Do you have a computer that’s just sitting around your home, taking up space? Is your laptop staring longingly at you, begging to be useful while you delicately touch your iPad?
We could all use a place to put some positive energy. Folding@home is one of those places. The basic jist of Folding@home is pretty simple; through free software, your computer’s CPU and GPU (if you have one) are connected to hive mind, like the Borg. This hive mind can be used to simulate proteins like the ones in COVID-19 on an atomic level, searching out weak points in them that life-saving drugs could bound to and weaken.
That is a very, VERY high-level view of it, but hey; if you’re stuck at home and your computer isn’t getting put to much work, check it out and donate some of that compute to finding a way to beat COVID-19 and a host of other diseases, like breast cancer and Alzheimer. The only cost to you is maybe an uptick in your electricity bill, but even that is worth it for a good cause.
Check it out here.
I have a question about Folding@home. They’ve been around for 20 years. Have any new drugs or therapies resulted from their 768 x86 petaFLOPS (which is a LOT)? There have been some research papers published, but most of them have dealt with the computing and networking aspects of folding@home. NOTE: I’m not saying they don’t do good. I just have the same questions for them that I would any other non-profit to whom I would donate. Also, are the results of folding@home’s crowd-sourced work public domain?
…they seem like good questions…but also folding@home seems pretty cool?
…not sure I have anything laying about that could serve since currently the various vintages of tech I’m trying to get to do various things are making a great show of struggling as it is…so I guess my first question would probably have to do with the impact on my home network, which isn’t nearly as good a question, really
Something else which will be positive in the world,and excellent for those of us who will be/are spending lots of time at home over the next few weeks…
From twitter, @levarburton’s twitter feed in particular😃😁🤗💖
Tweet 1;
“I’ve been busting my brain for about a week now trying to figure out how to do a live-streamed version of #LeVarBurtonReads. I figured that during this difficult time I could contribute by reading aloud to folks who could use some diversion for themselves and their families.”
2;
“In order to avoid legal complications, I’ve gone down the rabbit hole searching through volumes of short stories in the public domain for appropriate content for families and have come up empty.”
There are also tweets 3 & 4;
“These are amazing suggestions y’all. Thanks for your input!
MORE NEWS SOON!”
“In the meantime if you’re an adult craving some story time, check out the podcast.
https://t.co/FPEoARNWz3 ”
And THEN there was this, in response😍🤩🤗
@nealhimself:
“You have my blanket permission for any of my stories Levar.”
@doctorow:
“Feel free to use any of my work, LeVar, CC or not!”
@SandyBoynton:
“I’d be amazed and honored to have you read any of my books. And my publishers @SimonKIDS and @WorkmanPub would happily send them to you. Thrive. Stay safe.”
and this, from @MaryRobinette;
“Hi! President of @SFWA here. I can connect you with members of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America who would be happy to donate stories to help.”
This is SUCH awesome news, and it’ll be SO good🤗🤗🤗
…is there any possibility you mean @neilhimself?
…neal in that context is, I think, an account to do with the White Collar tv show whereas neil would be Neil Gaiman?
Yes,sorry & thanks!!
I couldn’t do a copy/paste on their names,so typo-ed it😖🥴 (every other time Twitter does an update,I lose the ability to link tweets, because I need to re-find the spot to snag the whole tweet🙃)