WEBVTT - What is distributed computing? 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:17.760 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:20.319 welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Boulette and 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:22.079 I am the tech editor here at how stuff works 0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:24.560 dot Com. Sitting across from me, as he always does, 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:28.560 is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. Hey there, all right, So 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:30.800 what do you want to talk about today? Well, I 0:00:30.800 --> 0:00:33.640 wanted to talk about something that comes comes to us 0:00:33.680 --> 0:00:39.920 courtesy of a little listener mail. List listener mail comes 0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:42.960 from Samuel, and Samuel says, Hi, First of all, thanks 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:45.080 for the great info. I really like your show. I 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:47.440 just started listening to you guys, and I am liking it. 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:50.960 I would like to know more about distributed computing services 0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:53.400 and how would I be able to sell my computers 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:56.640 idling time or CPU cycles, also if it would be 0:00:56.680 --> 0:01:00.800 a good idea to do it. Thanks again, Sam from Pasco, Washington, 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:05.880 By bye, Sam. It's nice talking to you. Um so 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:10.679 distributed computing. We're gonna go into what distributing distributed computing 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:14.240 is and um and the whole idea of selling your 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:17.399 CPUs cycles, which I don't just go ahead and get 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:19.720 this out of the way. UM, As far as I 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:24.160 can tell, there are no projects currently available where you 0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:27.280 can actually sell your CPUs cycles. In most cases, you're 0:01:27.319 --> 0:01:31.679 donating your cycles. UM. There was a proposed project at 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:36.000 one point to compensate people for their computer time, but 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:38.559 that one kind of fizzled out before it ever reached 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:42.399 a point where payments could be made to participants. So UM. 0:01:42.520 --> 0:01:45.280 So as it stands the as the recording of this podcast, 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:48.040 and as far as I am aware, the only way 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:52.240 you can participate in distributed computing projects is by either 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:57.720 working at a particular facility or donating your your computer 0:01:57.800 --> 0:02:02.520 CPUs cycles. Should we talk about what distributed computing is, 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:04.240 how it wants. I just wanted to make sure that 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:06.360 we answered Samuel's question and didn't forget about it. No, 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:10.480 I'm absolutely okay with that, So distribute computing take it away. 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:16.880 We Distributed computing UH is a way of basically crunching data. UM. 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:20.360 And in a lot of cases there are massive, massive 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:22.919 projects underway. A lot of the ones I'm sure we'll 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:24.880 be talking about in a few minutes are science related, 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:28.799 where UH scientists, for example, are collecting lots and lots 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:31.359 and lots of information, but they don't have the computing 0:02:31.400 --> 0:02:36.639 power to crunch all those numbers in a handy fashion. So, um, well, 0:02:36.800 --> 0:02:39.400 I would guess about the mid nineties, that's when I 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:44.200 started seeing information on undistributed computing. They started saying, well, hey, 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:46.560 you guys all want to help us out with these projects, 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:49.720 So why don't we find a way to let you 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:53.959 contribute your computer processing cycles from when your machine is down, 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:57.160 say overnight, If you leave your computer on, it's not 0:02:57.320 --> 0:02:59.360 doing a whole lot other than just sort of sitting 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:01.799 there on sleep. So why don't you help us out 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:04.080 by crunching some of these numbers for us and send 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:07.320 them back and we can use this to get our 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:10.359 experiment further down the road, right right. It speeds things 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:13.280 up considerably, because really, when you're working on one of 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:16.160 these huge projects, you only have a couple of options 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:19.120 available to you, because, as Plett was mentioning, you get 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:21.680 tons and tons of information. If you were to use 0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:24.600 a single regular computer to try and process that, it 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:28.000 could take thousands or even millions of years to complete 0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:32.360 the calculations. Because we're talking about enormous figures here, um, 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:35.760 and often lots of different kinds of information coming in 0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:37.480 that you have to analyze, and the computer may only 0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:40.560 be able to concentrate on one at a time. Your 0:03:40.600 --> 0:03:42.880 other option is you could try and book some time 0:03:42.880 --> 0:03:45.960 with a supercomputer, and some of these projects are doing 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:50.040 that too. They're also using supercomputers, not just a distributed computing, 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:54.840 but supercomputer time is precious. There are only so many 0:03:54.880 --> 0:03:58.040 supercomputers out there. Many of them were built with a 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:00.960 specific task in mind, so there's not a whole lot 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:05.080 of time for for them to to dedicate to other projects. 