[OffTopic] Save the World with BOINC!

Recently, I have rediscovered a program/app which a classmate of me once told me about a couple of years ago.
BOINC (Berkeley-whatever, just DuckDuckGo it :wink:).
If installed and set up, the BOINC Android app* will run if your phone is in standby and charging. It uses the unused computing power of your phone to do calculations for scientific projects. I signed up for World Community Grid (www.worldcommunitygrid.com), where you can donate computing power to e.g. Ebola or AIDS research, but there are plenty other projects as well, like decrypting Enigma-messages from WWII.
I think it would be a good idea if Fairphoners would support this! :slight_smile:

PS: If you sign up at WCG with this link, I get some kind of bonus points (I don’t know what they are used for (yet), probably some kind of highscore system): https://join.worldcommunitygrid.org?recruiterId=1063739

*BOINC is also available for Windows, macOS and Linux

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I was recently involved in a discussion about a (theoretical) project that could integrate well with BOINC:
Servers that constantly run some useful calculations used as radiant heaters for homes in super cold regions. Two birds with one stone: No energy wasted cooling down servers and affordable heating for people living in the arctic circle.

PS:

I joined you :+1:

PPS:
I created a Team: Fairphone Community community72x72

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This is the correct link: https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/team/viewTeamInfo.do?teamId=0TQC447G92

(@paulakreuzer your link contains this twice “https:// www. worldcommunitygrid. org/ms/team/viewMyTeam.do”):

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On the second of February 2009 I have sent my first result to World Community Grid.
In april 2010 Team Top40.nl was created. Since then I am a member of this team.
So it is a great idea to get more people involved in BOINC and World Community Grid.

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@Stanzi you use BOINC on the phone right?

What settings do you use?
Mine are:

  • only when plugged in to wall socket
  • min 70% battery
  • max 40°C battery temp
  • max 3 CPU cores
  • max 90% CPU usage
  • pause when other apps use 70% CPU or more
  • max 70% RAM

and that makes my battery usage look like this:

clarification:

  • the start of the jagged line is when I changed the settings to what I described above
  • the interval where the line is less jagged is when I went for a bike ride and had my phone plugged in to my solar power bank. BOINC was not active but I contributed to OpenWLANMap, Mozilla Location Service (via Mozilla Stumbler) and OpenStreetMap (via Street Complete) instead.
  • I’m using Battery Charge Limit

Interestingly BOINC doesn’t show up in the battery settings at all even though it obviously uses a lot.

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Thank you so much for posting this here!
I installed BOINC right away and joined the World Community Grid as well as the Fairphone team right away.

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@paulakreuzer my settings are the following:

  • only when charging & battery over 90%
  • max. battery temp. 40°C
  • max 2 CPU cores
  • 100% CPU usage (I probably should decrease that to 90%)
  • pause when normal usage is over 50%
  • max 50% RAM

But I have a question: How does it come that you have already more than 500 returned results only with your phone in the same time I have only 27 results with my phone, my MacBook and my 1000€ gaming PC combined (although those 27 results were only from my PC)??? And, moreover: Why do you have 45 days runtime when this thread is only hardly three weeks old???
ARE YOU CHEATING?! :open_mouth:

No I only started using the phone yesterday. I’ve been using my new super high speed computer since Feb 23rd.

That I’d like to know too. No idea how that happened. Well maybe it has something to do with my time-traveling superpowers?

The runtime is not the actual days you are contributing.
But is roughly the amount of days multiplied by the cores/threads you are using for Boinc.
I started in february 2009 and my Total Run Time (y:d:h:m:s) 43:284:17:53:35

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