I don't know who else has heard this but the Department of Defense recently contracted United Devices to work on smallpox reasearch, also called the patriot grid. Since there are about 2 million machines running the UD client, this would put a massive amount of machines at the DOD's disposal.
The UD client is closed source so there's no way of knowing if the software the the DOD wrote is totaly dedicated to testing smallpox drugs or launching a cyber attack.
A robot is a machine. just because it has AI doesn't give it any more civil rights than a thermostat. If there were a machine uprising humanity would be correct to eredicate any threat it posed.
When my washing machine gets off balance and shifts out of place, I don't respect its God-given right to travel. I fix it. If a machine is found to be harmful, it should be fixed, replaced or destroyed.
AI isn't a soul no matter how many Issac Azimov books your read.
The article text in case of /.ing
on
Xbox Linux Cluster
·
· Score: -1, Redundant
XBOX Linux Cluster
For more pics click here.
Stats: 3 XBOXes Mandrake 9 MPICH distcc
Quick Overview: I was walking back from class thinking to myself I haven't done much in the way of parallel computing lately. So I thought it would be a interesting idea to test the usefulness of the XBOX platform as a cluster node, as the XBOX Linux project says they are useful as. At the same time I had heard a lot on various message boards that individuals were using the XBOX as a Linux desktop to check email and browse the web, etc, etc. So, I wrote a grant proposal to Saint Vincent College asking for funds to build a Linux cluster out of XBOXes. I was issued enough funds to purchase 3 units and accompanying hardware for the project.
Parts After ordering all the neccessary components and a stop to the local Best Buy. I had all the necessary parts to built this cluster. 3 XBOXes 3 Matrix Mod Chips 1 VGA Switch 1 USB Keyboard 1 USB Mouse 1 USB Motherboard Card
Install My first step was to flash the mod chips, as they came without a BIOS. After some digging on the web it became clear that the only place I was going to find BIOSes were from irc channels, where they were more than happy to hand them out. The programer that came with the Matrix mod chips was easy enough to use. I simply had to choose my BIOS file, and the program wrote and verified it for me.
The alignment of the chips on the board took sometime, however compared to earlier chips that required 29 wires be soldered to the motherboard this was the only viable solution if the XBOX was to be considered as a replacement for a store PC. The next step was to get Linux onto the XBOX. I used the ISO images boot and install from the XBOX Linux projects web site. Most people on the web had luck with cdrws instead of cdrs and mine worked just fine as well.
Installing Mandrake Linux was the next step. The install disk simply wrote the image over the disk and only took about 15 mins to do so. The only problem was that all three units came with different size hard drives. The hard drive units were not clearly marked to their size, and I ended up pulling out my calculator to calculate their disk size.
After swapping disks the Mandrake partition started right up with no problems. I had no trouble using the XBOX as a standard desktop PC after the install. Nor did anything for day to day computing seem missing. Seems if you can get this up and running its fairly easy to use PC after.
Cluster
The clustering of the XBOX units would not go as easily. I wanted to be able to remote admin the XBOXes and the MPICH package needed ssh to pass commands and I was not about to use rsh. After downloading the sshd source from openssh.org, I found my next big missing piece. Gcc was not installed as well. After installing eight rpms for the gcc package I had a C compiler. The version of openssl was outdated for the current version of openssh so that had to be installed before moving on too. It would seem that the Mandrake install was minimal indeed! As even zlib, required by openssl, was not installed. Finally after a few hours of installing and searching I had a node that was ready to install my clustering software on. Distcc which would allow me to cross compile software across nodes was installed. I also installed MPICH as I had experience with it from my other projects. Finally things were ready to go.
Results The XBOX unit functions well as a desktop computer for general usage, email, web browsing, etc. The total cost of the unit with keyboard, mouse, and parts came to 383.72 dollars. However, it is not as cost effective or as easy as using a general PC obtainable from almost anywhere for the same purpose. The technical merit of soldering the usb to XBOX controller wires as well as installing the mod chip are beyond the technical skills of most. In short if you already have an XBOX and want to tinker/need a computer and have no fear of the possibility of ruining your unit then this is a viable solution. However, as a general replacement to a desktop pc, the XBOX is not nearly as userfriendly or cost effective as a 200 dollar pc from walmart.
