Distributed computing under OSX

[robh]

Ok, so lets see what DC projects we're all contributing to.

I used to run SETI@Home for months but switched over to Folding@Home once I found it. I switched because SETI is just a bit of fun whereas Folding contributes to medical science.

The Folding@Home client for OSX is slow and not particularly suited for G3s, but the project seems worthwhile.

See http://folding.stanford.edu/ and join team number 8 (team OSX).

Are there any other DC projects with OSX clients ?

[xchanyazy]

There's a command-line client for OS X at http://www.distributed.net - the rc5 challenge runs pretty well on my computer, about the same as in 9.

[tncook]

I run RC5 as well.

[robh]

Out of curiosity, what is the point of helping with RC5 ?. That's not a rhetorical question, I'd really like to know what users feel they gain from contributing to it.

As far as I can see, the aim is just to see how long it takes to get lucky. :confused:

With other projects, the getting lucky aspect advances science in some way. Am I missing something ?

thanks.

[xchanyazy]

I don't know about others, but I find encryption interesting. That's my main reason.

This (http://n0cgi.distributed.net/faq/cache/29.html) page has some other reasons.

[robh]

Just found another project for people to think about..

http://www.distributedfolding.org/

There's a text-only OSX client there that shows rapid progress (you can see work getting done rather than a client that takes an age so show signs of life).

The client can be stopped at any time and results found so far are sent to the server i.e. there's no need to wait for a long job to finish before an upload takes place.

One caveat, I don't think this project has reached the stage yet where they are looking for new discoveries. That may come. For now they appear to be testing the software against existing knowledge.