DataSmith

The World Community Grid recently celebrated its fourth anniversary. For those unfamiliar with the Grid, the project allows users to download a client application for their computer. That application then takes advantage of the idle cycles of the user's computer (when the computer's on but not doing anything) to perform analysis of the data from a host of medical and humanitarian projects. Essentially, the Grid wires up lots of consumer-grade computers to perform the work of rare and costly super-computers. It's a perfect example of the efficacy of the "Long Tail" theory.

To celebrate their fourth anniversary the Grid put out a video called 'I Dedicate', which highlights some of the reasons people participate in the World Community Grid and some of the accomplishments the Grid has made in the past four years. Here are just a few of the accomplishments:

• Provided the 'Help Conquer Cancer' project with 2900 years of computational power
• The 'Fight AIDS at Home' project was able to complete 5 years of research in just 6 months

What's your computer doing when it's not doing anything?