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:08.000 So if your project does not have a supercomputer, it 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:09.800 may be a struggle for you to get the money 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:12.960 and the time available on one of those machines to 0:04:13.000 --> 0:04:16.440 do your number crunching. So what do you do? Well, 0:04:16.880 --> 0:04:19.920 if the problems that you're working on can be broken 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:24.360 down into smaller problems, you can look into distributed computing. Now, 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:26.200 some of you may be thinking this sounds a lot 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:28.520 like what we talked about when we talk about multi 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:33.000 core processors. It is not dissimilar. The two are are 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:36.120 very close together in a way. You're talking about a 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:39.280 big problem that you can break down into smaller problems, 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:43.680 and each processor or in distributed computing. Each computer can 0:04:43.760 --> 0:04:46.880 work on a portion of that problem, solve it, send 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:50.640 it back to a master computer, which then incorporates everything 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:53.039 that has been gathered up to that point, and you 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:55.400 end up solving the big problem much faster than you 0:04:55.440 --> 0:04:58.960 would if you tackled it with just one machine. Yeah. Actually, 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:01.000 if you think about it, if you're a long time 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:03.440 tech stuff fan, you you've heard us talk about this 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:05.880 in a number of occasions, UM, including when we talked 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:10.000 about the PlayStation threes being used for the military, and um, 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:14.040 you know the many occasions on which we've mentioned Google. Um, 0:05:14.080 --> 0:05:15.640 they sort of do the same thing if you think 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:18.640 about it, because they're using rather than buying lots and 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:21.560 lots of really expensive hardware. UH, they used sort of 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:25.000 run of the mill uh PCs using Linux. They're sort 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:28.000 of custom built. But um, they're still not you know, 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:32.640 high end, high end, super powerful computers. UM. And by 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:36.840 using those uh smaller, less powerful computers, they're able to 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:41.360 distribute the load of the entire network on UH and 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:44.040 and spread their budget out a little bit more too. So, right, 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:48.039 and I have to kind of fun. Definitions of fun 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:51.440 might be a stretch. I have two definitions. Have distributed 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:54.440 computing from two different individuals. So this first one comes 0:05:54.440 --> 0:05:59.320 from andrew S. Tannenbaum, and he says, distributed computing distributed 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:02.719 communing system is a collection of independent computers that appears 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:05.840 to its users as a single coherent system. So, in 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:09.400 other words, from a macro point of view, if you 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:12.440 if you get the bird's eye view on this, Uh, yeah, 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:14.360 it's a system that's made up of lots and lots 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:17.080 of computers, but they're all working to the same end, 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:19.679 and they have, you know, a kind of a master 0:06:20.400 --> 0:06:23.360 that is coordinating everything. If you look at this one 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:25.640 big system, then you just think, oh, each of these 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:29.840 computers is really a processor. And another example of of 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:32.440 distributing computing we've talked about in the face it applies 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:35.760 to that definition a bot net. Yes, that's also a 0:06:35.760 --> 0:06:38.800 good example. Uh. And you could argue that the Internet 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:42.200 itself is in a way a distributed computing system, although 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:46.440 it's not really geared to a specific project. It's not 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:49.400 solving a problem so much, but the computing power of 0:06:49.600 --> 0:06:53.120 moving all that information is distributed. Yes. So then the 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:57.160 second definition I wanted to mention comes from Leslie Lamport, 0:06:58.120 --> 0:07:00.200 who says, you know, you know, you have of a 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:03.880 distributed system when the crash of a computer you've never 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:08.880 heard of halts all progress. So that brings us to 0:07:08.960 --> 0:07:12.560 some of the considerations you have to have in mind 0:07:12.720 --> 0:07:16.600 when you start to build a distributed computing system. Now, 0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:19.880 to build a distributed computing system, what you really need 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:23.000 is an algorithm that which is of course a set 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:26.120 of instructions. An