This is an excellent way to assist with real science. There are a number of projects that are available - I run about 5 simultaneously on my machine. Information about all of them is available. And it is a good way to use spare CPU capacity: it’s amazing how underused our modern computers are even when we are “using” them all the time.
I’ve been running Boinc for years and Seti’s software before that, mostly to ease my guilt about not being an actual scientist…it’s a great way to contribute if you (like me) have no real knowledge or skills.
As soon as I figure out how to do it, I’ll switch over to CFI’s group.
As a bonus, you can set Boinc to be the screen saver. Each project you join has a different visualization that goes with it and people ask me all the time what they are, so it’s a great conversation starter too!
CFI has a group under UC Berkeley’s BOINC project, donating unused computer clock cycles to distributed computing projects in science. I’ve signed up for rosetta@home, which is a protein folding project, along the lines of SETI@home which is also hosted on BOINC.
Read more about it through the BOINC website. You have to download a small program that installs the distributed computing software on your PC or Mac. (It works VERY smoothly on my Mac). You can turn it on and off at will, and it comes with an uninstall program as well if for some reason you get tired of it.
If you decide to sign up, you can join the CFI team HERE!
I expect that this is an issue of work units getting used up at the end of winter vacation, or the like, and that nobody’s around the office to check up on these things. I’m inclined to give them awhile—there have been a couple of times in the past where the same thing happened, but got cleared up after a few days.
If it continues for a week or two after the new year’s break is over, I’ll reconsider.
Of course, if you feel more comfortable switching to a different project, feel free.
I expect that this is an issue of work units getting used up at the end of winter vacation, or the like, and that nobody’s around the office to check up on these things. I’m inclined to give them awhile—there have been a couple of times in the past where the same thing happened, but got cleared up after a few days.
If it continues for a week or two after the new year’s break is over, I’ll reconsider.
Of course, if you feel more comfortable switching to a different project, feel free.
FYI: Rosetta seems to be working again. The thread on their forum appears to support the notion that this was an issue with the system running out of workflow (and people to respond) during the winter break.
SETI’s pretty cool I started about 5 years ago on a dual P3 system, back then my work units took 6 - 8 hours at a time, now I complete 4 - 6 in about 45 mins.
Yeah, SETI’s excellent as well. I chose the protein folding experiment however because it’s more likely to have a quicker useful result ... no telling with SETI.
