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Collaborative Map-Reduce In the Browser

Posted by kdawson on from the suercomputer-on-the-very-cheap dept.

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."

6 of 188 comments (clear)

  1. Noscript by sakdoctor · · Score: 4, Informative

    Progress is running less JavaScript, not more.

    1. Re:Noscript by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      "First they march you through hundereds of miles of jungle without food or water, then they shoot you, then they disembowel you, then you lose." --Mahatma Gandhi, had the Japs won WW2.

  2. Re:Random Thoughts by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1, Informative

    What does Java have to do with anything?

    I think that I would be willing to donate some of my cycles but Java has a bad habit of locking up the browser till the process is completed.

    Maybe you should try reading the post you're responding to?

    --
    Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
  3. Link by Jamamala · · Score: 5, Informative

    for those like myself that had no idea what MapReduce was:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MapReduce

  4. Re:Scripts taking too long by pjt33 · · Score: 2, Informative

    I sometimes have that with a 1.7GHz box. And even when I don't, reloading the front page of /. makes Firefox sluggish or non-responsive for 5 to 20 seconds.

  5. Re:Scripts taking too long by jensend · · Score: 2, Informative

    Just change your prefs- under Index/General uncheck "Beta Index" and check "simple design" and "low bandwidth." With those prefs Slashdot loads almost instantly on my somewhat aged machine (P4 2.4) and is still usable on a 700MHz P3.