KWSN Orbiting Fortress

LanDroid · Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2013 1:53 pm Post subject: State of the Boinc

The 9th annual Boinc conference was held end of September, you can check out the presentations here.
http://boinc.berkeley.edu/trac/wiki/WorkShop13

I'd like to focus on David Anderson's presentation, 2 of 30 slides shown below.
http://boinc.berkeley.edu/trac/raw-attachment/wiki/WorkShop13/anderson.pdf

Blurf · Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2013 12:17 pm Post subject:

Read it...not impressed when a goal is to "do something".....sorry
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LanDroid · Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2013 4:14 pm Post subject:

OK so we set a goal to increase the number of Boincers from 240K to 500K in two years. Done. Now what? Shocked

As I mentioned before, I'm surprised Boinc hasn't captured the imagination of more people and expanded without a lot of effort. Are folks just not aware of distributed computing at all? Or is it they don't understand or care about the benefits of having their computers convert raw data into scientific information?

Perhaps more promotion like the front page at Folding@Home would help?
http://folding.stanford.edu/

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LanDroid · Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2013 12:59 am Post subject:

I expect most of us post on many internet boards other than KWSN Fortress. I am starting to post my KWSN sig file on other boards to see if it generates any confusion/interest... Ni?

Gotta tell ya, I'm worried. Boinc might not exist in 18 months? I am shocked we don't have over 10 million crunchers at this point - is Boinc dying? Are these the proverbial "good old days" of distributed computing?
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JumpinJohnny · Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2013 9:40 am Post subject:

The crux of the issue is the changing of the personal computing industry.
I would look at the home PC user and Distributive Computing much the same as the de-evolution of Amateur Radio (Ham radio operators) popularity. Amature Radio was down graded in popularity and interest by the widespread use of CB radio for local air wave traffic ('70's) and satellite communication for long distance traffic ('90's). It used to be unique for a Ham to talk to people on other continents, (late at night when the ionosphere changed), and required a special skill-set to obtain a license to operate. Today, I can call anybody, anywhere at anytime... Don't need a hard-earned license or a 40 foot mast in my back yard to do it. I can e-mail or chat direct with anybody so inclined and even "skype" a live 'phone call'. The evolution of technology and the popular psychology of what is the expected normal has changed. There ain't a lot of Ham Operators anymore or interest in their hobby among the young or general population.
The same thing is happening with computing. The PC is quickly becoming a hobby without popular support. People don't use a computer to compute. They use their smartphone and tablet to do almost all of the things they used to use the computer for. My wife really objects that her tablet has to stay plugged in so I can run distributive computing programs. (I object that it takes so long to do the same work on it.) My other android device stays plugged in so it can do a little work also.
Cloud computing has even consolidated the use of servers in some cases. A few more businesses are not running servers and renting cloud-time instead.
As computing changes, the promise of doing more to help science with our home PC will gradually get pushed to the back burner as a hobby and then become a non-issue as people loose interest in the computer and stop buying them at all. (How much computing will you be able to do on your new video phone wrist watch or sun glasses device?)
I think I have joined into a dying hobby with the best of intentions. I'm not so certain that outreach and advertising will bring it back because the PC itself will be gone. I plan to stick with it as long as possible and keep promoting Distributive Computing however I can... But I don't hold out much hope that the PC will not go the way of the Ham Radio.
OK. back to shrubbing. #ni-1

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Plomos · Prince Joined: 26 Apr 2011 Posts: 859

Does this mean i should start thinking about switching to something like folding@home or is that going to die too?
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LanDroid · Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2013 9:56 am Post subject:

Thanks for the perspective JumpinJohnny, hadn't thought about it in that way. Well perhaps phones and tablets will become as powerful as home PCs. Intel is developing a 48 core CPU for smartphones that's still years away.

I suspect PC tech will continue as long as there are hard core gamers. We should encourage them to shrub Boinc. We could call that Quest "The Call Of Doody". Laughing

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LanDroid · Posted: Sat Nov 16, 2013 4:09 pm Post subject:

Wait a minute, this stat lists over 2.6 million users. Wazzup with that vs. the 240K claimed by David Anderson above? Hmmmmm.....

http://boincstats.com/en/stats/projectStatsInfo
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branjo · Prince Joined: 05 Jan 2006 Posts: 746 Location: Slovakia

Probably active users and active hosts Sad

http://boincstats.com/en/stats/-1/project/detail/user
http://boincstats.com/en/stats/-1/project/detail/host
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Killerrabbit · Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2013 1:52 am Post subject:

It is hard to keep momentum of a young project going until it is ready to go.
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JumpinJohnny · Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 9:55 pm Post subject:

Wabbit sez, "It is hard to keep momentum of a young project going until it is ready to go."
Yes, I'm wanting to see Plagiarism and QMC and a few others start up... they do seem to be on hold, forever. It's so very hard to be patient. Wink

Droid sez, "Well perhaps phones and tablets will become as powerful as home PCs. ...."
As to the use of Android devices:
KWSN is currently 6th in RAC @ NativeBoinc
http://nativeboinc.org/site/team_stats#order=rac
This is a GOOD thing #ni-1

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PhastPhred · Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 10:22 pm Post subject:

Wow! I'm doing way better than I ever guessed on this Cell!

Killerrabbit · Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2013 1:22 am Post subject:

It is always hard to maintain it over a long period of time.

Especially with everyone wanting it done now thinking we live in a modern age and that it should be done in an instant.

Even long time teams that have been around since the beginning have died away (of course new teams took their spots).

But we are one of the few older teams to still be in one of the top positions.

Ni
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LanDroid · Posted: Thu Dec 12, 2013 10:08 am Post subject:

Good points, Wabbit. KWSN should Ni! Proudly!

I figgered out where David Anderson got the 240K figure for the number of volunteers - it's on the Boinc main page, right under "Computing Power". Not sure how to reconcile that with the 2.5 million users BoincStats claims? Perhaps BoincStats counts how many users have EVER Boinc'd?
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Killerrabbit · Posted: Sat Dec 14, 2013 1:35 am Post subject:

The 2.5 is probably everyone who has one credit in any project.
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Plomos · Prince Joined: 26 Apr 2011 Posts: 859

Are those nativeboinc stats based only on the nativeboinc app or does it include stuff crunched by the official boinc app for android?
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JumpinJohnny · Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2013 11:13 am Post subject:

lvanst · Posted: Thu Dec 19, 2013 1:44 pm Post subject:

I sell BOINC every time someone asks me who I am and what I do for fun...

Everyone likes the idea, but very few seem to grasp the importance of making an ongoing charitable contribution. They also tend to fear BOINC, as a security risk to their system.

...and, of course, even fewer believe that their donation may actually bring about a significant breakthrough in science, math, medicine...

Why don't make this a team goal for 2014?

We'll:
* put together some simple talking points
* showcase some project success stories
* avoid the negative sell (it's about doing good for mankind, not feeling guilty because YOU haven't taken action)
* maybe even hand out a few prizes to our top recruiters (I'd contribute $$$ to that cause)

Who's with me?

#ni-1

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lvanst · Posted: Wed Dec 25, 2013 11:05 pm Post subject:

Ok, I guess it's just me.
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Killerrabbit · Posted: Fri Dec 27, 2013 1:22 am Post subject:

It is difficult to sell BOINC. I have tried. Just getting people to notice it even exists is half the battle.
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