Well, actually this is Goodbye.

Why did I crunch for (very nearly) a whole year? I was very excited to find a 'real' use for the concept of distributed computing, and found the folding of proteins for a general 'database', applicable to many fields of research, to be a very worthwhile way of helping the scientific community. If you like, I was high on the good feeling that I was contributing to something very valuable. In a way, it was like giving to charity, or at least gave a similar 'good feeling'.

When the Human Proteome project was supplanted by the Fight Aids one, I felt a little deflated. I have no axe to grind in any way about Aids, and can see that this is a very valuable project in it's own right. It's just that the project doesn't excite me in the way the protein folding did. I know I could have simply set my preference to do only the Proteome project, but I felt that this was in some way 'cheating'. If WCG wants me to fit drug molecules into the virus, then that's what I'll do.

So why am I now leaving?

I have become more and more alarmed about the coming cataclysmic effects of both global waming and peak oil. I really get upset about the blind faith and 'head in the sand' attitudes of the majority of the world's population. Anything I can do to enlighten and inform people about the coming crisis for all humanity will be my major interest. So, I'm off to join in the Boinc project for the BBC's global warming modelling. Good results in the modelling should help defeat the nay-sayers and clarify both our knowledge and need to prepare for the coming difficult times. The end is nigh, and I want to make a better sandwich board.

I'll keep on crunching, but not here any more.

Momist

Nothing to stop you running BOTH projects under BOINC.

I have been running proteome folding and FAAH for a year using the UD client. I now run BOINC with Climate Prediction and WCG projects as well. For a while I ran BOINC and the UD client together. I could still switch clients.

A new folding project phase is to start soon, so it is still important. Aids drugs are vital - and if a large proportion of the research has been from our charitable source - maybe even Africans will be able to afford them (intended swipe at drug companies)! As for Aids not exciting in you the same spirit as the proteome folding - I think you ned to take another look - there are millions of reasons to help...

The future of the planet is also very dear to me! I am not personally too bothered to find little green men - we would probably only fight them anyway! But good luck to any cruncher who considers these "less humanitarian" projects important.

I hope you are not disillusuioned. We have to accept that these modelling projects are huge and complex, they dont have definite completion dates or even any promises of outcome (which is why they use the grig). But let us not be discouraged by this - this is the nature of science.

If you were dissilusioned by the lack of quick results from the previous projects, then I warn you that the project you are considering joining is one that models the most unpredictable chaotic system we know - dont expect a clear answer from it tomorrow! This has already been modelled on supercomputers - and the results predicted range from no change at all to an uninhabitable planet! But it is still important to help and still worth a go.

Robert