Re: SETI like tass project

[Chris Albertson <chrisalbertson90278@yahoo.com>]

--- Gamble family <dgamble1@bigpond.net.au> wrote:
<SNIP>
> I have an old PC I could resurrect if CPU speed is not critical,
> however
> like Tom I am not particularly keen on learning LINUX from scratch.
> Would it
> be possible to distribute an installation CD that would set up the
> operating
> system and all the necessary software for the pipeline?

Yes that could be done.  It could boot off the CD and run 
linux on a RAM disk without installation but I like my
"black box" idea better.  
PCs with no CRTs are dirt cheep to build from surplus parts.
Not having a CRT, keyboard or any way to interact with a human
the feature/complexity creep problem is kept at bay as the end
user sees zero and therefor has an upper limit of zero to learn.

> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Chris Albertson <chrisalbertson90278@yahoo.com>
> To: <tass@listserv.wwa.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2002 9:54 AM
> Subject: Re: SETI like tass project
> 
> 
> >
> > Tom,
> >
> > With SETI there is a small "work packet" that can be transmitted in
> > a minute or so even using a modem.  On a typical PC each work
> > packet takes a tens of minutes to process.  So with SETI the ratio
> > of data transport to computation is very good.
> >
> > With TASS the smallest "work packet" is one image which is
> > 2K x 2k x 16 bits = 8M.  These typically compress _without_ loss
> > to about 6.5MB per image.
> > Still, It is reasonable, even with a modem to download one 6.5MB
> image
> > with many people doing the downloads an entire nights worth of
> > data could be reduced in under one hour.  BUT, (there is always
> > a "but") these images would have to be placed on a server that
> > has _very_ high bandwidth connection to the Internet.  The server
> > would need enough bandwidth to push one night's worth of the data
> > out each day.  Worse, it needs to be twice that fast at least,
> > if users aren't to see it as being uselessly slow and give up
> > on the downloads.  Still worse, the SETI-like clients will
> > likely NOT request data at a uniform rate but it will peak over
> > each 24 hour period.  We are talking "multi-megabits/second".
> > DSL or Cable modems just would NOT cut it for the server.  This is
> > possible but the cost of such bandwidth is about $1k/month.
> > We would flood even some university's Internet connections
> >
> > There is also the possibility of using multiple image servers
> > but with multiple TASS camera sites this would be a given.
> > At any rate the "one night's data per day" requirement is a
> > demanding (and expensive) constraint.
> >
> > Another option would be to install multiple computers at the
> > camera sites.  I can envision a "black box" with no keyboard
> > or CRT, just an Ethernet connection and power cord.(not even a
> > CDROM or floppy.) These "black boxes" connect to the local
> > Ethernet and request data, process it and send the results back.
> > They should be designed so that one could connect any number of
> > these black boxes to the same local Ethernet so the processing
> > rate would scale.  User training is minimized as there is only
> > one user control (the power switch.)
> >
> > This would be the SETI model but using 100Mb/sec communication
> > media.  I think with current technology moving computers is
> > cheaper then moving data.
> >
> >
> >
> > --- Tom Droege <tdroege2@earthlink.net> wrote:
> > > I have accumulated a lot of data.  About 375 CD's at this point. 
> I
> > > figure
> > > another 1000 before the year is out.
> > >
<SNIP>

=====
Chris Albertson 
  Home:   310-376-1029  chrisalbertson90278@yahoo.com
  Cell:   310-990-7550
  Office: 310-336-5189  Christopher.J.Albertson@aero.org

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Great stuff seeking new owners in Yahoo! Auctions! 
http://auctions.yahoo.com