Put your PC to use!

[The Great Cornholio]

I haven't banged on about this for a while so here goes. If you use your home PC a lot for things like net surfing, try installing the United Devices client. This program sits in teh background and uses any spare processor time you may have. It runs several projects including trying to find a cure for cancer, unravelling the human genome, smallpox and anthrax antidotes etc. The idea is to get as many people to install it as possible and utilise hundreds of thousands of processing hours that would otherwise be wasted.

Don't worry about slowing down your machine - it justs uses idle time. If you start playing Doom 3, it will go to sleep until you stop.

I'm sure a lot of you already do it but for those who don't, here is the link :-

United Devices

 

[Marc]

SETI uses the same to search for ALIENS and thats much more interesting than a cure for cancer.....because the Aliens might actually HAVE the cure...eh?...eh?....did'nt think about THAT possibility did ya

<crosses arms, looks down at folk and declares he knows all>

 

[tinx]

We used to do this with Seti@home. My company installed it on all their test servers and got into the top 50 contributers worldwide.

Got bored of it after that besides my home PCs always very busy, downloading and encoding movies which is far better use of resource.

 

[Cian]

Because I signed up many many many years ago pre-SETI, pre-UD, my spare cycles are used to crack encryption instead - waste of time, not helping anyone, but it got me a cool email addy.

 

[maffew]

we did the same with SETI and had about 100 PCs running it here

TGC, are there any of these which can you can make money on?

 

[Normandy seagull]

would it try and find us a new loan striker

 

[Lokki 7]

I might sign up to this as I don't feel I'm getting the most out of my PC. What I usually do when I get home is turn it on and use it as a light, and I think I could perhaps get more out of it.

 

[Everest]

SETI uses the same to search for ALIENS and thats much more interesting than a cure for cancer.....because the Aliens might actually HAVE the cure...eh?...eh?....did'nt think about THAT possibility did ya

Have you ever wondered if aliens might be the cause of cancer? If so, I worry for you.

 

[Marc]

Have you ever wondered if aliens might be the cause of cancer? If so, I worry for you.

I am NOW yeah

<wanders off to tell ET to bugger off home you cancer giving stretchy neck bright red stomach loving freak>

 

[Braders]

 

[The Great Cornholio]

we did the same with SETI and had about 100 PCs running it here

TGC, are there any of these which can you can make money on?

Not that I know of. But curing cancer should be reward enough!

 

[Scarface]

Sounds like a good idea but could be open to abuse. Maybe even the NIMBYs could use it to find a decent arguement against Falmer!

 

[Bozza]

Because I signed up many many many years ago pre-SETI, pre-UD, my spare cycles are used to crack encryption instead - waste of time, not helping anyone, but it got me a cool email addy.

*sighs in a "I'm going to regret this" kind of way*

pre-SETI? Didn't SETI start in 1995 or something? Aren't you 17? You signed up in 1994 or earlier then? When you were 6 or younger? Impressive!

 

[Le Premier Cru]

How can they find one when there isn't one?

 

[Everest]

There is a cure. It's just that it was being delivered to MYOB by GLS/Parcelforce and got lost.

 

[Cian]

*sighs in a "I'm going to regret this" kind of way*

pre-SETI? Didn't SETI start in 1995 or something? Aren't you 17? You signed up in 1994 or earlier then? When you were 6 or younger? Impressive!

You just caught a typo. I meant Pre-Distributed Folding.

SETI and Distributed.net are almost the same age - 1996/97 era. UD, Distributed Folding, etc are from 1999-2000 era.

But either way, I've been using computers since 1990. I'm from a very, very weird family....

 

[Bozza]

Interesting...

My 2 year old daughter was using my old "puter" (an old IBM Thinkpad) yesterday.

When I say use I mean she bashed the keyboard a bit with both her hands and feet before closing it and sitting on it.

Regardless, I hope she doesn't turn out like you.

 

[Cian]

Interesting...

My 2 year old daughter was using my old "puter" (an old IBM Thinkpad) yesterday.

When I say use I mean she bashed the keyboard a bit with both her hands and feet before closing it and sitting on it.

Regardless, I hope she doesn't turn out like you.

When I was 3 it was little more advanced than playing with Paint, and I wasn't as privilidged as to have a Thinkpad - other than the minor fault that they wouldn't launch for three years...

However, I got my own UNIX workstation in 1993, which is when I started seriously using computers. So only get worried if your daughter has a Silicon Graphics machine when she's 6.

Either way, I doubt you're as weird as my family are - your unlikely to encourage very young kids to use computers to stupidly huge levels. I blame emacs for my terrible handwriting....

 

[Wardy]

When I was 3 it was little more advanced than playing with Paint, and I wasn't as privilidged as to have a Thinkpad - other than the minor fault that they wouldn't launch for three years...

However, I got my own UNIX workstation in 1993, which is when I started seriously using computers. So only get worried if your daughter has a Silicon Graphics machine when she's 6.

Either way, I doubt you're as weird as my family are - your unlikely to encourage very young kids to use computers to stupidly huge levels. I blame emacs for my terrible handwriting....

right

 

[beorhthelm]

However, I got my own UNIX workstation in 1993, which is when I started seriously using computers.

you know, i think thats bordering on child abuse. Emacs? id wager 99% of 17 olds would never have heard of it, and not something to tell the world about. Not going to impress the ladies. And its pony.