Show HN: Gridspot, 10x cheaper cloud compute using distributed computing • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Gridspot, 10x cheaper cloud compute using distributed computing

#141

Post by EmmaKay » Wed, Jul 11, 2012, 4:29 PM UTC

podperson wrote: post #137

My immediate response was "surely this is less than the cost of the electricity to run the CPUs" but it turns out it's equal to the marginal cost of heating a room with CPUs relative to conventional heating (natural gas or electricity) -- which is pretty genius. In the long run you would expect this would drive up the bidding for idle CPU time, meaning that having a couple of idle computers in your house would genera…

They're not the first to do this: http://www.isgtw.org/spotlight/greenest-volunteer-grid-them-...

Re: Show HN: Gridspot, 10x cheaper cloud compute using distributed computing

#142

Post by michaelmior » Wed, Jul 11, 2012, 4:29 PM UTC

uvdiv wrote: post #36

"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…

At the very least by running in cooler temperatures, you're avoiding the need for additional air conditioning.

Re: Show HN: Gridspot, 10x cheaper cloud compute using distributed computing

#143

Post by uvdiv » Wed, Jul 11, 2012, 4:58 PM UTC

devmach wrote: post #57

uvdiv wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's Adam Smith of Xobni, he's the guy (adamsmith) who submitted this link. http://blog.adamsmith.cc/about-adam-smith.html

Thanks. But that's an assumption. He / they should write relevant company informations on gridspot.com.

I agree, it's bizarre to have a commercial website with no contacts, legal information, and a disguised whois registration.

Re: Show HN: Gridspot, 10x cheaper cloud compute using distributed computing

#144

Post by gyom » Wed, Jul 11, 2012, 6:55 PM UTC

What kind of tools are on the VM ? Do I get gcc and some python installation, for example ?

I would imagine that I would have to reinstall my tools whenever a new instance starts.

Re: Show HN: Gridspot, 10x cheaper cloud compute using distributed computing

#145

Post by MichaelApproved » Wed, Jul 11, 2012, 8:21 PM UTC

dinkumthinkum wrote: post #124

MichaelApproved wrote: post #66

Here's how you sustain this model: package the VM with free software just like the toolbar guys do. You pay the software guys a cut of the profit for every setup they have running (referral fee) and users get a new way to "pay" for software. I like this idea much better than all the spyware/crapware software vendors have to package into their product to earn a living. Consumers don't care about $2/month but a busines…

I disagree. I don't think many companies that have 1000 computers would do this for $2/mo per node. That's like $22,000, also known as a rounding error for those kinds of companies. Besides, those companies tend to frown on these suspect applications.

No, I don't mean for companies to run it on their own servers, I mean for them to bundle the software with freeware software. The kind you find on download.com.

Often, freeware software developers bundle toolbars and other spyware/crapware with their software to make money. My suggestion would be to allow them to include the VM with their software instead of spyware/crapware toolbars. These freeware authors would earn a commission for every VM install that makes money.

Freeware developers need to earn money but their main option is to bundle their code with crapware now. This would be a nice alternative to that awful option.

Re: Show HN: Gridspot, 10x cheaper cloud compute using distributed computing

#146

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jul 11, 2012, 11:14 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Gridspot, 10x cheaper cloud compute using distributed computing

#147

Post by superuser2 » Thu, Jul 12, 2012, 2:13 AM UTC

rasur wrote: post #38

So, the only payment option is via credit-card.. And if you have no credit card what then? Am I S.O.L?

How do you pay for everything else online? Do you mail Amazon checks or something?

Re: Show HN: Gridspot, 10x cheaper cloud compute using distributed computing

#148

Post by rasur » Thu, Jul 12, 2012, 4:47 AM UTC

superuser2 wrote: post #147

rasur wrote: post #38

So, the only payment option is via credit-card.. And if you have no credit card what then? Am I S.O.L?

How do you pay for everything else online? Do you mail Amazon checks or something?

I use pay-pal or debit card, if I actually buy something online. Credit-card culture isn't so great where I live, and I personally don't have one - hence the question.

Re: Show HN: Gridspot, 10x cheaper cloud compute using distributed computing

#149

Post by deno » Thu, Jul 12, 2012, 11:34 AM UTC

jasonzemos wrote: post #135

deno wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same thing as with Spot Instances on Amazon. Save your work often, reschedule eagerly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcPNnUo60pc&feature=play...

Yes but Amazon operates out of a datacenter that will /strive/ to be online for all but a few minutes of each year. Transient machines spread over the internet on home or office PC's /do not/ have the same operational parameter. At this point I'm somewhat unsure of their actual business model. Are they reselling VPS instances from real providers or are they sourcing computational power from home/office PC's? This see…

> Yes but Amazon operates out of a datacenter that will /strive/ to be online for all but a few minutes of each year.

Spot instances can be killed any time if your bid is too low. This will, of course, happen less often at Amazon, but the principle is the same. You must also be significantly more proactive about unreliable performance and poor security. But this may be worth it sometimes.

> At this point I'm somewhat unsure of their actual business model. Are they reselling VPS instances from real providers or are they sourcing computational power from home/office PC's?

They’re computational power scavengers :) Seems to be desktop PCs for now. Maybe in the future it would also make sense to also utilise smartphones plugged into a charger? I hope they will be successful, because unreliable and cheap computational power is a pretty cool resource, despite all of its shortcomings.

Re: Show HN: Gridspot, 10x cheaper cloud compute using distributed computing

#150

Post by deno » Thu, Jul 12, 2012, 11:41 AM UTC

donavanm wrote: post #125

Facilities management is the worst part of "cloud" services. Getting this outsourced for low/no cost is brilliant. Check out the OnAPP CDN implementation. Please provide a standardish xen/kvm/vmware/vagrent client image. Being win32 exe only is probably costing you a lot of resource provides (like me). Clients running xen/kvm/vmware are also more likely to be providing higher value resources, like a colo'd host. Move…

They'd have to download your custom image, probably hundred of megabytes or gigabytes, each time upon starting new instance. This makes no sense on WAN. It’s much better for both contributors (less stuff to download) and clients (less time wasted waiting) to only download your application stack.

It’s not EC2 alternative, this is a different kind of service.