Do amazing things with your computer

Do amazing things with your computer

Submitted By S.Saravana Meikkannan On 5^th March,2011

              A computer is a powerful machine, much more than we usually think. Is common to say that a PC has more computing power than the machines that helped take people to the moon. But  today computers also, and smart-phones, not only are feats of hardware development but also of software. A computer can run a browser, connect to Internet and be used to write letters but also can do much more, sometimes by itself, and sometimes it can help you to do something truly amazing.

Find aliens and stars

SETI@home  is a computing project that uses Internet-connected computers to search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. The system works using the computing power of hundred of computers to analyze radio signals, searching for signs of extre terrestrial Intelligence. Or something more specific, to find radio signals that cannot be easily explained. So far the project has not detected any alien, but it already identified several sky portions that could be interesting candidates. The program had reached to 5.2 million participants world wide and since its launch the project has logged over two million years of aggregate computing time.

But although this project can fill your imagination, is one of over 50 similar distributed-computing projects. They reach to molecular biology, climate modelling, quantum chemistry, chess problems and many more subjects. Recently on June 11th Einstein@home made its first discovery: a pulsar drifting through space all by itself. This is a previously unknown neutron star spinning 40.8 times per second. One more of the only 2000 known.

You can search for any project here and give it a try.

Detect Earthquakes :

The computing power of your machine is not the only powerful device you have. Computers like MacBook or MacBook Pro have a sudden motion sensors that can be used to detect earthquakes, or more mundane movements like your neighbors party or to mesure your strength hiting the table. SeisMac turns your computer in a seismograph and helps you watch your surroundings. When running on the MacBook or MacBook Pro, SeisMac has a range of plus or minus two gravities of acceleration, displaying 256 values per gravity, sampled up to five hundred times per second for each axis. You can try the program for free.

In a related project in United Stets a team of developers are developing a digital seismograph similar to the SeisMac, that communicates its date via the Internet. This "NetQuakes" seismographs are adpoted by internet users and will help to improve the ability to make rapid post-earthquake assessments of expected damage and quick respons warnings.

Fold Proteins :

Foldit is a experimental video game that you can install in your computer. The games helps to understand better how proteins can be folded. The process by which living beings create the primary structure of proteins is reasonably well understood, but determining how the primary structure of a protein turns into a functioning three-dimensional structure is more difficult, and the computers are not exactly good in doing it. So, Foldit is a video game that first teaches you how to fold a protein, and then, using the natural 3D pattern matching abilities of your brain to learn how we do it. The game displays a graphical representation of the protein's structure which the user is able to manipulate with the aid of a set of tools. As the structure is changed a “score” is calculated based on how well the proteins are folded. The better the folded the better.

At the beginning is a little to understand what is exactly a well-folded protein, but once your brain understands this and recognizes the patern the game gets challenging. You can download it for free for Linux, Winodws or Mac.

Discover meteor craters and ancient ruins

With Google Earth and other services in our computer we have literally the whole world at our fingers. But even if the whole world is charted and photograph we haven't see it completely and is possible to find something new if we look close enough. Emilio González, for example, discovered two important craters, and professor Lee Berger use it to find a rare hominid ancestor in South Africa and even Roman Ruins in Italy by Luca Mori. But before you start reporting discoveries don't forget to check the Earth Impact Database and use the Google Earth Community layer to see if what you find is actually new, or just another circle in the ground.

Help to read old books

This is something that you are already doing it without knowing it. reCaptcha is a system that uses CAPTCHA to help digitize texts. The system originally developed at Carnegie Mellon University, supplies websites that uses their plug-in with images of words that OCR software was unable to read. So when you are decifering a CAPTCHA to sign in or to send a comment, you are helping a computer to understand a word in an old book.

What other amazing things can you do with your computer? …..

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