Folding Forum

I have a new idea here.
It seems that a lot of F@H contributors have a lot of computers laying around in their home doing just F@A work.
Occurs to me that, those computer can be better utilized, such as donating to someone who needs a computer to do basic internet and write papers.

It would be beneficial, if those of us that have the computers, are willing to donate to those in need. In return, those individuals who need the computer, must do their best to keep the computer on 24/7 to crunch for Distributed Computing, and preferably using the username of the donor. The idea is somewhat similar to "Adopt a rig", only that I am talking about computers based on recent technology, such as the Core 2 Duo/Quads.

At this moment, I have several computers doing just F@H or BOINC. I am willing to give out these computers to those that have a use for it, but must run the Distributed Computing program under my username.

I know that electricity would add up, but it doesn't really matter to those that would leave their computer on all the time. In addition, I am talking about the new Core 2 Duo CPUs, which is a whole lot more efficient than the Pentium 4 era.

This program would be especially suitable for those going to college or going to live in dorms where electricity is covered.

Some of the Rule's I've come up with are:
1. The donor or receiver decides who pays for shipping to the receiver. Preferably the receiver should pay.
2. The receiver must do his/her best to keep the machine on 24/7, running the distributed computing program as specified by the donor. The donor can ask the receiver to run the Distributed computing client under the donor's name.
3. The computer can be used for internet, basic word processing, etc. If the receiver is going to run "CPU intensive" tasks, it must be limited to only few hours a day, as these computers are suppose to run for Distributed computing projects.
4. Poor college students should receive priority, as well as non-profit organizations who are helping out for other causes.

Please give me any feedbacks, suggestions, and what to add to the rules.

To the moderators: If this is a good idea, please add it as a STICKY.

You have to remember, that a lot of people that can't afford a computer, couldn't afford one running
24/7 either.
I have donated many of my old computers, to churches, childrens computer knowledge classes, VFW, and
American Legion, to be used/given to those in need.
I agree that it would be nice to get more computers running, but I don't think that this would be a good way.

As far as the "poor college students" etc, goes, there are many free computers for them.

The concept of FOLDING @ HOME, I believe, is individuals, during it, for their own reasons.
Going to the extent of, I will give you a computer, "IF", does not fall under the concept. imhp

Over the years I've donated several computers to people in need. On one occasion I gave away a computer to someone with the only stipulation being that they had to run f@h on it for a month (under whatever username they wanted). It seemed to work pretty well, but in reality once you give a computer away it's gone and you really can't do much about it if they don't want to run f@h. I wanted the person to run f@h for a month just to see that it really didn't affect their use of the computer and when it comes down to it, the extra power used is minimal if you are running a standard client and turn the computer off when not in use. The beta clients require much more commitment to run because of their shorter deadlines and higher equipment requirements. Running the standard client in the background or as a screen saver has very little impact on computer performance and the longer deadlines allow users to shut down their systems when not in use without fear of missing the deadline.

A donation is not a donation when there are strings attached.

All I am saying was to make more use of computers, instead of sitting in the rack.

7im wrote:A donation is not a donation when there are strings attached.

chungenhung, do YOU want to tell people, what is "better" for them?
Let everyone has right to decide on their own.

You can always make a contract to someone getting a computer from you where she/he is required to donate time and electricity to your cause. Being it something simple than running the FAH client or something else, is between you and the other party. If they do not like it then they will not get a computer from you. It is that simple.