Genome@Home

[Tea]

A good thought, Sol. Last time I tried Odin it was buggy as all hell, but that was a while ago and it's time I gave it another look.

 

[Handruin]

Coug, I'm looking to build a new machine in the next month or so, and that would give us another steady income of crunch time. I leave my boxes on 24x7, so adding another Athlon XP1800 (around that speed) should help out a little bit.

Thinking about it, we are fairly crazy. I'm planning to spend a few hundred dollars to revamp a dead system so that it will contribute to my Genome@home stats and you'll spend a few hundred (and hundred U$, that's even worse) too for the same purpose. Pride is expensive isn't it?

At least with the price of computer parts nowadays, building three boxes from scratch doesn't cost more than building just a single one about 5 or 6 years ago.

To be honest, I'm not building it for genome. But since my machines run during the day and through the night, it would get plenty of CPU time. I'm buying it so I can play games in my apartment with my girlfriend.

I know I should seek medical attention (why don't you buy a bloody playstation, Doug!) but I could come up with a 100 different reasons why it should be a computer over a consol system. Now that I've bought a smaller case, this system will be my LAN party machine since it will weight less. I'm looking into mounting a handle on the top.

I can also use it to backup data from my main rig over a small LAN. I need to put my Linksys switch to work! I would also like to set it up to do web testing on it, or on this machine. It’s a pain to have to make a small change, and then FTP it to SF to only see I screwed something up. I have to do it this way because of PHP. I don’t want IIS on my XP box, but I could load it onto my next system.

OK, I’m rambling away now.

 

[Buck]

Thinking about it, we are fairly crazy. I'm planning to spend a few hundred dollars to revamp a dead system so that it will contribute to my Genome@home stats and you'll spend a few hundred (and hundred U$, that's even worse) too for the same purpose. Pride is expensive isn't it?

At least with the price of computer parts nowadays, building three boxes from scratch doesn't cost more than building just a single one about 5 or 6 years ago.

Fairly crazy? How about wacked, tweaked, or some other new word for describing the unimaginably deranged and unbalanced. If we were all on the straight-and-narrow, I don’t think we’d be in the computer business. Tea would be a photographer, Tannin would be a museum curator, Coug would teach proper French at a community college, Mercutio would be nicknamed “Pimp Daddy” (if he already isn’t), the Bartender….well he’d keep his job, and Buck would be Havana Daydreamin’, or so the song goes. But no, we’re concerned with SOI; something called Clawhammer and it’s not available at your local home center; with this distributed networking stuff called Genome that nobody really knows will do us any good. For all we know, a new biological weapon is being developed. But hey, we’re building computers for it!

 

[Bartender]

Don't mind Buck, he's had a long and hard day. I've given him some Bakers bourbon, but that hasn't helped much. I think he really needs some sleep.

I do think that you are all crazy for staying in the computer business, tending bar is much easier, and much more enjoyable. I'm surprised that Tannin has never tended to a bar - being a night owl and all. Or maybe he has and has never shared any experiences with us.

 

[Tannin]

Respectively, he has and he hasn't. 1978 and '79 it I think it was, at the City Oval Hotel and then the Western Hotel, both in Ballarat. What to tell? Not a great deal.

Worked in the brewery for a while too, summer of '84 and '85. Never drank so much in my whole life!

Oh. and I was bartender there for a while: paid to serve free beer to the brewery workers at lunch and for an hour or two after knock-off, and have the odd one myself. Great job.

 

[CougTek]

why don't you buy a bloody playstation, Doug!

Because there's no Genome@home client for the bloody Playstation Doug!

Coug would teach proper French at a community college

With the temper I have, combined to my legendary patience, you can bet that out of a class of 30 students, no more than 7-8 would finish the year... ...alive!

 

[Cliptin]

why don't you buy a bloody playstation, Doug!

Because there's no Genome@home client for the bloody Playstation Doug!

Coug would teach proper French at a community college

With the temper I have, combined to my legendary patience, you can bet that out of a class of 30 students, no more than 7-8 would finish the year... ...alive!

My 7th grade english teacher used to calls us 'shrooms because "we had in the dark for so long."

