1 00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:02,880 Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 2 00:00:03,200 --> 00:00:08,920 Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 3 00:00:09,080 --> 00:00:17,760 Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, 4 00:00:17,800 --> 00:00:20,319 Speaker 1: welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Boulette and 5 00:00:20,320 --> 00:00:22,079 Speaker 1: I am the tech editor here at how stuff works 6 00:00:22,120 --> 00:00:24,560 Speaker 1: dot Com. Sitting across from me, as he always does, 7 00:00:24,640 --> 00:00:28,560 Speaker 1: is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. Hey there, all right, So 8 00:00:28,800 --> 00:00:30,800 Speaker 1: what do you want to talk about today? Well, I 9 00:00:30,800 --> 00:00:33,640 Speaker 1: wanted to talk about something that comes comes to us 10 00:00:33,680 --> 00:00:39,920 Speaker 1: courtesy of a little listener mail. List listener mail comes 11 00:00:39,920 --> 00:00:42,960 Speaker 1: from Samuel, and Samuel says, Hi, First of all, thanks 12 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:45,080 Speaker 1: for the great info. I really like your show. I 13 00:00:45,159 --> 00:00:47,440 Speaker 1: just started listening to you guys, and I am liking it. 14 00:00:47,640 --> 00:00:50,960 Speaker 1: I would like to know more about distributed computing services 15 00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:53,400 Speaker 1: and how would I be able to sell my computers 16 00:00:53,440 --> 00:00:56,640 Speaker 1: idling time or CPU cycles, also if it would be 17 00:00:56,680 --> 00:01:00,800 Speaker 1: a good idea to do it. Thanks again, Sam from Pasco, Washington, 18 00:01:01,240 --> 00:01:05,880 Speaker 1: By bye, Sam. It's nice talking to you. Um so 19 00:01:05,920 --> 00:01:10,679 Speaker 1: distributed computing. We're gonna go into what distributing distributed computing 20 00:01:10,840 --> 00:01:14,240 Speaker 1: is and um and the whole idea of selling your 21 00:01:14,280 --> 00:01:17,399 Speaker 1: CPUs cycles, which I don't just go ahead and get 22 00:01:17,400 --> 00:01:19,720 Speaker 1: this out of the way. UM, As far as I 23 00:01:19,760 --> 00:01:24,160 Speaker 1: can tell, there are no projects currently available where you 24 00:01:24,200 --> 00:01:27,280 Speaker 1: can actually sell your CPUs cycles. In most cases, you're 25 00:01:27,319 --> 00:01:31,679 Speaker 1: donating your cycles. UM. There was a proposed project at 26 00:01:31,760 --> 00:01:36,000 Speaker 1: one point to compensate people for their computer time, but 27 00:01:36,440 --> 00:01:38,559 Speaker 1: that one kind of fizzled out before it ever reached 28 00:01:38,560 --> 00:01:42,399 Speaker 1: a point where payments could be made to participants. So UM. 29 00:01:42,520 --> 00:01:45,280 Speaker 1: So as it stands the as the recording of this podcast, 30 00:01:45,360 --> 00:01:48,040 Speaker 1: and as far as I am aware, the only way 31 00:01:48,080 --> 00:01:52,240 Speaker 1: you can participate in distributed computing projects is by either 32 00:01:52,920 --> 00:01:57,720 Speaker 1: working at a particular facility or donating your your computer 33 00:01:57,800 --> 00:02:02,520 Speaker 1: CPUs cycles. Should we talk about what distributed computing is, 34 00:02:02,600 --> 00:02:04,240 Speaker 1: how it wants. I just wanted to make sure that 35 00:02:04,280 --> 00:02:06,360 Speaker 1: we answered Samuel's question and didn't forget about it. No, 36 00:02:06,440 --> 00:02:10,480 Speaker 1: I'm absolutely okay with that, So distribute computing take it away. 37 00:02:10,639 --> 00:02:16,880 Speaker 1: We Distributed computing UH is a way of basically crunching data. UM. 38 00:02:17,120 --> 00:02:20,360 Speaker 1: And in a lot of cases there are massive, massive 39 00:02:20,400 --> 00:02:22,919 Speaker 1: projects underway. A lot of the ones I'm sure we'll 40 00:02:22,919 --> 00:02:24,880 Speaker 1: be talking about in a few minutes are science related, 41 00:02:24,880 --> 00:02:28,799 Speaker 1: where UH scientists, for example, are collecting lots and lots 42 00:02:28,840 --> 00:02:31,359 Speaker 1: and lots of information, but they don't have the computing 43 00:02:31,400 --> 00:02:36,639 Speaker 1: power to crunch all those numbers in a handy fashion. So, um, well, 44 00:02:36,800 --> 00:02:39,400 Speaker 1: I would guess about the mid nineties, that's when I 45 00:02:39,440 --> 00:02:44,200 Speaker 1: started seeing information on undistributed computing. They started saying, well, hey, 46 00:02:44,440 --> 00:02:46,560 Speaker 1: you guys all want to help us out with these projects, 47 00:02:46,800 --> 00:02:49,720 Speaker 1: So why don't we find a way to let you 48 00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:53,959 Speaker 1: contribute your computer processing cycles from when your machine is down, 49 00:02:54,040 --> 00:02:57,160 Speaker 1: say overnight, If you leave your computer on, it's not 50 00:02:57,320 --> 00:02:59,360 Speaker 1: doing a whole lot other than just sort of sitting 51 00:02:59,360 --> 00:03:01,799 Speaker 1: there on sleep. So why don't you help us out 52 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:04,080 Speaker 1: by crunching some of these numbers for us and send 53 00:03:04,120 --> 00:03:07,320 Speaker 1: them back and we can use this to get our 54 00:03:07,400 --> 00:03:10,359 Speaker 1: experiment further down the road, right right. It speeds things 55 00:03:10,400 --> 00:03:13,280 Speaker 1: up considerably, because really, when you're working on one of 56 00:03:13,320 --> 00:03:16,160 Speaker 1: these huge projects, you only have a couple of options 57 00:03:16,200 --> 00:03:19,120 Speaker 1: available to you, because, as Plett was mentioning, you get 58 00:03:19,160 --> 00:03:21,680 Speaker 1: tons and tons of information. If you were to use 59 00:03:21,680 --> 00:03:24,600 Speaker 1: a single regular computer to try and process that, it 60 00:03:24,639 --> 00:03:28,000 Speaker 1: could take thousands or even millions of years to complete 61 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:32,360 Speaker 1: the calculations. Because we're talking about enormous figures here, um, 62 00:03:32,400 --> 00:03:35,760 Speaker 1: and often lots of different kinds of information coming in 63 00:03:35,760 --> 00:03:37,480 Speaker 1: that you have to analyze, and the computer may only 64 00:03:37,520 --> 00:03:40,560 Speaker 1: be able to concentrate on one at a time. Your 65 00:03:40,600 --> 00:03:42,880 Speaker 1: other option is you could try and book some time 66 00:03:42,880 --> 00:03:45,960 Speaker 1: with a supercomputer, and some of these projects are doing 67 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:50,040 Speaker 1: that too. They're also using supercomputers, not just a distributed computing, 68 00:03:50,960 --> 00:03:54,840 Speaker 1: but supercomputer time is precious. There are only so many 69 00:03:54,880 --> 00:03:58,040 Speaker 1: supercomputers out there. Many of them were built with a 70 00:03:58,120 --> 00:04:00,960 Speaker 1: specific task in mind, so there's not a whole lot 71 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:05,080 Speaker 1: of time for for them to to dedicate to other projects. 