As for the XBOXes as a cluster I have to admit that I obtained better results than I had predicted. This was in part due to that the XBOX has a 100 Mbps Ethernet card and I was told they had only a 10 Mpbs card. I recompiled the Linux kernel 2.4.20 on a single node took 48 mins 30 sec. Using distcc the process was cut down to 20 mins. This represented a 2.4 times out of 3.0 speedup. Not to bad for the 3 nodes. My MPICH results were less telling. After nearly 100 runs of the same test programs my results varied between twice as slow across the three nodes and five times as fast as running the same program on a single node.
In conclusion, the XBOX functions well due to the work done by the XBOX Linux project. However the same or greater computing power could be obtained for an equal price, without the complications of modifying the XBOX. This makes the XBOX an unfit solution as a replacement for a personal computer or a cluster node.
LinX Xbox Linux Matrix Mod Chip Got Mod MPICH Distcc More Pics Other Projects of mine Home
This will happen, mark my words. That's the reason birth control ads have to specify that the pill doesn't keep you from getting AIDS.
If they're smart big tobacco will get on the bandwaggon and market their own nicotine free smokes. they can worm out of lawsiuts by saying "look, we clearly offer non addictive cigarettes. is it our fault to chose the addictive ones? No."
That, and they can market it like it's some sort of health food. Hell, that new light beer (I think it's like michaelob ultra lite or something) is being marketed with pictures of people doing sit-up and jumping jacks and shit. They're selling beer like it was PowerAde. MO and RJR can do the same thing and treat it like it's aroma therapy or something.
I'm willing to bet that blind studies, people will have as difficult a time quitting from these are from regular smokes.
I'm really interested to see the outcome of an addiction study where two groups are given these nicotine free smokes and one group is told that they are smoking regular ones.
This is pure speculation here but I'm betting that the mere thought of them being addictive is enough to make them "addicted".
Similarly, I'd like to see if people who thought they were smoking nicotine free cigarettes have an easier time quitting even if they are smoking regular ones.
depending on how such a study turns out, big tobacco could tell all those bozos to take all their lawsiuts and shove them.
I'm willing to bet that they can get some reuse out of that water. Even if not, the waste water would eventually make its way back to the local water cycle. Once used to make the chip, it doesn't vanish, it just goes through the same system that your shower water goes through.
Skinner: Well, I was wrong. The lizards are a godsend. Lisa: But isn't that a bit short-sighted? What happens when we're overrun by lizards? Skinner: No problem. We simply release wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes. They'll wipe out the lizards. Lisa: But aren't the snakes even worse? Skinner: Yes, but we're prepared for that. We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat. Lisa: But then we're stuck with gorillas! Skinner: No, that's the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.
True enough but this gets back to my point. If you've got a computer that can read a given format, you're ging to be able to to read that format and probably those below it.
but consider when hey come out with the DVD killer. Your DVD ROM is not going to be able to read that and it will be a year or two before the price of a reader/writer comes down and probably a little longer for open source software to come out for it.
I think the best we can hope for is to integrate a PC into the home entertainment center to do stuff like playing pirated ROMS and ogg files (which as other posters have pointed out, do not qualify as open source). You'll never be able to make a fully up to date home entertainment system without some propriatary (sp) stuff off the shelf from the local best buy or circuit city.
You can have the all open source entertainment center if you're willing to always be at least 2 or 3 years behind what is current. Users who want to view the latest video disk format will have to go to best buy to get the needed player to do so. It takes the hacker community a little while to duplicate a comercial product.
The entertainment industry will almost by deffinition be ahead of the open source entertainment subculture.
Honestly, would you rather play some mame roms rather than the Clone Wars on a brand new GameCube? The open source hardware is just not there and the software will always be lagging.
this isn't a troll. I honestly think that the commercial stuff will eternaly have the advantage of easy configuration, compatibility with current media and ease of use.
Now my idea is a little crazy but I think we should use it to loot for aliens. no, no, hear me out... we could have millions of people donate idle CPU time and we could use it to look in the search for extraterrestrial life. We could shorten that to SETI. people could do it right out of their homes.
I actually live nearby one of the Iron Mountain storage sites. Now I'm sure they are a reliable company and do a great job but the visual of the building is really funny.
It looks like this old broken down wherehouse and it's just a few blocks from the west side chicago ghettos.
maybe you have to see it but the visual of the Iron Mountain logo on what looks like a sheet-metal barn is pretty amusing.
