Distributed/grid computing.. do you, or don't you?

[Lightstream]

I'm sure that as digital photographers, many of us have computers with fairly serious configurations where we do our postprocessing. But what do you do with your computer when you're out shooting? :D

Just interested as to what distributed computing projects our members subscribe to. These usually involve running a client on your computer that donates your unused CPU cycles to a project of some kind. I have been involved in distributed computing for a long time, from cracking RC5 in 1997, and on-and-off with a couple of others. Now I'm looking for a good project to support.

Do any of you give away your spare computer time and if so, where?

[Col_M]

My computer is currently folding proteins :)

http://folding.stanford.edu/

[Jeece]

I used to run SETI (http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/) a few years ago (when I first heard of distributed computing) but I later switched to something a little bit closer (and much more usefull) to us, Folding@Home (http://folding.stanford.edu/).

Now, my 2 PCs at home and the Mac at work are folding proteins almost 24/7. Exceptions are when I'm gaming or doing some heavy graphic editing. Even though the FoldingAtHome app only uses "wasted" CPU cycles, it can eat a decent amount of ram too.

Of course, if by running SETI we can get in touch with a more advanced space life-form, maybe they'll have a cure for cancer too and share it to us? :lol: I guess it's the same in the end.

Basic computers infos:

Athlon XP-M 2400+ overclocked at over 3200+ speeds. 1gb of ram.
Pentium 4-M 3.06ghz, downclocked to 2.4ghz. (it's an home-theater PC in a compact Shuttle case, so heat is an issue and I don't need much faster for this application.) 512mb of ram.
Mac G4 800mhz. 512mb of ram. :cry:

[Faolan]

Render farm for CGI ;) Seriously I shut down all unnecessary computers to save electricity and run Climate prediction on the server.

[Lightstream]

Cool.....I was involved with FAH as well, I was wondering whether I should restart my clients. I have nearly 30K of points from them, quite a paltry sum, but when I add my dual core Dell and 2.0Ghz Dell to the mix it should definitely go faster.