Ken's Raspberry Pi 500+ runs scientific workloads in the background via
BOINC — donating CPU to projects like
Einstein@Home and World Community Grid. Once a day, a small language model
(Qwen 2.5 Coder 7B, running locally on the same Pi via Ollama) reads the day's
BOINC state and writes the entries below.
A note on AI's energy footprint: datacenter-scale model inference has
real costs that deserve scrutiny. This setup is on the other end of the
spectrum — Qwen 2.5 Coder 7B runs on-device, with no calls to OpenAI,
Anthropic, or any cloud datacenter, consuming a few minutes of CPU time
per day on hardware that would be plugged in regardless.
I'd like to point this Pi at a climate-focused BOINC project, but I
haven't found one yet that runs reliably on a 16GB ARM single-board computer.
If you know of one,
let me know.
Projects
Asteroids@home
total credit: 44,061
·
RAC: 480
purpose: derives asteroid shapes, spin axes, and rotation periods from photometric lightcurve data via lightcurve inversion
current workunits: 2 EXECUTING (57%, 37%)
BOINC Central
total credit: 33,960,267
·
RAC: 1
purpose: umbrella project routing work to many BOINC science projects via Science United
current workunits: 0
Einstein@Home
total credit: 137,500
·
RAC: 1,144
purpose: searches LIGO gravitational-wave data and Arecibo radio data for pulsars
current workunits: 4 SUSPENDED (65%, 72%, 0%, 0%)
LHC@home
total credit: 0
·
RAC: 0
purpose: (no description on file)
current workunits: 0
World Community Grid
total credit: 0
·
RAC: 0
purpose: coalition of biomedical research projects (OpenPandemics, Mapping Cancer Markers, Mapping Arthritis Markers, etc.) using donated compute
current workunits: 0
Daily log
─── 2026-09-06 ──────────────────────────
It seems you've shared some details about your BOINC client's performance and active workunits. It looks like you have multiple projects running on your system, including Einstein@Home, Asteroids@home, LHC@home, World Community Grid, and BOINC Central. As of the end of the day, there are a few workunits that are either suspended or uninitialized.
If you have any questions or need further assistance with managing your BOINC projects, feel free to ask!
credit delta: +1175.8
·
completed workunits: 18
─── 2026-09-05 ──────────────────────────
The projects you've listed are distributed computing initiatives where volunteers contribute their computer resources to advance scientific research and simulations. As an AI language model, I don't have access to real-time information about the current status of your BOINC client or the specific projects you're participating in.
However, generally speaking, when you volunteer your computer's processing power to these projects, it can help researchers analyze large datasets, run complex simulations, and make discoveries that might not be possible with limited resources. Each project has its own set of tasks and requirements, and participation often involves downloading specialized software and allowing your machine to perform computations when it would otherwise be idle.
If you have any questions about the projects themselves or need assistance with managing your BOINC client settings, feel free to ask!
credit delta: +1607.4
·
completed workunits: 14
─── 2026-09-04 ──────────────────────────
The listed projects include various distributed computing initiatives that allow volunteers to contribute their computer resources for scientific research and data analysis. The system appears to be managing these contributions effectively, with no new attachments reported since yesterday.
credit delta: +1886.2
·
completed workunits: 16
─── 2026-09-03 ──────────────────────────
The provided information details the current status of various computing projects that are running on different platforms, specifically showing their execution status and completion percentages. Here is a breakdown:
- **Asteroids@home**: The project's client (ps_260902_input_27371_45_1) is currently executing with 83% completion.
- **BOINC Central**: Various clients are showing different statuses from uninitialized to executing. Most of them are either uninitializing or waiting for execution, with a few actively working on tasks.
- **Einstein@Home**: Multiple Einstein@Home clients are listed as uninitialized, indicating they may be starting up but have not yet begun processing tasks.
- **LHC@home**: Similar to Einstein@Home, there are several LHC@home clients that are either uninitialized or still waiting for their first task.
- **World Community Grid**: Clients for World Community Grid are also uninitialized and awaiting tasks.
The attached projects include Asteroids@home, BOINC Central, Einstein@Home, LHC@home, and World
credit delta: +1893.6
·
completed workunits: 10
─── 2026-09-02 ──────────────────────────
As of today, you are currently working on several projects through BOINC, including Einstein@Home and Asteroids@home. You have three suspended tasks in Einstein@Home with varying completion percentages, while five tasks are uninitialized in both Einstein@Home and Asteroids@home.
Additionally, you have six tasks running in the Asteroids@home project, with completion percentages ranging from 41% to 45%. The status of another project (LHC@home) is unknown, but the other projects you have attached include BOINC Central and World Community Grid.
credit delta: +625.0
·
completed workunits: 10
─── 2026-09-01 ──────────────────────────
The provided information describes the current status of a BOINC client, detailing which projects it is currently participating in and listing any new projects that have been attached since the previous day. The BOINC client is involved in multiple scientific research initiatives such as Asteroids@home, BOINC Central, Einstein@Home, LHC@home, and World Community Grid. It shows no newly attached projects from yesterday.
credit delta: +1687.5
·
completed workunits: 12
─── 2026-08-31 ──────────────────────────
The information provided indicates that the user has been working on various BOINC projects, including Asteroids@home, Einstein@Home, LHC@home, and World Community Grid. The user has 12 active work units attached to their account, some of which are in different stages of execution. One of the active work units for Einstein@Home is currently running, while the others are either waiting to start or have not yet begun. The user has been attached to multiple projects since joining BOINC, but no new projects were added yesterday based on the provided information.
credit delta: +1750.0
·
completed workunits: 8