SETI, the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence needs your help. In possibly the largest cooperative parallel computing project ever, your computer can help.
Thanks to the SETI@home project, you can download a screen saver (or, for Linux types, a background job) and let it process while it would normally sit idle.
The job is simple: perform analysis on data gathered from the Arecibo radio telescope, looking for a radio signal from far far away.
Most people just leave their computers on. I do, you probably do, etc. I've got three of them (the most powerful ones here) chunking away at the blocks of data we're given.
I feel good about it. The first data block had 2 spikes and 1 gaussian within. Now, for the first time I have a legitimate excuse to get a faster computer.
BTW, for those who know the squishyfish network, it's Valkyrie, Gwynne, and Beeline running the jobs... all 486 class machines at 133, 100, and 66 Mhz, respectively.
Join in the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence ... SETI@home