Help predict the end of the world
Posted by Chris @ 9:29 pm
Or not.
What am I on about? Why the great climate change experiment that's been running for a dog age, but I've just got involved with because the great behemoth that is the BBC is supporting it.
It is one of these many distributed computing experiments, where people download a small application, and whilst your PC is sat doing nothing it chugs away working out if the world will end due to climate change, or will just melt a bit.
The folks running it all do a better job of explaining it all than I am, so skip on over to their website to find out about it and get involved. And then we can compare our globes, and see which one of us brings about the most doom to the world!! Awesome.
BBC Four are also trailing some programmes to do with time that look interesting - I'll be keeping an eye on these.
4 Comments
Monday, February 20, 2006 10:46:00 pm
It is one of these many distributed computing experiments, where people download a small application, and whilst your PC is sat doing nothing it chugs away working out if the world will end due to climate change, or will just melt a bit.Wow - that's a good idea! Just think about all those extra millions of PCs switched on trying to calculate the effects of global warming! Every time another PC joins this experiment, it will be bring the end of the world even closer because of all the extra energy and resources it's using.
One tip from the BBC website on how to help the environment:
"Turn off televisions, videos, stereos and computers when they are not in use - they can use between 10 and 60% of the power they use when on."
Hmmm. I see. So we shouldn't be leaving them switched on to do some pointless number crunching?
Scientists? Hypocrites more like.
This comment posted by
Monday, February 20, 2006 10:55:00 pm
In all fairness, they do cover this issue in their FAQs:What do I have to do while it's running?
The experiment runs itself and you need do nothing except log into Windows as you already do.
Please don't leave your computer on more than you normally do – that's a waste of electricity.
[From: http://bbc.cpdn.org/help.php#running]
As if anyone ever reads FAQs though... pffft.
This comment posted by
Monday, February 20, 2006 11:15:00 pm
Nice to see you are arguing with yourself this evening Tony!This comment posted by
Tuesday, February 21, 2006 9:38:00 am
I agree with Tony. Both of him.This comment posted by
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