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Do_good.js

ben_eysenbach.neocities.org

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Re: Do_good.js

#41

Post by ricardobeat »

dangrossman wrote: post #18
UberMouse wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not even using 1% of my CPU. It checks one prime every 100ms, so it doesn't really use a lot of anything.

The script was just a proof of concept. A scenario where you could be paid to donate 1% of your CPU time while certain webpages were open will never occur. Here's why: Let's say there exists a problem where it's worth paying to solve it like this. The most a company could pay you is just below the spot price for buying instances on EC2 or some other cloud/cluster -- or they'd do that instead. So we're talking about n…

It's not computing per se, but BrowserShots has been doing that for a couple years, paying users for their browser time.

Re: Do_good.js

#42

Post by glhaynes »

Really, you're using energy I'm paying for [on the meter and/or in battery longevity] to check the primality of 6533? No, I think not.

Re: Do_good.js

#43

Post by adrianmalacoda »

Trufa wrote: post #32

What is it with HN and the negativity in the comments, it's an interesting topic to have a civilized discussion, no to dismiss altogether.

It's an interesting idea for sure, but in my opinion the objections are justified. The problem I (and some others here) have with this is

"I easily could have hidden it. In fact, I could install this on every site you visit, and you'd hardly notice."

Personally, I think even with the assumption that the overall goal (finding prime numbers, for example) is a worthy use of crowd sourced CPU, sneakily co-opting visitors' CPUs without their knowledge or consent in order to do it is essentially building a bot net.

"The cool thing is that I could be solving a real problem, and someone or some company could be paying me for all the work that people's computers are doing when they visit my site."

I'm not sure I'd be willing to let someone sell my computer without my consent or knowledge. If this was an opt-in thing it would actually be kind of neat, I think.

Re: Do_good.js

#44

Post by tikhonj »

I remember going to a hackathon[1] where the winning team developed a system like this. Their demo involved doing 10-dimensional integrals with Monte Carlo, on all of the audience's laptops. It was pretty cool :).

[1]: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marissa-louie/for-the-win-at-t...

Given a bunch of college students could put together a credible system in ~18 hours without sleep, it's certainly not challenging technically. I suspect there are deep logistical and business reasons for why it has not caught on--you wouldn't be able to get all that much done without a ton of traffic, and it would really annoy people when they found out about it.

Still, even if it isn't entirely practical, I think it's a really cool idea. Certainly the sort of thing I love seeing at a hackathon, more than the winners of some of the more recent ones I've been to. (But that, of course, is a complaint for another time and another post.)

Re: Do_good.js

#45

Post by ruswick »

Trufa wrote: post #32

What is it with HN and the negativity in the comments, it's an interesting topic to have a civilized discussion, no to dismiss altogether.

Your comment presumes that "negativity" has no place in a "civilized discussion," which is outrageous.

Honestly, the discourse here is pretty civil and all of the points are valid. When did it become "uncivilized" to argue that something is detrimental? (If this is true, is it not then totally "uncivilized" to decry negativity on HN?)

This irrational insistence on artificial enthusiasm and compulsory positivity is ridiculous. Skepticism is the foundation of "civilized discourse."

Nowhere is it written that you have to entertain every idea, even those with which you vehemently disagree, with disingenuous positivity. That's not what HN is for.

Re: Do_good.js

#46

Post by ruswick »

adrianmalacoda wrote: post #43
Trufa wrote: post #32

What is it with HN and the negativity in the comments, it's an interesting topic to have a civilized discussion, no to dismiss altogether.

It's an interesting idea for sure, but in my opinion the objections are justified. The problem I (and some others here) have with this is " I easily could have hidden it. In fact, I could install this on every site you visit, and you'd hardly notice. " Personally, I think even with the assumption that the overall goal (finding prime numbers, for example) is a worthy use of crowd sourced CPU, sneakily co-opting visito…

The other issue is that he is not recommending that this be used for research. He is recommending that he can discreetly rent out my own computer to entities that are anonymous to me and with whom I have absolutely no contact, all for his personal monetary gain.

Consensual distributed computing in the name of science in interesting. Secretive distributed computing in the name of individual profit is disconcerting.

Re: Do_good.js

#48

Post by dhruvkaran »

Most entities that have a large enough footprint to make this kind of a thing useful care a lot about speed and their users :) Why not just have a chrome extension that does good on all sites?
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