algorithm is just really just a set 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:30.200 of instructions in mathematical format usually UM that tells computers 0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:32.280 what they have to do. You know, it gives them 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:36.040 a step by step procedure. With a distributed algorithm, what 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:39.440 this is doing is it determines how to divide up 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:43.480 a problem. It determines how to send that information out 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:48.000 to the different nodes or clients um uh. The clients 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:50.280 and nodes in this case would be the individual computers 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:53.600 out there UH and to get also would have to 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:58.080 have information on how long to wait until UH for 0:07:58.160 --> 0:08:01.360 a response from that computer from that client um. In 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:03.440 other words, if you send out a problem to a computer, 0:08:03.600 --> 0:08:06.120 and let's say that you you are using your computer 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:09.000 to be part of one of these distributed computing projects, 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:11.640 but you happen to go on vacation for a full 0:08:11.680 --> 0:08:15.480 month and you've turned your computer off. Well, in that 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:20.160 that month long vacation that you're on, while you're enjoying 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:24.680 life and drinking tropical drinks and listening to Beach Boys songs, 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:26.760 your computer is not working on the problem that was 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:29.600 sent to it by the master computer. If you don't 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:34.120 build into the algorithm the you know the fact that, hey, 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:36.640 sometimes computers are not going to send you the information 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:40.320 you expect back, then the whole project could come to 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:45.080 a halt. Theoretically, um Or, you could build into the 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:48.440 algorithm if you don't hear back from the client within 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:52.920 X number of days, then send the problem to another client, 0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:56.079 so that way you have redundancy in there. If one 0:08:56.120 --> 0:08:59.679 computer fails, the whole project doesn't come to a crashing halt. 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:03.720 As as Leslie had pointed out, um that's something you 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:05.880 have to build into the algorithm. As well as the 0:09:05.920 --> 0:09:09.839 idea that none of these individual computers are completely infallible, 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:11.840 they have to be You have to be planned for 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:14.280 the fact that some of these are going to crash. Uh. 0:09:14.760 --> 0:09:17.280 Users may turn their machines off, they may they may 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:20.040 abandoned the project, and you have to build that into 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:22.600 your system. So that it doesn't bring the whole thing 0:09:22.679 --> 0:09:27.400 down in the process. UM, I'm sorry you were going 0:09:27.480 --> 0:09:29.600 to say, well, no, no, it was UM. I didn't 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:32.520 know where you're going next because I had an example. 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:38.280 But UM. One of the projects that has become so 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:42.240 it's really sort of an overarching way of working on 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:48.079 different kinds of distributing computing projects is UH Berkeley University 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:54.000 of California Berkeley blink yes, pink, the Berkeley Open Infrastructure 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:56.800 for Network Computing. I couldn't read my own handwriting there. UM. 0:09:56.840 --> 0:09:58.800 And basically what this is it's a client a piece 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:03.360 of client software UM that enables somebody. You can download 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:05.680 the software and it will enable you to participate in 0:10:05.720 --> 0:10:10.000 all kinds of projects. It's sometimes more than one. Um yeah. Basically, 0:10:10.040 --> 0:10:13.080 a scheduling server sends out the instructions to your computer 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:16.920 and says, you know, okay, here, here's your here's your information. 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:19.560 It judges your CPU and memory, so it says I'm 0:10:19.600 --> 0:10:21.080 not gonna give you any more and you can handle, 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:23.960 you know, go ahead and work on this. And the 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:27.040 computer is also able to download any necessary files it 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:30.680 needs to execute. Basically, the if the server, if the 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:33.400 software is not up to date it can update itself 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:35.280 so that it can go ahead and process the information. 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:38.840 Then your computer does the UH, does the calculations, and 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:41.000 sends it back up to the data server and tells 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:43.800 the scheduling server, hey, I'm free. And basically they give 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:48.040 you credit for the amount of cycles your computer has 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:52.240 participated in. And it does send out each problem to 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:55.120 more than one computer, actually two in this case, and 0:10:55.320 --> 0:10:58.160 based you know, it to be fair rather than to 0:10:58.240 --> 0:11:00.560 give all the credits. Say, you know, Nathan and I 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:02.880 both have boy and constalled in our computers, and both 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:06.239 of us are working on steady at home, and uh, 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:08.280 Jonathan turned his computer off one night when I left 0:11:08.320 --> 0:11:10.880 my non so his wasn't able to process the information 0:11:10.960 --> 0:11:13.520 quite as fast because he was, you know, about ten 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:17.160 hours shorter than than mine. The press you know, the cycles. 