It stands for Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing.
Currently there are 560,000+ computers being run by 300,000+ volunteers who contribute their spare computer on time to researching science projects.
Current computers are vastly more powerful than even early supercomputers, but the computing time goes wasted with very lightweight programs such as word processing, internet surfing, blogging, listening to music, etc. The CPU (central processing unit) is basically lounging around doing nothing. I currently participate in three projects, but there is a plethora of projects to participate in.
My computer is currently doing calculations for the following projects.
Rosetta: A project designed to determine the 3-dimensional shapes of proteins in research that may ultimately lead to finding cures for some major human diseases.
Einstein: A project designed to search for spinning neutron stars (also called pulsars).
SETI: A project designed to Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI).
I encourage everyone with a desktop computer to participate. The program runs in the background on low priority, so you will not notice any change in your computer's performance. These projects also have cool screen savers that run when your computer is idle. Laptops can also be used, but if you run it on a battery often, it will significantly reduce your battery charge.
You can also join groups of like-minded people. I am a member of a BYU team.
You can create your own team as well.
I just occurred to me that we could create "Wortham Computing Group" and contribute to projects collectively. I'll look into that.
Here is the link to download the software: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/
Here is a link to a list of good projects: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Project_list
Here is a screen shot of the Rosetta screen saver.
6 comments:
Okay, My head just exploded.
I am for it Alan. Let me know when you start the Wortham Computing Group. It will be cool. M.
I set up a group named "Wortham Computing Group" for Rosetta@Home.
If you desire to participate, please download and install the software noted in the post.
When you have the software running, click on the "Tools" tab and select "Attach to project". Next, select "Rosetta@Home" from the list of projects. Fill the your email address and create a password. Then follow the instructions given to you.
You can join the WCG (Wortham Computing Group) by highlighting "Rosetta in your project window and clicking on "Your Preferences" on the left hand side of the screen.
Wow. I've got a laptop that runs on batteries all the time as I haul it about the school, so I will opt out, but I didn't know any of this!
Alan, I am on for Rosetta@home and in your group. You should get more family members. It is really easy, does not cost a thing and helps the science.
That is exactly why I posted this topic. I want more family members to get involved.
So Kim, if you have pieced your head back together, try it out. If your parents can do it...
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