 

[Mercutio]

There are any number of careers I would choose before pimping. For one thing, I couldn't hit a woman, and that's part of the job description (they use coathangers wrapped in towels. Leave fewer marks). Architect, some kind of low-responsibility physician (sports medicine, plastic surgery... whatever, as long as people don't die on my operating table), photographer for playboy, classical musician... or heck, owner of a classical recording label. Librarian. System administrator is probably the most realistic of my options, but I take a lot of satisfaction in fixing PCs and helping people solve problems.

Some things I wouldn't do: I couldn't be a cop. I couldn't work construction - network cabling is bad enough. I couldn't work retail. I *really* hate having to do sales at all. I wish I could skip that part of my business life, too.

 

[Buck]

There are any number of careers I would choose before pimping. For one thing, I couldn't hit a woman, and that's part of the job description (they use coathangers wrapped in towels. Leave fewer marks).

Ouch, didn't mean to imply you'd hit anyone.

Architect, some kind of low-responsibility physician (sports medicine, plastic surgery... whatever, as long as people don't die on my operating table), photographer for playboy, classical musician... or heck, owner of a classical recording label. Librarian. System administrator is probably the most realistic of my options, but I take a lot of satisfaction in fixing PCs and helping people solve problems.

Some things I wouldn't do: I couldn't be a cop. I couldn't work construction - network cabling is bad enough. I couldn't work retail. I *really* hate having to do sales at all. I wish I could skip that part of my business life, too.

Some respectable and self gratifying options Mercutio.

 

[me]

Donut master.

I still miss that thread. :wink:

 

[Buck]

Oh yeah, the infamous trio, me, myself, and I. Either you'd end up as a circus act, or resturant owners.

 

[me]

i asked myself about this earlier, and ... if it were up to me ... no, wait. Who was asking? Was it me?

 

[myself]

i can't remember either.

 

[Cliptin]

i can't remember either.

This is too confusing. Maybe the three of yo should start talking alswaysin the third person. :roll:

 

[CougTek]

There are any number of careers I would choose before pimping. For one thing, I couldn't hit a woman,...

I'm not sure what pimping is (wild guess : the guys who hire and harass prostitutes?), but I don't understand the "I couldn't hit a woman" mentality. Women are supposed to be at par with men since 1944 IIRC. Equal means equal in my book, not just equal for what advantages them. Unless I didn't get it right, being a woman isn't a handicap, at least not according to the laws here. Hitting anyone is supposed to be bad, but somehow it seems that hitting a man is somewhat acceptable and hitting a woman is totally shameful. I'm against that kind of favouritism. Sure they are smaller on average, proportionally less muscular and their bones are twice thinner, but if in the same situation where it would be acceptable to hit a man, I don't see why it wouldn't be to hit a woman (pimping isn't an acceptable situation IMO BTW).

I saw some women so many times profit from the unwriten "you can't touch me" law that it now makes me sick. People are supposed to act according to their capacities, not God-given rights. You rarely see 5'3" guys provoking large muscular guys because they know that if they push it too far, they'll take a beating. That doesn't mean both can't talk equal to equal, just that physical attacks are not an option for them. But it's common to see women, often bigger than 5'3" dwarfs, give a shit-load of insults to football-size men and sometimes even hit them because they feel free to let go their frustration this way. I think it's totally unacceptable. Sure, a woman doesn't have great chances to hurt a big man, but the fact is : they can hit, as hard as they can, because they a pathetically weak, while we cannot, no matter if we are as pissed as they are.

I have two kinds of respect for people. I try to respect people verbally as long as the others are respectful with myself. If someone insults me, I'll reply the same way. I also respect people physically. I won't hit unless I am. But you can be sure of one thing. If someone is silly enough to try to hurt, push, block my way or limit my physical freedom in any way, I'll reply too and with all of my strenght, no matter if my agressor is a man or a woman, big or small, young or old. If you want to play physical with me, good luck, you better be damn good to defend yourself. If you're not, BACK OFF!

Being weak (independantly of the gender) is no excuse for using physical attack. Argue with words if you are smart enough, if you are not, shut up. Same goes for physical attacks. If you are at a disadvantage, don't start a fight. If you do and if you take a beating, don't blame your opponent for being stronger than you.

All that said, I could hit a woman, no more but no less than I would hit a man. Equal is equal. Otherwise, it's sexism. I play fair with them because I consider we are on equal ground. If being a woman ever becomes a handicap according to the law, I'll reconsider. But it's not currently, so I act accordingly. Just for the record, I don't remember having hit a woman since little school, but I wouldn't hesitate if I would have too. Don't take me wrong, I'm not in favor of illtreating them, I simply think we should treat them just like we treat men.

