Excerpt from source: More on the University of Texas grid project’s mission to integrate numerous, diverse resources into a comprehensive campus cyber-infrastructure for research and education. In this article, the authors examine the idea of harvesting unused cycles from compute resources to provide this aggregate power for compute-intensive work. They will also place this concept in context by offering an overview of a popular commercial software package designed to help achieve this task: the United Devices Grid MP platform.

Several early grid computing projects were focused on the idea of harvesting unused cycles from compute resources and providing this aggregated computing power for work that comprised lots of tasks — from hundreds to millions — that could be executed individually.

Today, there are several commercial and open source grid computing software packages that support this form of distributed computing on the desktop or other nondedicated computing resources. In this article, we will take a look at a popular commercial software package designed to help execute this function: the United Devices Grid MP platform.

Grid MP has several interesting and unique features, including:

* Support for heterogeneous desktops/nodes
* Nonintrusive client execution
* Tolerance to failures of desktop resources

We will provide an overview of the Grid MP features designed for harvesting idle cycles from nondedicated resources, and we’ll describe the types of applications that can effectively use the type of “desktop grid” we’re discussing.

Read the full article:
* Grid in action: Harvesting and reusing idle compute cycles

Also see:
* BOINC (SETI@Home, Einstein@Home, ClimatePrediction.net, LHC@Home, Predictor@Home, Cell Computing (JP))
* Team GiGA Productions Computing Group

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* Slashdot | Grizzly-sized Catfish Caught in Thailand

* PubChem - Public Chemical Database

* Slashdot | Open Source Molecules

Barb Dybwad wrote at engadget: “Calisto Medical has wrapped up a successful clinical trial of the Glucoband glucose monitor, a wristwatch device that uses proprietary technology to non-invasively measure blood glucose levels in the body. It uses a bio-electromagnetic resonance technique to continuously monitor glucose levels after an initial measurement, with the results viewable on an integrated LCD screen in the watch. So, if your phone or Gameboy doesn’t already do this for you, you can strap on the Glucoband for all your ubiquitous glucose monitoring needs.”

* Glucoband wristwatch continuously monitors your glucose levels - Engadget

/. Cory R writes “Neil Gershenfeld is an MIT professor and the director of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms where he teaches a course called “How to Make (almost) Anything.” In his book FAB: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop — From Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication, Gershenfeld describes the current state of personal fabrication tools and the surprising impact that these tools have when made available to everybody from MIT students to villagers in India in the form of Fab Labs. Lots of fabrication techniques and some technologies are discussed including those that are still only in development today. The pace of development seems to be accelerating and as the capabilities of the tools advance, Gershenfeld predicts one day he will be able to drop the word “almost” from the title of his course.” Read on for the rest of Cory R’s review.

Slashdot | Fab