Projects that utilize idle PC's to do work

[Allochthonous]

Several years back, I had a friend who participated in the SETI @home project where you installed a program that downloaded data from radio telescopes, let your PC crunch the data during its idle time, and then sent the results back to the web site.

I have always thought that utilizing the power of all the millions of PC's sitting idle at any given moment to do something productive was a great concept, but although the search for extra terrestrial life is an interesting venture, I wished that there was some project that I could play a part in that would be more beneficial to mankind.

Does anyone know what I am talking about and are there any current projects such as this?  Or with the advancement of processors over the past few years, is this type of project a moot point, as any individual machine could do just as well to crunch the data?

PK

[Raptor]

The developers of Prime95 are looking for the next prime number... Or something like that.

Mersenne Prime Search

[patio]

Or This

patio.  8-)

[Calum]

Or This

I was going to mention that, Folding @ Home....
The desktop runs it as it is left idle a lot
I don't run it on my laptop because I shut it down when not in use, plus I worry about heat problems running the CPU at 100% all the time may cause....yes I know you can set it to use less but still....

[patio]

I would not suggest it for any laptop...

[xonnected]

I have always thought that utilizing the power of all the millions of PC's sitting idle at any given moment to do something productive was a great concept

Trojans that attack micro$haft are indeed great.

But seriously, yeah. I remember this software from a few years ago, but unfortunately nowerdays internet providers generally make you pay for going over bandwidth limits. :|

[patio]

I have always thought that utilizing the power of all the millions of PC's sitting idle at any given moment to do something productive was a great concept

Trojans that attack micro$haft are indeed great.

But seriously, yeah. I remember this software from a few years ago, but unfortunately nowerdays internet providers generally make you pay for going over bandwidth limits. :|

HuH ? ? ?

[Raptor]

I have always thought that utilizing the power of all the millions of PC's sitting idle at any given moment to do something productive was a great concept

Trojans that attack micro$haft are indeed great.

But seriously, yeah. I remember this software from a few years ago, but unfortunately nowerdays internet providers generally make you pay for going over bandwidth limits. :|

HuH ? ? ?

Time to switch provider, then.