72 00:04:05,440 --> 00:04:08,000 Speaker 1: So if your project does not have a supercomputer, it 73 00:04:08,040 --> 00:04:09,800 Speaker 1: may be a struggle for you to get the money 74 00:04:09,880 --> 00:04:12,960 Speaker 1: and the time available on one of those machines to 75 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:16,440 Speaker 1: do your number crunching. So what do you do? Well, 76 00:04:16,880 --> 00:04:19,920 Speaker 1: if the problems that you're working on can be broken 77 00:04:19,960 --> 00:04:24,360 Speaker 1: down into smaller problems, you can look into distributed computing. Now, 78 00:04:24,360 --> 00:04:26,200 Speaker 1: some of you may be thinking this sounds a lot 79 00:04:26,279 --> 00:04:28,520 Speaker 1: like what we talked about when we talk about multi 80 00:04:28,520 --> 00:04:33,000 Speaker 1: core processors. It is not dissimilar. The two are are 81 00:04:33,200 --> 00:04:36,120 Speaker 1: very close together in a way. You're talking about a 82 00:04:36,200 --> 00:04:39,280 Speaker 1: big problem that you can break down into smaller problems, 83 00:04:39,360 --> 00:04:43,680 Speaker 1: and each processor or in distributed computing. Each computer can 84 00:04:43,760 --> 00:04:46,880 Speaker 1: work on a portion of that problem, solve it, send 85 00:04:46,920 --> 00:04:50,640 Speaker 1: it back to a master computer, which then incorporates everything 86 00:04:50,680 --> 00:04:53,039 Speaker 1: that has been gathered up to that point, and you 87 00:04:53,360 --> 00:04:55,400 Speaker 1: end up solving the big problem much faster than you 88 00:04:55,440 --> 00:04:58,960 Speaker 1: would if you tackled it with just one machine. Yeah. Actually, 89 00:04:59,080 --> 00:05:01,000 Speaker 1: if you think about it, if you're a long time 90 00:05:01,040 --> 00:05:03,440 Speaker 1: tech stuff fan, you you've heard us talk about this 91 00:05:03,480 --> 00:05:05,880 Speaker 1: in a number of occasions, UM, including when we talked 92 00:05:05,880 --> 00:05:10,000 Speaker 1: about the PlayStation threes being used for the military, and um, 93 00:05:10,040 --> 00:05:14,040 Speaker 1: you know the many occasions on which we've mentioned Google. Um, 94 00:05:14,080 --> 00:05:15,640 Speaker 1: they sort of do the same thing if you think 95 00:05:15,640 --> 00:05:18,640 Speaker 1: about it, because they're using rather than buying lots and 96 00:05:18,640 --> 00:05:21,560 Speaker 1: lots of really expensive hardware. UH, they used sort of 97 00:05:21,680 --> 00:05:25,000 Speaker 1: run of the mill uh PCs using Linux. They're sort 98 00:05:25,040 --> 00:05:28,000 Speaker 1: of custom built. But um, they're still not you know, 99 00:05:28,120 --> 00:05:32,640 Speaker 1: high end, high end, super powerful computers. UM. And by 100 00:05:32,760 --> 00:05:36,840 Speaker 1: using those uh smaller, less powerful computers, they're able to 101 00:05:36,960 --> 00:05:41,360 Speaker 1: distribute the load of the entire network on UH and 102 00:05:41,360 --> 00:05:44,040 Speaker 1: and spread their budget out a little bit more too. So, right, 103 00:05:44,440 --> 00:05:48,039 Speaker 1: and I have to kind of fun. Definitions of fun 104 00:05:48,160 --> 00:05:51,440 Speaker 1: might be a stretch. I have two definitions. Have distributed 105 00:05:51,440 --> 00:05:54,440 Speaker 1: computing from two different individuals. So this first one comes 106 00:05:54,440 --> 00:05:59,320 Speaker 1: from andrew S. Tannenbaum, and he says, distributed computing distributed 107 00:05:59,320 --> 00:06:02,719 Speaker 1: communing system is a collection of independent computers that appears 108 00:06:02,760 --> 00:06:05,840 Speaker 1: to its users as a single coherent system. So, in 109 00:06:05,880 --> 00:06:09,400 Speaker 1: other words, from a macro point of view, if you 110 00:06:09,520 --> 00:06:12,440 Speaker 1: if you get the bird's eye view on this, Uh, yeah, 111 00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:14,360 Speaker 1: it's a system that's made up of lots and lots 112 00:06:14,360 --> 00:06:17,080 Speaker 1: of computers, but they're all working to the same end, 113 00:06:17,120 --> 00:06:19,679 Speaker 1: and they have, you know, a kind of a master 114 00:06:20,400 --> 00:06:23,360 Speaker 1: that is coordinating everything. If you look at this one 115 00:06:23,440 --> 00:06:25,640 Speaker 1: big system, then you just think, oh, each of these 116 00:06:25,680 --> 00:06:29,840 Speaker 1: computers is really a processor. And another example of of 117 00:06:29,880 --> 00:06:32,440 Speaker 1: distributing computing we've talked about in the face it applies 118 00:06:32,480 --> 00:06:35,760 Speaker 1: to that definition a bot net. Yes, that's also a 119 00:06:35,760 --> 00:06:38,800 Speaker 1: good example. Uh. And you could argue that the Internet 120 00:06:38,839 --> 00:06:42,200 Speaker 1: itself is in a way a distributed computing system, although 121 00:06:42,279 --> 00:06:46,440 Speaker 1: it's not really geared to a specific project. It's not 122 00:06:46,520 --> 00:06:49,400 Speaker 1: solving a problem so much, but the computing power of 123 00:06:49,600 --> 00:06:53,120 Speaker 1: moving all that information is distributed. Yes. So then the 124 00:06:53,240 --> 00:06:57,160 Speaker 1: second definition I wanted to mention comes from Leslie Lamport, 125 00:06:58,120 --> 00:07:00,200 Speaker 1: who says, you know, you know, you have of a 126 00:07:00,240 --> 00:07:03,880 Speaker 1: distributed system when the crash of a computer you've never 127 00:07:03,920 --> 00:07:08,880 Speaker 1: heard of halts all progress. So that brings us to 128 00:07:08,960 --> 00:07:12,560 Speaker 1: some of the considerations you have to have in mind 129 00:07:12,720 --> 00:07:16,600 Speaker 1: when you start to build a distributed computing system. Now, 130 00:07:16,840 --> 00:07:19,880 Speaker 1: to build a distributed computing system, what you really need 131 00:07:19,960 --> 00:07:23,000 Speaker 1: is an algorithm that which is of course a set 132 00:07:23,040 --> 00:07:26,120 Speaker 1: of instructions. An algorithm is just really just a set 133 00:07:26,120 --> 00:07:30,200 Speaker 1: of instructions in mathematical format usually UM that tells computers 134 00:07:30,280 --> 00:07:32,280 Speaker 1: what they have to do. You know, it