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:19.960 So basically what it does is to be fair. Because 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:23.560 Jonathan's computer did do most of the work UH to 0:11:23.640 --> 0:11:26.960 get the unit done, it gives both of us credit 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:30.760 for what how much time our CPUs spent working on 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:34.199 the problem. So um it sort of it serves as 0:11:34.240 --> 0:11:38.400 a a dual purpose because in one hand, if if 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:40.560 my computer been off the entire time, the unit still 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:44.520 needed to get to be finished. But at the same 0:11:44.559 --> 0:11:46.160 time they want to give us credit for it. Because 0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:48.839 part of the the UH, the fun and participating in 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:50.400 some of these projects as they give you credit and 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:52.160 you get to rack up hours and you can join 0:11:52.240 --> 0:11:55.360 teams and the teams can compete with one another. So 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:58.600 it's mostly for fun for bragging rights. It's not like 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:01.120 it's not a compensation thing. But when you think about it, 0:12:01.440 --> 0:12:06.560 you're helping contribute to two humans expanding our knowledge about 0:12:06.600 --> 0:12:10.160 the universe in some way, depending on what the project is. 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:13.840 There's lots of different versions out there as emergencies go 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:18.240 on outside of our studio. UM. But the besides the 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:21.359 fact of the whole algorithm saying the whole UH scheduling 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:23.880 thing that you pointed out, UM, there are two different 0:12:24.960 --> 0:12:30.640 major UH categories of distributed computing. You have synchronous, where 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:33.800 everything is as you would imagine from the name synchronized, 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:35.880 so that everything is going on a very set schedule, 0:12:36.320 --> 0:12:40.160 and then there's asynchronous. Now, asynchronous is harder to set up. 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:43.120 It is much more difficult to create an algorithm that 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:47.720 that compensates for an asynchronous system, but it's also the 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:51.120 one that allows people more people to join, because, as 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:54.000 you pointed out, they're gonna be times where someone's computer 0:12:54.080 --> 0:12:55.599 is going to be off for perhaps the person is 0:12:55.679 --> 0:12:58.600 using the computer for a really process or heavy application. 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:02.800 And so most of the uh, these programs have middleware 0:13:03.960 --> 0:13:07.800 that will ease back on your computer while you're using it. Um. 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:09.679 It may always be running in the background, but it 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:12.160 will start to consume less and less power as you 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:14.960 demand more and more for whatever application you need. So 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:17.120 let's say you're doing like a lot of video editing 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:18.760 and you need a lot of process or power at 0:13:18.760 --> 0:13:21.520 that time. Uh, it'll back off, or you can turn 0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:23.679 it off entirely for the duration of your work, which 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:26.440 I sometimes do depending on what I have to do. Right, 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:29.200 especially if you're you start feeling like your computers acting 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:31.360 slugg as you start looking at the processes you can 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:34.320 you can halt and that's usually one of the one 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:37.800 of the first to go. But uh that's an asynchronous 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:40.760 system can compensate for that. Uh. You know, it doesn't 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:44.040 matter if your computer goes offline for a while. UM. 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:47.000 And UH so that's another one of those those things 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:49.000 that you have to take into consideration along with the 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:52.680 UM the fact that UH if a computer does go down, 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:55.719 you don't want your your project to crash. Another thing 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:58.000 you have to keep in mind is that for a 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:00.480 lot of these these, actually, I would say, are pretty 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:04.200 much any distributed computing system that was not a very 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:08.240 tightly controlled grid computing system, you're gonna be working with 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:12.040 lots and lots of different kinds of hardware. Definitely. I 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:14.240 mean we work in the same company, Chris and I 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:18.440 and and really yeah, oddly and I have so Chris 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:20.920 and I work in the same company, but our computers 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:23.360 are different. Yes, his computer and my computer are not. 