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Wouldn't you hate it if you owned say, a Lamborghini Diablo but you spent all your time in bumper-to-bumper traffic? Beautifully crafted machinery begs to be put to proper use. In the case of an exotic sports car, this use would be to scream down the Autobahn at 160.
Well using your computer for cruising the internet is, how should I say this... a rather paltry use of it's eye-popping computational power. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I love to surf the web too. It's just that this type of task is a skate for that exotic piece of silicon technology. Shoot, just think how awful those millions of unused transistors must feel when you walk away from your computer for a while. Like for that trip to Starbuck's.
Imagine then how much wasted computer power floats around out there every day, especially once everyone at the office bolts for the door at 5:00. Now, what if you could tap into this essentially free resource and apply it to an intractable problem, say, curing cancer? (Did I just see one of those little cartoon light bulbs pop on over your head?)
Well Austin Texas not only cranks out world-class cyclists, it also sports some really clever computer people over at United Devices who have engineered a way for us to donate unused computer power from our PCs for just this kind of research. Is that cool or what?
To get in on this action, go over the the UD web site and download a very small, no cost, non-invasive software program that works like a screensaver: It runs when your computer isn't being used, and processes research until you need your machine. Your computer never leaves your desk, and the project never interrupts your usual PC use.
Your computer will screen molecules that may be developed into drugs to fight cancer. Each individual computer analyzes a few molecules then sends the results back over the Internet to the University of Oxford for further research.
The part that I like is the gee-whiz display of the different molecules it is testing. You can also keep score of how much processing power you've donated to the cause.
To find out more on how to "Volunteer Your PC" click here.