4 ms·

One Man’s Trash Is Another Man’s Compute Cluster

39 points by kristianpaul 4y ago

MonkeyClub 4y ago
Here’s the actual paper referenced in TFA: https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3575693.3575710 https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3575693.3575710 It’s quite a nice, albeit not novel, idea, that definitely beats most if not all SFFs for small applications. Raspberries also can’t meaningfully compete with a standard smartphone wrt either performance or availability.
j0hnyl 4y ago
I recently started using my old android phones in place of a cheap VPS or raspberry Pi. Pi'z have gotten so expensive, and a phone with termux is pretty capable.
mrtweetyhack 4y ago
[dead]
duffyjp 4y ago
Is Ubuntu Touch still active? The supported devices like on their website is really ancient: https://ubports.com/supported-products https://ubports.com/supported-products What I'd really love is to have a straight Ubuntu Server install for old android phones with nothing but a tty on the phone's screen.
- Tijdreiziger 4y ago
  Maybe postmarketOS? https://postmarketos.org/ https://postmarketos.org/ Discussed on HN a couple of times: https://hn.algolia.com/?q=postmarketOS https://hn.algolia.com/?q=postmarketOS
pontifier 4y ago
I have some friends at the National Upcycled Computing Collective (https://www.nuccinc.org/ https://www.nuccinc.org/) that have been talking about the untapped resource of older devices for several years. I highly recommend checking them out.
RobotToaster 4y ago
2019 isn't exactly old for a phone, the Pixel 3A can still be bought new.
- hgsgm 4y ago
  Pixel 3a is EOL. You can buy lots of obsolete stuff new from surplus inventory from scavengers.
  - RobotToaster 4y ago
    I have to admit, I thought the listing I found on amazon was amazon themselves, but it's just a third party FBA.
  - gowld 4y ago
    But the compute hardware is fine, if you can get your own OS on it. Regarding the OP, battery is a problem. These old phones have bad batteries, and buying a new battery undercuts the carbon savings. And there's no need to use a phone battery as your server battery -- you can use any external battery.

39 points by kristianpaul 4y ago

Here’s the actual paper referenced in TFA: https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3575693.3575710 https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3575693.3575710 It’s quite a nice, albeit not novel, idea, that definitely beats most if not all SFFs for small applications. Raspberries also can’t meaningfully compete with a standard smartphone wrt either performance or availability.

j0hnyl 4y ago

I recently started using my old android phones in place of a cheap VPS or raspberry Pi. Pi'z have gotten so expensive, and a phone with termux is pretty capable.

mrtweetyhack 4y ago

[dead]

duffyjp 4y ago

Is Ubuntu Touch still active? The supported devices like on their website is really ancient: https://ubports.com/supported-products https://ubports.com/supported-products What I'd really love is to have a straight Ubuntu Server install for old android phones with nothing but a tty on the phone's screen.

Tijdreiziger 4y ago
Maybe postmarketOS? https://postmarketos.org/ https://postmarketos.org/ Discussed on HN a couple of times: https://hn.algolia.com/?q=postmarketOS https://hn.algolia.com/?q=postmarketOS

pontifier 4y ago

I have some friends at the National Upcycled Computing Collective (https://www.nuccinc.org/ https://www.nuccinc.org/) that have been talking about the untapped resource of older devices for several years. I highly recommend checking them out.

RobotToaster 4y ago

2019 isn't exactly old for a phone, the Pixel 3A can still be bought new.

hgsgm 4y ago
Pixel 3a is EOL. You can buy lots of obsolete stuff new from surplus inventory from scavengers.
- RobotToaster 4y ago
  I have to admit, I thought the listing I found on amazon was amazon themselves, but it's just a third party FBA.
- gowld 4y ago
  But the compute hardware is fine, if you can get your own OS on it. Regarding the OP, battery is a problem. These old phones have bad batteries, and buying a new battery undercuts the carbon savings. And there's no need to use a phone battery as your server battery -- you can use any external battery.