I remember when processors started breaking the GhZ benchmark, people were making jokes about how we're starting to get to the point where the things will be emiting microwaves since they are in the GhZ's.
anyone know how close we are now? will this new chip boil water from a distance?
even if we're a couple years off from that, are we going to need sheilding in our cases soon so that we don't cook our lower legs? if so, does anyone else thing that this would cause a lot of problems since compUSA won't take that into account when they do an upgrade?
The projects that really annoy me are the ones used to design drugs to fight cancer or some other like disease, because the information from these projects will be used by pharmaceutical companies to sell me drugs!
as you can tell from my sig, I disagree with your stance.
I'm participating in United Devices to help find a cure for cancer.
Am I paying for it? Sure, but the electricity that I'm using is probably less costly then when I forget to shut off the bathroom light when I leave for work. It's trivial, it's pennies, get over the cost issue.
Will I pay for the cure once it's found? Could be. UD is giving their results to Oxford if I'm not mistaken. From there it might get patented and sold by big industry. So what? What medicine do you currently get for free? except for laughter, none. if you participate in such a project, do you expect the cure to be free for you or do you just want a 0.000000000012% discount for the 0.000000000012% work that you put forth to help find the cure.
Also, if cancer is curable, the drug will probably be found eventually. I have a friend with skin cancer and my grandfather died of cancer. I smoked so that puts me at a higher risk. I'd rather the cure be found sooner than later.
Just because something has to be paid for doesn't mean it's a bad thing or that the little guy is getting screwed.
I'm probably going to get a bunch of responses to this from the "knowledge is free" crowd. Fuck that. If I spend $6 for my energy bill and have to pay $1000 for some magic cancer pill down the road, I'll have a magic cancer pill when all is said and done. If distributed drug simulation isn't done, there's a chance that I or a loved one might die at 80 lbs with no hair. I'd like to know that I did all I could to prevent that situation.
in any case, it sure beats spinning my wheels looking for ET.
This idea is brought up every time/. posts a story about adaptive paints. As has been pointed out before, the best we could hope for with this tech is to be able to adaptively change colors to blend in with the colors of your surroundings like a chameleon. If you're in a patch of grass, you'd turn green, in the desert tan...
You wouldn't get Predator-style invisibility because the uniform would have no way of knowing what the viewer's vantage point is. Thus, the suit can't just paint what's "behind" you because it doesn't know where "in front of" is.
I'm not a physicist or anything but I thought that protons were of a smll enough scale where they existed as probablistic waves. you know, send a proton towards a double slit and who knows where it will go? does it make sense to assign a shape to something like that any more than it does to say that a photon is round?
hell, it might. i don't know, that's why I'm asking.
Sorry about the wierd characters. I had to do some strange things to get this through the lameness filter.
If two tiny mirrors were attracted to each other with both the forces of gravity and the casimir effect, the work done by their movement would generate energy that could be captured. Once they are together, they could be slid apart, moved back apart while not facing each other and moved to face each other again.
1)
_____________
|
v Casimir effect + gravity
n
|
_____________
2)
=============
^
|--Capture the energy of collision.
3) slide right____________ ____________slide left
Slide mirrors apart using stored energy.
4)
___________
^
|---------------|
v
__________
Push mirrors apart using stored energy.
5) slide right _________
_________ slide left
Push or rotate mirrors to face each other again.
6) Repeat
I think if all the energy is captured, steps 3, 4 and 5 should eat up all the energy that was gained by the work that gravity performed. The rest of the energy, the work that was done by the Casimir effect is yours to keep. Do this with a billion little mirrors in a space-based power plant and you're set.
I must be missing something cause perpetual motion let's all sorts of bad things happen like time travel, superluminal flight and entropy reversal. Sorry about being sloppy with my terminology. I'm probably misusing "work", "force" and "energy" in this context.
So am I wrong about something or is this scheme truly money for nothing and chicks for free?
Slashdot Mirror
So only 0.6% of the universe is the "normal" matter and energy that we observe and of which we are composed?
I really don't have anything more creative to say than "Wow! That's not a lot."
I don't know who else has heard this but the Department of Defense recently contracted United Devices to work on smallpox reasearch, also called the patriot grid. Since there are about 2 million machines running the UD client, this would put a massive amount of machines at the DOD's disposal.
