Donating CPU cycles

Most computers these days are vastly overpowered for the meager browsing and word processing we do on them. Your laptop, even while watching YouTube with an essay in the background is still using only a fraction of its available system resources. If you don’t mind your machine running a bit hotter most of the time then consider installing BOINC. BOINC is the Berkley Open Institute for Computing platform that allows researchers to connect with volunteers, like me, and hopefully you!

The install process is pretty straight forward, and guides exist, so here is the download link: https://boinc.berkeley.edu/download.php

Once you’ve downloaded and installed it, you’ll be asked to “join a project”, which is to say you can decide what kind of work your processor is doing. One of the most well-known is SETI at home which combs through radio data to search for patterns, and rosseta at home which simulates the folding of proteins. Now during this process you’ll also have the opportunity to join a team. Naturally, Concordia has a “team” and you should join it! What are teams and why are they a thing? The short answer is competition. The amount of processing you do is recorded as a score, and if you’re part of a team those points go to the team: https://www.boincstats.com/stats/-1/team/detail/54009/projectList

Naturally, there are many other ways to put your computer hardware to work for the forces of good, but BOINC is by far one of the fastest and easiest.