Joining the climateprediction.net Project.
An attempt to improve long term weather forecasting by doing large numbers
of comprehensive weather models. Much of this work involves "modeling"
the past to see find a combination of predictors that can correctly predict
weather that has already happened. Climate change, and our response to it, are
issues of global importance, affecting food production, water resources, ecosystems,
energy demand, insurance costs and much else. There is a broad scientific consensus
that the Earth will probably warm over the coming century; climateprediction.net
should, for the first time, tell us what is most likely to happen.
climateprediction.net is the most computationally intense BOINC project.
A downloaded unit of work for most BOINC projects will complete in just few
hours. A downloaded unit of work in Climate Prediction will run on your computer
for a half a year or more before its results will be known. Don't join this
effort unless you have a fast machine that can run more or less continuously
for most of the year.
Step by Step Instructions for Joining and Running climateprediction.net
- If the computer you want to run climateprediction.net on belongs
to you, you can skip to step 3.
- Not everyone wants to run BOINC or climateprediction.net on their
machines. This is particularly true for companies and other organizations
who feel obligated to enforce "business use only" rules for computer
use. Make sure its OK to run BOINC on the machine you want to install it on
before you actually install and run it. Its OK if BOINC doesn't run everywhere.
- Read the
rules and policies, license
agreement, and technical
requirements associated with climateprediction.net. Pay attention,
in particular, to the statement, in the technical requirements, that climateprediction.net
requires a "certain amount of commitment." Indeed, the pages claim
that work will take a "few weeks to complete" can be a considerable
understatement. Several months may be more descriptive, even for machines
that run more or less continuously and considerably exceed the requirements
stated. This is not intended to discourage you from doing work for climateprediction.net.
It is a great second BOINC application for your machine, as it will never
lack for work, but it does require a long term commitment.
- If you already run a BOINC client on your machine for another project, skip
to step 8.
- Download BOINC for your
computer from the BOINC site. There are versions that run under Windows,
on MacIntosh, on Linux, and on other platforms. Download behavior will probably
vary somewhat depending on your browser, so you're more or less on your own
to know what to do here.
- There shouldn't be a problem if you've downloaded from one of the sites
pointed to in step 5 and most virus software will check the download as it
happens anyway, but if you are concerned about downloading a virus or other
malicious program, now is a good time to check. It is generally presumed that
you have anti-virus software installed already, but if you don't, SUNY Oswego
students, staff, and faculty can download
McAfee antivirus from the Oswego web site.
- Install BOINC. The details of how you do this will depend on your system
and your browser, so your kind of on your own here, but the usual process
involves finding the downloaded program (which will often be on your computers
desktop), double clicking on the program to run it, and answering any questions
it asks. The last step of the installation will probably start BOINC.
- Run BOINC. If BOINC is already running on your system, proceed to Step 9.
You can usually tell if its running on Windows systems because a small "B"
icon (for Boinc) will show up on the application bar at the bottom right side
of the screen. On MacIntosh, the same icon will usually appear near the top
right corner of the screen.
- Join climateprediction.net by going to the the SUNY
Oswego team page on climateprediction.net and selecting the team
entry that at "Create team account URL." Here's a shortcut
to that page. You'll need to fill in an online form with your name, e-mail
address, country affiliation, and zip code. Pick a user id that is easy to
remember or save the information somewhere. You may to print out the next
page or save it somewhere. You will receive a confirmation e-mail at the e-mail
address you provide. Print and/or save this e-mail. You will need for the
account key it provides in order to complete step 10.
- Add climateprediction.net to your running BOINC client. To do this,
select "Projects" from on the menu bar, then select "Attach
to Project" from the drop down. You'll first be asked for a project URL.
Enter "http://setiathome.berkeley.edu". You'll then be prompted
for either your climateprediction.net userid and password or your account
key. Once you enter this informatoin your BOINC client should immediately
contact climateprediction.net, download a work unit, and start working
on it. It may be that, for one reason or another, climateprediction.net
can't give you a work unit immediately. If it can't, BOINC will keep trying
automatically until it gets a work unit. So long as it is trying, you've joined
"climateprediction.net".
If you get to here, you should be running climateprediction.net under
BOINC.
