There are probably times when you leave your computer for some reason, but believe you are going to be back quickly and decide it’s not worth the time or effort to turn it off. When you return, you probably find your screen saver running.
If someone told you that you could use your computer’s idle time to do good such as cure diseases, study global warming, discover pulsars or do other types of scientific research, would you? That is exactly what Boinc projects allow you to do.
Basically, there are certain things in science that need huge amounts of computing power to solve and that can cost tremendous amounts of money. The idea of using the unused computing power of regular computers helps solve this issue. While each computer would be doing very small calculations, with thousands upon thousands of computers all doing it together, huge calculations can be rendered without the cost of a super computer.
There are 25 current projects to choose from and you can help out on multiple projects if you want. I personal have my computer set to help out on the malaria control, SETI space and climate prediction projects, but there are also many other worthy projects on the list. All you need to do is download the Boinc software to your computer (takes a few minutes) and once it has been installed and is running, it allows you to choose the projects you want to help out with.
When you have a few free minutes, download the Boinc software and set up your computer to help out when it has spare resources to give. Then leave a comment to let us know which of the projects you chose, what you think about the entire project or any questions you might have about it. Of course, each comment also adds 10 cents to the microloans being funded here.
If you enjoyed this post or the blog in general, please sign up for the rss feed (and add another 25 cents toward a microloan) and take the time to tell others who may also enjoy it – doing good is something that anyone can do for little to no money and the more that are willing to participate, the faster we can fund these microloans.