 

[i]

Well said, Cougtek.

The only time I've hit a woman was back when I was taking taekwondo. I miss those days. Not because it gave me some cheap excuse for violence (towards either sex), but because in that environment, everyone really was equal.

It was just ... nice, you know? I can't explain it better than that.

Besides ... the women in those classes exuded equality, which gave them a form of confidence I've found rare elsewhere. Yes, well, there you have it. The biggest turn on I've found in women to date are the ones who have no qualms about trying to kick my @ss. Kind of funny to say it, but true. :wink:

 

[Mercutio]

I'd prefer not to hit anyone at all, actually. Women especially. My father wasn't the nicest guy in the world when I was growing up (holding me a foot off the floor by my neck, punching my head so hard I couldn't put it on a pillow two days later, nice things like that) and there are still times my mother is afraid to be in the same house as him. My fiance - let's just say she suffered at the hands of another man and leave it at that. I see the impact of... whether you want call it serial abuse or violence in my life and the lives of others. It's not a pretty thing. The idea of picking on someone just for being smaller or weaker turns my stomach. Not something to joke about at all.

 

[Mercutio]

I forgot one on my list of careers. I think I could be a decent writer. Fiction or non. I've written things before that one might find online but most of what I write goes into notebooks (the paper kind).

Anyway, I like to write, too.

 

[Cliptin]

The idea of picking on someone just for being smaller or weaker turns my stomach. Not something to joke about at all.

Right on Mercutio!

The responsibility one has when the power is overwhelmingly in their favor is great. Whether a nation or individual.

 

[i]

... It's not a pretty thing. The idea of picking on someone just for being smaller or weaker turns my stomach. Not something to joke about at all.

I didn't want to flare up a bad subject (sorry!). I wasn't trying to make light of violence of any sort. What I found funny was that in all the things I've partaken in life, the one place where I felt everyone was on completely equal footing was during taekwondo practice. It's the place in which I found equality - NOT violence - that I found funny (in the amusing/thoughtful sense).

I think there're some interesting things to think about revolving around that. It will take me a long time to ponder that through.

One of the things that comes to mind is that "Chase the Rabbits" article from Slashdot a while ago. If you take the time to read through the website that was featured in the discussion, you'll come across the time the author (who, based on his own comments and the content in the rest of his website, was quite the womanizer) found himself on a field across from a group of half-naked women and didn't register them as anything more than his teammates.

That's the same sort of equality I'm looking at. It's a rare, total form of equality that starts with the physical. Read through the rest of that article, and you'll see other cases where he recoqnizes that everyone was pulling their own weight, and in cases where they needed help, it was just accepted as the thing to do - there was no hint of "inferiority" at any time.

There's more to it than that, but I'm having a hard time describing what I actually attribute that sort of (non) reaction to. Lots of stuff to think about.

 

[NRG = mc²]

I saw some women so many times profit from the unwriten "you can't touch me" law that it now makes me sick. People are supposed to act according to their capacities, not God-given rights.

True... I agree with you on that. I'm not for hitting people without cause either, but when someone asks for it, they should get it, be it man or woman... For starters, if someone gets on my nerves so much I want to hit them, I'm not going to stop and think if its a man or a woman, even if I wanted to.

Check this out. http://forums.storagereview.net/viewtopic.php?t=3020

Stealing stereos is OK for her and her boyfriend, so getting her head whacked against the car a couple of times is more than fair IMO. She should be grateful we didn't drag her in the house and gang rape her :twistd: j/k.[/url]

 

[Mercutio]

That's another one of those things I don't have a sense of humor about. That last bit, I mean. Sorry NRG.

I've always had quite a temper. Believe me. I used to get mad enough to actually see red (which I understand now means that I get so worked up I'm nearly ready to pass out). It caused me a lot of grief for a long time. Now I just walk away. There just aren't that many things in life that are worth getting upset over and the truth is, there are even fewer things that are worth hurting someone else for. That's what I told everyone I ever threw out of the club where I used to work.

"Chase the rabbit" was kind of a cool story on slashdot. That guy's journal was interesting. Of course, I think he's mad for wanting to go run around Central Park at 5:00AM. Heck, I think he's mad for wanting to run. Period. But it was interesting to read the progression from utter dread to total enthusiasm.

