Distributed Computing Projects Other Than Distributed.Net?

setec asks: "After the end of the ECDL Project last April, I fell out of the practice of participating in distributed processing projects. However, I'm gettin' the itch again, and I've run into a problem that many others have faced, I'm sure. Besides, distributed.net, there really aren't many cool projects out there. And none match the comraderie that the ECDL project offered... Where does a geek go to find a good distributed project?" Actually, I've always found the Great Internet Prime Search to be a worthwhile distributed project and moved my spare cycles there after getting tired with Distributed.Net. There's Seti@Home as well. What other distributed computing projects do you all contribute your idle processor time to?

I always thought SETI@home was more interesting...

[duffbeer703]

I have my computer crunching numbers for seti@home when I am at work. Looking beyond our horizions for intelligent life strikes me as a worthwhile pursuit, plus I am sure somebody could use all of the processed radio data to learn something new (besides aliens) about the universe someday.

GIMPS

[cbane]

I donate all of my spare cycles to the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search [mersenne.org] (not the Great Internet Prime Search). There is software available for many platforms (including Linux) here [mersenne.org]. This project currently holds the world record as the discoverer of the largest known prime.

You must not have looked very hard.

[blameless]

Golem@Home [brandeis.edu] is my favorite. Use spare cycles to design/evolve new robotic 'lifeforms'.

Entropia [entropia.com] has several science and medical oriented research projects underway.

Popular Power [popularpower.com] is working on new influenza vaccines.

Folderol [folderol.org] is doing Human Genome stuff.

There are dozens of others out there, but if nothing turns you on, the folks at the Cosm Project [mithral.com] have an open source platform for building your own distributed computing project.

Folding@Home

[imac.usr]

Check out http://foldingathome.stanford.edu/ [stanford.edu] and help them write a Linux version of the client.

parabon

[Artie FM]

Parabon is working on the "compute against cancer" project.
--
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Re:You must not have looked very hard.

[kcarnold]

I suggest that anyone with some spare brain cycles port Folderol to Linux (source code [sourceforge.net] is at Sourceforge). Strip out the screen saver graphics elements and it shouldn't be too hard (algorithms are usually pretty cross-platform).

Screen Saver

[Marcus Aanerud]

I think you could probably whip together a pretty phat screen saver using multiple computers on a LAN... something that runs from screen to screen on a network... or a polygon-rendered landscape that is continuous across all the screens, like Sega does during game demos on their 8-seat Daytona USA arcade machine.

It's not going to change the world, but you gotta admit, it'd be pretty cool. ;)

Check out Dizz-Net

[jfunk]

Here [dizz.net].

Unfortunately, the mailing list hasn't been touched in months. It's a distributed web search system that could potentially index a lot of the web. It would be designed to minimise the load across busy links.

Basically, it needs more people to start. It is a sort of major project.

At least it's directly useful...

Mojo Nation

[Zooko]

Mojo Nation [mojonation.net] is a distributed file sharing system, but we (the Evil Geniuses For A Better Tomorrow) plan to make it into a full distributed computation system next. It features integrated micropayments so you can get paid per CPU cycle that you donate.

Re:I always thought SETI@home was more interesting

[setec]

The problem with seti@home is that they have too many users. They're actually re-analyzing some data three times already cuz they have so many participants. At least, that's what a very credible source has told me. Has anyone else heard this?

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Re:Artifical Life - A Call for Experts

[setec]

Has anyone else seen the movie Pi? Kind of goes along with what you're saying here.

Check it out [pithemovie.com].

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United Devices

[FusionJay]

A new company, United Devices, is try to make a profit (ugh!) off distributed computing. To get people to people to participate, the company will probably offer cash, frequent flyer miles and other giveaways.
For more:
Network World article on the company [nwfusion.com]
United Devices Web site [uniteddevices.com]