gives them 135 00:07:32,320 --> 00:07:36,040 Speaker 1: a step by step procedure. With a distributed algorithm, what 136 00:07:36,160 --> 00:07:39,440 Speaker 1: this is doing is it determines how to divide up 137 00:07:39,440 --> 00:07:43,480 Speaker 1: a problem. It determines how to send that information out 138 00:07:43,520 --> 00:07:48,000 Speaker 1: to the different nodes or clients um uh. The clients 139 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:50,280 Speaker 1: and nodes in this case would be the individual computers 140 00:07:50,280 --> 00:07:53,600 Speaker 1: out there UH and to get also would have to 141 00:07:53,600 --> 00:07:58,080 Speaker 1: have information on how long to wait until UH for 142 00:07:58,160 --> 00:08:01,360 Speaker 1: a response from that computer from that client um. In 143 00:08:01,400 --> 00:08:03,440 Speaker 1: other words, if you send out a problem to a computer, 144 00:08:03,600 --> 00:08:06,120 Speaker 1: and let's say that you you are using your computer 145 00:08:06,160 --> 00:08:09,000 Speaker 1: to be part of one of these distributed computing projects, 146 00:08:09,040 --> 00:08:11,640 Speaker 1: but you happen to go on vacation for a full 147 00:08:11,680 --> 00:08:15,480 Speaker 1: month and you've turned your computer off. Well, in that 148 00:08:15,480 --> 00:08:20,160 Speaker 1: that month long vacation that you're on, while you're enjoying 149 00:08:20,520 --> 00:08:24,680 Speaker 1: life and drinking tropical drinks and listening to Beach Boys songs, 150 00:08:24,760 --> 00:08:26,760 Speaker 1: your computer is not working on the problem that was 151 00:08:26,800 --> 00:08:29,600 Speaker 1: sent to it by the master computer. If you don't 152 00:08:29,720 --> 00:08:34,120 Speaker 1: build into the algorithm the you know the fact that, hey, 153 00:08:34,160 --> 00:08:36,640 Speaker 1: sometimes computers are not going to send you the information 154 00:08:36,679 --> 00:08:40,320 Speaker 1: you expect back, then the whole project could come to 155 00:08:40,559 --> 00:08:45,080 Speaker 1: a halt. Theoretically, um Or, you could build into the 156 00:08:45,200 --> 00:08:48,440 Speaker 1: algorithm if you don't hear back from the client within 157 00:08:48,880 --> 00:08:52,920 Speaker 1: X number of days, then send the problem to another client, 158 00:08:53,480 --> 00:08:56,079 Speaker 1: so that way you have redundancy in there. If one 159 00:08:56,120 --> 00:08:59,679 Speaker 1: computer fails, the whole project doesn't come to a crashing halt. 160 00:09:00,240 --> 00:09:03,720 Speaker 1: As as Leslie had pointed out, um that's something you 161 00:09:03,760 --> 00:09:05,880 Speaker 1: have to build into the algorithm. As well as the 162 00:09:05,920 --> 00:09:09,839 Speaker 1: idea that none of these individual computers are completely infallible, 163 00:09:09,880 --> 00:09:11,840 Speaker 1: they have to be You have to be planned for 164 00:09:11,840 --> 00:09:14,280 Speaker 1: the fact that some of these are going to crash. Uh. 165 00:09:14,760 --> 00:09:17,280 Speaker 1: Users may turn their machines off, they may they may 166 00:09:17,320 --> 00:09:20,040 Speaker 1: abandoned the project, and you have to build that into 167 00:09:20,080 --> 00:09:22,600 Speaker 1: your system. So that it doesn't bring the whole thing 168 00:09:22,679 --> 00:09:27,400 Speaker 1: down in the process. UM, I'm sorry you were going 169 00:09:27,480 --> 00:09:29,600 Speaker 1: to say, well, no, no, it was UM. I didn't 170 00:09:29,600 --> 00:09:32,520 Speaker 1: know where you're going next because I had an example. 171 00:09:32,720 --> 00:09:38,280 Speaker 1: But UM. One of the projects that has become so 172 00:09:38,600 --> 00:09:42,240 Speaker 1: it's really sort of an overarching way of working on 173 00:09:43,080 --> 00:09:48,079 Speaker 1: different kinds of distributing computing projects is UH Berkeley University 174 00:09:48,080 --> 00:09:54,000 Speaker 1: of California Berkeley blink yes, pink, the Berkeley Open Infrastructure 175 00:09:54,040 --> 00:09:56,800 Speaker 1: for Network Computing. I couldn't read my own handwriting there. UM. 176 00:09:56,840 --> 00:09:58,800 Speaker 1: And basically what this is it's a client a piece 177 00:09:58,800 --> 00:10:03,360 Speaker 1: of client software UM that enables somebody. You can download 178 00:10:03,480 --> 00:10:05,680 Speaker 1: the software and it will enable you to participate in 179 00:10:05,720 --> 00:10:10,000 Speaker 1: all kinds of projects. It's sometimes more than one. Um yeah. Basically, 180 00:10:10,040 --> 00:10:13,080 Speaker 1: a scheduling server sends out the instructions to your computer 181 00:10:13,679 --> 00:10:16,920 Speaker 1: and says, you know, okay, here, here's your here's your information. 182 00:10:17,040 --> 00:10:19,560 Speaker 1: It judges your CPU and memory, so it says I'm 183 00:10:19,600 --> 00:10:21,080 Speaker 1: not gonna give you any more and you can handle, 184 00:10:21,800 --> 00:10:23,960 Speaker 1: you know, go ahead and work on this. And the 185 00:10:23,960 --> 00:10:27,040 Speaker 1: computer is also able to download any necessary files it 186 00:10:27,080 --> 00:10:30,680 Speaker 1: needs to execute. Basically, the if the server, if the 187 00:10:30,800 --> 00:10:33,400 Speaker 1: software is not up to date it can update itself 188 00:10:33,440 --> 00:10:35,280 Speaker 1: so that it can go ahead and process the information. 189 00:10:35,720 --> 00:10:38,840 Speaker 1: Then your computer does the UH, does the calculations, and 190 00:10:38,880 --> 00:10:41,000 Speaker 1: sends it back up to the data server and tells 191 00:10:41,000 --> 00:10:43,800 Speaker 1: the scheduling server, hey, I'm free. And basically they give 192 00:10:43,840 --> 00:10:48,040 Speaker 1: you credit for the amount of cycles your computer has 193 00:10:48,440 --> 00:10:52,240 Speaker 1: participated in. And it does send out each problem to 194 00:10:52,360 --> 00:10:55,120 Speaker 1: more than one computer, actually two in this case, and 195 00:10:55,320 --> 00:10:58,160 Speaker 1: based you know, it to be fair rather than to 196 00:10:58,240 --> 00:11:00,560 Speaker 1: give all the credits. Say, you know, Nathan and I 197 00:11:00,640 --> 00:11:02,880 Speaker 1: both have boy and constalled in our computers, and both 198 00:11:02,880 --> 00:11:06,239 Speaker 1: of us are working on steady at home, and uh, 199 00:11:06,320 --> 00:11:08,280 Speaker 1: Jonathan turned his computer off one night when I left 200 00:11:08,320 --> 00:11:10,880 Speaker 1: my non so his wasn't able to process the information 201 00:11:10,960 --> 00:11:13,520 Speaker 1: quite as fast because he was, you know, about ten 202 00:11:13,559 --> 00:11:17,160 Speaker 1: hours shorter than than mine. The press you know, the cycles. 