Want to put your CPU to work for a good cause?

[ArtofMurder]

http://folding.stanford.edu/

A few things you should know:

The energy cost and environmental impact of running BOINC

A computer running BOINC uses more energy than an idle computer. The amount of additional energy depends on several factors:

   * How many additional hours per day you you leave your computer powered on to run BOINC.
   * The energy consumption of your computer.
   * Whether you use your computer's power-management features to turn off your monitor when idle.
   * Your marginal electricity cost.

Using some typical values for energy usage and cost, here are estimates of the monthly costs:

Computer state
(24 hrs/day) Typical power usage Energy per month Cost per month
assuming USA average of 8 cents/kWh;
the cost in Europe is about 50% higher.
Off
0 watts
0 kWh
$0
Idle
100 watts
73 kWh
$5.84
Active
150 watts
110 kWh
$8.80

Under these assumptions, running BOINC costs about $3/month more than leaving your computer on but idle, and about $8.80/month more than leaving it off all the time.

There may also be an environmental cost. If your electricity is produced by burning fossil fuels, the extra electricity usage produces greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. If this is the case, we recommend that you not leave your computer on just to run BOINC, or that you reduce your overall energy use to compensate.

How reduce BOINC's energy usage and cost
Some possibilities:

   * Set your general preferences to allow BOINC to compute while your computer is in use, and turn your computer off when it's not in use.
   * Use your computer's power-management features to turn off your monitor when it's not in use, or to enter a low-power mode. A technical document about computer power management is available from Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories.
   * If your electricity costs vary according to time of day, set your general preferences so that BOINC computes only during periods of low electricity costs

I'm going to assume this also decreases your processor's life span. 

If you decide to participate, I've already created Team Battle.net.  If you would like to join, enter the following number into whichever client you elect to use when you first run it: 54464

I've only managed to get three people to start using this software, and to join Team Battle.net -- I was only made aware of this today.  Hopefully this can be spread throughout the Battle.net community.

[MysT_DooM]

SETI@home member since   1 Jan 2002

SETI@home classic workunits   28
SETI@home classic CPU time   1,690 hours

and didnt find one blimmey alien :\

[Trance]

I tried folding for awhile on all my computers.. but I found the program to be very annoying especially on my Macs..