WCG WebsiteThe World Community Grid is a large "network" of your everyday desktop computers being used to process data for research projects. Currently, the FightAIDS@Home and Human Proteome Folding Phase 2 projects are under way.
Put simply, you download a program that connects to the WCG. The Grid sends a piece of a project that needs calculations done to your system. Your computer then processes this information and sends it back to them. If they receive three of the same results from yours and other computers, the result is accepted and is used in the research project.
The program is supposed to only operate when the system is idle, but I've found that a bit klunky. However, when you tell it to quit, it really does quit, meaning you can manually start it only at certain times if you like. If you've got the little bit of extra horsepower to run the program 24/7 without interrupting what you're doing (like playing AH), you can schedule the program to only perform calculations at set times of the day and stay idle for the rest of the day.
Obviously, this program is opening the computer to the internet. I have my doubts that anything bad could come from it by the looks of the system, but you never really know.
If you have a non-gaming computer in your home, please download this program and let it work while the computer's on. The program doesn't bother things like browsing the internet or typing things. I haven't seen what it does to gaming, but in its idle state it's very small.
I have my machine set to do its calculations overnight and free up the machine during the day. So please, if you have a general use computer or even an old box sitting in a corner, have a go with this program.
Here's the last status report of the Human Proteome Folding Project. This system really does help.
I've even created a team for the AH Community. Being part of the team will simply track how much effort the Aces High community has put into this. When you sign up, it will ask you which team you'd like to join. I've named it "Aces High Community."
I feel like I've been rambling, sorry about that; it's pretty early.
Just thought I'd introduce this. There's a lot of downtime where home desktop computers are just sitting there idle, and this is a great way to make them more efficient, IMHO. I've been connected four days so far and you'd be amazed what an idle gaming rig can do overnight.