203 00:11:17,200 --> 00:11:19,960 Speaker 1: So basically what it does is to be fair. Because 204 00:11:20,000 --> 00:11:23,560 Speaker 1: Jonathan's computer did do most of the work UH to 205 00:11:23,640 --> 00:11:26,960 Speaker 1: get the unit done, it gives both of us credit 206 00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:30,760 Speaker 1: for what how much time our CPUs spent working on 207 00:11:30,800 --> 00:11:34,199 Speaker 1: the problem. So um it sort of it serves as 208 00:11:34,240 --> 00:11:38,400 Speaker 1: a a dual purpose because in one hand, if if 209 00:11:38,440 --> 00:11:40,560 Speaker 1: my computer been off the entire time, the unit still 210 00:11:40,600 --> 00:11:44,520 Speaker 1: needed to get to be finished. But at the same 211 00:11:44,559 --> 00:11:46,160 Speaker 1: time they want to give us credit for it. Because 212 00:11:46,360 --> 00:11:48,839 Speaker 1: part of the the UH, the fun and participating in 213 00:11:48,880 --> 00:11:50,400 Speaker 1: some of these projects as they give you credit and 214 00:11:50,440 --> 00:11:52,160 Speaker 1: you get to rack up hours and you can join 215 00:11:52,240 --> 00:11:55,360 Speaker 1: teams and the teams can compete with one another. So 216 00:11:55,640 --> 00:11:58,600 Speaker 1: it's mostly for fun for bragging rights. It's not like 217 00:11:58,800 --> 00:12:01,120 Speaker 1: it's not a compensation thing. But when you think about it, 218 00:12:01,440 --> 00:12:06,560 Speaker 1: you're helping contribute to two humans expanding our knowledge about 219 00:12:06,600 --> 00:12:10,160 Speaker 1: the universe in some way, depending on what the project is. 220 00:12:10,160 --> 00:12:13,840 Speaker 1: There's lots of different versions out there as emergencies go 221 00:12:13,880 --> 00:12:18,240 Speaker 1: on outside of our studio. UM. But the besides the 222 00:12:18,240 --> 00:12:21,359 Speaker 1: fact of the whole algorithm saying the whole UH scheduling 223 00:12:21,400 --> 00:12:23,880 Speaker 1: thing that you pointed out, UM, there are two different 224 00:12:24,960 --> 00:12:30,640 Speaker 1: major UH categories of distributed computing. You have synchronous, where 225 00:12:30,679 --> 00:12:33,800 Speaker 1: everything is as you would imagine from the name synchronized, 226 00:12:33,880 --> 00:12:35,880 Speaker 1: so that everything is going on a very set schedule, 227 00:12:36,320 --> 00:12:40,160 Speaker 1: and then there's asynchronous. Now, asynchronous is harder to set up. 228 00:12:40,400 --> 00:12:43,120 Speaker 1: It is much more difficult to create an algorithm that 229 00:12:43,760 --> 00:12:47,720 Speaker 1: that compensates for an asynchronous system, but it's also the 230 00:12:47,760 --> 00:12:51,120 Speaker 1: one that allows people more people to join, because, as 231 00:12:51,120 --> 00:12:54,000 Speaker 1: you pointed out, they're gonna be times where someone's computer 232 00:12:54,080 --> 00:12:55,599 Speaker 1: is going to be off for perhaps the person is 233 00:12:55,679 --> 00:12:58,600 Speaker 1: using the computer for a really process or heavy application. 234 00:12:58,760 --> 00:13:02,800 Speaker 1: And so most of the uh, these programs have middleware 235 00:13:03,960 --> 00:13:07,800 Speaker 1: that will ease back on your computer while you're using it. Um. 236 00:13:07,800 --> 00:13:09,679 Speaker 1: It may always be running in the background, but it 237 00:13:09,720 --> 00:13:12,160 Speaker 1: will start to consume less and less power as you 238 00:13:12,240 --> 00:13:14,960 Speaker 1: demand more and more for whatever application you need. So 239 00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:17,120 Speaker 1: let's say you're doing like a lot of video editing 240 00:13:17,120 --> 00:13:18,760 Speaker 1: and you need a lot of process or power at 241 00:13:18,760 --> 00:13:21,520 Speaker 1: that time. Uh, it'll back off, or you can turn 242 00:13:21,520 --> 00:13:23,679 Speaker 1: it off entirely for the duration of your work, which 243 00:13:23,760 --> 00:13:26,440 Speaker 1: I sometimes do depending on what I have to do. Right, 244 00:13:26,520 --> 00:13:29,200 Speaker 1: especially if you're you start feeling like your computers acting 245 00:13:29,200 --> 00:13:31,360 Speaker 1: slugg as you start looking at the processes you can 246 00:13:31,520 --> 00:13:34,320 Speaker 1: you can halt and that's usually one of the one 247 00:13:34,360 --> 00:13:37,800 Speaker 1: of the first to go. But uh that's an asynchronous 248 00:13:37,800 --> 00:13:40,760 Speaker 1: system can compensate for that. Uh. You know, it doesn't 249 00:13:40,800 --> 00:13:44,040 Speaker 1: matter if your computer goes offline for a while. UM. 250 00:13:44,080 --> 00:13:47,000 Speaker 1: And UH so that's another one of those those things 251 00:13:47,000 --> 00:13:49,000 Speaker 1: that you have to take into consideration along with the 252 00:13:49,600 --> 00:13:52,680 Speaker 1: UM the fact that UH if a computer does go down, 253 00:13:52,760 --> 00:13:55,719 Speaker 1: you don't want your your project to crash. Another thing 254 00:13:55,760 --> 00:13:58,000 Speaker 1: you have to keep in mind is that for a 255 00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:00,480 Speaker 1: lot of these these, actually, I would say, are pretty 256 00:14:00,559 --> 00:14:04,200 Speaker 1: much any distributed computing system that was not a very 257 00:14:04,240 --> 00:14:08,240 Speaker 1: tightly controlled grid computing system, you're gonna be working with 258 00:14:08,400 --> 00:14:12,040 Speaker 1: lots and lots of different kinds of hardware. Definitely. I 259 00:14:12,040 --> 00:14:14,240 Speaker 1: mean we work in the same company, Chris and I 260 00:14:14,440 --> 00:14:18,440 Speaker 1: and and really yeah, oddly and I have so Chris 261 00:14:18,440 --> 00:14:20,920 Speaker 1: and I work in the same company, but our computers 262 00:14:20,920 --> 00:14:23,360 Speaker 1: are different. Yes, his computer and my computer are not. 263 00:14:23,560 --> 00:14:28,320 Speaker 1: Are not exactly the same, you know, the specs are different. Um, 264 00:14:28,480 --> 00:14:34,280 Speaker 1: his his better, His e key works and mine doesn't. Um, 265 00:14:34,400 --> 00:14:37,840 Speaker 1: I'm really tired of typing the number three instead of 266 00:14:37,880 --> 00:14:42,360 Speaker 1: ever and over. I think that's called the minor vowel shift. Yes, yes, 267 00:14:42,400 --> 00:14:47,320 Speaker 1: I had a vowel movement. Um, minor English major joke there. Yeah, 268 00:14:47,320 --> 00:14:52,920 Speaker 1: we're sorry. We apologize at any rate. They you have 269 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:55,080 Speaker 1: to be able to build your system so that it 270 00:14:55,160 --> 00:14:57,200 Speaker 1: can it can come sate for the fact that people 