After discovering that running my computers (modestly used as they are) cost over half of what I pay for electricity every year, I started thinking about how my computers could be put to better use.

I remembered a little known yet well established concept; volunteer computing, which I used to partake in years ago (I can’t think why I actually stopped being involved before). Which basically involves installing a program on your PC which uses your space cpu cycles to work on scientific projects. A central server for a project hands out small chunks to each volunteered computer over the internet and collates the results.

It would appear that this technology has come along in leaps and bounds since I last looked into it, as there are now dozens upon dozens of these projects, all of which have settled on a common framework known as BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing).

I have a very powerful desktop machine (quad-core Phenom 2.5Ghz) which means during daily use I barely scratch the surface of my computers ability.

With BOINC installed however I am constantly using nearly 100%, though despite this I do not notice any loss in performance while running applications.

This is because all other processes take priority over the BOINC client, it simply uses up whatever CPU power you have spare.

It makes me wonder how much quicker, big scientific problems could be solved if every computer in the world was running this software.

The BOINC client is available on most standard platforms and operating systems and is open source so can be modified to run on potentially any system.

Most linux distributions have the software available from their repositories via package management tools such as Yum and Aptitude. If you have a powerful computer that does not use 100% of it cpu time, can you justify not having this software installed?

Full details and install instructions can be found at http://boinc.berkeley.edu

I often wonder how and why this sort of thing happens to me. I’m sure it must happen to other people but sometimes it just does feel like the world is out to get me in the most subtle yet soul destroying ways.

A few days ago when I woke up I could hear a smoke alarm going off next door. Nothing unusual there, smoke alarms do go off and it was breakfast time. Probably just someone burning their toast. True to form the alarm kept stopping and then going off again a moment later (like all good smoke alarms do when toast is burning near by) however, I started to doubt this after it was still doing this 2 hours later. Who burns toast for 2 hours?

It soon became apparent that something was wrong and so I tried to contact the owners of the house next door [Samara Properties]. Their maintenance office was closed for the bank holiday, though strangely their sales office was open. Either way their was no-one able to help until the next day, after which it still took them another day or so to get the right keys and get into the flat where the dodgy smoke alarm was chirping away all day and night.

It was a minor thing but it drove me absolutely insane. I can’t get over how happy I still feel about the fact that it has stopped. Does this happen a lot or was I just extremely unlucky?

Now I could go off onto a rant about how terrible BT are, and I’m sure there are many who would concur with their negative experiences. I would certainly be fair to say that things did not go smoothly when we first signed up, but it certainly was better then some.

We have had our line less than two months now and I have already had to call BT regarding a fault. I noticed it last Friday, though it probably happened at least a week earlier. Like many people I don’t actually use my landline, I just have it for my internet connection. It was only when I tried to call an 0800 number that I realised there was a loud buzzing. No wonder my router was only syncing at 5mbps for the past week! There as me thinking it was because I downgraded the firmware. Turns out it was some loose wiring somewhere.

Anyway, I reported this to BT who informed me they’d aim to get the problem resolved within 48 hours. Naturally, it being bank holiday weekend, I expected that to mean Wednesday or Thursday. Turns out they were serious, I got a call on Sunday morning, asking me to check the line again. Everything was fixed, hurrah!

So despite their general bad rep, they’re doing something right somewhere; working through the bank holiday!

I noticed today, for the first time since the chaos of July 1st that everything seemed “normal” again.

Nothing has felt normal since long before the move. Back then, normal was sitting in my room, two floors up watching planes land into Leeds Bradford Airport while smoking big fat doobies. Normal was waking up to the sounds of Kieran’s music (or Half Life deathmatch). Normal was spending almost every hour in front of my computer achieving absolutely nothing while smoking big fat doobies. Normal was feeding Charlie at 3′oclock in the afternoon.

Now everything is different, yet it seems strangely the same. Now normal is waking up to the sound of CJ coming home from or going to work (that boy works such odd hours). Normal is getting at least one undesired phone call every day. Normal is spending at least half of my time in front of my computer, achieving something at least 50% of the time (the other half of my time is spent eating). Normal is thinking of Charlie, but not missing the white hair that gets everywhere.

I guess it’s because all the ever present “normal” things have come around. We have had phone and electricity bills; we have direct debits; our stuff now lives in cupboards and drawers and not boxes; we have the internet; we have a parking permit; we’ve met the neighbours; we have had our house warming partay. Yes we are truly settled, and everything is normal.

After I moved out of my old house on Royal Park Grove (good bye and good riddance! though I will miss the views of the sunset) and into our new flat on Kelso Road I decided to give up smoking. I am now living with my cousin, Cj who doesn’t like smoking at all and to be honest it is an all round good idea.

I thought at first it might be hard, but it turns out that moving house is an excellent strategy for giving up! As I found myself in a new environment, with my computers in bits and all my stuff piled around me in boxes, I really didn’t feel like lighting up. This is the first and most important step, breaking the routine and replacing it with a new one. I took up eating instead!

So now, even when I have my computers, my music, my movies and my lighter at my finger tips I do not want to smoke. I gave up on 1st July, over six weeks ago. Since then I have been much more happy, motivated, coherent and generally with it. Perfect timing for the year ahead where I will need every brain cell and every muscle working flat out to finish my degree!