The UD client is closed source so there's no way of knowing if the software the the DOD wrote is totaly dedicated to testing smallpox drugs or launching a cyber attack.
Massive DDOS attack anyone?
A robot is a machine. just because it has AI doesn't give it any more civil rights than a thermostat. If there were a machine uprising humanity would be correct to eredicate any threat it posed.
When my washing machine gets off balance and shifts out of place, I don't respect its God-given right to travel. I fix it. If a machine is found to be harmful, it should be fixed, replaced or destroyed.
AI isn't a soul no matter how many Issac Azimov books your read.
For all the fun files anyway.
XBOX Linux Cluster
For more pics click here.
Stats:
3 XBOXes
Mandrake 9
MPICH
distcc
Quick Overview:
I was walking back from class thinking to myself I haven't done much in the way of parallel computing lately. So I thought it would be a interesting idea to test the usefulness of the XBOX platform as a cluster node, as the XBOX Linux project says they are useful as. At the same time I had heard a lot on various message boards that individuals were using the XBOX as a Linux desktop to check email and browse the web, etc, etc. So, I wrote a grant proposal to Saint Vincent College asking for funds to build a Linux cluster out of XBOXes. I was issued enough funds to purchase 3 units and accompanying hardware for the project.
Parts
After ordering all the neccessary components and a stop to the local Best Buy. I had all the necessary parts to built this cluster.
3 XBOXes
3 Matrix Mod Chips
1 VGA Switch
1 USB Keyboard
1 USB Mouse
1 USB Motherboard Card
Install
My first step was to flash the mod chips, as they came without a BIOS. After some digging on the web it became clear that the only place I was going to find BIOSes were from irc channels, where they were more than happy to hand them out. The programer that came with the Matrix mod chips was easy enough to use. I simply had to choose my BIOS file, and the program wrote and verified it for me.
The alignment of the chips on the board took sometime, however compared to earlier chips that required 29 wires be soldered to the motherboard this was the only viable solution if the XBOX was to be considered as a replacement for a store PC. The next step was to get Linux onto the XBOX. I used the ISO images boot and install from the XBOX Linux projects web site. Most people on the web had luck with cdrws instead of cdrs and mine worked just fine as well.
Installing Mandrake Linux was the next step. The install disk simply wrote the image over the disk and only took about 15 mins to do so. The only problem was that all three units came with different size hard drives. The hard drive units were not clearly marked to their size, and I ended up pulling out my calculator to calculate their disk size.
After swapping disks the Mandrake partition started right up with no problems. I had no trouble using the XBOX as a standard desktop PC after the install. Nor did anything for day to day computing seem missing. Seems if you can get this up and running its fairly easy to use PC after.
Cluster
The clustering of the XBOX units would not go as easily. I wanted to be able to remote admin the XBOXes and the MPICH package needed ssh to pass commands and I was not about to use rsh. After downloading the sshd source from openssh.org, I found my next big missing piece. Gcc was not installed as well. After installing eight rpms for the gcc package I had a C compiler. The version of openssl was outdated for the current version of openssh so that had to be installed before moving on too. It would seem that the Mandrake install was minimal indeed! As even zlib, required by openssl, was not installed. Finally after a few hours of installing and searching I had a node that was ready to install my clustering software on. Distcc which would allow me to cross compile software across nodes was installed. I also installed MPICH as I had experience with it from my other projects. Finally things were ready to go.
Results
The XBOX unit functions well as a desktop computer for general usage, email, web browsing, etc. The total cost of the unit with keyboard, mouse, and parts came to 383.72 dollars. However, it is not as cost effective or as easy as using a general PC obtainable from almost anywhere for the same purpose. The technical merit of soldering the usb to XBOX controller wires as well as installing the mod chip are beyond the technical skills of most. In short if you already have an XBOX and want to tinker/need a computer and have no fear of the possibility of ruining your unit then this is a viable solution. However, as a general replacement to a desktop pc, the XBOX is not nearly as userfriendly or cost effective as a 200 dollar pc from walmart.
As for the XBOXes as a cluster I have to admit that I obtained better results than I had predicted. This was in part due to that the XBOX has a 100 Mbps Ethernet card and I was told they had only a 10 Mpbs card. I recompiled the Linux kernel 2.4.20 on a single node took 48 mins 30 sec. Using distcc the process was cut down to 20 mins. This represented a 2.4 times out of 3.0 speedup. Not to bad for the 3 nodes. My MPICH results were less telling. After nearly 100 runs of the same test programs my results varied between twice as slow across the three nodes and five times as fast as running the same program on a single node.
