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: The Oratorical Snob

Finally a good use for all this computing power

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To my regular readers: I apologize for the lack of posting in the last week or so. I've been quite busy. Fear not, however; I have a list of topics to discuss that should be up here before too long.

It seems to me that only a few law schools in the nation actually require laptops, much less laptops with certain required characteristics. IU is one of them. I suppose this is a good thing, because it gave me an excuse to buy a new laptop, but in the long run, it is probably excessive.

The requirements were such that we needed top-of-the-line everything. High powered processors, massive hard drives, and more memory than a herd of elephants. All that so that we can run Microsoft Word in class to take notes, and at the end of the semester run exam software. I equate this to using C4 to light a firecracker.

So, in an effort not to have my money wasted, I sought something for which I could use this thing for. As a result, I have joined the World Community Grid. Essentially, it is a grid computing software that I now run every hour of the day. According to the site, "Grid computing joins together many individual computers, creating a large system with massive computational power that far surpasses the power of a handful of supercomputers. Because the work is split into small pieces that can be processed simultaneously, research time is reduced from years to months. The technology is also more cost-effective, enabling better use of critical funds."

Since I joined the WCG three days ago, I have joined four projects. Discovering Dengue Drugs - Together, Human Proteome Folding Project, FightAIDS@Home Project, and SETIatHome. The program runs in the background all day, and lets me help out worthwhile causes for the sake of humanity. For those looking for a feel-good project that lets you use your excessively powerful law school computers, I invite you to sign up and download the software.

For all students, professors, staff, and alumni of Indiana Law, I have set up teams on the two websites to represent our school (called IU School of Law - Bloomington). The teams don't do anything particular, but they allow us to compete with other teams (notably, the one at the law school up 37).

And trust me, if I happen to be the one who finds proof of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, you'll be the first to know.

Full post as published by The Oratorical Snob on October 23, 2007 (boomark / email).