Do you want to be part of the team that makes discoveries which may lead to curing various forms of cancer? Have you ever taken the time to look upward at all those stars above our heads, and listen for any signs of intelligent life? Do you want to feel like you're being a part of something greater, something bigger and more important? Like, taking a massive number of people around the world that suffer from all kinds of diseases and conditions which make their life difficult, and maybe we can help find something that benefits their health?

I do all these things, every one of them, around the clock, non-stop. Or maybe I should say that my computer does them; and with a little bit of your time, I can tell you how yours can, too. But first, let me tell you about this wonderful technology of grid computing works!

Large computing projects were usually reserved for large, closed computer systems; and these closed systems are usually built for each project specifically. Some of these systems are phenomenal on the power-scale, and rapidly break records in speed and power. Just look at some examples, like IBM's Blue Gene/L, or the Japanese Earth Simulator. However, there are some negatives to these awesome machines:

-These machines are built to a large scale, utilizing multiple processors and other hardware. When faster technology is available in the future, the upgrading process is unbelievably high and unreasonable. Therefore, they are rarely upgraded, while another company builds a faster one.
-As I mentioned earlier, these systems are usually built for a specific project or field, and rarely utilizes it's computing power for a multiple number of projects.

Grid computing is an activity that focuses on taking a single large project, organizing it into smaller, more accessible parts, and then distributing those parts across a network for computers to share the work among each other. For years now, nearly every computer has accessed the Internet, connected to the woven network of computers from here to Timbuktu, and back again. I can guarantee that the large majority of those computers have hardly been used to their full capabilities; and that is what grid computing takes advantage of. All of these projects use the Internet to download and upload completed calculations and research packets to and from the project servers. These packets are usually very small and rarely, if ever, interrupt your Internet-usage; I have never experienced any problems while my computer has been participating in these programs.

It doesn't take much of a strong machine to participate in most of these projects, but in some cases a dual-core processor is necessary to do the volunteer work while being able to handle other daily-use activities like listening to music or browsing the web, fortunately dual-core machines are becoming a very common feature these days. In some cases, your computer may even run two or three grid computing projects simultaneously; and in my case, I have two running. I'll explain how mine is doing that, and how well it performs other activities later on.

So, now that you know your computer is capable, let me show you where to look and how to get started. Another great thing about this grid computing is that you get to decide on what you'd like to pursue, whether it be cancer research, black holes in space, or extra-terrestrial intelligent life, and a number of others:

The most popular project has been the Folding@Home (F@H) program hosted by a group of staff within Stanford University: it is the largest grid computing project, and is recognized by Guinness World Records as the most powerful distributed computing cluster in the world. The cluster has recently peaked at +2 petaflops in computing power; and in comparison, the fastest super computer to date has only reached over 1.026 petaflops. F@H gets a large help from participating PS3s gaming consoles, and other GPU-capable participants. The mission of F@H is to research various diseases, including forms of cancer, by simulating the foldings, and misfoldings, of protein. You can read more about all the science stuff, here.

SETI@Home is one of the larger grid computing programs available to work on, earlier this year they counted over 360,000 participating computers that are capable of 480 teraflops (in comparison, nearly half a petaflop). SETI is an acronym for the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence, and that is it's mission. The Arecibo Observatory, located in Puerto Rico, is like a big eardrum in the side of the Earth (do you remember the ending to Goldeneye, the Bond movie? That's it); and it makes recordings of the sounds from space, across a number of frequencies, and transfers them to the University of California. The university then distributes small packets of these recordings to computers participating in SETI@Home to analyze for any signs of patterns, power spikes, and other things hidden in the “noise” recorded. Anything that will be found, will be further researched and possibly labeled as the true sign of intelligent life out there among the stars.
In my experience, SETI@Home is a much easier program for older, less capable computers to participate in. It runs like a breeze on mine, and I've never even noticed it affecting any of my computers activities.

There are many other projects available to participate in, and some program managers are very helpful in allowing you to select one for a while, and then to participate in another when you'd like to switch. One of these is called BOINC, which stands for Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing; this was a program developed from the early days of SETI@Home. Once you install the program manager, you can select which project you'd like to begin with immediately, and begin number-crunching your way to discoveries in the fields of science, mathematics, and biology. One such project includes predicting the global climate of the 21st century. I'd suggest checking BOINC out if you're seriously interested in getting started in grid computing.

I've been a part of both SETI@Home and Folding@Home for some time now, I started last summer. I reserve my processor for doing the work distributed by SETI@Home, and my GPU is capable to work on projects distributed by F@H. The only noticeable sign I've seen of any slowdown on my system that can be traced back to these two projects, would be in heavy-GPU dependent programs, so that means games like Crysis, or Team Fortress 2; and even in those cases, the games are playable, but with minor jerks and hiccups in the game's frame rate. Even if you do enjoy these games, still give these projects a try.

So, are you ready to give some of your power out to the world? It's an easy, breezy way to just do something a little more, and it doesn't cost a thing out of your wallet. All you need to do is install the programs, access the Internet, and let your computer do some number-crunching. It's simple, it's small, but it's part of something much bigger, and it's only getting better.