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:28.320 Are not exactly the same, you know, the specs are different. Um, 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:34.280 his his better, His e key works and mine doesn't. Um, 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:37.840 I'm really tired of typing the number three instead of 0:14:37.880 --> 0:14:42.360 ever and over. I think that's called the minor vowel shift. Yes, yes, 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:47.320 I had a vowel movement. Um, minor English major joke there. Yeah, 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:52.920 we're sorry. We apologize at any rate. They you have 0:14:53.000 --> 0:14:55.080 to be able to build your system so that it 0:14:55.160 --> 0:14:57.200 can it can come sate for the fact that people 0:14:57.200 --> 0:14:59.760 are not using the exact same machine. Now, for some 0:14:59.840 --> 0:15:03.680 of these these distributed computing models, if you were, say 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:06.440 a research facility and you just decide, you know, instead 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:09.640 of trying to spend several hundred million dollars to build 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:13.240 a supercomputer, we're gonna spend several thousand dollars and buy up, 0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:18.400 you know, a dozen PCs. You could theoretically make sure 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:21.360 that every single one of them matches exactly to a 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:24.840 specific model. Now, in that case, a synchronous approach might 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:27.040 even work, because if all you're doing is relying on 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:30.880 computers that you yourself are maintaining, you can make sure 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:33.920 that everything's working properly. It's not the same as if 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:38.160 it's a distributed computing system where anyone can join UM. 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:41.160 And you know, really it's the Internet Protocol that made 0:15:41.160 --> 0:15:44.200 all of this possible from you know, opening it up 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:46.920 to the public. Before that, you would just have uh 0:15:47.760 --> 0:15:53.200 various standards of computer to computer uh communication to to 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:58.040 try and create a distributed computing system. I'm saying distributed 0:15:58.080 --> 0:16:01.280 computing so much it's it's start to lose all meaning 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:03.680 to me, a right. But there we should also mention 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:07.960 there are different variations of distributed computing, and the definitions 0:16:08.000 --> 0:16:10.600 are not set in stone. They're not so well defined 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:14.600 that UM, that's easy to differentiate one from the other. So, 0:16:14.720 --> 0:16:18.720 for example, grid computing, you might think of grid computing 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:22.120 as being a little more structured than you know, the 0:16:22.200 --> 0:16:26.000 word grid sound to be right, right, It doesn't necessarily 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:28.120 mean that. I mean, some people use grid computing to 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:32.760 mean any kind of distributed computing system, but or utility computing, 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:36.240 where that kind of suggests that there's a transaction involved, 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:39.120 like you are paying a company in order to access 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:42.440 a certain amount of processing power or certain applications. It's 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:45.680 kind of a software as the service spin off. Um. 0:16:45.720 --> 0:16:48.480 Then there's cloud computing, which sounds like it's a little 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:51.520 less structured than grid computing, and that's usually what I 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:53.280 think of when I think of these big projects that 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:58.480 allow the public to participate. Um. But again, these definitions 0:16:58.480 --> 0:17:01.120 are just kind of guidelines, they're not There's a lot 0:17:01.120 --> 0:17:04.480 of overlap, and some people use the terms interchangeably. Yeah, 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:06.639 so don't get too confused because no one knows what 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:10.440 they're talking about. Yeah. I always think of distributing distributed 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:14.680 computing as being the participatory projects that you opt into 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:17.440 for these things, right, I mean, that's usually the way 0:17:17.480 --> 0:17:20.600 I hear it referred. And you you mentioned study at home, 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:24.160 which would be the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Yes, um, 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:26.280 it was the very first project I ever worked on 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:29.000 in a distributed sense. Honestly, I think we just need 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:31.480 to start searching for the terrestrial kind first and then 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:39.080 work our way up a dumb human joke. I'm sorry. Yeah. 0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:41.520 Setting at Home was the first project that I UH 0:17:41.760 --> 0:17:45.359 ever participated in like this, and it um basically it 0:17:45.720 --> 0:17:50.960 takes information gathered by a radio telescope, UM and UH 0:17:51.840 --> 0:17:53.840 sends it out to different people. Now, they used to 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:56.840 have their own individual client, which was really pretty because 0:17:56.840 --> 0:17:59.000 it had lots and lots of multicolored blocks on it, 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:01.560 and it when it was up as a screensaver, it 0:18:01.560 --> 0:18:03.600 made it look like your computer was doing something really 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:07.680 really cool. Um. And and what your computer really was doing, 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:11.080 just so you know, was analyzing the data from this 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:14.040 this radio telescope and looking for any kind of patterns 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:18.480 or spikes that might indicate an extraterrestrial radio transmission. Yeah. 0:18:18.560 --> 0:18:20.520 So they were, we were. They were listening, and we 0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:22.680 were helping them figure out whether we were actually picking 0:18:22.760 --> 0:18:26.800 up anything other than I love Lucy reruns and um, 0:18:26.880 --> 0:18:33.919 which oddly come from Venus. That is not true. Um. Yeah. Actually, 0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:36.240 now they're part of blink, or they're not part part 0:18:36.240 --> 0:18:38.520 of blink, but their data can be configured through boink. 