USE YOUR COMPUTER'S SPARE POWER TO
HELP THE WORLD WITH MEDICAL RESEARCH!
The life that your computer can help save just might be the life of someone you love.
HELP THE WORLD WITH MEDICAL RESEARCH!
The life that your computer can help save just might be the life of someone you love.
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Here
is a short but inspiring music-video; if you enjoy it, please send it
to a friend!
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| The World Community Grid is a non-profit organization that was formed by IBM on November 16, 2004, with the specific mission of handling projects to benefit humanity. It began by researching the human proteome and comparing genome data because learning how different proteins fold can lead to an understanding of the causes for virtually all diseases, and lead to the development of the best treatments and drugs for each. WCG's work also includes more specific projects such as 'Help Defeat Cancer', 'Help Cure Muscular Dystrophy', and 'Fight AIDS at Home'. Members of its advisory board include representatives from IBM, the Mayo Clinic, the World Health Organization, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the United Nations, and many colleges. The WCG has hundreds of 'partners' which include many well-known and trusted organizations such as the American Cancer Society, the California Breast Cancer Research Program, the Lance Armstrong Foundation, the James A. Schlipmann Melanoma Cancer Foundation, the United OneHeart Foundation, the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care, and many others. I have found that the WCG program operates so invisibly that I don't even know it's running; I've never noticed any decrease in computer performance, and the program has been 100% reliable and compatible with my computer's operating system and all software I run. I have also checked it with several different spy-ware and anti-virus programs, and this program is clean. It takes just a few minutes to download and install the free program, and you will never need to do anything else after that unless you want to check your statistics just for fun or curiosity. It is also possible to use other 'agents' (the software your computer will run) and still participate with the WCG; e.g., the University of California at Berkeley has created BOINC, which supports the WCG and other grid projects. |
| Grid Computing is
used for many other scientific projects besides just medical
research, such as:
solving massive math problems like looking for prime numbers; crop
research;
weather
forcasting and climate prediction; nanotechnology; SETI (Search for
Extra-Terrestrial
Intelligence); quantum physics; earthquake, volcano, and tsunami
prediction; 'big bang' research;
searching for gravity waves and signals emitted by pulsars (stars);
finding
oil; detecting space objects which threaten earth (comets and
asteroids); improving the design
of
particle accelerators; pollution and ecological control; and for many other
types of computer
intensive
research. For example, in
less than
three months scientists identified 44 potential treatments to fight the
deadly smallpox disease; without the grid, the same work would have
taken years to complete. There is much to be done, so we
need your help
to work even faster, no matter how small your computer. If
you're not interested in medical research, then at least try to help
with
some other humanitarian project that you think is worthy (see links below). |
| Why Is So Much Computer Power Needed?
Simulations, as well as actual tests, are producing massive amounts of
data
that must be processed and properly analyzed in order to be useful, and
the
amount is increasing daily. Here is an interesting example to
illustrate my point: CERN (roughly "Council
European for Research Nuclear") uses
grid computing because of the need to analyze the large amount of
data it generates using particle accelerators (the U.S. has "observer"
status). CERN's newest accelerator -- the Large
Hadron Collider -- should produce 15 petabytes
(16,888,498,602,639,360 bytes) of data per year,
... and that is just one of many sources
of data
throughout the world. To put 15 petabytes into perspective, that amount
would
require more than 23 million CDs just to contain the data, ... not to
mention the time and effort to analyze it. If we crammed 10,000
bytes of info onto a sheet of paper, it would require 1,688,849,860,264
sheets (over 337 million boxes of paper), and if a speed-reader could
read one sheet per second continuously without ever stopping, it would
take over 53,516 years to read. I could provide many
other examples from all
sorts
of projects. Fortunately, we have
computers which use pattern-recognition and other techniques to sort
through so
much raw data to find
the most promising prospects for a closer, more detailed examination by
man. |
| AVIAN FLU (aka 'Bird Flu'): In
1918, the world
was hit with a Spanish Flu pandemic (an
epidemic on a nationwide or worldwide scale) with a death toll
estimated
between 30 and 40 million people; almost 200,000 Americans died in just
one month. It often killed its victims within just hours of the
first signs of infection. Now scientists and governments are
very worried about Avian Flu, and with good reason; the mortality
rate of those infected in 2005
was FIFTY PERCENT, and a new