271 00:14:57,200 --> 00:14:59,760 Speaker 1: are not using the exact same machine. Now, for some 272 00:14:59,840 --> 00:15:03,680 Speaker 1: of these these distributed computing models, if you were, say 273 00:15:03,840 --> 00:15:06,440 Speaker 1: a research facility and you just decide, you know, instead 274 00:15:06,480 --> 00:15:09,640 Speaker 1: of trying to spend several hundred million dollars to build 275 00:15:09,640 --> 00:15:13,240 Speaker 1: a supercomputer, we're gonna spend several thousand dollars and buy up, 276 00:15:13,600 --> 00:15:18,400 Speaker 1: you know, a dozen PCs. You could theoretically make sure 277 00:15:18,400 --> 00:15:21,360 Speaker 1: that every single one of them matches exactly to a 278 00:15:21,400 --> 00:15:24,840 Speaker 1: specific model. Now, in that case, a synchronous approach might 279 00:15:24,880 --> 00:15:27,040 Speaker 1: even work, because if all you're doing is relying on 280 00:15:27,160 --> 00:15:30,880 Speaker 1: computers that you yourself are maintaining, you can make sure 281 00:15:30,920 --> 00:15:33,920 Speaker 1: that everything's working properly. It's not the same as if 282 00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:38,160 Speaker 1: it's a distributed computing system where anyone can join UM. 283 00:15:38,200 --> 00:15:41,160 Speaker 1: And you know, really it's the Internet Protocol that made 284 00:15:41,160 --> 00:15:44,200 Speaker 1: all of this possible from you know, opening it up 285 00:15:44,240 --> 00:15:46,920 Speaker 1: to the public. Before that, you would just have uh 286 00:15:47,760 --> 00:15:53,200 Speaker 1: various standards of computer to computer uh communication to to 287 00:15:53,240 --> 00:15:58,040 Speaker 1: try and create a distributed computing system. I'm saying distributed 288 00:15:58,080 --> 00:16:01,280 Speaker 1: computing so much it's it's start to lose all meaning 289 00:16:01,320 --> 00:16:03,680 Speaker 1: to me, a right. But there we should also mention 290 00:16:03,720 --> 00:16:07,960 Speaker 1: there are different variations of distributed computing, and the definitions 291 00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:10,600 Speaker 1: are not set in stone. They're not so well defined 292 00:16:10,640 --> 00:16:14,600 Speaker 1: that UM, that's easy to differentiate one from the other. So, 293 00:16:14,720 --> 00:16:18,720 Speaker 1: for example, grid computing, you might think of grid computing 294 00:16:18,760 --> 00:16:22,120 Speaker 1: as being a little more structured than you know, the 295 00:16:22,200 --> 00:16:26,000 Speaker 1: word grid sound to be right, right, It doesn't necessarily 296 00:16:26,040 --> 00:16:28,120 Speaker 1: mean that. I mean, some people use grid computing to 297 00:16:28,120 --> 00:16:32,760 Speaker 1: mean any kind of distributed computing system, but or utility computing, 298 00:16:32,880 --> 00:16:36,240 Speaker 1: where that kind of suggests that there's a transaction involved, 299 00:16:36,720 --> 00:16:39,120 Speaker 1: like you are paying a company in order to access 300 00:16:39,120 --> 00:16:42,440 Speaker 1: a certain amount of processing power or certain applications. It's 301 00:16:42,480 --> 00:16:45,680 Speaker 1: kind of a software as the service spin off. Um. 302 00:16:45,720 --> 00:16:48,480 Speaker 1: Then there's cloud computing, which sounds like it's a little 303 00:16:48,560 --> 00:16:51,520 Speaker 1: less structured than grid computing, and that's usually what I 304 00:16:51,560 --> 00:16:53,280 Speaker 1: think of when I think of these big projects that 305 00:16:53,320 --> 00:16:58,480 Speaker 1: allow the public to participate. Um. But again, these definitions 306 00:16:58,480 --> 00:17:01,120 Speaker 1: are just kind of guidelines, they're not There's a lot 307 00:17:01,120 --> 00:17:04,480 Speaker 1: of overlap, and some people use the terms interchangeably. Yeah, 308 00:17:04,640 --> 00:17:06,639 Speaker 1: so don't get too confused because no one knows what 309 00:17:06,680 --> 00:17:10,440 Speaker 1: they're talking about. Yeah. I always think of distributing distributed 310 00:17:10,600 --> 00:17:14,680 Speaker 1: computing as being the participatory projects that you opt into 311 00:17:14,720 --> 00:17:17,440 Speaker 1: for these things, right, I mean, that's usually the way 312 00:17:17,480 --> 00:17:20,600 Speaker 1: I hear it referred. And you you mentioned study at home, 313 00:17:20,680 --> 00:17:24,160 Speaker 1: which would be the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Yes, um, 314 00:17:24,400 --> 00:17:26,280 Speaker 1: it was the very first project I ever worked on 315 00:17:26,320 --> 00:17:29,000 Speaker 1: in a distributed sense. Honestly, I think we just need 316 00:17:29,040 --> 00:17:31,480 Speaker 1: to start searching for the terrestrial kind first and then 317 00:17:31,520 --> 00:17:39,080 Speaker 1: work our way up a dumb human joke. I'm sorry. Yeah. 318 00:17:39,160 --> 00:17:41,520 Speaker 1: Setting at Home was the first project that I UH 319 00:17:41,760 --> 00:17:45,359 Speaker 1: ever participated in like this, and it um basically it 320 00:17:45,720 --> 00:17:50,960 Speaker 1: takes information gathered by a radio telescope, UM and UH 321 00:17:51,840 --> 00:17:53,840 Speaker 1: sends it out to different people. Now, they used to 322 00:17:53,880 --> 00:17:56,840 Speaker 1: have their own individual client, which was really pretty because 323 00:17:56,840 --> 00:17:59,000 Speaker 1: it had lots and lots of multicolored blocks on it, 324 00:17:59,040 --> 00:18:01,560 Speaker 1: and it when it was up as a screensaver, it 325 00:18:01,560 --> 00:18:03,600 Speaker 1: made it look like your computer was doing something really 326 00:18:03,600 --> 00:18:07,680 Speaker 1: really cool. Um. And and what your computer really was doing, 327 00:18:07,720 --> 00:18:11,080 Speaker 1: just so you know, was analyzing the data from this 328 00:18:11,160 --> 00:18:14,040 Speaker 1: this radio telescope and looking for any kind of patterns 329 00:18:14,160 --> 00:18:18,480 Speaker 1: or spikes that might indicate an extraterrestrial radio transmission. Yeah. 330 00:18:18,560 --> 00:18:20,520 Speaker 1: So they were, we were. They were listening, and we 331 00:18:20,520 --> 00:18:22,680 Speaker 1: were helping them figure out whether we were actually picking 332 00:18:22,760 --> 00:18:26,800 Speaker 1: up anything other than I love Lucy reruns and um, 333 00:18:26,880 --> 00:18:33,919 Speaker 1: which oddly come from Venus. That is not true. Um. Yeah. Actually, 334 00:18:33,960 --> 00:18:36,240 Speaker 1: now they're part of blink, or they're not part part 335 00:18:36,240 --> 00:18:38,520 Speaker 1: of blink, but their data can be configured through boink. 