| Index | Recent Threads | Unanswered Threads | Who's Active | Guidelines | Search |
 |
World Community Grid Forums
Category: Community
Forum: Chat Room
Thread: What is a Million points worth? |
| No member browsing this thread |
|
Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 35
|
|
| Author |
|
|
mikey
Veteran Cruncher Joined: May 10, 2009 Post Count: 821 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
|
Maybe they could even develop a 'friendly' competition between Companies and Organizations, Teams and Individuals etc, kind of like other projects do with their Challenges. and why do we have to make everything a competition? Can't we just do the work? Unless you missed it, even the scientists who have the most at stake here at WCG, are not competing against each other. Can't we follow their lead? Because competitions are fun and encourage people to participate as they think/hope they can win! As long as competitions are fair and not rigged or biased, which is the whole point of this thread, then they can be a good thing. PrimeGrid has LOTS of competitions and lots of people bring their cpu's, and gpu's, over there just to compete in them, then they go back to their regular projects. Some stay of course but not all do. The end result of a competition for a Project though is more work gets done in a shorter amount of time then would normally get done in the same time frame. For WCG it could be the topping off of a project, for example the last 15 days of a project could be a competition to see who can do the most units. Or the first 15 days of a project to kick it off and generate interest in it. A competition requires planning and forethought OBVIOUSLY, so isn't something to be undertaken on a whim. As for Scientists competing they ALWAYS are, my son just got his PHD in Chemistry and told me that if your project isn't a success you don't publish, and no publishing means no MD or PHD! You also must be the LEAD person on the paper, not just a name on it. Me I didn't even go to College so I have no clue, but his Professor confirmed this to me at the dissertation.   [Edit 1 times, last edit by mikey159b at Apr 27, 2012 2:11:12 PM] |
||
|
|
rbotterb
Senior Cruncher United States Joined: Jul 21, 2005 Post Count: 401 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
|
Well it's possible to write off a small number of computers like the big corporations. All you need to do is have some business running at the same time using your computers!
In my case I happen to have a quad core HPdv7 I'm using for my small business (100% write off since I only use it for business use). I figure as a small business I don't have the cash flow to send a bunch of $$$$ to charities, but I can send my extra cpu cycles to the WCG for the good of mankind! I'm still trying to figure out how to write off my home electric bill though, can't find a good way to split out the home usage from the business usage since I don't have an electric meter hooked to my business laptop. Then again, my two sons probably burn more electricity playing their video games than I burn on my laptop doing WCG work even if I was running 7X24. |
|||
|
||||
|
rbotterb
Senior Cruncher United States Joined: Jul 21, 2005 Post Count: 401 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
I also just checked - I'm almost to 2.7 Million points but it's only taken me from 7/2005 to get that many done. It's amazing that there are so many big crunchers who manage to do as many points in a couple days as I've done with a one or two laptops at a time over almost 7 years.
At least it's all for a bunch of worthy scientific research and the world will be better for it from all the results generated from it. |
||
|
|
Hypernova
Master Cruncher Audaces Fortuna Juvat ! Vaud - Switzerland Joined: Dec 16, 2008 Post Count: 1908 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
I also just checked - I'm almost to 2.7 Million points but it's only taken me from 7/2005 to get that many done. It's amazing that there are so many big crunchers who manage to do as many points in a couple days as I've done with a one or two laptops at a time over almost 7 years. At least it's all for a bunch of worthy scientific research and the world will be better for it from all the results generated from it. True. But there are so many like you that the sum of it beats any big cruncher. That is the power of the grid. Like an ant colony. One ant taken alone is nothing. A million legionnaire ant colony can devastate a village, kill large animals and people and completely devastate patches of forest with all living things in it. Such is the power of the multitude.   |
||
|
|
mikey
Veteran Cruncher Joined: May 10, 2009 Post Count: 821 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
I also just checked - I'm almost to 2.7 Million points but it's only taken me from 7/2005 to get that many done. It's amazing that there are so many big crunchers who manage to do as many points in a couple days as I've done with a one or two laptops at a time over almost 7 years. At least it's all for a bunch of worthy scientific research and the world will be better for it from all the results generated from it. I am one of those 'big crunchers' with lots of pc's ie disposable income, and just tried to explain to a newcomer on another project, it is not the size or number of pc's you have, it is the cumulative effect of EVERYONE working together to solve the problem. No ONE workunit is going to cure cancer, it is going to take lots of workunits each creating a result, then more workunits based on those results etc, etc to find the cure. And who is to say that my pc's are any better than your pc, mine may get all the trash units out of the way for you to be able to crunch the one that finally does it! ALL me having several pc's crunching means is together we can get more done than if we each had only one pc, that is all, nothing more! Oh and don't for one minute think I started with all the pc's I have now, I too started with one and over time ended up with what I have now! I started crunching in late 1999, I SHOULD have more points and more machines than you do! BUT neither of us has found a cure yet, so we keep on crunching!! |
||
|
|
|