What about the node-owner being able to look inside your box and see what you are doing?
Show HN: Gridspot, 10x cheaper cloud compute using distributed computing
81–90 of 156 posts
Re: Show HN: Gridspot, 10x cheaper cloud compute using distributed computing
#82There is a typo on the 'Gridspot Safe' page.
Network proxying While we allow Internet traffic from software doing compuations on our platform,
Should be 'computations'.
Re: Show HN: Gridspot, 10x cheaper cloud compute using distributed computing
#83How do they handle security? If the software they're using to virtualize these instances is exploitable, then you could break into the host machine and do whatever you like with it.
I agree, theres a level of trust when you use hosting providers like Amazon and heroku. With this, there's no way i'd do anything remotely sensitive with one of these boxes.
Re: Show HN: Gridspot, 10x cheaper cloud compute using distributed computing
#84"Thus, we decided to only run computations when the outdoor temperature near the user is below a certain level (currently 16 degrees Celcius). When it's that cold outside, we assume that the computer's room is being heated anyway. All of the electricity used to do computations gets turned into heat, according to the laws of physics. So the heat generated by the computations displaces the need for heat generated by a…
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Re: Show HN: Gridspot, 10x cheaper cloud compute using distributed computing
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wouldn't work. As soon as you move the incentive to the world of financial norms people start wondering why they are bothering for a couple bucks a year. They will get more people doing it to be part of a community if they can keep that community seeming "cool" in some way.
Exactly low pay (generally) provides more of a disincentive than no pay. OTOH if you say "we will donate to charity $x" that might work.
Or at least purchase carbon offsets...
Re: Show HN: Gridspot, 10x cheaper cloud compute using distributed computing
#86If VMs are running on hardware Gridspot doesn't control, and if the filesystem isn't encrypted, how is my data secured?
At $0.002 per hour I'm actually OK with zero security, but it will limit the types of jobs that I'll use Gridspot for.
Re: Show HN: Gridspot, 10x cheaper cloud compute using distributed computing
#87If VMs are running on hardware Gridspot doesn't control, and if the filesystem isn't encrypted, how is my data secured? At $0.002 per hour I'm actually OK with zero security, but it will limit the types of jobs that I'll use Gridspot for.
This is explicitly part of their pitch to users. From TFA:
> Gridspot is perfect for jobs that:
> • ...
> • Aren't privacy sensitive
Re: Show HN: Gridspot, 10x cheaper cloud compute using distributed computing
#88I can't believe anyone would install their software without having any idea who this guy is.
Re: Show HN: Gridspot, 10x cheaper cloud compute using distributed computing
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
You have 100k computers running this? How come I've never heard of it and don't see a place to sign up to be a host computer?
Seriously? Installer link is on the homepage: https://gridspot.com/
hah, doh. Thought the article linked to the homepage, still think they should have a link from the /compute/ page, people might be interested in both using and being used for this.
Re: Show HN: Gridspot, 10x cheaper cloud compute using distributed computing
#90From [1] - "Our users volunteer their idle compute resources because they want to be part of something valuable to the world. We believe that this is a motivator far more powerful than paying people a small amount of money every month.". Yeah, I don't think that is going to work, especially because you are for-profit organization not SETI [1] - https://gridspot.com/gridspot_safe
There's a surprising behavioral economics result that says people will do things for free that they won't do for small amounts of money. A check in the mail for a dollar or two every month isn't as compelling as being part of a group effort. And empirically, it seems to be working. The number of contributing machines is currently in the six figures. The main risk right now is on the demand side, i.e. whether or not p…
Wow, really, six figures? 250 results for "gridspot.com" on google, and yet you have 100000+ computers running this software?
I want to hire you! I'll pay you 10 figures/month!