gHacks technology news » charity http://www.ghacks.net A technology blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:43:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 Use spare processing power for science http://www.ghacks.net/2008/12/15/use-spare-processing-power-for-science/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/12/15/use-spare-processing-power-for-science/#comments Mon, 15 Dec 2008 21:26:44 +0000 Joe http://www.ghacks.net/?p=9071 A computer’s processor and RAM are often not fully used, especially, for example, at nights when files are being downloaded. Instead of allowing it to go to waste, one can donate their spare computer resources to numerous projects which use BOINC.

BOINC allows people to give a certain percentage of their computer’s resources to different causes, which the person selects. This saves these projects from having to buy a supercomputer, as small parts of what has to be processed are sent to thousands of computers which process them. This software is available for Windows, Linux and OS X.

About 25 projects utilise BOINC, ranging from projects which find prime numbers, the future of our planet’s climate, aliens (the famous SETI@Home project) and even proteins which could fight diseases like HIV.

After BOINC is installed, the user must associate themselves with the projects and create an account there. Each project with which a user registers records all of that user’s activities and places them in a league table for the amount they’ve processed. Users can associate multiple computers to an account and join groups, whose combined activities place them in a league.

BOINC allows users to choose the proportion of resources dedicated to certain projects and ensures more powerful computers get more credit than less powerful, slower ones.

Certain projects have attractive visualisations too, which depict the information being processed. SETI’s can be used as a screensaver, which shows which parts of the radio telescope’s data is being analysed.

Some problems with BOINC are its power consumption, which can deteriorate a laptop’s battery, and that it makes computers hotter and consequently noisier. The GUI is also quite confusing!

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Related posts

]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/12/15/use-spare-processing-power-for-science/feed/ 6 Help charity effortlessly through the web http://www.ghacks.net/2008/11/15/help-charity-effortlessly-through-the-web/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/11/15/help-charity-effortlessly-through-the-web/#comments Fri, 14 Nov 2008 23:08:55 +0000 Joe http://www.ghacks.net/?p=8284 Charity can be helped significantly through minor changes to what we done online; by changing search engines, buying through a portal or even simply installing a Firefox extension. This article will highlight several of these worldwide.

UK

In the UK, Everyclick is a website which provides an Ask-based search engine which donates much of its revenue to a charity of your choice (so the more you search, the more they donate) and also provides an online shop with links to most major retailers, with a commission being donated. Nearly any registered charity can sign up for this service.

ClickNow styles itself as ‘the community search engine’ and provides portals for over 200 of British charities. These portals also include an Ask-powered search engine, ’shopping malls’ (with commission going to charity) and a travel agency, where 5% of the cost of the holiday goes to charity. However, this site does not seem as good as Everyclick as each charity has its own distinct portal and the site’s design is not attractive.

US

Windows Live provides Americans with a search engine, Search and Give, which contributes to nearly any American charity or school, which the user desires. The site is very clean and simple compared to many charity search engines and is not plastered with advetisements. Windows Live Messenger’s ‘i’m’ initiative is another way, where if a certain emoticon is used in IMs, money will go to charity.

GoodSearch is another option for Americans, which seems to be very similar to Everyclick but is powered by Yahoo!. GoodSearch also provides an option to shop online ad let charities collect a commission.

Europe

VeoSearch is a charity search engine with a European focus, earning money for British, French, Belgian, German and Swiss charities, which are involved with social work, environment protection or sustainable economics. The search engine is available in French, German and English.

US, Europe and Japan

Effortless Good is a Firefox extension which donates a percentage of any purchases made on Amazon US, UK, Canada, France, Germany or Japan. This runs completely in the background!

Most of these tools take a cut for themselves, either for profit or for development, and this is worth investigating before using. Registration is also usually required, so it is known which charities are being supported.

Tags: ,

Related posts

]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/11/15/help-charity-effortlessly-through-the-web/feed/ 0 8-foot long Star Wars Attack Cruiser http://www.ghacks.net/2005/12/21/8-foot-long-star-wars-attack-cruiser/ http://www.ghacks.net/2005/12/21/8-foot-long-star-wars-attack-cruiser/#comments Wed, 21 Dec 2005 08:21:32 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=240 Now this one is huge. The attack cruiser was build by Erik Varszegi exclusively for display at Star Wars Celebration III. It even got a framed certificate of authenticity by George Lucas himself.

Stem to stern the model is 97 inches long and 47 inches wide, weighs over 150 pounds and is created using over 35,000 pieces!

The model is currently on sale at ebay with the current bid at 31000$. Take a look at the ebay auction and see for yourself: Incredible piece of lego-art.

star wars attack cruiser lego

Tags: , , , , , ,

Related posts

]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2005/12/21/8-foot-long-star-wars-attack-cruiser/feed/ 1