- Like to help
search for extraterrestial intelligence? (and
also participate in an experiment in massive
parallel computing). This isn't weird, it's
for real. A background program on your
computer uses its idle time to process data from
a radio telescope. Millions are already
participating. Check out SETI@home.
- Now you can do the
same thing for AIDS research, at the Fight Aids At Home site.
- And, a disease we
thought we didn't have to worry about anymore
-- Smallpox
- And the latest (as of
Dec 2004) and most ambitious project of this sort
at the World Community Grid. They aim to
"create the world's largest public computing
grid to tackle projects that benefit
humanity."
- Prime numbers
-- Be the first on your block to discover the
largest prime number. There is an effort, similar in concept to the
above pursuits, that is being used to crank away
at this problem too. By the way, the
current prime number (as of Jan 2007) record
holder "weighs in" at a whopping
9,808,358 digits decimal digits! (It is actually
2 to the power 32,582,657, and then minus 1)
- Time and Clocks
-- An electronic throwback and a polar clock as screensaver. Also, a Flash clock that looks like a
cock-eyed display. An assortment of miscellaneous artsy clocks. Finally, the Common Civil Calendar
and Time (C&T), an attempt to standardize
the calendar so that any specific date always
falls on the same day of the week.
Dependable but boring.
-
 Get Your Own Real Time
Visitor Map!
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