336 00:18:38,520 --> 00:18:39,879 Speaker 1: So if you're down to the point of client, you 337 00:18:39,880 --> 00:18:41,919 Speaker 1: can do that, and a lot of projects are are 338 00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:45,240 Speaker 1: done that way too. But yeah, at the moment um, 339 00:18:45,280 --> 00:18:47,840 Speaker 1: in the moment I'm participating in three Wow, what are 340 00:18:47,840 --> 00:18:52,680 Speaker 1: the other two? Um? Well no, actually I was okay, 341 00:18:52,720 --> 00:18:54,760 Speaker 1: So what happened was good. This is a good transition 342 00:18:54,840 --> 00:18:56,800 Speaker 1: because I wanted to talk about the different kinds of 343 00:18:56,800 --> 00:18:59,960 Speaker 1: things because we're not just talking uh, you know, strict 344 00:19:00,080 --> 00:19:02,640 Speaker 1: lee science stuff. Although science and life sciences are two 345 00:19:02,640 --> 00:19:06,679 Speaker 1: of the big categories the participatory distributed computing projects like this, 346 00:19:06,920 --> 00:19:10,199 Speaker 1: there's also stuff you can do with cryptography. Um, there 347 00:19:10,240 --> 00:19:15,280 Speaker 1: are other internet and finance projects. You could work on, mathematics, language, art, 348 00:19:15,359 --> 00:19:18,080 Speaker 1: and even puzzles and games that you can participate in. 349 00:19:18,160 --> 00:19:20,520 Speaker 1: See I got confused. I thought cryptography was when you 350 00:19:20,560 --> 00:19:26,679 Speaker 1: sent people to the forbidden zone. No, right, So anyway, Um, 351 00:19:26,720 --> 00:19:29,520 Speaker 1: that was a Superman joke. And I'm sorry, but two 352 00:19:29,520 --> 00:19:32,600 Speaker 1: of them might participate in and I'm ignoring you through 353 00:19:32,680 --> 00:19:37,040 Speaker 1: point um. One of them is the similar similarity matrix 354 00:19:37,080 --> 00:19:41,199 Speaker 1: of proteins UM and Uh. The other is Rosetta at 355 00:19:41,240 --> 00:19:44,360 Speaker 1: Home with both of which are our life sciences related. 356 00:19:44,680 --> 00:19:47,760 Speaker 1: And then I use a third one on our work 357 00:19:47,840 --> 00:19:50,600 Speaker 1: on our aforementioned work computers. Um, those two are on 358 00:19:50,640 --> 00:19:53,399 Speaker 1: the on our test machine. The other one is a 359 00:19:53,440 --> 00:19:55,960 Speaker 1: Stanford project that's not run through point called Folding at Home. 360 00:19:56,280 --> 00:19:59,320 Speaker 1: That's proteins, right, Yes, it is also proteins. They're basically 361 00:19:59,320 --> 00:20:04,359 Speaker 1: looking the proteins fold um in a way that helps 362 00:20:04,400 --> 00:20:07,399 Speaker 1: them work. And we don't really understand what it takes 363 00:20:07,400 --> 00:20:09,600 Speaker 1: for the proteins to actually activate, so we're looking at 364 00:20:09,600 --> 00:20:12,560 Speaker 1: you know, we're looking at how the proteins fold and 365 00:20:12,600 --> 00:20:17,600 Speaker 1: how that helps determine what the proteins do. Yeah, exactly exactly, 366 00:20:17,840 --> 00:20:20,439 Speaker 1: And it's uh, it's the difference in this and the 367 00:20:20,440 --> 00:20:23,200 Speaker 1: point stuff is, you know, the Folding its home has 368 00:20:23,200 --> 00:20:27,560 Speaker 1: a screensaver components. So when my computer is you know, 369 00:20:27,600 --> 00:20:29,240 Speaker 1: a sleep when I go to get coffee or something 370 00:20:29,280 --> 00:20:32,280 Speaker 1: like that. Uh, it has all these funny looking look 371 00:20:32,480 --> 00:20:36,000 Speaker 1: molecule looking things up on the screen and solely are 372 00:20:36,119 --> 00:20:40,280 Speaker 1: are building the the supposedly building the protein. Yeah. And uh, 373 00:20:40,480 --> 00:20:43,480 Speaker 1: I even convinced, uh stuff you should know as Josh 374 00:20:43,480 --> 00:20:45,879 Speaker 1: Clark to participate in the process too. So we have 375 00:20:45,960 --> 00:20:50,000 Speaker 1: a house stuff Works group. Yes, we do on on 376 00:20:50,080 --> 00:20:51,920 Speaker 1: that group, so you know you can always join us there, 377 00:20:51,960 --> 00:20:54,560 Speaker 1: and I um, I'm going to start groups too for 378 00:20:54,600 --> 00:20:56,120 Speaker 1: the other two projects I'm working on in our house 379 00:20:56,119 --> 00:20:58,560 Speaker 1: stuff works dot Com groups. Hopefully I can get ones 380 00:20:58,640 --> 00:21:00,639 Speaker 1: for the other groups and we can really get a 381 00:21:00,800 --> 00:21:05,159 Speaker 1: how stuff works dot Com movement behind distributed computing and 382 00:21:05,200 --> 00:21:07,080 Speaker 1: have a have fun trying to take on the other 383 00:21:07,080 --> 00:21:08,960 Speaker 1: groups with it. And will make sure that we include 384 00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:11,320 Speaker 1: that when we do the blog post right up for 385 00:21:11,320 --> 00:21:13,560 Speaker 1: this this episode. Yeah, because I haven't done them all yet, 386 00:21:13,560 --> 00:21:15,679 Speaker 1: so I'm gonna have to put those together. So there 387 00:21:15,680 --> 00:21:17,399 Speaker 1: are a couple of other ones that we can talk about. 388 00:21:17,400 --> 00:21:21,160 Speaker 1: There's the Milky Way at Home projects. That's that one's 389 00:21:21,200 --> 00:21:25,280 Speaker 1: mapping out the Sagittarius stream and analyzing the data from that. 390 00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:29,160 Speaker 1: There's Einstein at Home, which is looking for gravitational waves, 391 00:21:29,200 --> 00:21:32,520 Speaker 1: particularly from pulsars um. There's the amount of time you 392 00:21:32,520 --> 00:21:36,240 Speaker 1: can put in on that one is sort of relative nice. Yeah, 393 00:21:36,359 --> 00:21:39,320 Speaker 1: it breaks down the closer you get to the big bang. Uh. 394 00:21:39,480 --> 00:21:43,239 Speaker 1: The these these projects, of course, like like the other 395 00:21:43,280 --> 00:21:46,760 Speaker 1: ones we mentioned, just involve massive amounts of data that 396 00:21:46,840 --> 00:21:50,240 Speaker 1: needs to be analyzed and uh, and that's why these 397 00:21:50,280 --> 00:21:53,119 Speaker 1: these projects are so important and why they depend so 398 00:21:53,119 --> 00:21:57,399 Speaker 1: heavily upon volunteers, because otherwise, if you just dedicated you know, 399 00:21:57,840 --> 00:22:00,560 Speaker 1: a dozen machines to this, it would take forever. But 400 00:22:00,600 --> 00:22:03,560 Speaker 1: other big projects used distributed computing as well, like the 401 00:22:03,640 --> 00:22:08,680 Speaker 1: Large Hadron Collider is collecting well, when it's working, it's 402 00:22:08,720 --> 00:22:14,680 Speaker 1: collecting terra bytes of data, and so they use they're 403 00:22:14,760 --> 00:22:17,359 Speaker 1: using so they're using a distributed