World Community Grid

[eat_toast]

http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/index.jsp

Hey all, found this today, thought I'd spread the word. Maybe some of you had heard of it before.

"Grid Computing: The Basics
Grid computing joins together many individual computers, creating a large system with massive computational power that far surpasses the power of a handful of supercomputers. Because the work is split into small pieces that can be processed simultaneously, research time is reduced from years to months. The technology is also more cost-effective, enabling better use of critical funds.

Changing Our World Now
Grid computing is not a futuristic technology. World Community Grid is at work right now applying this technology to exciting research projects that can benefit us all.

Our first project, Human Proteome Folding, is identifying the proteins produced by human genes. With this information, scientists can understand how defects in proteins can cause disease, making it easier to find cures.

In 2003, with grid computing, in less than three months scientists identified 44 potential treatments to fight the deadly smallpox disease. Without the grid, the work would have taken more than one year to complete."

Basically you download a client, and it sends out bits of things for your computer to do in it's spare time, to further research for things like Cancer and Muscular Dystrophy. It's free, and it runs in the background of your computer. If you leave your computer on all day, this would be a good use of resources, huh?

[Sandldan]

Heard about it a while ago, but then it was talked about being used with the playstation 3 cant remember any of the specifics though.
The though of it existing for the computer never crossed my mind for some reason (kinda obvious), guess i'll sign up and make my computer do something useful while it's idling

[complich8]

It's free, and it runs in the background of your computer. If you leave your computer on all day, this would be a good use of resources, huh?

No, it's not free. You're paying for the resources. There's a significant power consumption difference between an idle cpu and a fully-loaded cpu in modern processors.

Better off running BOINC anyway.

(boinc is multiplatform and interfaces wcg and numerous other projects)

[eat_toast]

No, it's not free. You're paying for the resources. There's a significant power consumption difference between an idle cpu and a fully-loaded cpu in modern processors.

Better off running BOINC anyway.

(boinc is multiplatform and interfaces wcg and numerous other projects)

Touche. But if you are worried about power usage why do you have your computer on idle, all the time anyway? And, as you say, Boinc is a choice.

[Assertn]

My concern wouldn't be the power, but rather my CPU running +5 more degrees Celsius constantly as a result.

[Super5]

It seems like a good idea, but then again such software is probably considered a trojan by most antivirus programs out there. Essentially you're trusting the people running the code on your computer that they won't put it to ill use. And, your computer will run much harder, making the life span of your processor shorter. These are things you should consider before installing this software, either BOINC or something else.

[complich8]

your processor is very unlikely to fail due to the pressures of running such a program, within the reasonable lifespan of the proc. Maybe, given a decade, that might hold. But not in the term that people keep computers in service for.