Recently, about a month ago, I discovered something called Distributed Computing. Distributed computing is a program (well not really a program) that runs on one’s computer that uses one’s idle CPU time. Or in other words, takes the wasted power of one’s CPU and uses it for something else. Thus one’s computers extra stuff doesn’t go wasted.
There are many different kinds of distributed computing; mostly all of them are you volunteer for. The real point of distributed computing is to create a super computer without the cost of one. I recently started to volunteer the free CPU time of my computers to a project called grid.org in junction with United Devices; this program does scientific research for diseases and research about humans. This is important because it is quite possible that this could lead to a discovery of something very important, like it has before.
There is another distributed computing program called SETI, I am much less interested in SETI because: SETI looks for extraterrestrial life by analyzing signals from space. I feel that with the current stage humanity is in, we should be fixing problems or figuring things out on our own planet before we try to see what other “aliens” are doing elsewhere.
I encourage anyone that’s interested to take a look at grid.org and see what you think, and possibly contribute to the cause, since it doesn’t actually cost you anything. This program is fairly easy to install, but if your computer skills are extremely limited, I’d advise you to get someone who knows what they’re doing to help you. 
There've been 4 whole comments
12:00 pm on 1/15/2005 1. Andrew
hey sam, thanks for giving everyone the heads up about stuff @ home. I’ve been using Seti @ home for more than a year, on my mom’s iMac (800mhz) and I’ve processed 122 data units and spent 1,458 hours crunching their data. I’ve since lost interest somewhat in Seti, but it still runs beautifully on my computer, and I love the fact that I don’t even need to do anything for it run, its completely automatic. I think I’m going to hook up Folding @ home for my dad’s g5, and watch it burn through those proteins..
For anyone who doesn’t know wtf we are talking about, distributing computing is a very easy way to earn warm fuzzies for yourself. Specifically, the program is set to run when your screensaver starts up, so that it only is going when you don’t need to use the computer…and of course it automatically turns off when get back on the computer.
The program downloads a bit of data of the internet, a bit of data that needs to be analyzed, and gets started on analyzing it. When its done, it uploads the file its been working on and downloads a new one. This entire process is seamless, and doesn’t require the user to do anything.
I’d strongly recommend people to get started on this great little idea…You may end up helping to discover the cure to cancer.
5:48 pm on 1/15/2005 2. microman
Can’t those programs make a firewall rift in windows? I read about that happening somewhere. I am intrested in these programs but I’d rather know if my computer is in danger first.(So what if i sound like a nerd, I like windows okay.)
8:40 pm on 1/15/2005 3. Andrew
Hey, I’ve just checked out Folding @ home and I’ve downloaded the ScreenSaver. I also created us our own team! Come support Team Jalenack! Our team number is 42064. If we all add that to our preferences when we are setting up Folding @ Home, we can see how bad-ass our computers are and how much folding we can do. Here are some links.
http://folding.stanford.edu/OSX/OSX.html#ss — How to set up the screensaver in OS X.
http://folding.stanford.edu/winstructions.html — How to set up the screensaver in XP/NT/2000
http://folding.stanford.edu/download.html — Downloads page. Pick out the one that says ScreenSaver for OS X. The Windows version comes with screensaver automatically
Get folding guys!
8:48 pm on 1/15/2005 4. Sam
Micro, using distributed computing is many times over, safer then browsing the internet, that makes you much more susceptible to firewall issues. Worrying about this program is pointless, because of you were truly worried you wouldn’t browse the internet. Over 4 million people use folding @ home.