computing to analyze all 404 00:22:17,359 --> 00:22:19,640 Speaker 1: of that. And talking about the Big Bang, I mean, 405 00:22:19,680 --> 00:22:23,040 Speaker 1: that's really what the LHC is is doing. It's it's 406 00:22:23,040 --> 00:22:27,639 Speaker 1: slamming these protons together at such magnificent speeds that the 407 00:22:27,680 --> 00:22:32,119 Speaker 1: resulting explosion is sort of in miniature. And I'm talking 408 00:22:32,160 --> 00:22:37,080 Speaker 1: like unimaginable. Maniagure the sort of effects that you would 409 00:22:37,080 --> 00:22:40,280 Speaker 1: have witnessed at the at the Big Bang, had there 410 00:22:40,320 --> 00:22:42,760 Speaker 1: been some way for you to actually witness them. Now, 411 00:22:42,800 --> 00:22:44,800 Speaker 1: I haven't heard whether they're going to allow the public 412 00:22:44,840 --> 00:22:47,560 Speaker 1: to participate in the crunching of those numbers. It's going 413 00:22:47,600 --> 00:22:50,360 Speaker 1: to be just as sign scientific community. As far as 414 00:22:50,400 --> 00:22:53,600 Speaker 1: I can tell. That is one of those closed grid 415 00:22:53,600 --> 00:22:57,159 Speaker 1: computing systems where UM I haven't seen anything about a 416 00:22:57,160 --> 00:23:01,880 Speaker 1: public uh public version. Cern is pretty tight with that. 417 00:23:01,880 --> 00:23:04,560 Speaker 1: That also leads another to another issue. First of all, 418 00:23:04,600 --> 00:23:08,919 Speaker 1: to to run any of these UM at home type projects, 419 00:23:09,359 --> 00:23:12,800 Speaker 1: normally you have to download some software. I mean pretty much, 420 00:23:12,800 --> 00:23:14,760 Speaker 1: you have to download some software. This is the software 421 00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:17,880 Speaker 1: that allows your computer to communicate with the master computer 422 00:23:18,520 --> 00:23:22,040 Speaker 1: and it allows your computer to accept assignments and then 423 00:23:22,640 --> 00:23:24,639 Speaker 1: work on the assignments because he usually has whatever the 424 00:23:24,640 --> 00:23:26,719 Speaker 1: program is that's need to analyze the data and then 425 00:23:26,840 --> 00:23:31,240 Speaker 1: send the information back. So, um yeah, just getting the 426 00:23:31,320 --> 00:23:32,880 Speaker 1: numbers that it isn't going to really help you much 427 00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:38,399 Speaker 1: to crunch them through, right Well, that means you have 428 00:23:38,440 --> 00:23:42,160 Speaker 1: to download some software on your computer. So right there, 429 00:23:42,400 --> 00:23:46,200 Speaker 1: there's a security vulnerability anytime you have to download software. 430 00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:50,480 Speaker 1: Um Now, most of these are coming from very trustworthy sources, 431 00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:53,840 Speaker 1: and I would imagine that they have pretty good security 432 00:23:53,960 --> 00:23:56,439 Speaker 1: on their their products so that someone's not gonna, you know, 433 00:23:56,520 --> 00:23:58,320 Speaker 1: kind of do a man in the middle attack and 434 00:23:58,320 --> 00:24:02,399 Speaker 1: and have you download malware instead of the middleware. But 435 00:24:03,400 --> 00:24:05,840 Speaker 1: you may also worry about the fact that this is 436 00:24:05,920 --> 00:24:10,800 Speaker 1: essentially giving another computer access to your computer's processing power. 437 00:24:11,440 --> 00:24:14,639 Speaker 1: Hopefully there are no back doors built into that software 438 00:24:14,680 --> 00:24:17,800 Speaker 1: so that they could say, get control administrative control of 439 00:24:17,800 --> 00:24:21,200 Speaker 1: your machine, or spy on any of your data. Again, 440 00:24:21,840 --> 00:24:25,560 Speaker 1: most of these projects are from very reputable sources, and 441 00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:29,760 Speaker 1: it's a good bet that there's no malicious intent behind them. 442 00:24:30,160 --> 00:24:32,960 Speaker 1: But doesn't mean there isn't in vulnerability, right, Yes, there 443 00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:36,560 Speaker 1: could be vulnerabilities. I mean sometimes people just don't think 444 00:24:36,600 --> 00:24:38,440 Speaker 1: of that when they're building a tool. You know, they're 445 00:24:38,440 --> 00:24:41,160 Speaker 1: not because they're thinking how can I achieve this goal? 446 00:24:41,200 --> 00:24:43,680 Speaker 1: They're not thinking how can I make sure someone doesn't 447 00:24:43,680 --> 00:24:46,600 Speaker 1: take advantage of this tool to do something naughty? Right, 448 00:24:47,080 --> 00:24:51,400 Speaker 1: So just just you know, buyer beware naughty naughty um. 449 00:24:51,560 --> 00:24:55,240 Speaker 1: Another thing to consider if you're at all environmentally conscious 450 00:24:55,440 --> 00:24:58,320 Speaker 1: is if your computer is not on I mean not 451 00:24:58,359 --> 00:25:03,159 Speaker 1: being used, say overnight, and you're contributing to one of 452 00:25:03,160 --> 00:25:06,159 Speaker 1: these distributed computing projects. Yes, you're helping out science, but 453 00:25:06,200 --> 00:25:08,840 Speaker 1: you're also running your computer when you don't absolutely have 454 00:25:08,920 --> 00:25:11,320 Speaker 1: to write. So it's kind of a trade off. You know, 455 00:25:11,320 --> 00:25:13,480 Speaker 1: if you're thinking about doing good, you have two ways 456 00:25:13,480 --> 00:25:14,840 Speaker 1: to do good and there's sort of at a huts 457 00:25:14,840 --> 00:25:17,200 Speaker 1: with each other, so you have to decide which is 458 00:25:17,240 --> 00:25:21,120 Speaker 1: more important to you. Turning your computer off or right. 459 00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:24,760 Speaker 1: So you're talking about conserving electricity. I didn't actually say that, 460 00:25:24,800 --> 00:25:26,960 Speaker 1: but there's there's another element to it besides that. So 461 00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:31,640 Speaker 1: there's the conserving electricity concern where if you do participate 462 00:25:31,640 --> 00:25:33,760 Speaker 1: in this project, you are going to be consuming more power. 