[ba-ohs-talk] The Worldwide Computer
http://www.sciam.com/2002/0302issue/0302anderson.html (01)
"When Mary gets home from work and goes to her PC to check e-mail, the PC
isn't just sitting there. It's working for a biotech company, matching gene
sequences to a library of protein molecules. Its DSL connection is busy
downloading a block of radio telescope data to be analyzed later. Its disk
contains, in addition to Mary's own files, encrypted fragments of thousands
of other files. Occasionally one of these fragments is read and
transmitted; it's part of a movie that someone is watching in Helsinki.
Then Mary moves the mouse, and this activity abruptly stops. Now the PC and
its network connection are all hers." (02)
I did this with my Wintel ME laptop for about 6 months, studying molecules
involved with Leukemia. Had to quit because Windows ME is just not robust
enough to handle context switching and so forth on a regular basis. (03)
The article is rather wide ranging, about an Internet Scale Operating System. (04)
Jack (05)