Do you feel like you just don’t do enough for society and you want to actually contribute something even if it is just 1’s and 0’s. Then here are 10 great programs that you can install and run on your PC when you have to go back to work cause your incompetent boss, who claims to know everything, just deleted the finance department share from the network. (omg.. it’s the second time this month!!)
Things you will need… a PC that you don’t mind leaving on, an internet connection and a Windows, Mac, or Linux OS.
- SETI@home – The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence race is on. You to can be a part of finding Elvis Presley’s captors and bringing them to justice. Find Elvis Now!!
- Fightaids@home – HIV getting you down? Help research new drugs with this program and give AIDS a reason to become extinct. AIDS Extinction Now!! Free, but sign up required. Same sign up as Help Defeat Cancer Project
- Help Defeat Cancer Project – Help analyze tissue samples so that one day when a Dr. says “You have cancer” you can both laugh. Go Team Cancer!! Free, but sign up required. Same sign up as Fightaids@home
- Rosetta@home – Help fight many diseases by determining the 3-dimensional shapes of proteins and then use this as a great pick up line. (results will vary) Rid the world of
Bushdisease… - MalariaControl.net – Yep you guessed it. Help figure out how Malaria is transmitted, which in turn will help us eliminate this killer. Go Chuck Norris on Malaria!!
- ClimatePrediction.net – Worried that Manhattan will only be accessible by canoe soon? Watch the weather patterns on your, unique, version of the world evolve. Save the planet!!
- GIMPS – If prime numbers turn you on, then so will this. The Electronic Frontier Foundation created the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) and will award $100,000 to the first person to find a 10-million-digit prime number. Happy number crunching you soon to be rich nerd!!
- BURP – The Big and Ugly Rendering Project (BURP) is designed to help 3D animation artists render their graphics. Help support 3D animation entertainment. Animate me!!
- LHC@home – The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will be the most powerful particle accelerator ever built. SixTrack will simulate high-energy particles traveling around the LHC to help research the long term stability of their orbits. Join in on the fun and help find the Higgs. (calm down, you’re making a scene)
- Electric Sheep – This one is just for fun… a lot of fun. Computers across the net communicate with each other and share the work of creating morphing abstract animations known as “sheep”. Think of it as your PC on acid or in a dream state. Get your colorful lamb chops here!!
Update: I missed the biggest one out there (whoops) Folding@Home – This one is for you biology buffs out there. Folding@home assembles proteins to help find cures for diseases. Thanks for the heads up folks.