This article is originally created by 10101, but I hope more people will repost it, thank you. If someone had asked me before how to help those in need, my thoughts would be: 1. To become a doctor without borders (www.msf.org.hk); 2. Join the Red Cross; 3. Make donations. But recently, I accidentally discovered a group of people who are helping a lot of people in the world. The correct statement should be that they are fighting against diseases for all mankind, but their strength is very weak and they also need help from others. What are they? They are a research organization from the University of California, currently dedicated to decoding diseases that are currently difficult to treat such as cancer, AIDS, dengue fever, etc. They need to use computers to crack the cells or virus genes of the above-mentioned diseases in order to develop drugs to fight them. Their strength is very limited, without many powerful supercomputers, without much research funding, without many modern facilities seen on TV, but they have a kind of wisdom and have come up with a way for friends who want to help others to participate together. We don't have to become doctors without borders, we don't have to join the Red Cross, we don't have to make donations, we can also contribute to the research - as long as we are willing to help others, we can participate - distributed computing! Use the remaining resources of your computer to do something meaningful for all mankind! After I saw the website of this organization, I felt that this distributed computing is very meaningful. It is generally difficult for schools or non-profit research institutions to obtain powerful large computer systems to quickly analyze some human diseases that are difficult to cure, such as cancer, AIDS, dengue fever, even the recent avian influenza and various kinds of pathogenic viruses or cancer cell genes. Thus, the concept of distributed computing was born. This concept is: for example, if it takes 100,000 years to completely calculate the gene mutation of cancer cells using the computer of a research institution, we can simply think that if there are 100,000 computers, each machine helps to calculate a block, then it will take only one year to crack this gene structure, and then drugs can be developed to treat this kind of cancer. Let me give a simpler example, have you ever seen a map? The meaning of distributed computing is: a big computing project is like a very wide and large map. If one person has to measure all the places within the range of this map and then draw it out, it will take 100 years (36500 days) to complete. However, if this map is divided into 1000 areas and 1000 staff members each go to their own area to measure and draw their part of the map, after completing, everyone gathers together and puts the maps they have measured and drawn together, then it will only take 36500 days / 1000 = 36.5 days to complete the whole large map. Isn't this the spirit of division of labor and cooperation, unity of hearts and efforts? Now what we need is this spirit of division of labor. The computing performance of our current computers is not much different from the super servers of a few years ago, or even surpasses them. You can right-click on the taskbar at the bottom of the screen, select "Task Manager", then select "Performance" to see the currently used computer resources. The computational power we usually use generally does not exceed 10%, and the remaining 90% is waiting for the computer. Why don't we donate a part of the extra resources? Since January 3, 2008, when I joined the calculation until now, the computer starts automatically starting this calculator, it will load some calculation blocks in pieces, after the calculation is completed, it will automatically send it back to the research institution. This process requires no manual intervention, and it occupies extremely small resources. It can also be set to start calculating when the system is idle. Throughout the entire process of using the computer, I won't even notice its existence. Since we don't have to pay anything to help others (destiny is unpredictable, maybe one day we'll help relatives and friends, or even ourselves), why not do it? The URL of this organization: http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org Everyone might as well take a look. There are a lot of participants on the site, and there are forums where people exchange ideas and suggestions. However, currently, there are very few people from our country participating, which makes me feel a bit disappointed. I hope it's because of the language barrier, but the English on the site is very simple, it shouldn't be difficult for us descendants of Yan and Huang. If you're willing to participate, just click on the icon that says "Download Now" on the homepage, then simply fill in some information, including a nickname, email address, etc., just like registering a user ID for a forum on a website. Also, you need to choose the group you belong to (many people are from a school or an organization where all members participate). If you don't want to join any group, you can choose not to join a group. Even if you like, you can establish a new group. Then the website will let you download a calculation program. After installing this program (this program supports simplified Chinese display), you basically don't have to worry about it (of course, if you like, you can always manually intervene in its work, you can also adjust its working method and the amount of resources it uses). It will start with the computer, download one or more calculation blocks when the computer is idle, calculate one block and then the next block, upload the completed ones back to the website, and then download new calculation blocks to continue calculating, over and over again. You won't feel its existence. It will quietly do its job, and it will also quietly calculate your score for you, letting you know how much you've contributed. This website is not a profit-making organization, and the computer equipment they currently use is sponsored by IBM. We shouldn't expect to get anything, what we get is helping others. As a saying goes in the Bible: "It is more blessed to give than to receive." As a member of humanity, don't let yourself live on Earth every day just competing or consuming resources. Let's do something for those in need. The research institution is from the University of California, Berkeley. I hope everyone will check out their organization's webpage (although the webpage doesn't currently have a Chinese version, I sent an email to the school a few days ago asking if I could help them translate a complete Chinese version, but the reply I received was that they are already doing this). Hopefully, a Chinese version of the webpage will be available soon. The URL is: http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/. If you are interested in joining the calculation team and encounter any problems, please feel free to comment on this post, and I will try my best to answer any questions you may have. PS. Currently, I am in the "CFIDO" group, which is the China Wide Network. If you are a friend or member of the early China Wide Network, you are welcome to join. If not, you are also welcome to join, or you can establish a new group, or you can independently calculate without joining any group. In addition, if you are a doctor, if you can participate in Doctors Without Borders, it is a great honor. The website for Doctors Without Borders: www.msf.org.hk Related articles for re-posting: It is precisely the crisis. This article is re-posted by the fastest rebate network http://www.zuikuaifanli.com