Green seems to be the new trend.

We’re all constantly reminded that we have habits that are unsustainable or otherwise unhealthy to our environment. We’re reminded that we can do better, and we really have almost no excuse not to.

I currently have one laptop, one desktop, one server, and I intend on purchasing another server in the coming months to help me along with certifications.  I have considered Amazon’s solution which seems to be growing in popularity – renting a visualized server.  But I’m not going to argue the advantages and disadvantages of alternate solutions.  Instead, I want to discuss briefly, what we can do even if we’re not entirely green.

When I purchase my server, for example, I will look for a green solution.  But that doesn’t account for the machines I already have that are (most of the time) on 24-hours a day.  Today I watched a somewhat disturbing documentary that highlighted the reality of the earth being struck by a meteor.  The chances are (supposedly) one in 20,000.  Or – pretty damn good that we’re gonna get hit.  It’s not really a question of if so much as a question of when.  I think (tongue in cheek) the question isn’t even when so much as, will we kill ourselves off via nuclear war, or messing about with the natural cycles of the earth, first.

BOINC is a project that allows you to donate your unused computing power (say, when you’re asleep) to projects you care about.  There’s plenty of information about, so I won’t regurgitate.  Know this; there are projects for AIDS, cancer, protein folding, etcetera.  I’m downloading it now, and donating my unused CPU cycles (on all of my machines) to finding meteors that are out there, trying to kill us.  Nature is rolling the die, do you feel lucky?

[Download BOIC here: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/index.php]

[Link to Orbit BOINC project: http://orbit.psi.edu/oah/]

Originally posted 2009-10-06 01:16:51.