Join Us, Cure the World.

Alright, so maybe “Cure the World” is a bit of a stretch but with Folding at Home you really can make a difference. Many of you will know about the PS3′s ability to let you use its processing power, when idle, to help out the boffins at Stanford University. Basically what you’re doing is allowing the University to send you little packets of data that your PS3 fiddles with and returns the results. It falls to far more intelligent men than I to explain how it works or how the data is useful. For me it’s just enough to know that when I’m not using my PS3 it can be helping to cure some terrible ailments. That’s a good thing isn’t it?

What I didn’t know, until recently when Jas-n (who generally looks after all the TSA folding stuff and doesn’t get nearly enough credit for it – Kudos to you, Jas-n!) had a quiet word, was that you can also do “Folding” on your PC. So when you’re switched on and connected to the internet your PC can be relaying the same life-saving information back to those clever folk at Stanford. The little applet which you have to download from here is perfectly safe, small and only uses the resources that you are not making use of. There’s really no reason why we shouldn’t all be doing it. Such a small amount of hassle for us (5 minutes will download and install the software) could potentially be helping to ease the suffering of millions of people and possibly prevent the suffering of millions yet to come.

Now, I know we’re supposed to do these things for the good of our fellow human beings and I do. Mostly. It’s also nice to know that you’re doing something good isn’t it? So I like to feel a little smug to myself when I know I’m doing something nice and helpful. That’s where the team numbers come in. Folding at Home allows you to join a team and “fold” for that team. All the stats are kept together and it ranks your team. Currently TheSixthAxis has a good team of folders who are folding their way through work units like an Obsessive-Compulsive origami expert but we always want more. So switch the option on your PS3 to “On” (it’s in the PlayStation Life section) and download the PC application. With your help we can get TSA’s team inside the top 1000 teams in the world and then we can all feel that little bit more collectively smug about ourselves.

Go here to download the Folding at Home PC application.

Sign up to team 78731 to add yourself to the TSA team.

Visit this forum thread for more information and regular updates to how we’re doing.