pandemic is a genuine threat even in our modern world today. The Rothberg
Institute, another grid computing
organization, is now
working on a cure, but
we need to be ready to immediately
transfer many more computers to such research if a pandemic breaks out,
... or if we face any other emergency;
for instance, this C/Net
News article reports that the Particle Physics and Astronomy
Research Council temporarily diverted some of their computers from
particle physics research to finding drug components for Avian
Flu. Having a large pool of computer power which is instantly available in the event
of a crisis is just one more
compelling reason why the world urgently needs as many volunteers as
possible. |
By
combining
the spare power of all of its
members'
computers (now over 1,119,000),
.the WCG has already completed the equivalent of over 197,000 YEARS of computing. |
| SEE HOW MUCH POWER
YOU ARE WASTING: A quick glance at your 'task manager'
will immediately show you the percentage of CPU power that you are
using right now; subtract that from 100%, and the result is the percent
of computer power that is being wasted right now, and unless you are
currently running a virus scan, defrag, burning a CD, or doing
something that requires constant computations or disk access, you
should find that your current use averages only about 10% or less. An
easy way to check 'task manager' with Windows is to point your mouse to
an empty space on the bar at the bottom of your screen, right-click on
it, choose 'task manager' from the pop-up menu, and look at the bottom
of that window. |
| HOW GRID COMPUTING WORKS:
When you go
on-line, your computer contacts WCG
(or whichever organization you
join) and is assigned a task; your computer then uses its spare cycles
(even the microseconds between key-strokes) to work on it; if you turn
off your computer, the work is saved and is automatically resumed when
you restart your computer. When it finishes the problem, your
computer automatically sends the results back and is then given a new
task to work on; if you are off-line when it finishes the task, it just
waits until you go on-line again and then it exchanges its results for
a new task. At no time is your computer ever controlled by any other
computer and no computer on the grid will ever attempt to gain access
to your computer because everything is initiated from your end: contact
with the grid, uploading your results, and downloading a new task are
all controlled by your
computer. Here is a
website about grid computing in general which is funded by the U.S.
National Science
Foundation and the U.S.
Department of Energy's Office of Science, and here
is a 'white-paper' by scientists at Stanford University, along with a list
of 'recent research papers'. Finally, here is IBM's official website
and podcast
about 'How It Works'. |
| IS IT SAFE?
Literally millions of
users have
participated in dozens of grid computing projects for several years
now, and I have NEVER
heard of a single instance of abuse or any problems associated with it
--
never a report on TV, radio, newspaper, magazine, or on any Internet
forum such as newsgroups, mail-lists, blogs, or even email
chain-letters often sent to warn of scams. This video of an IBM
representative
includes
comments about its security, and to also quote the podcast
of Dr. David Foran, professor and lead researcher at the
Cancer
Institute of New Jersey: "IBM
had a team of programmers and scientists visit my laboratory and
systematically examine every
line of code to make certain there were no security leaks ...
I'm not worried about security issues." Moreover,
computer experts at major colleges and universities believe this is
safe, too; e.g., this video
includes comments from the manager of Rice University's SUPER computer,
and states that the people at Rice are convinced that this is
safe. Here is a list of major
colleges, universities, and school districts which have become
partners with the WCG,
including Harvard, Georgetown, Rutgers, and many state universities.
Even more reassuring is that the City
Government of Austin Texas is a
partner
and is encouraging all of its residents to join. As
for the
increased usage of your CPU to run the program, you can control how
much power will be used; although the program will cause a slight increase in
power usage possibly resulting in a slight increase in CPU temperature,
I have yet to hear of anyone ever experiencing any sort of
damage, and there are millions
of personal computers doing this sort of
work. Moreover, as an extra
precaution, WCG
has introduced a default value to deliberately limit CPU usage while
its agent is running; if you have a good system and cooling fan, and
want to maximize your contribution to humanity by using all of your
computer's spare power, please click here
to download a simple tool which will allow you to set your program to
run at 100% capacity. I have been
constantly running at 100%
capacity, 24 hours per day, and I have
never had any
problems. Just think about it for a moment; the WCG was
formed on November 16, 2004, and during the past three years over
412,000
members installed this program on over 1,119,000 computers, yet
there have been NO
reports of problems with it. |
| ARE WE CREATING SOMETHING LIKE 'SKYNET'?
I have actually been asked this question, and the answer is 'No'.
