Do a Good Thing,

by Ilyarin

Back to The Real World.

Ilyarin2009-05-01 08:38:03
It's always nice doing Good Things; especially when it costs you nothing! I doubt many of us never leave our computers running idle. Why not put that free time to good use? Help discover potential new drugs to fight AIDS and the Flaviviridae virus; work on new methods of producing clean energy; work to obliterate childhood cancer, or assist in increasing the resolution of protein structures such as insulin and the human growth hormone. Sounds like hard work? Nope. If you're not a part of the the World Community Grid already, then follow this link to join. If you are already a member, consider joining the IRE & friends team via this link to collaborate with all of IRE.

All you then need to do is download the software from the main page and set your preferences. It's then so simple that you'll probably forget you're even doing a Good Thing most of the time! But rest assured that you are. smile.gif

www.worldcommunitygrid.org

Caffrey2009-05-01 10:22:16
Hmmmm, well, now that I'm not going to win any money for finding 10 million digit Mersenne Primes (UCLA got it), I guess I can switch to this. I used to fold proteins with grid.org, but a few years ago I decided it would be cool to find prime numbers instead of saving lives tongue.gif

Casilu2009-05-01 15:23:00
I did it, I also signed up for the LHC and Seti.
Kiradawea2009-05-02 16:23:23
How trustworthy is this thing? This sounds like something too good to be true, so I'm curious about the risks I'm taking.
Casilu2009-05-02 16:40:49
QUOTE (Kiradawea @ May 2 2009, 09:23 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
How trustworthy is this thing? This sounds like something too good to be true, so I'm curious about the risks I'm taking.


Very. I've been doing it for over a year now. The program, BOINC, is actually developed by UC Berkeley.
Shiri2009-05-02 16:54:59
Yep. Think you can hook up PS3s to it as well (not sure if it's one of those things where you have to install ubuntu first though, haven't tried it yet.)
Daganev2009-05-03 04:09:04
They have been doing this for over 4 years atleast. I still never heard of any results actually comming from it though. Has anyone else?
Casilu2009-05-03 04:15:26
QUOTE (daganev @ May 2 2009, 09:09 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
They have been doing this for over 4 years atleast. I still never heard of any results actually comming from it though. Has anyone else?


I work for SETI, I'm not expecting to.
Acrune2009-05-03 04:18:52
QUOTE (daganev @ May 3 2009, 12:09 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
They have been doing this for over 4 years atleast. I still never heard of any results actually comming from it though. Has anyone else?


I've heard of cryptography successes.
Daganev2009-05-03 04:46:42
Right, I'm asking about protein folding successes.

I remember google once pushed hard for people to do protein folding also. I installed something on my computer over 4 years ago to do protein folding. But I've since gotten a new computer and just haven't heard if that old program had any medical success.