In conclusion, the XBOX functions well due to the work done by the XBOX Linux project. However the same or greater computing power could be obtained for an equal price, without the complications of modifying the XBOX. This makes the XBOX an unfit solution as a replacement for a personal computer or a cluster node.
LinX
Xbox Linux
Matrix Mod Chip
Got Mod
MPICH
Distcc
More Pics
Other Projects of mine
Home
Even if Japan is on the level, some of their neighbors are not.
I'd much rather like Japan to know where it is rather than not because of the fact that they are on the level.
This will happen, mark my words. That's the reason birth control ads have to specify that the pill doesn't keep you from getting AIDS.
If they're smart big tobacco will get on the bandwaggon and market their own nicotine free smokes. they can worm out of lawsiuts by saying "look, we clearly offer non addictive cigarettes. is it our fault to chose the addictive ones? No."
That, and they can market it like it's some sort of health food. Hell, that new light beer (I think it's like michaelob ultra lite or something) is being marketed with pictures of people doing sit-up and jumping jacks and shit. They're selling beer like it was PowerAde. MO and RJR can do the same thing and treat it like it's aroma therapy or something.
I'm willing to bet that blind studies, people will have as difficult a time quitting from these are from regular smokes.
I'm really interested to see the outcome of an addiction study where two groups are given these nicotine free smokes and one group is told that they are smoking regular ones.
This is pure speculation here but I'm betting that the mere thought of them being addictive is enough to make them "addicted".
Similarly, I'd like to see if people who thought they were smoking nicotine free cigarettes have an easier time quitting even if they are smoking regular ones.
depending on how such a study turns out, big tobacco could tell all those bozos to take all their lawsiuts and shove them.
I'm willing to bet that they can get some reuse out of that water. Even if not, the waste water would eventually make its way back to the local water cycle. Once used to make the chip, it doesn't vanish, it just goes through the same system that your shower water goes through.
Skinner: Well, I was wrong. The lizards are a godsend.
Lisa: But isn't that a bit short-sighted? What happens when we're overrun by lizards?
Skinner: No problem. We simply release wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes. They'll wipe out the lizards.
Lisa: But aren't the snakes even worse?
Skinner: Yes, but we're prepared for that. We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat.
Lisa: But then we're stuck with gorillas!
Skinner: No, that's the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.
True enough but this gets back to my point. If you've got a computer that can read a given format, you're ging to be able to to read that format and probably those below it.
but consider when hey come out with the DVD killer. Your DVD ROM is not going to be able to read that and it will be a year or two before the price of a reader/writer comes down and probably a little longer for open source software to come out for it.
I think the best we can hope for is to integrate a PC into the home entertainment center to do stuff like playing pirated ROMS and ogg files (which as other posters have pointed out, do not qualify as open source). You'll never be able to make a fully up to date home entertainment system without some propriatary (sp) stuff off the shelf from the local best buy or circuit city.
You can have the all open source entertainment center if you're willing to always be at least 2 or 3 years behind what is current. Users who want to view the latest video disk format will have to go to best buy to get the needed player to do so. It takes the hacker community a little while to duplicate a comercial product.
The entertainment industry will almost by deffinition be ahead of the open source entertainment subculture.
Honestly, would you rather play some mame roms rather than the Clone Wars on a brand new GameCube? The open source hardware is just not there and the software will always be lagging.
this isn't a troll. I honestly think that the commercial stuff will eternaly have the advantage of easy configuration, compatibility with current media and ease of use.
98. whoop-de-do more aliens
99. what a suprise, yet another alien race
100. episode of 'I love Lucy' bounced of the moon
Now my idea is a little crazy but I think we should use it to loot for aliens. no, no, hear me out... we could have millions of people donate idle CPU time and we could use it to look in the search for extraterrestrial life. We could shorten that to SETI. people could do it right out of their homes.
what would we call it though...
I actually live nearby one of the Iron Mountain storage sites. Now I'm sure they are a reliable company and do a great job but the visual of the building is really funny.
