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There's a surprising behavioral economics result that says people will do things for free that they won't do for small amounts of money. A check in the mail fo

There's a surprising behavioral economics result that says people will do things for free that they won't do for small amounts of money. A check in the mail for a dollar or two every month isn't as compelling as being part of a group effort. And empirically, it seems to be working. The number of contributing machines is currently in the six figures. The main risk right now is on the demand side, i.e. whether or not people want this type of compute.

ry0ohki 14y ago
You have 100k computers running this? How come I've never heard of it and don't see a place to sign up to be a host computer?
- cycrutchfield 14y ago
  Seriously? Installer link is on the homepage: https://gridspot.com/ https://gridspot.com/
  - ry0ohki 14y ago
    hah, doh. Thought the article linked to the homepage, still think they should have a link from the /compute/ page, people might be interested in both using and being used for this.
vld 14y ago
Wow, really, six figures? 250 results for "gridspot.com" on google, and yet you have 100000+ computers running this software? I want to hire you! I'll pay you 10 figures/month!
- KaoruAoiShiho 14y ago
  This comment is quite rude, but I still haven't seen an answer for this yet. How did you get all these users to donate their computers even though nobody seems to have heard of you yet? Something seems fishy, and I wish you'd answer.
  - damian2000 14y ago
    Fake it till you make it? I don't know for sure, but could they be subsidising the launch by running instances on EC2? ... When they get enough hosts signed up, switch over to their distributed model, or even run a hybrid combination to handle demand spikes.
    - pash 14y ago
      Google shows results for "gridspot.exe" on ID-this-process sites dating from mid-March. So it's out there and has been for a few months. The question is whose machines it's running on.
      - sdesol 14y ago
        Google also has this link as the #1 link ... well for me anyways. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120329124823AAT62kg http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120329124823AA... It does in bring into question whether or not gridspot.exe was installed nefariously.
        runn1ng 14y ago
        Selling botnets as cloud service? That is not be such a bad idea after all...
hhjj 14y ago
Your "giving back" paragraph about what motivates your users is completely dishonest. You know your users are clueless and installed your client because it was bundled with an application they actually wanted to use.
- gizzlon 14y ago
  Care to elaborate? What programs bundle this?
RivieraKid 14y ago
Well, people won't do things for free, if someone takes the money for their effort. What is the number of contributors who know exactly what's going on?
davidmr 14y ago
I can think of precisely zero ethical ways you could already have more than 100k machines participating. An explanation from you would be very, very nice to see.

ry0ohki 14y ago

You have 100k computers running this? How come I've never heard of it and don't see a place to sign up to be a host computer?

cycrutchfield 14y ago
Seriously? Installer link is on the homepage: https://gridspot.com/ https://gridspot.com/
- ry0ohki 14y ago
  hah, doh. Thought the article linked to the homepage, still think they should have a link from the /compute/ page, people might be interested in both using and being used for this.

vld 14y ago

Wow, really, six figures? 250 results for "gridspot.com" on google, and yet you have 100000+ computers running this software? I want to hire you! I'll pay you 10 figures/month!

KaoruAoiShiho 14y ago
This comment is quite rude, but I still haven't seen an answer for this yet. How did you get all these users to donate their computers even though nobody seems to have heard of you yet? Something seems fishy, and I wish you'd answer.
- damian2000 14y ago
  Fake it till you make it? I don't know for sure, but could they be subsidising the launch by running instances on EC2? ... When they get enough hosts signed up, switch over to their distributed model, or even run a hybrid combination to handle demand spikes.
  - pash 14y ago
    Google shows results for "gridspot.exe" on ID-this-process sites dating from mid-March. So it's out there and has been for a few months. The question is whose machines it's running on.
    - sdesol 14y ago
      Google also has this link as the #1 link ... well for me anyways. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120329124823AAT62kg http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120329124823AA... It does in bring into question whether or not gridspot.exe was installed nefariously.
      - runn1ng 14y ago
        Selling botnets as cloud service? That is not be such a bad idea after all...

hhjj 14y ago

Your "giving back" paragraph about what motivates your users is completely dishonest. You know your users are clueless and installed your client because it was bundled with an application they actually wanted to use.

gizzlon 14y ago
Care to elaborate? What programs bundle this?

RivieraKid 14y ago

Well, people won't do things for free, if someone takes the money for their effort. What is the number of contributors who know exactly what's going on?

davidmr 14y ago

I can think of precisely zero ethical ways you could already have more than 100k machines participating. An explanation from you would be very, very nice to see.