Just brainstorming.
What if there were home/business clustering software such that you install it on all the computers in your house or business, and each computer could then contribute to a cluster just by plugging into ethernet? They would share not only processor power but drive space — as a replicated RAID system. Need more space or more speed? Buy another machine and plug it in.
The system would have to be fault-tolerant — any machine could be removed without losing data or operations in progress. Preferably serverless, so no one box is the “server.”
Each computer could also have optional client software, allowing it to be used as a workstation. Local storage would work. When connected to the cluster, local would be merged, replicated, synced with cluster storage. The fridge display could share its CPU with the cluster when it wasn’t doing anything else — which would be most of the time.
“Weaker” computers like PDAs would primarily function as workstations, with a limited set of replicated items (address book, etc). When you joined a cluster, you’d choose which resources to participate in.
The system could automatically prefer storing locally-used data on local or nearby cluster nodes — MP3s near the stereo, video files near the TV server. But if you want to burn a DVD from the office computer, it just gets copied over automatically.
We need this at work. Our servers are too slow, the drives are full, and we have stacks of machines in the closet not being used.