PLEASE READ: your screensaver can help fight illnesses!

"What?  How can it do that???"  So there's quite a few distributed computing projects (and a run-down on how to join one), one of the famous ones being SETI @ Home, in which your home computer analyzes radio broadcasts from the skies, looking for patterns.  I ran that for awhile, until I finally said "You know what?  Helping look for extraterrestrial life is cool, but there's gotta be a distributed computing project that helps people."  The point of a distributed computing project is that it takes a massively complex problem, one that would take humans an incredible number of years to solve, and by breaking the massive hard problem down into smaller less hard problems, then each smaller problem can be worked on by different computers.  And even better, if the software is made such that it runs as a screensaver, it uses your computer only when you're not!

     So I found BOINC, which is the software you need to install in order to run any number of projects in your computer's spare time.  I ran SETI @ Home for a while before that realization kicked in that there are other, more direct routes to helping humanity.  So I poked around... FOUND IT!  I found the World Community Grid, hosted by IBM, which specifically hosts projects that aim to make human life better.  This page lists some of their achievements to date, as well as a brief discussion of the software's security, which tells us that BOINC was developed at the University of California Berkeley.  And this discussion of the project's recent 7th birthday lists details about their achievements to date as well as discussions of the most active projects.

Here is the email they sent me when I signed up-- sorry, the formatting got "all weird", but you can read most of it:

Dear JeffKnox,

We would like to congratulate you for successfully completing your first result for World Community Grid. This contribution and all future computer time that you donate will help advance research into: Help Fight Childhood Cancer FightAIDS@Home Human Proteome Folding - Phase 2 Help Conquer Cancer In addition to participating by donating your computer time, you may extend your involvement by joining a team (if not already a member of one) or inviting other people to join World Community Grid. Learn about other ways to get involved on the Explore World Community Grid page. You can track the research currently being done by your computer on the Results Status page. This page reflects the: time when a research work unit was sent to your computer current status of the work unit(s) you are processing work units that you have completed (for 4 days after validation) amount of CPU time donated to complete each work unit You can also automatically share your accomplishments with your friends by integrating World Community Grid with your Facebook and Twitter accounts. This helps spread the word and get more people involved! Get started by setting up your Social Networks.  World Community Grid is proud to be a founding member of People for a Smarter Planet. It's a network of communities, sponsored by IBM that helps people make meaningful and personal contributions toward a clear goal -- building a smarter planet. Visit People for a Smarter Planet on Facebook, and click the "Like" button. Then connect with other World Community Grid members to show your support.  If you'd like to download the World Community Grid software to another computer, you can do that here. Thank you for contributing your unused computer cycles to help humanity! We look forward to your participation for many years to come! The World Community Grid Team And in case you misplace this email, you can got to my blog and scroll down to find a dark blue World Community Grid square that has the links you need to get started.  Please, family and others, sign up, and if you do so, encourage others by going to this post on my blog and underneath will be a spot to leave comments!  Let's make a better world together!

ATTENTION DOG OWNERS: Riley goes bike riding

Just wanted to share this clip that mom took.  We just got home from the beach, and at the beach we went to, Deer Island, there are bike trails galore.  So we rented 2 tricycles and a bike.  Before we went, dad found this great leash attachment for a bike at The Dog Outdoors, and this one is sweet since (pay attention, dog owners) the end of the pole that attaches to the bike on one end has on the other end a stretchy leash attachment, so the dog isn't choked to death when the bike speeds up or slows down.  Not too much, but just enough to let them know "okay, it's time to start slowing down now."  You can see the Ri-meister stretch it out a bit...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPA9Cvlk5WM

Boy did she love that!

happy Festivus everyone!

Happy Festivus everyone!

nifty! Use Google Maps to see the ocean floor!

Huh!  I just found this by accident, and it's slick!  Go to Google Maps, and change the map mode in the upper-right from Satellite to Earth by putting your mouse where it says Satellite and then clicking on Earth.  Zoom out to see the world's oceans!  It's a neat way to see that Hawaii is really just mountaintops!

