Slashdot Mirror
Quake-Catcher Aims to be Largest Distributed Seismometer Network
Nature is reporting that a new distributed computing application is looking to monitor earthquake data using the accelerometer in many computing devices. In the long run, "Quake-Catcher" will hopefully be fast enough to give warning before major earthquakes. "If it works, it will be the cheapest seismic network on the planet and could operate in any country. It wouldn't be as sensitive as traditional networks of seismometers, but Lawrence says that's not the point. 'If you have only two sensors in an area, you have to have a perfect system. If you have 15 sensors in a system it [can] be less perfect. One hundred, one thousand, ten thousand -- your need for the system to be perfect becomes much smaller,' he says. 'That's really our approach -- just to have massive numbers.'"
How many more server mods do we need for Quake?
And no matter if it runs Linux or not, that spyhardware will never prevent or predict an earthquake
Wow, Stanford. I hate to break it to you guys but the United States Geological Survey beat you to it. On the other hand, I would like to try out the seismograph software. On the other hand, the boys down at Berkeley have instructions on how to build your own seismograph. I think I'll try that out until the software becomes available.
The Rapture is NOT an exit strategy.
So, you're saying that you specifically know that graviton's are produced hours or days ahead of an earthquake, even though they have never been observed, and a purely theoretical? So what conditions would produce gravitons? things under pressure? The pressures isn't that much compared to what pressure we put a lot of our materials under, there is just ALOT of mass being moved.
I signed up for the Tsunami Harddisk Detector project, but don't know if they are related.
"Thanks for your interest in the Tsunami Harddisk Detector project. We are currently installing the system on a world wide basis. To keep the system in a stable state, further installation is an incremental process. We have put you on our mailing list and will inform you as soon as we can make the software available to you. Best regards, Michael Stadler ____________________ www.ninsight.at "
So I sent off an email asking about spyware, etc., and got this back.
"Thanks for your request. The software doest not contain any kind of malware. It will be sponsored by travel agencies, but they only show little images of advertisements. That's all. At the moment we are still testing the software and will be making it available to you as soon as possible. Regards, Michael Stadler On 9/26/07, Talkischeap wrote: "Greetings, I'm very interested in obtaining your "new" Tsunami Harddisk Detector software. I live on the Northern California coast (near Mendocino) and this is definitely earthquake country. However... I AM a bit concerned that your software is sponsored by advertisements, and ask you if it contains ANY: * Spyware * Adware * Viruses * Trojans * Rootkits * Malware * Anything else invasive And if it doesn't, then I'm definitely interested, and please place me on your "waiting list" for a copy."
So this appears to be a different project, but both of them are pretty nifty.
Of course... the "tin foil hat" types will quickly realize that this has the capabilities to track your comings and goings (i.e. Your daily routine).
If it don't GO... chrome it. ~ Frank Banks
Way to ignore the summary and fail to RTFA. The USGS system uses the existing seismograph network to track earthquakes. This one would serve double duty, both analyzing earthquake data in a distributed fashion, and acting as an ad-hoc seismograph network. In theory, it should catch additional information the existing system would miss, and aid in tracking the effects of the various rock strata in different regions on the seismic waves.
~Anguirel (lit. Living Star-Iron)
QA: The art of telling someone that their baby is ugly without getting punched.
they would be produced ahead of the event because the compression on the land mass would make it denser.
and the scientific basis for prediction is what, exactly?
a meaningful prediction has to be precise in location and in time.
time is the enemy:
the thirty second warning is little better than "duck and cover" if it cannot be communicated effectively.
I can definitely see seismologists not paying attention to their warning equipment while they're busy pwning some n00bs.
Seriously, Gamespy already did this like 13 years ago.
if they're inexpensive enough, I wouldn't mind dropping 15$ on a USB accelerometer. Heck, I'd drop $25 if it was at all accurate, as I'm highly interested as to see how sensitive and see what kinds of vibrations it does pick up.
So, Sparky the poodle starts chewing on a Macbook, and meanwhile, in a remote location, seismologists freak out that Indiana is falling into the sea
This post looks like someone dropped a physics textbook and all the words spilled out.
Hear recorded Slashdot headlines on your phone! New service beta testing. Just call (248) 434-5508
Seriously, did no one think of the Tremors series while reading this?
A few months ago I wrote up a post wondering why no one had done this yet. Put those accelerometers to work!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Wow! Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these!!
Will this be a separate channel on my WII?
Tagged: 'noclip'
Am I the only one picturing a group of 4chan wackos simultaneously shaking the shit out of their MacBooks ?
Don't put anything in the hands of people unless you're ready to deal with the collective stupidity of said people.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
I have interest in earthquakes and I have setup my own seismometers to record earthquakes. Now given what I know about earthquakes doubt that this plan is going to work. Not only because of the false signals he is going to get, but because with just only two sensors (even with more sensors like this I still doubt that this is going to work) that aren't sensitive enough to detect the pre-earthquakes when they happen, he isn't going to be able to predict a larger earthquake in one area. But small pre-earthquakes are sometimes from 1.0ML up to 3.0ML in size (there about). He is also going to have an issue with noise, that is cars, movement of the laptops and so on. But that is going to give out many false signals that won't be at any use, but earthquake signals can also drown in a city noise.
The idea might work if he where using normal seismometers, but not laptops or home PCs.
I would be surprised if this application couldn't be made to fit on something like a Technologic Systems http://www.embeddedarm.com/ TS-7400 (which comes with a 12Mb/s USB port, cost $100 in quantity). The AC power draw for the TS-7400 plus accelerometer would be 6 watts max ($5 to $10/yr) and would pay for itself in less than a year. In addition, the TS-7600 is fanless and diskless, so there would be much less extraneous vibration.
A Shadeless room is a brighter room.
...for going to the effort to implement this idea. IMHO this network's real goal should be to provide rapid warning of an earthquake that is already happening:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=440258&cid=22283136
I do not see how anyone's privacy is violated if the government monitored the Internet and looked for patterns of computers going off line. An disk shaped pattern expanding at about 5000 m/s would be one pattern to look for.
I already see people coming together at say some big gaming camp dropping their laptop simultaniously. Or perhaps even simpler some Trojan simluating the shaking of the laptop, thus forging the accelometers output. Picture that, randon quake alarms brought to you by Al Qaida or China... LOL "Trust no one unless you have eaten much salt with him."
q2wf. Best mod ever.