Re: Cancer research
Hekman, E.E.G.
Description
Collection
Title:
Re: Cancer research
Creator:
Hekman, E.E.G.
Date:
3/18/2002
Text:
Hi all,
As far as I can tell from the website given by Wil Haines the computer does
not need to remain connected to the Internet to do it's trick. If this works
like SETI (a similar program aimed at detecting Extraterrestial
Intelligence) you connect to the UD-site, download the program and a
dataset, and shut the Internet connection down. After the program has
completed working through the dataset it will notify you and ask you to
connect (or it will automatically connect if you have given it permission to
do so) to deliver the results to UD.
I am not sure how using this program would pose any hacker-threat, as
Heather Davidson suggests. Sure the UD-site can and probably will log your
IP. Sure a hacker can in theory break into the UD-site and find 'your' IP.
So what? Most likely your assigned IP-number is different every time you
connect to your ISP. Besides, any time you visit any website your IP-number
is logged. If you engage in 'chatting' your IP-number can easily be
obtained. There are programs to scan complete ranges of IP-numbers and see
if there are open backdoors.
What worries me more is this:
In order to run our projects, United Devices software automatically detects
certain basic information from a Member's machine; this includes info about
the Member's processor speed, and set preferences regarding disk space,
memory and times to run the projects on the machine. Granted, they claim
The information will be released in aggregate form only and, no personally
identifiable information will ever be released. Neither United Devices nor
our customers can access any other information on a Member computer or
identify anything else for which a Member uses his or her computer.. Still
I get this unhappy feeling about programs gathering information about my PC.
As for the goals of this program, I have no concrete reason to doubt the
sincerety of the UD-organisation. However, I find no information as to who
is the beneficiary of the results (if any). Is this research 'contract
research', that is, is some company paying UD, obtaining rights to the
results in return? Somehow one can win prizes, and computing time may be
used to 'buy' support to the 'Make-a-Wish'-Foundation. Seems like the money
for all of this has to come from somewhere. I would feel much more
comfortable making a free contribution if I was 100% certain that the
results would become public knowledge. Unfortunately I have not found
evidence on the UD-site that all results will be made available free of
charge to any interested party. Seems a little unfair if a company could
harnass the community's collective computing power, invent a new drug, and
then get a patent so that only a selected portion of that community could
afford to buy it ... that latter part would not be the first time, would it?
Regards,
Edsko Hekman
As far as I can tell from the website given by Wil Haines the computer does
not need to remain connected to the Internet to do it's trick. If this works
like SETI (a similar program aimed at detecting Extraterrestial
Intelligence) you connect to the UD-site, download the program and a
dataset, and shut the Internet connection down. After the program has
completed working through the dataset it will notify you and ask you to
connect (or it will automatically connect if you have given it permission to
do so) to deliver the results to UD.
I am not sure how using this program would pose any hacker-threat, as
Heather Davidson suggests. Sure the UD-site can and probably will log your
IP. Sure a hacker can in theory break into the UD-site and find 'your' IP.
So what? Most likely your assigned IP-number is different every time you
connect to your ISP. Besides, any time you visit any website your IP-number
is logged. If you engage in 'chatting' your IP-number can easily be
obtained. There are programs to scan complete ranges of IP-numbers and see
if there are open backdoors.
What worries me more is this:
In order to run our projects, United Devices software automatically detects
certain basic information from a Member's machine; this includes info about
the Member's processor speed, and set preferences regarding disk space,
memory and times to run the projects on the machine. Granted, they claim
The information will be released in aggregate form only and, no personally
identifiable information will ever be released. Neither United Devices nor
our customers can access any other information on a Member computer or
identify anything else for which a Member uses his or her computer.. Still
I get this unhappy feeling about programs gathering information about my PC.
As for the goals of this program, I have no concrete reason to doubt the
sincerety of the UD-organisation. However, I find no information as to who
is the beneficiary of the results (if any). Is this research 'contract
research', that is, is some company paying UD, obtaining rights to the
results in return? Somehow one can win prizes, and computing time may be
used to 'buy' support to the 'Make-a-Wish'-Foundation. Seems like the money
for all of this has to come from somewhere. I would feel much more
comfortable making a free contribution if I was 100% certain that the
results would become public knowledge. Unfortunately I have not found
evidence on the UD-site that all results will be made available free of
charge to any interested party. Seems a little unfair if a company could
harnass the community's collective computing power, invent a new drug, and
then get a patent so that only a selected portion of that community could
afford to buy it ... that latter part would not be the first time, would it?
Regards,
Edsko Hekman
Citation
Hekman, E.E.G., “Re: Cancer research,” Digital Resource Foundation for Orthotics and Prosthetics, accessed November 26, 2024, https://library.drfop.org/items/show/218515.
