Distributed Computing - Folding@Home

I don't know how many people know much about distributed computing. It's similar to the new cloud computing system that NaNo is running on. Basically, your computer downloads a packet of data, processes it, then send the processed data back to a central system and gets a new packet for processing. It creates the ability to have multiple computers running at once to crunch multiple packets of data rather than relying on a central computer to crunch one at a time. SETI@Home is probably one of the more famous ones

I use Folding@Home. It's a free program that's run by Stanford University's bioresearch lab to analyze and calculate data for protein folding. The idea is that this could help develop new treatments for diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer's, etc. This program has already helped them to solve one of the great mysteries of protein folding, and they are continuing to crunch data to solve more.

Since most of us are going to be writing our novels on computers this year (I know some people are handwriting theirs, which makes your wrists much more resilient than mine, or using something else like a Neo), this is a chance to do a good deed while writing. Most programs we're using to write take up relatively few of the CPU cycles on the computer, so unless you're already going to be running something really intensive in the background, then you've got a lot of spare CPU cycles going to waste. The beauty of Folding@Home is that it's noninvasive. It gives all other programs running on the computer priority, and only uses the spare cycles up to 50%, so you don't even know that it's there and running and is completely automated. It doesn't require you to do anything other than install it, so you yourself don't need to be doing the data crunching. The program does it all.

So, in short this is an opportunity to help cure cancer and other diseases while we write our novels. If you want to join in, hit the link above to read more about the program and download it. Note, I'm not affiliated with it at all, but I've been running the program on my computers for years and feel passionate about it. If there's enough interest here, I could create a NaNoWriMo group in their system for us to gather our points together (they give points for completed workunits). There's nothing to win, and it's just for bragging rights and the feeling that you've done something good, much like NaNo itself.
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