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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.'"
I definitely don't mind anyone spying on my accelerometer.. besides, this definitely has some mass appeal. You're contributing to something that could really help people, not just crunch numbers for (what's the word you used oh yeah) VAPORWARE research. Plus it doesn't tear up your CPU at night. I'd be concerned about coordinated pranks, like thousands of 4channers all shaking their computers making the system think theres an apocalypse coming :)
I'm more skeptical as to how accurate he can geolocate each laptop. I've had IP-geolocation tools tell me I'm in a city 500km away...
The article is thin on details, but I think this might kill your network instead of killing your CPU.
The idea here is to detect subtle movements of the laptop (which are small enough to not need shutting the laptop down). Apparently whenever the accelerometer senses a motion it will communicate to a central server within a second. Imagine using one of these in the train or a bus...the laptop would be constantly pinging the server. A quake of magnitude 4 is not going to feel any stronger than the movement of a train
.ACMD setaloiv siht gnidaeR
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