good excuse to run classic computers

From: John Foust <jfoust_at_threedee.com>
Date: Mon May 24 08:45:53 1999

At 02:58 PM 5/21/99 EDT, SUPRDAVE_at_aol.com wrote:
>I believe distributed.net has a similar premise where just about any
computer
>could help crack some encryption algorithm.
>They had client software for many operating systems including my favourite,
>OS/2. Even xt based machines could help out by running dos based client
>software.

For the past year or so, I've been running their software on machines
that stay powered-on. I experimented with running the client on several
older machines, and it only served to remind me of the relative slowness
of the old machines. Ultimately, my frugal self said it wasn't worth
the $10 in electricity a month to leave an old computer on, when nearly
the same amount on a newer computer was delivering orders of magnitude
more computing power.

These internetworked computing projects are just a way for people to donate
the cost of electricity to the communal project. If nothing else, though,
the odds of winning the prize are probably better than your average
state lottery, at least in the case of cracking encrypted messages.
SETI is a different story.

- John
Received on Mon May 24 1999 - 08:45:53 BST