Boinc boinc boinc !!!!

[Abarbarian]

Looks like the caring sharing society is dead in the water.

There are a load of folk visiting and using the site and I bet loads of em have really posh computers that only utilise a fraction of the computing power available to them.

So why are they not helping out with the World Community Grid team. After all it is a worthy cause, helping to eradicate disease and find cures etc etc ?

 

[Taffycat]

So why are they not helping out with the World Community Grid team. After all it is a worthy cause, helping to eradicate disease and find cures etc etc ?

For some folk, I think it might be wariness of the unknown, peppered with some misconceptions, possibly?

For example, some seem to think that they need to have their PC running 24/7 in order to make a useful contribution - which of course, is not the case at all. Even a few hours of daily crunching is valuable.

I think others are concerned that the background activity of crunching, is going to cause their PC to slow down, or that it might interfere with gaming or whatever. (I can attest to this not being so. Crunching and video-gaming run harmoniously for me. But in any event, BOINC activity can be controlled by the user.)

We have probably all heard/seen the comments of folk who wonder whether it is "safe" to crunch, and whether crunching could be an inroad for virus infections? Well, I have crunched solidly since 2007 and have never had any problems of that kind. So 10 years trouble-free crunching isn't a bad recommendation, is it? But don't just listen to me, there are many others over at the WCG website, who have crunched for far longer than that.

Obviously it is a very personal decision, but who amongst us has not been touched in some way by some of the health issues we crunch for? It can be a comfort to know that one is helping medical and scientific research, in this very small way.

 

[nivrip]

With you both there, AB and TC.

I too have crunched for nigh on 10 years and have never had a problem nor noted any slowing down of the system.

I concentrate mainly on the Cancer Tasks as I have lost my brother and four good friends to the disease. My good lady has also been afflicted but has made an excellent recovery and it is now 7 years since she had surgery and radiotherapy.

I think it's a great idea to help with the research into this dreaded disease, and ,of course, all the others that are available.

 

[Abarbarian]

I had some initial problem setting up boinc on me Arch. It seems to me that the fabulous Arch Wiki was totally wrong and contained errors.
Anyways I posted over at the Arch G+ group which has over 65,000 members. I got one reply to my query and the guy who answered had never heard of boinc.

 

[Taffycat]

I got one reply to my query and the guy who answered had never heard of boinc.

I sometimes wonder whether the World Community Grid (WCG) could be doing much more to reach out to potential crunchers? They do their best to keep us informed via e-mailed newsletters, but they are preaching to the converted anyway.

I am not in the habit of shoveling it down the throats of everyone I meet, but just occasionally, when it has been appropriate to give crunching a mention, people express interest and will ask questions about it, but, there are no adverts or "infomercials" to refer them to; there is only the WCG website. As we all know, nothing has merit unless it is "as seen on tv" or is popularised by social media of some sort.

 

[Abarbarian]

Too true @Taffycat that is why I make the odd post separate from the crunchers thread. Mind you I have not done any crunching for a few years. Still now I have a decent rig and decentish house to live in I recon I can spare a few cpu cycles and a couple of bob for lecy for a good cause

I have the pc set up to use 15% of me cpu all the time apart from when I am gaming so my points wont break any records.

 

[bootneck02]

I used to crunch but since changing over to Linux Mint Cinnamon I haven't found out how to do it with Linux.

 

[nivrip]

I haven't found out how to do it with Linux.

Go to World community Grid, click on Download (top right) and you will be given four options, one of which is Linux. Click on that and follow the instructions.

It's straightforward, I did it on one of my daughter's computers.

 

[bootneck02]

Thanks nivrip

 

[Abarbarian]

I used to crunch but since changing over to Linux Mint Cinnamon I haven't found out how to do it with Linux.

https://wiki.debian.org/BOINC

Install on Mint should be pretty straight forward. If you can not find it in your package manager then you can install with the command line

 

[Abarbarian]

I did a bit of backhanded canvassing over at G+. I doubt if it will raise any new crunchers but it is worth a try.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/115380348752377438849/posts/A2sJnRNkdf4