It looks like this old broken down wherehouse and it's just a few blocks from the west side chicago ghettos.
maybe you have to see it but the visual of the Iron Mountain logo on what looks like a sheet-metal barn is pretty amusing.
I remember when processors started breaking the GhZ benchmark, people were making jokes about how we're starting to get to the point where the things will be emiting microwaves since they are in the GhZ's.
anyone know how close we are now? will this new chip boil water from a distance?
even if we're a couple years off from that, are we going to need sheilding in our cases soon so that we don't cook our lower legs? if so, does anyone else thing that this would cause a lot of problems since compUSA won't take that into account when they do an upgrade?
Just some thoughts...
Of course you won't find Stephen King there.
Didn't you hear on public radio that he died?
Where do you get that this costs $200? The site selling them says $20 and says that it includes 10 games.
as you can tell from my sig, I disagree with your stance.
I'm participating in United Devices to help find a cure for cancer.
Am I paying for it? Sure, but the electricity that I'm using is probably less costly then when I forget to shut off the bathroom light when I leave for work. It's trivial, it's pennies, get over the cost issue.
Will I pay for the cure once it's found? Could be. UD is giving their results to Oxford if I'm not mistaken. From there it might get patented and sold by big industry. So what? What medicine do you currently get for free? except for laughter, none. if you participate in such a project, do you expect the cure to be free for you or do you just want a 0.000000000012% discount for the 0.000000000012% work that you put forth to help find the cure.
Also, if cancer is curable, the drug will probably be found eventually. I have a friend with skin cancer and my grandfather died of cancer. I smoked so that puts me at a higher risk. I'd rather the cure be found sooner than later.
Just because something has to be paid for doesn't mean it's a bad thing or that the little guy is getting screwed.
I'm probably going to get a bunch of responses to this from the "knowledge is free" crowd. Fuck that. If I spend $6 for my energy bill and have to pay $1000 for some magic cancer pill down the road, I'll have a magic cancer pill when all is said and done. If distributed drug simulation isn't done, there's a chance that I or a loved one might die at 80 lbs with no hair. I'd like to know that I did all I could to prevent that situation.
in any case, it sure beats spinning my wheels looking for ET.
This idea is brought up every time /. posts a story about adaptive paints. As has been pointed out before, the best we could hope for with this tech is to be able to adaptively change colors to blend in with the colors of your surroundings like a chameleon. If you're in a patch of grass, you'd turn green, in the desert tan...
You wouldn't get Predator-style invisibility because the uniform would have no way of knowing what the viewer's vantage point is. Thus, the suit can't just paint what's "behind" you because it doesn't know where "in front of" is.
I saw an m105 for 79.99 at the Palm store. it was an "open box" m105 though. Does anyone have any experence with "open box" products from Palm?
I'm not a physicist or anything but I thought that protons were of a smll enough scale where they existed as probablistic waves. you know, send a proton towards a double slit and who knows where it will go? does it make sense to assign a shape to something like that any more than it does to say that a photon is round?
hell, it might. i don't know, that's why I'm asking.
geeze.
the kid's picture alone is practicaly kiddie porn.
because if the mirrors are not facing each other when seperated, the casimir effect would not be pulling them together, just gravity.
Sorry about the wierd characters. I had to do some strange things to get this through the lameness filter.
If two tiny mirrors were attracted to each other with both the forces of gravity and the casimir effect, the work done by their movement would generate energy that could be captured. Once they are together, they could be slid apart, moved back apart while not facing each other and moved to face each other again.
1)
_____________
|
v
Casimir effect + gravity
n
|
_____________
2)
=============
^
|--Capture the energy of collision.
3)
slide right____________
____________slide left
Slide mirrors apart using stored energy.
4)
___________
^
|---------------|
v
__________
Push mirrors apart using stored energy.
5)
slide right _________
_________ slide left
Push or rotate mirrors to face each other again.
6) Repeat
I think if all the energy is captured, steps 3, 4 and 5 should eat up all the energy that was gained by the work that gravity performed. The rest of the energy, the work that was done by the Casimir effect is yours to keep. Do this with a billion little mirrors in a space-based power plant and you're set.
I must be missing something cause perpetual motion let's all sorts of bad things happen like time travel, superluminal flight and entropy reversal. Sorry about being sloppy with my terminology. I'm probably misusing "work", "force" and "energy" in this context.
So am I wrong about something or is this scheme truly money for nothing and chicks for free?