Let your laptop save the world!





I don't know why it took me so long to post this, but we had a speaker at the Austin Forum last month who told us about the World Community Grid -- and we all promptly went and signed up! Remember searching for extra-terrestrials with SETI@Home? (Did anybody ever find the aliens?) I was running United Devices Cancer research bot for a while on my laptop, but that project ended, so we've now moved on to WCG.

It's easy! Download the BOINC client from the website, sign up (you can even join the TACC team, if you like) and start using your computer's background cycles for medical research. You even get to accumulate points, so you can "compete" with your friends. (The points aren't really worth anything, but they're fun to track nonetheless.) The newest project is "Discovering Dengue Drugs - Together," and it is based out of the UT Medical Branch in Galveston, TX. (This blue, red and turquoise blob is what the Dengue virus looks like.) -->

I'd have more points, but my home laptop is three years old (ancient!) and apparently couldn't handle the load. I have WCG running at work now, and seems to be doing fine. [Competitive? moi?] :)

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