463 00:25:34,160 --> 00:25:37,200 Speaker 1: So not only is it not it's not only is 464 00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:40,640 Speaker 1: it less green, but it also could impact your electricity bill, 465 00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:44,320 Speaker 1: although probably not to a huge extent um, but it 466 00:25:44,359 --> 00:25:47,040 Speaker 1: could still affect it. The other thing to remember is 467 00:25:47,080 --> 00:25:51,480 Speaker 1: that if you have a cap on how much data 468 00:25:51,800 --> 00:25:55,480 Speaker 1: you can access on the internet, because some some I 469 00:25:55,640 --> 00:25:58,320 Speaker 1: s P s cap how much you can access. If 470 00:25:58,320 --> 00:26:00,800 Speaker 1: you're running this, that's going to count toward that cap. 471 00:26:00,880 --> 00:26:03,000 Speaker 1: So let's say that you like to watch lots of 472 00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:05,800 Speaker 1: streaming movies and stuff. Well, that eats up a lot 473 00:26:05,800 --> 00:26:09,159 Speaker 1: of bandwidth pretty quickly. And if you are running this 474 00:26:09,240 --> 00:26:11,600 Speaker 1: in the background the whole time, you may start inching 475 00:26:11,640 --> 00:26:14,320 Speaker 1: toward that cap faster than you would imagine, because you know, 476 00:26:14,400 --> 00:26:18,280 Speaker 1: you're always having maintaining that connection with the master computer 477 00:26:18,720 --> 00:26:21,440 Speaker 1: um or at least you're you're it's checking back and 478 00:26:21,760 --> 00:26:23,800 Speaker 1: you know, receiving data and sending dat on a fairly 479 00:26:23,880 --> 00:26:27,000 Speaker 1: regular basis. So if you do have a cap on 480 00:26:27,040 --> 00:26:30,280 Speaker 1: your broadband usage, think about that before you sign up 481 00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:32,960 Speaker 1: for one of these things too, because if you're anywhere 482 00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:36,080 Speaker 1: close to that cap, this might put you over the edge, 483 00:26:36,119 --> 00:26:38,680 Speaker 1: depending on you know, how often you're letting it run 484 00:26:38,760 --> 00:26:43,520 Speaker 1: in the background. Uh, did you have anything else to add? No? Yeah, 485 00:26:43,520 --> 00:26:47,159 Speaker 1: I really focused on the uh, the public aspect of 486 00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:49,000 Speaker 1: this because I thought it would be more fun to 487 00:26:49,040 --> 00:26:51,080 Speaker 1: talk about. And sure, and it's and it's the part 488 00:26:51,160 --> 00:26:54,040 Speaker 1: that applies. Yeah, it's the part that applies to our 489 00:26:54,040 --> 00:26:56,399 Speaker 1: listeners the most too, unless they're all working at certain 490 00:26:56,480 --> 00:27:00,560 Speaker 1: in which case, hey y'all, Hey y'all, they probably have 491 00:27:00,600 --> 00:27:03,520 Speaker 1: to have that translated since they're in Switzerland. That's true. 492 00:27:03,560 --> 00:27:05,640 Speaker 1: I don't, I don't, I don't. I can't speak any 493 00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:09,880 Speaker 1: of those languages. Bonjeur, y'all. Yeah, there you go. That's 494 00:27:09,920 --> 00:27:13,080 Speaker 1: part of its in France. Um, but no, I mean, 495 00:27:13,119 --> 00:27:15,639 Speaker 1: it's it's it's kind of fun to participate in these groups. 496 00:27:15,640 --> 00:27:18,040 Speaker 1: And uh, certainly, Uh, you're welcome to join any of 497 00:27:18,080 --> 00:27:21,720 Speaker 1: the house stuff works dot com distributed computing groups that 498 00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:24,360 Speaker 1: will set up and and uh, you know, like I said, 499 00:27:24,400 --> 00:27:27,200 Speaker 1: maybe we'll take out some of those other media companies 500 00:27:27,359 --> 00:27:31,760 Speaker 1: with extreme prejudice indeed excellent. Well that was a really 501 00:27:31,760 --> 00:27:35,000 Speaker 1: good discussion and it leads us into our second round 502 00:27:35,160 --> 00:27:41,760 Speaker 1: of a listener mail. This listener mail comes from Cameron, 503 00:27:41,800 --> 00:27:44,400 Speaker 1: and Cameron says, Hi, Jonathan and Chris, I look through 504 00:27:44,400 --> 00:27:46,960 Speaker 1: your podcast episodes and couldn't find one covering the topic 505 00:27:47,040 --> 00:27:49,920 Speaker 1: of daylight saving time. Please cover the history and why 506 00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:52,040 Speaker 1: it was made, like you guys normally do. I love 507 00:27:52,040 --> 00:27:54,760 Speaker 1: the podcast, keep up the great work. Well, thanks, Cameron, 508 00:27:54,840 --> 00:27:57,760 Speaker 1: But you know what daylight saving time really isn't in 509 00:27:57,800 --> 00:28:00,720 Speaker 1: our wheelhouse. It's not really tech, it's not really tech related. 510 00:28:01,480 --> 00:28:04,320 Speaker 1: But what I suggest is that you send this request 511 00:28:04,600 --> 00:28:07,920 Speaker 1: to either stuff you missed in history class which could 512 00:28:07,920 --> 00:28:11,800 Speaker 1: give you the historical low down on daylight saving time, 513 00:28:12,280 --> 00:28:14,920 Speaker 1: or stuff you should know. And if you write the 514 00:28:14,960 --> 00:28:17,320 Speaker 1: stuff you should know and ask them if they can 515 00:28:17,359 --> 00:28:20,040 Speaker 1: cover the topic, you can also tell them that they 516 00:28:20,119 --> 00:28:25,040 Speaker 1: smell that they smell wars are heating up. Yeah, yeah, 517 00:28:25,119 --> 00:28:27,760 Speaker 1: they smell. We We've already received emails that we smell, 518 00:28:28,160 --> 00:28:32,600 Speaker 1: so they also smell. Actually, technically, never mind, I can't go. 519 00:28:34,359 --> 00:28:38,280 Speaker 1: Thanks so much for your mail, Cameron, Please continue to listen. Sorry, 520 00:28:38,320 --> 00:28:40,560 Speaker 1: we can't tackle that one. It's just not tech enough, 521 00:28:40,640 --> 00:28:43,400 Speaker 1: I think. But if any of you have any questions 522 00:28:43,520 --> 00:28:47,640 Speaker 1: or criticisms, concerns you just want to say hi, you 523 00:28:47,720 --> 00:28:50,640 Speaker 1: can write us our email addresses tech stuff at how 524 00:28:50,680 --> 00:28:53,880 Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. We have articles about grid computing, 525 00:28:53,920 --> 00:28:57,440 Speaker 1: cloud computing, all sorts of distributed computing things, bombie computers. 526 00:28:57,840 --> 00:29:00,200 Speaker 1: All that you can find at the website how suff 527 00:29:00,200 --> 00:29:02,360 Speaker 1: works dot com. And we will talk to you again 528 00:29:02,880 --> 00:29:08,520 Speaker 1: really soon for moralness and thousands of other topics. Does 529 00:29:08,560 --> 00:29:10,840 Speaker 1: it how stuff works dot com And be sure to 530 00:29:10,920 --> 00:29:13,000 Speaker 1: check out the new tech stuff blog now on the 531 00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:20,400 Speaker 1: house stuff Works homepage, brought to you by the reinvented 532 00:29:20,440 --> 00:29:23,120 Speaker 1: two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you