Out of a discussion with YRVintage came the idea to promote this here.

No need for researches to know that we don't use the full capacity of our computer most of the time, if at all. So why not let others use it?

Do scientific research at home without using a brain!

That's distributed computing. Universities, Labs etc... with specific needs or who cannot afford to use a Supercomputer split the calculations they need to undertake in smaller parts and send them over to home or office computers of people who place them at disposal for research. Then the result is sent back.

Solve mathematical problems still pending, search a cure for cancer, aids, zika, rare diseases, search for extraterrestrial intelligence, for pulsars, study climate change etc....etc....

Most research projects use a simple tool for managing the tasks send over to the clients: BOINC. It's free and

you can download it HERE.​

Once installed, you can choose which project you want to support. The projects are shortly explained within the progamm, but I suggest to visit the websites. If you don't know what to choose, the world community grid is a nice pick, as it gathers many humanitarian projects with support of IBM.

BOINC runs in background an only uses computer capacity
YOU are NOT using!! ​

All that it might cost you is a little more electricity than usual. But no time, and no resources you use otherwise.

Your local tasks have highest priority! That means you won't even notice it running! But I suggest to forget about this if you are running a potato. However, even a recent $ 300 office PC will do well. Or an older gaming PC. Or a MAC. Or a Linux. Even a Bitcoin Miner...

Imagine: When your Mum asks again what the heck you are doing on your PC again instead of homework you can legit answer: I'm doing research to cure cancer! While having MC running on your screen

I hope this gathers some interest among you

Cheers

 

Downloaded.

 

Interesting. I will download it.

 

very interesting i might think about it

 

Best part ever, must download now.

 

Do I need to install virtualbox?

 

no thank you

 

Some few projects run on linux and are not compiled to windows before being sent to the clients.

Virtualbox is basically creating a virtual linux environment running in background and enabling the processing of the informations.

I installed it, but no project I supported until now needed it. There is a list of projects using virtualbox in the BOINC wiki: VirtualBox - BOINC

 

Bumping

BTW my 4 cores run constantly at 4,1 GHz (max) and I expect no problems running games.