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lol every time I read it it gets better

[email protected]: My avatar is a natural fusion reaction
Spanky | natescomp.co.cc: i have a natural fusion reaction in my pants
[email protected]: Spanky, I think you have your terms crossed again

Nuclear.... The waste doesn't leave the planet and I don't know how we're going to store it for a few thousand years until it decays. Also, I believe I read about how there's a limited supply and if we used it solely for energy, at our current rate, we would eat that up in 40 years.

I don't know much about fusion but I'm always cautious about magic worry and side-effect free things.

Blue, I agree but we use the "crap" now, we see no problem to keep using it. What's the reason to change if what we have works? There's a lot of lazy people out there that think that.

Bottom line is, if the energy used for folding/crunching was clean (or at the very least, no difference in watts used between idle and load CPU usage), I wouldn't be complaining. I might even setup all the old computers I got and let them fold/crunch. It's too bad we don't live in that world.

Also, I'm not against the process. I'm against how it's currently being done. I think it's great that there's so many willing people out there. I also think it's unfortunate how WCG and other groups hook people in by saying "our program uses your unused CPU cycles" as if to say, there's no difference in power usage.

Oh yea, I'm going there. So you're curing cancer? You're not entering a contest or showing off what your computer can do? Hmmm... proof?

While currently you could call me a hyprocite, I've set World Community Grid to quit asking for work. See, while I don't get into contests or belonging to a team or bragging about how many points or badges I have, it still irritates me to be a part of it. Here's a couple of reasons why:

While I don't know the exact figures, I would wager that a low percentage of computers that fold/crunch are run on renewable energy sources. This is a problem because most energy is created by burning a fuel. Maybe you're not aware of it but there's a fun little chemical compound called Benzene. In the northwestern states where gasoline fuel can come from Alaska, it's added to the fuel (it's also added for other reasons). Benzene isn't only a problem in cars, it's a problem in toxic waste areas and industry emissions.
Some fun links:
http://www.benzeneleukemialawblog.com/2009/07/articles/benzene/informationnews/benzene-in-fuel-is-harmful-to-humans/
http://scorecard.org/chemical-profiles/html/benzene.html

So what do cars have to do with running a program on your computer? Not much. I'm saying this because although Benzene is hazardous, we have no problem adding it to fuel and creating it either to burn or by burning fossil fuels. This transfers over into other means of energy by burning fuels. While there are greener ways to burn fuels, there's no convincing that you can burn something for energy and have no ill effects. There's plenty of human (and animal) health issues (cancer included) caused by burning of fuels. I could use more dramatic wording and say that energy consumption by computers (including those folding) causes cancer, not cures it. I don't have the time, means or knowledge to go out and prove and link computers to causing cancer but I do know that my computer uses energy, so does yours. Do you know that you're curing cancer? How much have you cured? How much safer are we from cancer than before folding/crunching? Computers consuming energy by returning work that either eliminates or highlights a possibility that might help cancer research. There's just too many if's and variables. Until alternative clean energy solutions are put in place for computers folding/crunching (this includes production of energy sources such as solar panels), this is going to be a problem.

But wait! That's not all! Look at an average computer power supply. At best you can see 10% power wasted (90% efficiency) but these numbers can easily be 15-20% waste. Not only that, these computers are built with end-user parts that aren't meant to be run 100% load for 24/7 for their whole life (looking at you Knight). Servers are built with better built parts with better features meant for reliability with 100% load, combined with multiple CPU's with multiple cores, they're much better fitted for this kind of task. If that's not bad enough, people's hard earned money is wasted even faster with building dedicated computers that are overclocked and overvolted and run 100% 24/7.

For a closing paragraph, I would like to talk about the uselessness that are teams, competitions and ranking. What's the point? Yea I do see that making competitions can get people more involved but for fucks sake, do you really need a better reason than "curing cancer"? All this does is make people that only care about points and showing off. The whole concept is forgotten with these people. The only thing it shows is that people with more expendable money are the ones returning more points. Big fucking deal. So, I'm going to do my part to prevent cancer and environmental destruction, I'm going to stop folding/crunching. Also, sorry about the swear words but sometimes they just drive the point home.

Well, medical files... I would imagine those would be in some kinda spreadsheet or something and shouldn't be that large. I also can't think of a reason why a Doctor would have medical files on a laptop, that's pretty infringing as it is.

Check times, not my problem. Just like everything in life, if you want to do something you have to jump through the right hoops.

That's the first of many things. They would have to support all operating systems with this software. Viruses are characteristic, it's pretty easy to figure out where they are. But movies and music? They can be encoded at any rate so the file size can be anything, not to mention the file name. Also, how do they know you don't own the CD or DVD or Bluray? How could they possibly make it enforced on all computers? In order to do so I think it would have to be a mandatory patch to the Windows operating system like WGA but even then, that can be bypassed. There's just too many if's for this to even be considered. I hope they're not wasting tax payer money on it.

Ha!

Now it just reminds me of the Universal Studios logo:

So every so often I come into an amount of parts for some crazy cheap price and it's a time to inventory and upgrade my stuff but it's also a time where I get a surplus of stuff I don't have an immediate need for. I get several good deals and I make an ok amount of money with the work that I do so when I can I like to give back to people, especially those that I've known for a long time and those that have helped me out. Some of you know what I'm talking about. Unfortunately I'm still a jew and like to come out on top. So, I'm offering up some older parts and if you're interested all I ask is that you pay shipping plus a couple bucks. Shipping cost will be estimated by me (fairly) and will depend on what you want. A lot of this stuff will have vague descriptions but if you want more info or pictures, let me know.

Medical Grade Isolation Transformer (w/Qualtek Cables) - Pic, PDF
This basically isolates the component connected to it from other electrical components reducing noise, DC and protecting the component it's connected to. It makes some hum but nothing that can't be ignored. It's supposed to be 130VA but I wouldn't really connect anything larger than 80-100 watts. It uses the standard NEMA 3-prong house plug and the standard IEC 3-prong "computer-style" plug. This is good for audio stuff and I have tested it and it works. It's pretty heavy so I might ship it flat rate so I would be asking $15 shipped.

Various speed untested DDR RAM (can test prior to shipping) 128MB to 512MB.

Various expansion cards such as sound, modem and some ethernet. These are basic ones, nothing epic. All PCI style. I believe the sound cards are Creative CT4780, they were a hugely common model.

Various Processors. AMD K6, Intel Celeron 1.2GHz, Several AMD Athlon (Socket A?) 900MHz-1400MHz CPU's.

Various generic fans. Some recycled from power supplies, others from old CPU's. If you need a specific one, let me know. I can lubricate and test before shipping. I can also re-wire it to whatever plug/length you want.

Various Power, USB, IDE, Floppy cables. I also have a whole box of cut-off Molex and ATX cables from recycled power supplies, pretty fun when you want to work on a project.

A couple older power supplies that still work. They are basic 20-pin ATX ones.