This morning I received
this newsletter from SETI@Home and what surprised me was the part that reads…
First, we need you, and your friends and family. The current flood of data requires more processing power than SETI@home volunteers currently provide.
{emphasis mine}
…it was only after that they made their annual pitch for money.
I don't know about you but I rarely use my computers for more than a few hours a day and the rest of the time they are patiently waiting patiently for me to tell them to do something. So several years ago I installed
BOINC and when I am not using my computers they are busily…
- searching the heavens for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI@Home)
- helping create a highly accurate 3D model of the Milky Way galaxy (Milkyway@Home)
- searching for weak astrophysical signals from spinning neutron stars (Einstein@Home)
- determining the 3 dimensional shapes of proteins that may ultimately lead to riding cures for major human diseases (Rosetta@home).
there are 32 other projects I could have chosen to support. but these are the ones that captured my imagination.
So I am challenging you all to install BOINC and contribute your unused CPU cycles to SETI@home and/or other project(s) that stimulate your imagination. SETI@home has greatly expanded the number of sources and amount of data they are processing and Einstein@home has been credited with finding several previously unknown neutron stars.
BOINC FAQs- BOINC is highly configurable for the amount of resources it uses including CPU cycles, disk space used, when it does or does not run, download/upload times and limits
- properly configured you will never know that BOINC is installed or running
- BOINC is now 64 bit
- I have never had a problem with BOINC or because of BOINC
