of a dupe but the CNN article has a lot of new information.
One of tidbits is that the researchers have to dumb down the PC distributed version so that it runs on even the slowest computer. In fact, they have to play to the lowest common denominator. With the PS3, it's standardized so they can inch out every bit of performance from the chipset. On top of that, they know there will only be on GPU so they can write the renderer for that and you'll see the protein folding on your screen. It will look all science-y and you can navigate around it. People might like this as a screen saver or conversation piece. The researchers are also hoping that it attracts people to also install it on their computers to aid in this endeavor.
My work here is dung.
Well, to be fair, the bandwidth is probably minimal and, in cold seasons, the power consumption will just turn into heat and make itself slightly useful.
From the summary, it sounds like this will be something you can download if you want to, just like it is on the PC. I don't think people who don't run Folding@Home are often attacked for being horrible people who support cancer.
I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.
I'm going to pay $600 so I can run a second copy of something that's already spinning away on my PC right now?
No, you are going to pay $600 to play games and run Linux on a Cell processor. The F@H thing is just a perk that you can either use to double (or quadruple) what you are doing on your PC right now or not. If you pay $600 for a PS3 just to do F@H, you are an idiot.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
...will be built using a cluster of PS3s.
This cluster will be able to help cure cancer AND allow Madden 2007 to play an entire season in three minutes.
I'm waiting for the project that will have me use all of the spare time for my incredibly overpowered home CPUs (and with it ample amounts of electricity) to 'fight global warming'!
It's only a matter of time until they reveal their new slogan: "PS3. Won't somebody think of the children?".
--- witty signature
Yes, it would cost electricity but most likely only a few dollars a month, not $750 a year and most likely wouldn't burn out the electricy grid.
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
Have you read anything about Folding@home before you started criticizing it? It is run by a public university, not a privately-held organization. The university will not profit from the research. If you can't bother to learn about the project, at least read it's FAQ.
If so, buying a PS3 could pay for itself over time. Seriously, I would signup, have them e-mail me CPU usage statistics muliplied by an industry standard rate as a reciept. They're happy to have CPU cycles, I'm happy to have the tax deduction.
Now if that's the case, can something similar be done with other CPU cycle donations to other projects? I have a multi-core server that spends most of its time idle. Might as well put to some use, eh?
We're all hypocrites. We all have hidden parts, it's the contrast between them that make us more a hypocrite than others
> Because privately held research would like to use my PS3 for free and then make money from it when
> they discover something - without any intention to charge less $$ for the treatment / cure in
> exchange for all this free computing?
Once a medical discovery is made it doesn't go away. Yes, it is a money tree for YEARS for the company with the patents. YES, a lot of the research was paid for by others. NO, they won't share. YES, they will charge an insane amount for it.
But a new treatment is A NEW TREATMENT. A cure is a CURE. Stop being so goddamned cynical and take one up the rear for the good of mankind once in a while.
And yes, I'm serious. Mod me down if you must though, I'll understand.
Riiiight.. because the heating/cooling cycles of electronic equipment being turned on and off repeatedly is *much* better for it.
At least try to come up with a valid reason to not use it.
I agree that 500W is a little much, but according to this page the 360 takes 145W. I'd imagine the PS3 to be similar.
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
Uh, you aren't allowing Sony to use your spare cycles, you're allowing Folding@Home (or more broadly, Stanford University's Pande Group) to use your spare cycles. And they are a non-profit organization who releases their findings for free. So, yes, you as part of the public can access the information you helped discover for free.
Even if Sony WAS a scientific conglomerate trying to find a cure, would you really want to put a hamper on reducing millions of deaths just because you don't want them to earn money? Please avoid discarding your common sense in favor of bashing a corporation you don't like. Oh, wait, this is Slashdot.
When I can run GCC on it without using rare, expensive add-on hardware that Sony quickly discontinues *cough*PS2 Linux*cough*, then it's a computer. Until then, it's a locked-in console.