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MacResearch Introduces OpenMacGrid

Posted by kdawson on

Drew McCormack writes "MacResearch.org has just introduced OpenMacGrid. It is a distributed computing grid similar to SETI@home, but unlike other networks, it is built up entirely of Macs utilizing Xgrid, and access is unrestricted. Anyone with Mac OS X 10.4 can donate cycles, and any scientist with a reasonable project can burn cycles."

8 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. Trojans? by Max+Romantschuk · · Score: 2, Interesting
    From the disclaimer:
    http://www.macresearch.org/contribute_to_openmacgr id

    By contributing an agent to OpenMacGrid you recognize that third parties will be running software applications on your system. MacResearch.org, will make every attempt to ensure that third party applications are safe for execution on contributed systems (agents), but in no way will MacResearch.org or its affiliates be held liable for any damage to your system resulting from participation in OpenMacGrid. It is the responsibility of the person contributing the agent to ensure that they have permission to use the system in such a fashion.


    So, Xgrid-experts, what kind of permissions does an application like this have? Is it sandboxed somehow?
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    .: Max Romantschuk :: http://max.romantschuk.fi/
  2. Curious indeed by agent+dero · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I went ahead and signed up (what can I say, I'm a sucker for science) but I'm really hoping they make it clear what will be running on the agents.

    One thing quite curious, the "introduction" images are almost direct yanks from xgrid@stanfard including the Dashboard widget the push as their own from the xgrid widget SDK linked with the xgrid@stanford project as well.

    Should be interesting how this shapes up. 91 total agents right now, 0 working :-P

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    Error 407 - No creative sig found
  3. /. effect good? by ljaguar · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I just configured my ibook following the simple instructions here.

    Dead simple. The process is still running at 0.0% so i guess i haven't been assigned anything yet.

    First time that /. effect is beneficial to those involved!

  4. Missing the point by Anthonares · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The comments so far have (mostly) overlooked the main point of just why the OpenMacGrid is different: it's *open*. That means that scientists, even PhD students like myself that want to run jobs using far greater numbers of nodes than the clusters (beowolf or otherwise) at our home institutions will now have a means to do so. Most such projects have neither the resources nor the capabilities to create their own custom cross-platform clients like those mentioned from other distributed computing projects.

    OpenMacGrid (or just OMG, I guess) uses XGrid, which is built-in to every OSX 10.4 distribution and acts just like any other job queue manager, except it's even easier. So, the whole process of writing a distributed computing project becomes far simpler as well.

    Finally, the OMG it doesn't matter if the OMG is cross-platform running on proprietary hardware: so is every other cluster that I as a scientist have ever had access to. The SGI cluster is proprietary, and to an extent so is the Linux machine at our High-Performance Computing lab on campus. And, if you're thinking about it being non-cross-platform from the client side, well, you're probably not thinking differently anyway, so just go download Folding@Home.

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    *most people never really think about the consequences*
    1. Re:Missing the point by bcg · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I totally agree with you.

      I see the difficulty of starting a distributed computing project as being a serious problem.

      One solution I am proposing is borrowing some of the techniques from BitTorrent and using them in distributed computing. So far, the results have been very encouraging.

      So here is a tidbit of my PhD research (an abstract from a paper hopefully being published soon):

      "This paper describes the operational characteristics of "CompTorrent", a general purpose distributed computing platform that provides a low entry cost to creating new distributed computing projects. An algorithm is embedded into a metadata file along with data set details which are then published on the Internet. Potential nodes discover and download metadata files for projects they wish to participate in, extract the algorithm and data set descriptors, and join other participants in maintaining a swarm. This swarm then cooperatively shares the raw data set in pieces between nodes and applies the algorithm to produce a computed data set. This computed data set is also shared and distributed amongst participating nodes. CompTorrent allows a "simple home-brewed" solution for small or individual distributed computing projects. Testing and experimentation have shown CompTorrent to be an effective system that provides similar benefits for distributed computing to those BitTorrent provides for large file distribution."

      If anyone else is interested in my shameless self promotion: http://www.comp.utas.edu.au/users/bcg/

  5. two ways to get more nodes on board by v1 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Instead of blindly contributing my cycles to whatever project some group of people in california (or wherever) decide is the project of the day, I would like it if I was given the option as a node to pick which project(s) my cycles were used for. People feel better about helping others and contributing/donating when they have a better knowledge of what exactly they are helping. I would be more likely to donate my cycles if I was able to pick which project I was most interested in loaning my hardware to.

    It would also be to their benefit to introduce some competition. Contests like RC64 encouraged teamwork, and there were daily ranking boards where you could go see whose teams were knocking out the most units that day. There is no better motivator to encourage donation of resources than competition and bragging rights. Many of those teams were group oriented, there were things like TeamUnix, TeamMacinotosh, TeamUCLA, etc, and again that gives the nodes in each team a feeling of belonging to a group of people they can relate to, even if they have little in common.

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    I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
  6. Fan burnout a result? by Oshawapilot · · Score: 2, Interesting

    With all the stories I've heard of the cooling fans on the MacBook's going wonky if run at too high of a speed for too long, I'm reluctant to offer my spare cycles to Xgrid.

    The last thing I want to happen as a result of being a participant is seeing my fan spooled up to 6000+ RPM day in and day out while my Mac crunches numbers, only to result in the fan itself crapping out a few months later.

  7. botnet by pikine · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "nobody" user can still listen for and establish connections over network, so an OpenMacGrid node can participate in DDoS attack and spam delivery.

    Grid computing is essentially botnet, trying to use that concept for good scientific purpose.

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    I once had a signature.