DSN @ Home : Project cannot launch : no USB CD-ROM drive or MacMini to replace MiniPC

DSN@Home is based very near to Baker Labs, postcode 98115.
http://hireme.geek.nz/dsn-at-home.html

It is hoped that the project may eventually be moved to Australia, where no BOINC projects now exist.

The MiniPC
http://www.thelinuxstore.ca/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=10&products_id=1432&zenid=nv4as9la2rsi5iigi1q0eqi0h2
that the project was supposed to launch with came installed with Unbuntu 7.10, a problematic choice.

When when the 7.1 updates were installed, internet access by USB (and Ethernet -- that for some reason internet access did not seem to work) was lost.

There are no hardware recognition problems, as autodetect mode via Grub seems to detect everything present. The (internet) hardware works fine.

The OS software has problems that seem to keep net access from working.

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Options
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I don't have very much money to throw around, and the MiniPC has consumed about 6 months of spare cash bandwidth.

I am willing to consider
0. Your project donating me a USB-CDROM drive.
-- the MiniPC BIOS supports booting this way
-- this may be the only way to install a new OS
-- cheapest option, if you have one of these about

1. Trading in the MiniPC with ROSETTA, where ROSETTA buys me a http://www.apple.com/macmini/

2. Option 1, but no trade -- the MiniPC I give to Janos Barbero -- one of the project programmers I know.

3. Having Baker Labs handle all of the internet and software installation issues with the MiniPC for the 1st part of the project.
-- I continue to own the MiniPC.
-- Myself and Janos configure it as usual.
-- IP address same as Baker Labs.

4. ? Things I have not considered.


== NOTE ==
I am a UW Alumni.

DSN is NASA oriented, and UW has historically received funding from NASA. This project's long term effects on future NASA organization and mission governance may help UW indirectly.

BOINC projects (especially smaller ones that have no EU, CSIRO, state or private funding) will need to be supported from time to time by larger ones.

The 'distributed computing' ecosystem functions partly based on the internal inter-project relationships.

Small projects can quickly evolve into large projects -- and popular small projects can lobby for the continued existence of larger ones.

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I can probably help you with bandwidth (as described in this thread), but not (yet) with a BOINC project server. Send me a PM if the bandwidth would be of help to you.

Have you considered a virtual private host from a hosting service? Or an Amazon EC2 instance? They charge 10 cents per hour for the time you use it, so you could literally start with 10 bucks and get things set up.

My eventual goal is to have, in addition to bandwidth share, a server share for BOINC projects which would allow projects to get off the ground with very little cost by sharing server and internet costs. But that is probably more then a year away for me.

This seems more like an issue for the techies in Number Crunching, then the science forum. Some have enough hardware around that they may be able to arrange something to help.

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Add this signature to your EMail:
Running Microsoft's "System Idle Process" will never help cure cancer, AIDS nor Alzheimer's. But running Rosetta@home just might!
https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/

4. ? Things I have not considered.

Put the MiniPC up for auction on eBay. Set a reserve price equal to the purchase price as stated in the URL you provided to The Linux Store.

If you do this, I will bid on the computer. My eBay ID is davide405. Please feel free to check my profile and feedback.

I am not promising to be the purchaser of the computer, only that I will bid on it to meet (or exceed) the reserve price as specified above. If someone else outbids me, we all win.

I have a homebuilt computer, tinyhome , that uses the same motherboard. It had Ethernet connection issues also, but I was able to resolve them, and am confident I can repeat the process.

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Rosie, Rosie, she's our gal,
If she can't do it, no one shall!

Mr. Hireme,

Checked out your website. You have some fine ideas, but why would someone give you some cash or a new computer? All I see are words on a page. Do you have some code in a repository that we can see? I guess what I'm asking is how do we know, given a non-broken computer, that something will actually happen?

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{...}
If you do this, I will bid on the computer. My eBay ID is davide405. Please feel free to check my profile and feedback.

I am not promising to be the purchaser of the computer, only that I will bid on it to meet (or exceed) the reserve price as specified above. If someone else outbids me, we all win.
{...}

The above offer is now withdrawn.

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Rosie, Rosie, she's our gal,
If she can't do it, no one shall!