I finished my 4 month “training program” on Friday. Starting tomorrow I will start as a regular employee. On Friday, we had a celebratory disaster of a field trip to downtown San Francisco to try and go to Alcatraz. Aside from “let’s leave now and all meet up at location x,” there was zero planning involved. As one might expect, a zero planned event usually ends up as a zero percent successful event. This was very much the case. Luckily, it didn’t last forever.
In other news, I started using one of those “let us use your idle CPU” programs. Like SETI@home, this program runs on your computer when you’re not using it, basically acting like a screen saver. The programs are great for computers that are always on and always connected, like mine.
Anyway, this particular program, the GRID.ORG Cancer Research Project, is for finding drug molecules that will help fight cancer. Though I don’t really understand (or care) what this picture means, here is a screen shot of the program.

I was always hesitant about using these kinds of programs, mainly just SETI@home, because while they’re running, they’re using 100% of your processor. If you come up and starting using your computer, the program stops running and gives you the use of your processor, like a screen saver would. The problem is, when it is using your computer, it’s using 100%. Granted, modern chips are designed to handle extreme heat and there are fans and so on to keep them cool. However, I’ve always been a little worried that this nonstop red-lining of my CPU can’t do that much for the lifespan of the chip. I’ve never had a computer long enough for the actual chip to go bad; it’s always been some other component or a need for a faster system, so it’s possible that I will upgrade my machine long before the chip will have actually burned up. I guess this will be a test run. If my chip dies before I decide to get a new computer then I seriously doubt I will use another distributed computing program.

3 Responses to “A few things”

1. amy, on October 24th, 2004 at 23:22:15, said:
   

   so does this mean that while your computer is idle they’re using it to cure cancer? I’m confused.

2. breen, on October 25th, 2004 at 00:12:12, said:
   

   Yea, pretty much. Not to say there is one magical cancer cure, and that it’s only a matter of computational power to create it. It would be more accurate to say that while my computer is idle, they’re using it to do cancer research. I can go into more detail if you like.

3. amy, on October 25th, 2004 at 15:42:27, said:
   

   Well, it would be cool if you post a link to it. Right now, however, my computer sucks ass and I can’t do anything with it. Also, yes, I know there is no magical cure for cancer and it would be performing research.

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