'SkyNet' is the fictional
computer network which took over the world
in the 'Terminator' movies. The reason that this is not possible
with grid-computing networks, such as the WCG (nor with
any other that I know of), is that grid projects use very specifically
designed programs to execute only the research tasks assigned to them,
and they do not use 'artificial intelligence' as did the fictional
'SkyNet' which was therefore able to think on its own. Moreover,
grids do not link computers together to achieve some huge 'thinking' or
'reasoning' ability; rather, each individual computer merely uses its
limited capacity to do only the tiny pieces of the work that are
assigned to it. |
Are you ready to JOIN yet? If so, click please click here -- but remember to come back to learn about our other projects. |
WHAT ELSE CAN I DO
TO HELP? The more you do, the more mankind benefits:
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| Project
2plus2is4: Education is the best cure
for the extensive apathy, ignorance, and misunderstandings that most
people have about grid computing, and lobbying is the
best solution. If our laws would require that a block of instruction
about grid computing be taught in every
basic computer class -- just one or two hours each year -- and include
information about how safe and secure it is, and about the many
interesting and useful ways that we can use this tremendous wasted
resource to benefit all of mankind, then school children will share
that information with their parents, and more college students will
start crunching with their lap-tops, too; moreover, the passage of such
laws should generate media attention to further educate the public and
alleviate the suspicions that so many people have. In addition, after
our
legislators and school administrators become familiar with grid
computing,
we should see more schools, universities, and government agencies
forming grids -- at least for their own research projects and
government work. I therefore invite you to join me in my efforts
to lobby our candidates and elected officials for legislation to
promote grid computing; all you need to do is just ask them if they
will please take the time to check out www.2plus2is4.com, which in turn leads
to here. I even have a sample message to make it easy for
you. Your support will be greatly appreciated. |
| Participating Schools: Here is a list of public and
private schools and school districts (elementary, high school, etc.),
as well as colleges and universities, all of which support grid
computing, along with the
particular project that they are running. |
Here is a website
about grid computing that makes learning about the grid fun.
Hosted by "TryScience", it has a 'game' that students can play to become acquainted with grid computing concepts. |
| Project CROSS-LINKS:
Here
is another project I'm creating for the benefit of the WCG and all
of mankind, so I hope other
"crunchers" will help with this. In my spare time I am going to
visit
websites of doctors, hospitals, charitable organizations, churches, and
associations related to various diseases, and if I don't find a link to
the WCG,
then I am going
to explain our important work of searching for cures for various
illnesses, and
then
ask if they will kindly provide one for us. It can't hurt, and we
might immediately recruit new members, too. And then I will
reciprocate by placing a link back to that site on my Cross-Links page to help us
keep track of them and also improve our search-engine
status. If anyone else manages to recruit a new link to WCG or to
this page, please let me know so
that I can add that site to my list. Thanks. |
| EVEN YOUR PLAYSTATION-3 CAN BE USED FOR
GRID COMPUTING: The "Michael
J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Disease" provides a recent CNN
report about using the PS3 for
medical research; this is also confirmed by a news report
from BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) that Sony has teamed up
with U.S. biologists who run the Folding@Home
(FAH) grid computing project which is managed within
Stanford University's Chemistry Department. Although the necessary
software has not yet been developed to use the PS3
for WCG research,
you will still be able to put your PS3 to
good use by doing important medical research for Stanford's Cure@PS3
project (part of Folding@Home). |
| TEAMS: Donating
wasted computer power is
what really
counts
... but if you do
join, you might as well
join a team. Teams are
useful because they encourage
recruitment and they add some
fun and socialization for those who want that. Merit 'points' are
assigned for
completed research, and statistics are kept for comparisons. Teams race
for higher rankings, and have the ability to 'challenge' other teams. There are over 20,800 teams available on
the WCG; you can
also easily form your own team consisting of family and friends,
employees, your church, your school, fraternal organizations,
etc. |
| NOTEWORTHY PROJECTS TO PROMOTE
GRID COMPUTING: Teams and individuals often create and
host their own websites which typically help to educate people about
grid computing while aiding recruitment for the main project. If
you know of such a site, please tell me so I can add a link here.
This is an example by a team in another project where I'm not a member
because of my prior commitment to the WCG: a video ... by Short-Media about
Stanford's Folding@Home. |
I hope I've convinced you of the important contribution that you can make to world health. |
| Links
to Assorted Grid Computing Projects: (This section is
still under
construction to add projects as I find them.) These first links are to a couple of excellent sites for additional information about grid computing aka distributed computing in general: both Volunteer@Home and www.hyper.net/dc-howto.html each have a lot of detailed information about various humanitarian grid projects, and www.distributedcomputing.info provides sources of other types of technical information such as computing platforms, development platforms, books and journals, etc. Here is an audio file about SARS research by the Rothberg Institute. Projects (some are listed under several headings to aid in use):
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| IBM has DONATED the
technology used by the WCG for this
important humanitarian
research. THANK YOU, IBM. |
in
your system tray, and then click on the 'check-mark' icon 