Help
out with BOINC!
(Berkley
Open Infrastructure for Network Computing)
What
is BOINC?
If
you're like most people, you leave your computer on even when you're
not using it. It sits there, running a screen saver, or blanking its
screen, with all that computer power going to waste for hours.
BOINC is
a small program that runs in the background of your computer and
turns on when your computer is not in use (usually when your screen
saver comes on). It will download packets of data from organizations
that need computer power to crunch through data. Your computer
crunches through it and then uploads the results. With thousands of
people doing this on their computers, it acts like a single giant
supercomputer crunching the data.
Who
supplies the data and why do they do this?
Research
groups that can't afford supercomputers set up BOINC “projects.”
These are the research scientists that need their data analyzed by
powerful computers but can't afford the necessary hardware. You are
volunteering to help them in their research. When you run BOINC you
choose to attach yourself to one or more of these projects.
Rosetta: Looks at how folding proteins could lead to cures for diseases like Alzheimer's .
Docking@Home: By building molecular models of new drugs, they can be tested before going to human trial.
SETI@Home: The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence takes the background radio noise picked up by telescopes and searches it for intelligent signals.
How
can you help?
Download
the software and install:
Windows
Go
to http://boinc.berkeley.edu/
and click the download link. Install the software you downloaded.
When you run BOINC for the first time it will ask you about adding a
project... choose from the list presented. You will need to give an
email address (this acts as your username) and make up a password. It
will start crunching!
Linux
Check
“Add/Remove Programs” or “Synaptic” to install the version of
BOINC your distro uses. You can also visit http://boinc.berkeley.edu/
and get instructions from the download page for your distro. When
you run BOINC for the first time it will ask you about adding a
project... choose from the list presented. You will need to give an
email address (this acts as your username) and make up a password. It
will start crunching!
Join the studyphysics.ca team!
After joining a project, be sure to check if the project has a studyphysics.ca team. By joining up we can coordinate all our results in one huge team effort.