Collaborative Map-Reduce In the Browser

igrigorik writes "The generality and simplicity of Google's Map-Reduce is what makes it such a powerful tool. However, what if instead of using proprietary protocols we could crowd-source the CPU power of millions of users online every day? Javascript is the most widely deployed language — every browser can run it — and we could use it to push the job to the client. Then, all we would need is a browser and an HTTP server to power our self-assembling supercomputer (proof of concept + code). Imagine if all it took to join a compute job was to open a URL."

Comments

Re:Random Thoughts

[cripkd]

What? JavaScript is NOT java ? Next you'll tell me that there is no connection too!

Re:Noscript

[Blakey Rat]

People only turn Javascript off so that they can then complain that the web isn't usable with Javascript off. It's some kind of pathetic attention-getting exercise. The best strategy is to ignore them, since they come in two varieties: those that are super privacy-geeks who have ads blocked and won't buy from you anyway, or those who whine but they'll just turn on JS when push comes to shove.

See also: cookies.