toolbar.google.com/dc/#trouble3
Why are you introducing a function that's not related to search? The goal of Google Compute is to make a contribution to science by enabling Google Toolbar users to easily donate their idle computer time to worthwhile causes. The Google Compute version of the Google Toolbar detects when a computer is idle and puts it to work on complex mathematical problem from such fields as drug design and global climate modeling. What are the minimum system requirements needed to run Google Compute? Google Compute is currently supported on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP. We recommend at least 64MB of memory and 20MB of available disk space. A high-bandwidth permanently on network connection is not required, as long as the machine is connected to the Internet every few days. You will also need to have the English language version of the Google Toolbar installed. If you don't have it already, you can download it from 44 here. Google Compute is designed to run even on low-bandwidth connections such as modems. The total amount of data transferred per month is generally under 20MB. In more detail: Each work unit and corresponding result totals approximately a megabyte in size and typically takes two to three days to complete. The files that need to be downloaded at install time are around 1MB in size. Updates to the Folding@home client and scientific core occur generally every few months, and are around 500Kb-750Kb. Will running this application interfere with any of my other applications? Google Compute is designed to be completely non-intrusive, and will not have a significant impact on your computing environment. In Conservative mode (selectable from the menu) it is even more cautious, waiting until the user is not actively using the system before beginning work. An example analysis of the performance impact of the Folding@home program (on Windows XP in this case) can be found at 45 The Tech Report. The analysis concludes that the effects on system performance are insignificant. Why are you introducing a function that's not related to search? The Google search engine uses more than 10,000 networked computers to deliver results to millions of users worldwide, making it one of the largest distributed computing systems in existence. In addition to providing leading search technology, we are also interested in solving other important computationally intense problems. While we're not experts on protein folding, we do know quite a bit about using networked computers to solve difficult problems involving terabytes of data. With the Folding@home project the results and analysis will be submitted to scientific journals for publication. Google will publish links to these articles on its website. After the publication the raw data will be made available to the public on the Folding@home website. Many important scientific problems such as protein folding are computationally intense. The more computers scientists have working on these problems, the faster they will be able to develop solutions. For example, understanding the structure of proteins will enable scientists to make progress in the areas of molecular biology and drug design. What exactly are you going to do with my unused computer time? If you enable Google Compute on your Google Toolbar your unused computing time will at the moment be contributed to the nonprofit Folding@home project at Stanford University. The goal of Folding@home is to model the fundamental processes of life itself - the geometric structure of proteins. In the future Google may work with other research teams on similarly complex problems, or use the network to help improve Google and its services. The third party projects we choose to help out will be carefully selected non-profit projects, with the guiding principle being to help humanity and advance scientific knowledge. Users will be clearly notified of any such projects when they are introduced, and will maintain at all times the ability to disable or uninstall Google Compute for any reason. Proteins, in addition to being an important dietary component, are also fundamental to almost all processes in cells. Understanding and modeling how proteins fold into specific shapes could lead to the development of cures for Alzheimer's, cancer, AIDS and other diseases. By pooling together a large number of processors, scientists can understand the shapes of new proteins faster. Protein folding simulations are interesting, but what about other important problems? In the future Google Compute will tackle other similarly important applications. When new projects are added, they will appear in the Google Compute menu. Distributed computing works by dividing up a large computational problem into many small work units. When the computer completes the work unit, the processed unit is then sent back to researchers to be integrated into the larger computational problem. You can find more about distributed computing through 47 a Google web search for distributed computing. Depending on the distributed computing programs you are running, Google Compute will either share the idle time with them or allow them to use all of the idle time. If you are running the Folding@home stand-alone client in normal mode, the two will end up sharing. If the stand-alone client is in "Higher priority" mode it will end up getting all of the processor when the two are run simultaneously. Google Compute also works successfully alongside SETI@home. When the SETI@home screensaver is active it will use all of the idle processor time, as it runs at a higher priority than Google Compute. At times when the screensaver is not active Google Compute will work as normal. Some constantly running distributed computing programs will utilize all of the processor, leaving Google Compute with little or no processor time. This is probably the case if Google Compute stays at 0% complete for a long time. In these cases it is preferable to choose either one program or the other to be run exclusively. How come I have this Google Toolbar feature but my friend doesn't? Google is gradually releasing Google Compute to its users, so it is possible that your computer received the invitation but another computer you know of did not. This feature will eventually be released to all toolbar users. If you want to try it out beforehand, you can do so by going to 48 the Google Compute on the Google Labs. Whom do I contact if I have questions about Google Compute? The Google Compute DNA (double helix) icon in your Google Toolbar indicates if the application is running. If it appears bright, then Google Compute is working on a problem. If the icon is dimmed, it means Google Compute is not running. You can also check the status at any time by pointing your mouse at the DNA (double helix) icon for a couple of seconds. To turn off Google Compute, click on the DNA (double helix) icon in the Google Toolbar, and select the "stop computing" option. To turn it back on, click on the DNA (double helix) icon and select the "start computing" option. Does it continue to work even when my browser is closed? Yes, the Google Compute feature continues to work even when your browser is closed. To allow users to customize how Google Compute uses their system idle time it has been designed with the capability to run in two modes, Standard mode and Conservative mode: Standard Mode: Google Compute will run in the background all the time (as long as the machine is powered on and not in standby mode), at the lowest priority. This allows it to take advantage of every possible cycle of idle processor time, resulting in more work getting done and faster progress of your computer on the statistics page. Conservative Mode: Google Compute will run only when the user is away from his/her machine. Because of this it works a lot more slowly, and, depending on how the computer is used, may take four to five times as long as Standard mode to complete each work unit. How do I switch between Standard and Conservative modes? Click on the Google Compute DNA (double helix) icon and you will see an option to switch modes in the resulting drop-down men...
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