So I downloaded the Win/XP x86 BOINC climate model from climateprediction.net and installed it on my Acer Ferrari AMD 64 laptop (see previous blog entry), and ran it. It installs easily, once you create an account thru their website. And it's just as easy to get it going.

However, I see why they suggest not running this code on a laptop. Because it will run the CPU at 100% when nothing else is running, your laptop may melt! Best to try it on a desktop system or properly cooled rack-mounted blade server!

Anyhow, the brief time I did spend with it, it was predicting the global weather for a date in March, 1920. And you could watch the changes in ocean temperature as the days progressed.

But the model really needs a CPU with a minimum speed of 1.6GHz, so my Mac G4 would be insufficient even if there was a Mac version of the client.

Anyway, if you have a 2GHz desktop system or blade lying around running W/XP or Linux, start computing!. This is real science!