BOINC?

[tlehnhaeuser]

I have just purchased a custom computer which came with this BOINC software pre-installed

http://boinc.berkeley.edu/

 

I am trying to understand what it does but not sure. My take is that the person who customized this whitebox computer for me installed this and is allowing the general public (or at least students) to use my computer remotely for computer power resources.

 

Can anyone correct me if I'm wrong?

 

Thanks

Tom

 

[Mike Twining]

Tom-

That stuff is similar to SETI@HOME (if you ever recall that; this is basically the "new" version). It basically uses your computers' idle cpu cycles (i.e. when you are not using the machine) to chew on some downloaded data chunk for the purposes of finding a solution to a problem of your choosing. You can look for space aliens or the cure to cancer... the choice is yours.

The software itself is harmless; it should only run when your computer is idle (like when it detects the screen saver is on), and should increase your computing karma.

 

Now... I would be concerned that some other dude is getting credit for your hard work... If you want your karma points; be sure to enter in your own user information (e-mail is what it takes I think).

 

If it all sounds too much, you can uninstall it without any side-effects.