Modeling for the Masses
In a process known as distributed computing, researchers in England are tapping the unused power of millions of home computers worldwide to model our changing climate. And you can help them. Just go to Climateprediction.net to create an account. Don't worry: The client software you download will only run when your processor is not occupied doing other things. If you choose to, you can watch your climate model operate with visualization software or even make it your screensaver. By the same token, you can ignore it entirely, happy in the knowledge that you're doing your bit to understand climate change even as you sleep.
3 Comments:
Of course, the origins of this kind of computing is Seti@Home 6 or 7 years ago (well, okay, maybe not THE origins, but they were the first big project).
They are actually moving to the same software that Climate Prediction is now using.
In fact, you can share your CPU power with the search for ET, protein folding, and something about gravity.
http://boinc.berkeley.edu
Thanks for posting. It's an amazing thing, isn't it? If you're a Douglas Adams fan, you have to wonder how long before you can enlist your CPU in the quest for the answer to life, the universe, and everything. And, after that, of course, the quest for the question to the answer, which we all know is 42.
Perhaps that's the question... How long will it be before I can enlist my CPU in the quest for the answer to life, the universe, and everthing.
It'd be nice and circular if it were :-)
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