Distributed Computing

My computer is on for most of the time without being used. And with the waste of power that it is, it leaves me with two options.
I could turn my computer on and off constantly. Only keeping it on for when I use it, and switching off for the rest. But this means that when I go to sit behind it on a whim, I have to wait for it to boot up. That’s just abominable!
So, I’m left with the other option; doing something useful with it during the time it is not in use. I had heard of a project that is aiming to use such unused computing power to sift through millions of signals received from outer space. The aim of the project is the search for extra terrestrial intelligence : SETI@home.
But as we all know humans were put on earth by god and the question of other intelligence and their evolution is absurd. So, I focused on something more useful: Folding@home
This project makes use of idle computer time of the users to perform simulations of protein folding that will help in understanding diseases such as Alzheimer’s and BSE. So, what this means is that now instead of simply wasting energy, I waste energy for a good cause!

Linux Installation Story

I have been using GNU/Linux since 2000, and have tried to educate myself on the operating system and the programs usually distributed with it as much as possible. I’ve slowly grown fond of it, and at times have become somewhat of a zealot!

At some points I have had to ask myself whether it made sense to use Linux as a primary operating system. After all, I could just do what most other students do, and keep a dual boot system – with Windows as the first option.

This past month, the motherboard on my computer died and gave me an excuse to reformat my computer while fixing this small problem. My experiences in doing yet another Linux install – this time after almost a year – made me think about some issues I had with this Operating System, that I will try to convery here.

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