Fold it!

Distributed computing isn't a new concept, but it is becoming more widely known and used as a means to apply massive processing power otherwise unavailable to specific scientific and mathematical problems. One such project, called Folding@Home, uses distributed computing to investigate how complex proteins are folded, or created. A small program is downloaded and installed, running in the background, working on a tiny portion of a project, which in turn is part of the larger endeavor.

While it does ratchet the computer's processor up to 100% usage, it retains such a low priority that it doesn't interfere with normal computing tasks. If you're a rabid gamer, you'll want to pause its work in order to squeeze every last ounce of performance from your machine in order to prevail in the latest death match. Points are assigned to each work unit based on how complicated it is andf how loing it will take to complete.

Folding@Home is also a friendly competition, with multiple users joining teams to combine their processors and Work Units into one score. Keeps it interesting, granting bragging rights to those who can fold the most. I've only managed to rope two people into a team, but I'm working on a few others. :)

Lenin And The Airtight Coffin

Reaganolotry now ended, we can move on to more current matters.

Well, we can, once I have my say about it.

I don't miss him. Nor do I feel an obligation to engage in compulsory "respect" for his passing. Reagan was a bastard, a liar, and a war criminal. The Republican slow motion coup still in progress was begun during his administration, which eviscerated labor unions, worker protections, and kicked the long simmering class war in this country into high gear.

The Republican leadership in Congress and the White House, most of whom served under Reagan, engineered a Soviet-style event of "national mourning" replete with the body lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda. It was sickening, just another method to enshrine Reagan as some sort of American saint.

Just ask this simple question: In the current political atmosphere, had Bill Clinton died, would his body lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda.

Nope. Bet your life on it.