In a message dated 8/23/99 11:55:44 PM Pacific Daylight Time, spike66@ibm.net writes:
> > ...Umm, there's probably more, but let me know what you think of this.
> Would
> > anyone here be interested in donating CPU time...
>
> Meeeeee! How about using the extropian idle CPU pool or
> the ExI GIMPS team to see if a huge matrix can be inverted
> using distributed computing? I wonder what is the largest
> matrix ever to be inverted? The two largest matrices ever
> multiplied? Shall we find out and try for the world's record?
> Can you not see the application of using distributed computing
> to do matrix arithmetic to make artificial fractal landscapes, etc?
> Id give up GIMPS in a heartbeat if someone can figure out
> how to do this. spike
hey, id give up gimps for something in which the shortterm gains were a little more obvious and interisting... yea, i know how that statement sounds, but i think that it epitomizes that attitudes of The Many (all those ppl with fast systems who use them for email, word processing, and the semi-occasional quake game, yet leave their systems on all for a large amount of time).
a nice fractal landscape generator might be just the thing... or at least, something nice and visually stimulating. if every [large period of time] high quality, very trippy looking new wallpapers appeared on the users desktop (would this be too invasive? and yes, im thinkin windoze, cuz thats the majority platform), the project might be a little more popular then, say, gimps... just cuz gimps isnt very pretty.
gimps user: "whoohoo, im on iteration 432000 of 654111. gee, ive done a lot of iterations. i am truly special because of this, albiet in a very abstract kind of way"...
emlynproj user: "wow, how long has that wallpaper been there? hmmm... what is it? it looks like it could be, in a very surreal way, symbolizing the eternal war between the sexes, or something... hey, forest, pass the bowl, man..."
hehe no insult intended to those who smoke, or to those who think fractal based abstract art can really symbolize anything, even though perhaps some insults should be intended towards some of those ppl who so blatantly overinfer,
sayke