2011's most viral video

We have watched this about 42 million times: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqj9xrhGpoc

4 definitions of necessity

1. http://images.google.com/imgres?q=define+necessity&hl=en&biw=1366&bih=653&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=E9Jgaft43rlXeM:&imgrefurl=http://orphansmom.com/index.php%3Fp%3D1_10_Photos&docid=e0O8bNOEG5gOMM&imgurl=http://orphansmom.com/web_images/define_necessity.jpg&w=550&h=372&ei=SSHxTrS_F821tweyg9zPBg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=174&vpy=312&dur=229&hovh=185&hovw=273&tx=129&ty=74&sig=115761461638537358386&page=1&tbnh=140&tbnw=181&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:6,s:0
2. http://images.google.com/imgres?q=define+necessity&hl=en&biw=1366&bih=653&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=-JP8d9rUxu8Z3M:&imgrefurl=http://burningbabylon.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/can-you-define-necessity/&docid=g_hL4MvqxtHEIM&imgurl=http://burningbabylon.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/christmas-define-necessity.jpg&w=720&h=396&ei=SSHxTrS_F821tweyg9zPBg&zoom=1
3. http://images.google.com/imgres?q=define+necessity&hl=en&biw=1366&bih=653&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=t4EqXOWef1cGFM:&imgrefurl=http://www.buzzfeed.com/burgnyc/define-necessity-2ti8&docid=nORDE8G8S0lUAM&imgurl=http://s3-ak.buzzfed.com/static/imagebuzz/terminal01/2011/12/14/12/define-necessity-25167-1323883032-2.jpg&w=604&h=302&ei=SSHxTrS_F821tweyg9zPBg&zoom=1
4. http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1SNNT_enUS416US416&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=define%3A+necessity#hl=en&rlz=1C1SNNT_enUS416US416&q=necessity&tbs=dfn:1&tbo=u&sa=X&ei=4yXxTqKWJoWFtgeW-IXQBg&ved=0CDUQkQ4&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.,cf.osb&fp=a07b3761d35d504a&biw=1366&bih=653

THIS IS -=SO=- COOL! I've figured out where I was for those 5 weeks!

   THIS IS SO COOL!  I've figured out for sure where I was for those 5 weeks!  (5/26/07 - 7/1/07)  So we're currently on vacation at Hilton Head, SC.  Several of my relatives have been here, and if so, I guarantee you've been to this spot.  So we rented a bike & two tricycles for the week (this island has bike trails all over-- excellent), and we just biked to the South Beach Marina. (home of the Salty Dog restaurant-- if you've been to the island, that should jog your memory)
   When we first arrived at South Beach, I was like "I've been here... recently, within the last few years."  My folks were like "No, no you haven't, and certainly not since the wreck..."  Then as I wandered around, I just knew where certain mundane things were-- "I spent a lot of time on this dock by this launching ramp in the marina, looking at that cove over there, I walked right between this pool and these tennis courts a good bit, and here's the spiral wired staircase I predicted would be right here-- in fact, I believe I lived here, at the top of this spiral staircase, in that condo, above this parrot."  (I've never lived anywhere close to here)  It was kind of like having a dream-- well, exactly that actually-- and then getting to walk through your dream but in reality!  HOLY JUNKBUTTER!!!  I cannot believe I found it!  I haven't been looking for these spots that stand out so vividly in my memory banks, but I definitely know this is where I was!  I just have so many recollections of mundane things at this Marina... that never happened.  It could have just been a dream, but there are so many different memories at this spot, it would have to have been a sequence of recurring dreams.  Which is exactly why I say I was here during the coma-- I don't dream anymore, a well-known side-effect of brain injuries.  Musta been those 5 weeks then...
   So y'all call it a "coma," I now call it a "vacation!"  I mean, how cool is that?!?  That drunk driver sent me on a 5-week retreat to Hilton Head Island!  Thanks!  It makes sense, too, the whole bit about your brain returning to where it's at it's most relaxed...  I certainly didn't feel like I was missing anything, but I definitely feel whole, complete again...

I'm a sucker for cuteness...

Awwww, cute...  check out a baby playing with a puppy...  http://gma.yahoo.com/video/parenting-26594265/baby-plays-with-puppy-cutest-youtube-video-ever-27619223.html

And check out this pic dad snapped the morning that we were packing up to go to the beach for a week...

Riley is so nervous this morning, she curled up in my suitcase......"just in case you're thinking of leaving without me"

you know what just occurred to me about the word "deodorant"?

The word "deodorant", meaning the stuff us Americans put in our armpits, has precisely the wrong prefix.  It's not taking odor away, which is implied by "de-" anything, it's replacing your natural body odor with some sweet summer leaves or somesuch.  So technically, it should be called reodorant!  (okay, mini-rant is over, I'm OK again, just had to get that off my chest; little weird inconsistencies like that bother me)

the author of Life Without Limits

So for my recent birthday, my California relatives gave me the book Life Without Limits.  (thanks y'all!)  It's an unbelievable premise: this man, Nick Vujicic, was born with NO ARMS OR LEGS!  And he maintains a healthy sense of humor, and apparently achieves more than anyone guessed-- he's a motivational speaker.  (I haven't read it yet, but mom has and says it's awesome)  Dad just found a video of the author, and you just gotta see this video on Youtube! If you'd like to pick up a copy of the book yourself, here's where you can find it online, or at some of your local bookstores or even in a library. (click "Get this book in print" on the left)  (HA!  I just found that if you say to find this book in a library, it starts with local libraries... all the way down to libraries in Australia and Singapore!  Can you imagine trying to get a library card?)

closing in on other Earths!