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:39.879 So if you're down to the point of client, you 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:41.919 can do that, and a lot of projects are are 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:45.240 done that way too. But yeah, at the moment um, 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:47.840 in the moment I'm participating in three Wow, what are 0:18:47.840 --> 0:18:52.680 the other two? Um? Well no, actually I was okay, 0:18:52.720 --> 0:18:54.760 So what happened was good. This is a good transition 0:18:54.840 --> 0:18:56.800 because I wanted to talk about the different kinds of 0:18:56.800 --> 0:18:59.960 things because we're not just talking uh, you know, strict 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:02.640 lee science stuff. Although science and life sciences are two 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:06.679 of the big categories the participatory distributed computing projects like this, 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:10.199 there's also stuff you can do with cryptography. Um, there 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:15.280 are other internet and finance projects. You could work on, mathematics, language, art, 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:18.080 and even puzzles and games that you can participate in. 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:20.520 See I got confused. I thought cryptography was when you 0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:26.679 sent people to the forbidden zone. No, right, So anyway, Um, 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:29.520 that was a Superman joke. And I'm sorry, but two 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:32.600 of them might participate in and I'm ignoring you through 0:19:32.680 --> 0:19:37.040 point um. One of them is the similar similarity matrix 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:41.199 of proteins UM and Uh. The other is Rosetta at 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:44.360 Home with both of which are our life sciences related. 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:47.760 And then I use a third one on our work 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:50.600 on our aforementioned work computers. Um, those two are on 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:53.399 the on our test machine. The other one is a 0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:55.960 Stanford project that's not run through point called Folding at Home. 0:19:56.280 --> 0:19:59.320 That's proteins, right, Yes, it is also proteins. They're basically 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:04.359 looking the proteins fold um in a way that helps 0:20:04.400 --> 0:20:07.399 them work. And we don't really understand what it takes 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:09.600 for the proteins to actually activate, so we're looking at 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:12.560 you know, we're looking at how the proteins fold and 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:17.600 how that helps determine what the proteins do. Yeah, exactly exactly, 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:20.439 And it's uh, it's the difference in this and the 0:20:20.440 --> 0:20:23.200 point stuff is, you know, the Folding its home has 0:20:23.200 --> 0:20:27.560 a screensaver components. So when my computer is you know, 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:29.240 a sleep when I go to get coffee or something 0:20:29.280 --> 0:20:32.280 like that. Uh, it has all these funny looking look 0:20:32.480 --> 0:20:36.000 molecule looking things up on the screen and solely are 0:20:36.119 --> 0:20:40.280 are building the the supposedly building the protein. Yeah. And uh, 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:43.480 I even convinced, uh stuff you should know as Josh 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:45.879 Clark to participate in the process too. So we have 0:20:45.960 --> 0:20:50.000 a house stuff Works group. Yes, we do on on 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:51.920 that group, so you know you can always join us there, 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:54.560 and I um, I'm going to start groups too for 0:20:54.600 --> 0:20:56.120 the other two projects I'm working on in our house 0:20:56.119 --> 0:20:58.560 stuff works dot Com groups. Hopefully I can get ones 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:00.639 for the other groups and we can really get a 0:21:00.800 --> 0:21:05.159 how stuff works dot Com movement behind distributed computing and 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:07.080 have a have fun trying to take on the other 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:08.960 groups with it. And will make sure that we include 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:11.320 that when we do the blog post right up for 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:13.560 this this episode. Yeah, because I haven't done them all yet, 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:15.679 so I'm gonna have to put those together. So there 0:21:15.680 --> 0:21:17.399 are a couple of other ones that we can talk about. 0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:21.160 There's the Milky Way at Home projects. That's that one's 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:25.280 mapping out the Sagittarius stream and analyzing the data from that. 0:21:26.000 --> 0:21:29.160 There's Einstein at Home, which is looking for gravitational waves, 0:21:29.200 --> 0:21:32.520 particularly from pulsars um. There's the amount of time you 0:21:32.520 --> 0:21:36.240 can put in on that one is sort of relative nice. Yeah, 0:21:36.359 --> 0:21:39.320 it breaks down the closer you get to the big bang. Uh. 0:21:39.480 --> 0:21:43.239 The these these projects, of course, like like the other 0:21:43.280 --> 0:21:46.760 ones we mentioned, just involve massive amounts of data that 0:21:46.840 --> 0:21:50.240 needs to be analyzed and uh, and that's why these 0:21:50.280 --> 0:21:53.119 these projects are so important and why they depend so 0:21:53.119 --> 0:21:57.399 heavily upon volunteers, because otherwise, if you just dedicated you know, 0:21:57.840 --> 0:22:00.560 a dozen machines to this, it would take forever. But 0:22:00.600 --> 0:22:03.560 other big projects used distributed computing as well, like the 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:08.680