Wednesday, 30 January 2008

• How to change the world by being idle …

  How do you help the world by doing nothing? Contribute your unused computing cycles to worthwhile global data-crunching efforts! Since most of us have fast computers, we are often not maxing out the processors inside. Berkeley has developed a platform called BOINC, which allows scientific research projects to tap into that capacity.

  I recently installed BOINC on my computer and it’s really fun! I’ve signed my computer to crunch numbers for MalariaControl.net, ClimatePrediction.net, and IBM’s World Community Grid (within which, I chose the projects “Help Conquer Cancer” and “FightAIDS@Home”. You could also help search for intelligent life on other planets, but my feeling is this: why listen to other planets when ours is in need of some pretty serious help anyway?

  I tweaked the settings so that it only operates when I’ve been idle for five minutes, and it gets to use up to 90 percent of my processing power when that happens. I could even let it just run all the time in the background. I’m not at the point where I think one should leave a computer on all the time just for BOINC processing. (Because of energy conservation issues.) But why not at least for those pauses where you’re not using your computer at all?

  This entry also published at Not on My Quach!

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