Help medical research for free (almost)
You can download robust software from www.wcgrid.org that crunches for medicine. Entirely non profit philanthropy.
So far there are 400000 members worldwide. Software can be downloaded for Windows Linux and the Mac. It runs low priority, can be setup to use the cpu and network at times that suit you. Once setup with network access operation can require little or no intervention.
Everything you need to know and download is at www.wcgrid.org . There is a forum inhabited by Community Advisors who have been there for years! And the jokes thread is not bad.
So far there are 400000 members worldwide. Software can be downloaded for Windows Linux and the Mac. It runs low priority, can be setup to use the cpu and network at times that suit you. Once setup with network access operation can require little or no intervention.
Everything you need to know and download is at www.wcgrid.org . There is a forum inhabited by Community Advisors who have been there for years! And the jokes thread is not bad.
Did (or will) anybody take a look, or even join? 
Understandable. You choose what to reveal via a password protected account. I signed up to their newsletter, but I don't recall the last time I saw one they are so infrequent. I believe IBM contribute resources, and I believe IBM are reputable. I don't believe they are interested in selling emails to spammers.
As for bandwidth usage, whilst I would not recommend contributing via dialup connection, I was able to for a year - just to give you some idea. Basically workunits are downloaded and results uploaded every 8 to 100 hours depending on the project, and each workunit size - depending on project - varies between under a megabyte to 9Mb. The first time you introduce your machine to a new project there may be a bit more to upload.
New projects come along rarely, and take months to complete one phase.
BTW the clean(ish) jokes are here;- http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewthread?thread=13032 at least for the moment. You have to read a lot before you find a real gem, but there are one or two.
As for bandwidth usage, whilst I would not recommend contributing via dialup connection, I was able to for a year - just to give you some idea. Basically workunits are downloaded and results uploaded every 8 to 100 hours depending on the project, and each workunit size - depending on project - varies between under a megabyte to 9Mb. The first time you introduce your machine to a new project there may be a bit more to upload.
New projects come along rarely, and take months to complete one phase. BTW the clean(ish) jokes are here;- http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewthread?thread=13032 at least for the moment. You have to read a lot before you find a real gem, but there are one or two.
I've just re-started on the Oxford University/BBC Global warming model.
Realised that one of the cores on my dual-core PC does virtually nothing - so I've limited it to use 1 CPU.
Realised that one of the cores on my dual-core PC does virtually nothing - so I've limited it to use 1 CPU.