 

[Tannin]

I've been trying to think of ways to boost my Genome work without actually leaving my computer on more of the time (My parents pay the electricity bill and I value my life far too much).
One of the options I've been considering is ways of using the uni computers. There are usually a couple of dozzen P4s going to waste much of the time. I could pretty easily leave 2 going all night on tuesdays but much more than that might be chalenging.

Worth it?

The other option would be to leave a copy running on the Uni web server 24-7. But I reccon they'd cotton on to that one pretty quick, and I don't imagine it would be apreciated. Unfortunatly the computers all load an image file on boot so a program will only run untill somone reboots.

I'd be reluctant to do anything with the Uni machines if I were you. What was that absurd but unfortunately true story of the American science lab assistant who loaded SETI@home (or some such) on his room full of computers and was prosecuted for, and convicted of, a quite serious offense underthe legislation they enacted to prevent hacking into the Defense Department or Microsoft?

Someone will remember.

You take note too, Mercutio.

 

[Mercutio]

I asked. They said no. I'm not going to pursue it, even though I see students using those machines for a lot of dumber things (most of the machines have winmx, kazaa and some of the other programs that install adware on them, and run those programs on startup. I want to fix it but the hardware they have isn't standard enough for a ghost image, and they won't pay for rdist).

 

[NRG = mc²]

http://www.freemcowen.com

Seems he got off the hook... just about.

Cliptin, you cant catch me

Actually you will in a month or so when the XP gets turned off for summer and I have the crappy P3 only

 

[Sol]

In order to leve Genome running over night I'd just load it onto the two PCs I'm allowed to log on to at once and set a blank screen saver with a password. If anyone wanted to use the machine they'd just reboot it (Most would assume it was off). People do the same thing all the time with other stuff like uni work.
If you want to keep a PC in a lab (so you don't have to wait 15 min for the image to reload). You just make sure somone would have to reset yours then you reset any other PCs not being used so thier ready when somone comes in.
The admin baically don't care what happens on thier PCs as long as no damage gets done, anyone who actualy wants to do work on them can, and they can't be prosecuted for anything (ie. don't leave anything on the server).

So my only question really is if two reasonably new P4s working over night would be worth the ten minutes it would take me to set them up whilst I'm waiting for a lift and have nothing better to do anyway O.K I think I've answered my own question.

Also at Uni we use Dynawizzard. Since the people at uni are a pretty cheapskate lot mostly I'd say that could be a reasonably inexpensive image loading type program. Don't know how standard your machines have to be though.

 

[Bartender]

I now have 5 machines behind the bar running Genome. Today I had to move them around a bit so that I would use less space and take better advantage of my KVM switch. The downside is all of the heat these monsters generate. I'll have to find a way to cool things off a bit.

 

[Tea]

You could use them to keep the coffee hot.

 

[CougTek]

So my only question really is if two reasonably new P4s working over night would be worth the ten minutes it would take me to set them up whilst I'm waiting for a lift and have nothing better to do anyway O.K I think I've answered my own question.

Well, since you have nothing else better to do...

 

[Sol]

Well the PCs are going at it and should be all night.
The sad thing is that there are 25 in this room alone and I can only use 2.
I'll see how my stats look in the morning.

 

[Tea]

What you need, Sol, is some proper multiple personalaties.

 

[CougTek]

Congrats to Douglas for being the first to reach 10000 units.

My foreign system is finally back on the Net so my stats should climb up to the level they were two weeks ago. It was about time.

 

[Bartender]

What you need, Sol, is some proper multiple personalaties.

Three sounds like a round figure.

 

[Cliptin]

It appears that statsman has not updated since 00 5/13.

Now I'm not sure if I can just barely see NRG in the rearview mirror or if that was yesterday. :twistd:

 

[NRG = mc²]

no no, I can see you in the rearview mirror. And you shall stay there

 

[Bartender]

http://gah.stanford.edu/teams/StorageForum_net.html

 

[Bartender]

We are presently in 87th position.

 

[Sol]

Well I'm relieved to see I didn't entirly waste my time with the uni computers. Since statsman wasn't updateing I thought I must have.

 

[CougTek]

They are slow indeed.

 

[Bartender]

Can't Statsman get their servers to update consistently?