(Participation in this project is FREE. It makes use of unallocated resources within your PC and causes no detectable degradation of performance.)

One in four of us will at some time suffer from cancer. The high mortality rate, the suffering experienced by patients from the side effects of existing treatments, and the high costs of treatment all contribute to making cancer a priority for drug research.

By joining the United Devices network, you can have a direct benefit to cancer research. The UD software sits in the background on your PC and utilises any spare capacity to analyse data for cancer research projects. (It can also be set just to run when your computer is idle if you are concerned about your PC performance being compromised, but, in reality, there is very little overhaead and even running live you should see no degradation.)

Each individual computer analyzes a few molecules and then sends the results back over the Internet for further research. This project is anticipated to be the largest computational chemistry project ever undertaken and represents a genuine hope to find a better way to fight cancer. (You can also choose to work on anthrax or smallpox.)




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The link to the site is http://www.grid.org/projects/cancer/

Downloading the agent takes only a few minutes and once it is done it will function quite happily on its own. You can make adjustments to how and when it runs very easily. There is a very comprehensive FAQ section to help.

I have set up a MoneyAM BBers team so that we can pool our work and statistics. Why not join in and see how much of a difference MoneyAM can make?

The link to our team is MoneyAM Users Team - JOIN NOW
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Join us today and make a difference while you make money. One day you might be grateful to take advantage of the developments this research achieves.

Don't just make a donation, make a difference!

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PS Thanks to MegaBucks who suggested the idea of starting here.

Piptrader - Thanks for the advice.

The UD Agent uses only a small amount of RAM and will hold off altogether if there aren't enough resources. The only real overhead is when it is sending/receiving data and you can put it in "snooze" mode if you feel it might affect performance. (I have snooze mode set at 30 mins.)

Runs best if you set your screensaver to "none".

Piptrader,my cpu total time on this cancer project is just over 6 years and had not a single problem just install and forget all about it !!!

A CPU running at 100% will consume a fair amount more electricity than when in idle mode, and consuming electricity will make it hotter. How much more electricity depends on the make and model of CPU but perhaps 25-50W, less than a 60W lightbulb burning continuously. This will be reflected in your electricity bill but the cost will be minimal (less than 6p every 20 hours). A hotter CPU will be slightly more prone to failure but CPU failures are very uncommon and it is very unlikely that you would experience a failure before you eventually replace your machine.

Edit - I should clarify that the above comments were intended to relate to desktop computers. I probably wouldn't recommend installing the application on a laptop. For a start you would have to disable it whenever you went travelling to stop your battery being exhausted in minutes. So much of a modern laptop is concerned with saving power by turning off or slowing down the CPU when not in use. Also laptops are not really designed for constant high volume usage and the constant use of CPU and fan and heat given off might well mean an early demise.

Greystone - Mega - Kayak - many thanks for your assurances. I'd wondered if the cpu would get hotter, but I'll leave it running and see what happens.

The Team has now grown to eleven members and is really gunning it.

Thanks to everyone for their support.

Welcome to our newest member, touche.

We are now up to 15 members with GRAEME.ALEXANDER and RICK FRANCIS the best performers so far. They obviously have better 'puters than most of us. ;-)

G.

Our 15 stalwart members have now donated 297 CPU days to the cause. We have submitted 955 results between us and generated over 146,000 points.

Why not join us this weekend and put your unused PC resources to good use?

Everyone is welcome!

G.

Thanks and welcome to mostrader, the latest addition to our merry band! Now we have sixteen members.

We have now donated well over a CPU year in processing time and amassed almost 200,000 points from the 1,289 results we have returned.

Great going!

Come and join us. It only takes a few minutes to set up and is quite painless. You will find the instructions in the opening post here.

If you have any problems getting signed up, I'm sure a question posted to this thread will find the answer for you.

G.

"Today I will spend sometime looking for a cure to cancer"
This is a great oppertunity to contribute.
skg.

skg - Thanks. You will be very welcome. It is hard to think of a better cause.

More than happy to join the team - although my mouse went all peculiar when I went to the Team page - changed the batteries and now fine ;)

Thanks guys. Our Team is now 18 strong - soon to be 19 - and has now contributed over one and a half CPU years to the cause. We have sent in 1,847 results and accumulated almost 300,000 points.

I hit a personal target today by sending my 100th result. :-)

G.

A quick look at the stats shows our Team is now 19 strong and has generated over 2 CPU years of processing for the cause.

We have now accumulated almost 380,000 points and returned 2,341 results.

Great going!

Why not join us? It only takes a few minutes to get set up and working and it costs you nothing at all. You won't even notice it is running.

I saw this week that, during a power cut when my PC switch to battery power, the UD system suspended itself to conserve my battery. Smart stuff!

G.

I would like to join but I run only on a laptop - I see someone has posted that it is not a good idea to run it on a laptop - is this right??

I run an IBMThinkpad R40e with 512mb ram and I am on a dialup!! would this be tooooooo painful?

SM

supermum - I am running on a Tosh laptop with similar spec and dial-up. Slows a bit when sending results and receiving data but otherwise no problem.

If I'm real busy, I just send it into "snooze" mode or shut it down for a while.

Give it a try. If you find it is "toooooo painful", the uninstall works very cleanly. :-)

G.

SM

Also running on a tosh laptop (though with broadband) - dont even notice it is there!

You only need the internet conection for about 1 % of the time. It is only used to upload the result and to get the next task.
Graeme.

ok guys - you convinced me! hard wasn't it? LOL I had problems with it before on my old PC and it NEVER worked - this time I will be more determined.... as this laptop is kept just for trading - I have 62% unused space - and would rather it did something useful..

SM

sm well done,it all helps !!!

Mega...

Mega- I am having problems logging in - this was what happened to me before :-(
SM