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

An anonymous slashdot reader writes “Sophos has come up with some pretty interesting research: apparently, there’s a 50 percent chance unprotected Windows PCs will be compromised within 12 minutes of going online. Sophos came to that conclusion based on research covering the last six months of virus activity. The company said authors of malware such as spam, viruses, phishing scams and spyware have increased both the volume and sophistication of their assaults, releasing almost 8,000 new viruses in the first half of 2005 and increasingly teaming up in joint ventures to make money. The new-virus figure is up 59 percent on the same period last year.”

* Slashdot | The 12-minute Windows Heist

tyler_larson writes “Just over a week ago, Jay Carter’s CarterCopter
managed to break a significant rotorcraft barrier, traveling at a mu ratio of 1. This 1-to-1 ratio (sometimes called the mu-1 barrier) represents a condition where the forward speed of the craft is the same as the speed of the tip of the rotor. This means that at a certain point, the tip of the retreating blade is “standing still” relative to the wind and producing no lift, while the rest of the blade is actually moving backwards through the air. Such a condition is normally impossible for a rotorcraft, and so the forward speed of a helicopter is limited by the the speed of the rotors. This accomplishment by the CarterCopter, which some insisted couldn’t be done, proves that this new craft is not subject to that limitation.”

* Slashdot | Carter Copter Breaks Mu-1 Barrier

/. jamestech writes “Over the weekend, Wired magazine held its ‘NextFest‘ in Chicago, a demonstration of what the future supposedly holds. Arstechnica’s Hannibal visited NextFest, and was not impressed.

Regarding a dolphin-shaped water vehicle and exoskeletons for the old, he notes, ‘if you’re being pursued by a senior citizen then you can use the dolphin to escape.’ Wired’s been more about style rather than tech since the late 90s, but have they finally dropped science in favor of science fiction?”

* Slashdot | Ars’s Skeptical Take on Wired’s NextFest

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