Distributed Computing aka Chris is a nerd

About 98% of what I know about computers, technology and all that other stuff, I've learned from my friend Chris. He's a computer engineering major who creates Facebook applications in his spare time. So when I was talking to him last week about the discussion we had in class on contributory creation of new technologies, he's like, "Yeah, it's SETI at home, but more interactive." And I said, "Uh, what???"

He then explained to me in slightly condescending terms that SETI is the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence - a government funded program of satellites north of San Francisco that constantly collect data from outer space, hoping to find some intelligent communication. It's a bunch of satellites that face the sky, so the picture to the right probably looks familiar.

After telling me the basics, he started to explain what SETI@home is. Essentially, starting in 1999, people could go to the SETI@home website and download a program. The program would send packets of unanalyzed information to your computer, and while your computer was in its screen saver mode, it would use your computer's power to sort through the information.

Image by Michael Heilemann via Flickr

The analyzed information was then sent back to a lab in Berkeley. It was a cheap way to have the computing power of tens of thousands of computers without having to purchase a painfully expensive super computer. As of January 29, 2008 the SETI@home achieved an average throughput of 387 TeraFLOPS, making it equivalent to the second fastest supercomputer on Earth.

If extra terrestrials aren't your thing, there are other options. Protein folding, LIGO, CERN and other projects are all looking to borrow your computing power. It's a way to contribute, without really doing much at all.