SEP 26, 2005 - ClimatePrediction.Net is another one of those altruistic distributed computing applications, which depend on users like you and me to make our PCs' spare time available for scientific research of one kind or another. (I've already featured a couple such applications in past columns - check the
archives for details on SETI@home and Einstein@home.) ClimatePrediction.Net uses your PC's otherwise empty capacity to run climate simulation models in the background. Results are reported to a central computer over your Internet connection. The more results, the better the climate models get: that's the theory, at any rate. Personally, I'm a little concerned about the political agenda of the climatically correct. And, given the GIGO principle, I wonder how accurate and informative any particular climate model can be. With such caveats in mind, I haven't yet added ClimatePrediction.Net to my stable of background research programs. But I might, and you might want to already.
