Community TSC Project - Put your computer to good use

Merriwen

Hi all,

I have tuberous sclerosis, a genetic disorder that can affect all the organs of the body, therefore finding a cure is something very dear to my heart. I am, thankfully, healthy but unfortunately there are many children born with this disease that suffer with epilepsy, kidney tumours, autism to name but a few.

Any way, what I am asking is not that you go out and donate thousands of pounds to charity (hey, I'm broke, and let's face it, most of us on here are not desperate to give our hard earned cash away!:p)

There is a community computing project run by the Rothberg Institute for Childhood
Diseases called Community TSC.

Like other distributed computing projects, you install a client on your
computer which uses your computing power (when your computer is idle) to aid
computational research which is way beyond the computing power of a single
computer.

If you tend to leave your computer on all day and there are times when you
are likely to not be using it, then you can download the TSC client and lend
your support.

Check it out here:

http://www.childhooddiseases.org/community_tsc.html

I realise that this may not be an option to all of you, but any help would speed up the search for a cure, and that they hope will also help contribute to the search for a cure for cancer!

You can also tell your friends if you are on FACEBOOK. I have set up a group dedicated to getting the word out there, and of course, you are welcome to be my friend.

All the best wishes, :A

Kate Eliot (Merriwen):j

nifty

Just signed up, my computer is on 24/7 so glad to know its doing some good now.

Merriwen

Thank you for joining, nifty, hopefully we can start a snowball effect and loads of people will join up. :j

Thanks for your support, :T

Kate x

bestpud

I have to say I don't like the sound of this! Perhaps it's because I don't really understand it but I feel concerned about having software running on my computer and transmitting information elsewhere.

Would anyone with a bit more technical knowledge than me offer their opinion please?

Merriwen

HI Bestpud,

Please do get further information - I am not going to stand over you with a stick and prod you until you sign up, however as I have the software running on my computer, I thought I would explain a bit more as to how it works. I am not very computery, but my brother who is a computational physicist checked out the site and the programme and now runs the programme full time on his computer.

After you download the software which is quite small, the only information they ask for is a email address so that there can be a way that they can upload the data that your computer works out and pass new tasks back to your pc. There is not constant communication between your pc and their computers. Your computer is given 50 tasks to perform at each update - any information that your computer generates towards the main research is uploaded at this update.

The 'tasks' give your computer a set of drug components, 'conformers', and asks it to find which conformer is best suited to the molecule in question.

Please do ask for more info, all I can say is that it is a safe programme to run and that there a many community pc projects out there. Also if you have any questions about Tuberous Sclerosis, please ask - I have the disease and will be happy to give you as much information as I can.

If I can answer more of your questions, please feel free to ask :j

Kind Regards.
Kate x

Merriwen

You can also ask for further information on the Rothberg TSC forum:

http://www.childhooddiseases.org/cgi-tsc/ultimatebb.cgi

Hopefully that link should work )

Kate x