WAY COOL!  Ever since I saw Hubble 3D, the movie (highly recommended), I've been convinced since the universe is that big, there's just no way that humans are the only life in the galaxy, we just gotta find 'em.  Well, cool, in the news recently was a finding of "other Earths," potentially habitable.  Awesome!  Getting closer, getting closer...  Check out the news coverage of the newly discovered planets!

"are you on crack?... like FDR was?"

Ha!  So very often in my therapies, my therapist would ask me to do something, something that for me at the time was very hard.  I would so often come back with a "Are you on crack?"  My folks thought it was mildly amusing... until dad recently slipped a disc in his back, and is currently undergoing physical rehab.  The other day, he asked his P.T. "Are you on crack?"  Now you know how I felt, huh dad?  And here's the surprising bit he saw on TV the other night-- FDR WAS ON CRACK!  HUH!!!

WHOA COOL! (yes I'm a techno-geek)

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/this-could-be-big-abc-news/see-tablets-2012-144516380.html

now that was satisfying all around

I took my trike the furthest yet today, and got rewarded with a tasty lunch at a cafe I couldn't easily get to before.  And when I was eating lunch, I saw a sign hanging that really alarmed me... (this sign, comments below)

what a fantastic tradition

Now this is a cool tradition.  I'm going to start trying to get our hockey team to follow suit...

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Video-Watch-25-003-stuffed-animals-fly-in-a-hoc?urn=nhl-wp18984

you can find ANYTHING on the internet!!!

I just happened to stumble across this, and had to share how unbelievable odd it is.  Growing up, I loved the TV show The A-Team.  Come to find out, those episodes are on Netflix.  OH YES!  I get a healthy dose of Hannibal, Face, Murdock & B.A. each week.  "I love it when a plan comes together."  Yeah, me too, Hannibal, me too.  (and I hate it when a plan goes awry, especially when it results in a coma)  Speaking of B.A., this goes to show how unbelievably wide the internet is.  If you were to, say, visit a foreign country and you were to, say, happen to find yourself in discussions with the locals about how awesome the A-Team is (you never know, it could happen, what, oh you don't get out much do you), you might find that you hit a wall when you start to discuss the nuances of that African-American character, ah what was his name in your language, ah sorry I don't know what you all call him here... OH YES I DO!  I forgot there's this thing called the "internet", where people have put together how to say "B.A. Baracus" IN OTHER LANGUAGES.  What the ever-loving snot-rags... and let's hope that Mr. T. doesn't visit Taiwan, as I think anyone who says to him "hey you, I need picture, Wacky Head" is going to have a real bad day.  Call it a hunch.  "Don't be callin' me no wacky head stuff anymo', you hear me sucka?  That be crazy.  And I thought the Face-man was crazy.  You see me flexin'?  Call it a reload.  They say no pain, no gain-- well, you about to gain a lot fool!  You about to be rich!  Hey, shoe's untied!"

Ally's eCheck service! way cool!

That was cool!  I got a check for my birthday, and I deposited it in my checking account-- without going anywhere!  Took about 10 minutes!  I did in the evening, and it could have been done any time of day or night!  I've long been a fan of the way Ally does banking, but this new service is (as the kids are wont to say) DA BOMB!  (or does that date me as over 30?  over 32, as of 3 days ago)  I scanned my check into the computer, and they verified later by email that it had been processed!  Now, they've had this coming for awhile, but being a computer graphics geek, I had been thinking there's no way they can get folks to scan in the image to their specification.  I mean, they'd have to specify dots-per-inch resolution, file format (BMP/JPG/GIF/PNG/TGA/Tiff/etc), image size in pixels, image size in megabytes, etc... there's just no way.  Good luck getting John Q. Public (not you, I mean your neighbor) to understand that.  I mean, not everyone understand how powerful & useful the free GNU Image Manipulation Program is (GIMP).  BUT NO-- I simply went to ally.com, clicked that I wanted to transfer money in via an eCheck deposit, and they walked me through the whole process right there!  They even checked the image to see if it was legible!  Wow.  Banking joins the 21st century!  Welcome, glad you caught up!  (Chad & Janet, if you're still reading this blog, this bank may be for U.S. customers only, sorry, I really dunno but I doubt it, they're pretty big.  How's things on your side of the pond?)