it´s a shame our work isn´t worth any money for us

Omikronman
Omikronman
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Topic 192129

I think it is a shame that our work is not worth any money for us. We pay 1 Euro Cent per Minute when telephoning, wie geht a fiew sents when people klick on stupid advertising banners on a web site - but we don´t get anything for our really hard and useful work we do for the Boinc projects. That is strange because (nearly) nothing in the world seems to be free of charge.

Nothing But Idle Time
Nothing But Idl...
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it´s a shame our work isn´t worth any money for us

IMO: As a matter of operating philosophy Distributed Computing is intended to utilize UNUSED cpu cycles -- cycles that would otherwise be wasted while your computer is running, cycles that you would pay for anyway.
No one is asking you to spend money beyond what you would otherwise spend during your normal activity on your computer. However, once engaged in DC most people feel compelled to dedicate more than unused cycles. Since this is a choice and free will, you shouldn't expect a monetary return.

William Lay
William Lay
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RE: I run 1 PC 24/7 with

Quote:
I run 1 PC 24/7 with boinc running, 1 PC about 12 hours a day with boinc running, then 3 more PCs with boinc running for 6-8 hours a day (12 on weekends). I don't pay for unlimited broadband but i get huge amounts of download (2 gigs then a few pennies GBP for every 100 megs after that) and i pay apx £14 per month. I don't worry about the cost. I just get satisfaction from knowing i am helping the knowledge of mankind.


Terry
Terry
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RE: I think it is a shame

Quote:
I think it is a shame that our work is not worth any money for us. We pay 1 Euro Cent per Minute when telephoning, wie geht a fiew sents when people klick on stupid advertising banners on a web site - but we don´t get anything for our really hard and useful work we do for the Boinc projects. That is strange because (nearly) nothing in the world seems to be free of charge.

You are mixing and confusing a number of things here.

First, lets get rid of "stupid advertising banners on a web site" as things irrelevant and outside the jurisdiction or influence of the unrelated 'BOINC'. If you have a problem with people and the way they value things then take it up with them.

Second, 'worth' and 'money'. These two are related only in your mind. Money allows the separation of transactions and is, in and of irself, of no value. It is currency. You must clarify your thinking. You say the work you do is useful to BOINC. But you do not understand that BOINC is yourself. It is in the commons.

Then you refer to 'charge'. This is merely what others convince you that you are prepared to pay for what you have allowed yourself to want.

peanut
peanut
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Maybe if we all wrote to our

Maybe if we all wrote to our congress person (U.S.A) we could get somekind of tax break.

GuitarGuru831
GuitarGuru831
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RE: IMO: As a matter of

Message 54624 in response to message 54620

Quote:
IMO: As a matter of operating philosophy Distributed Computing is intended to utilize UNUSED cpu cycles -- cycles that would otherwise be wasted while your computer is running, cycles that you would pay for anyway.
No one is asking you to spend money beyond what you would otherwise spend during your normal activity on your computer. However, once engaged in DC most people feel compelled to dedicate more than unused cycles. Since this is a choice and free will, you shouldn't expect a monetary return.

After running BOINC projects for a little while now, it's become pretty satisfying. Like many others, I've chosen to run other projects as time goes on too. With a couple PCs in the office, I was already paying for the power anyway and had a lot of "unused" cycles. It fun to think of the projects as completely voluntary too...

Balthazar
Balthazar
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I can understand his point

I can understand his point and I know that we are doing this for ourselves (especially if you are running ClimatePrediction and/or similar tasks). Perhaps a reward of some sort would encourage others to donate time... a free high-quality firewall at 10,000... virus protection at 50,000... ect.
[Note: I run BOINC on a home computer and if BOINC did not exist, my computer would be off.]

danny
danny
Joined: 28 Jan 09
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RE: I think it is a shame

Quote:
I think it is a shame that our work is not worth any money for us. We pay 1 Euro Cent per Minute when telephoning, wie geht a fiew sents when people klick on stupid advertising banners on a web site - but we don´t get anything for our really hard and useful work we do for the Boinc projects. That is strange because (nearly) nothing in the world seems to be free of charge.

i dont mean to offend you or anybody else, but the day we humans start carrying about "the whole"( all humans ) thats the time we can move forward.
who cares your not earning a cent, your helping find blackholes and other phenomenal that we cant understand becuase we cant locate them.

did you know if we find out how exaclly a blackhole behaves we can creat money out of crap, literly whatever goes on in a blackhole can explain everything in the universe.

AKA Warlord420

Pooh Bear 27
Pooh Bear 27
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Many of the projects are not

Many of the projects are not for profit, and have little, if any extra money to do anything with. SETI for example runs on a budget less than they need. They need donations from the users because there is no government and little to no private sector donations. They still use a lot of outdated equipment, because they cannot buy newer. Their staff is all part time, and way underpaid.

Climate is another one that is very low budget. If I understand it correctly, they only have a single programmer. They have not much else in staff.

Those are just a couple of examples. I am sure there are many more stories for many more projects.

kimmerin
kimmerin
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Why not "pay" in a different

Why not "pay" in a different way? Something like "get a pulsar named after you"? With 100,000 pulsars waiting to be found with Einstein@Home there is one pulsar for everybody ;-)

I don't know the rules for naming stellar objects but shouldn't it be possible to add the names of the participating users (there are at least two per WU) to the name that is published in catalogs? This would give every participant some feedback that his/her "work" acutally lead to something and I can imagine that this would "boost" the number of participants.

In case this is considered seriously there should be an additional field at the Project-Settings where a participant can configure the name that should appear in such a case. As well, the screensaver can be extended in a way highlighting "your own" pulsars.

LivingDog
LivingDog
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The OP said nothing about

The OP said nothing about money! Yet the replies seem to dwell on that... I am surprised to see this group behaving as so many others who are not scientifically trained.

As to the original idea, I must admit when I saw the topic I freaked and was ready to hit the "WHAT?!?" button... then I _R_E_A_D_ the OP's post and realized that this is the second best idea since sliced bread!

I agree 100% with the OP. It might attract a larger number of users if they knew a "star" was going to be named after them.

640,000+ w.u.'s and counting.

-LD
________________________________________
my faith

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