Solve Puzzles to Help Out Scientists [Friday Fun]
Windows/Linux/Mac OS X: If you have ever donated your computer's idle cycles to a charitable project, Foldit will be right up your alley. After installing the game you are given protein samples to untangle. On the surface it appears as though you are trying to solve a puzzle of tangled cords, but your solutions are much more valuable:
The number of different ways even a small protein can fold is astronomical because there are so many degrees of freedom. Figuring out which of the many, many possible structures is the best one is regarded as one of the hardest problems in biology today and current methods take a lot of money and time, even for computers. Foldit attempts to predict the structure of a protein by taking advantage of humans' puzzle-solving intuitions and having people play competitively to fold the best proteins.
By leveraging a large pool of users just like distributed computing projects such as SETI@Home, the founders of Foldit hope to build an enormous database of proteins that have been untangled and reduced to their simplest forms by sharp eyed gamers across the world. Below is a video of an extremely good player tearing through a protein puzzle:
Improve your problem solving skills and the world at the same time. Foldit is cross platform with downloads available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.
HDTV? SDTV? One in Five HDTV Owners Doesn't Know the Difference [HDTV]
Many people are taking the transition from analog to digital television as a pretty good excuse to upgrade their televisions. Shockingly, despite paying a premium for a high definition set and all the bells and whistles that go with it consumers aren't always sure what they are actually getting:
A recent survey by the Leichtman Research Group (LRG) shows that 18 percent of HDTV owners think they're watching high-definition shows, when in fact they're viewing standard definition programming.
It isn't a big deal if you don't want to upgrade your cable package to watch Two and a Half Men in HD, but we don't want you watching lower quality TV just because you haven't be prepped properly. Check out how to buy a HDTV like a proand how to improve your HDTV experience.
PicClick Searches eBay and Amazon via Thumbnails [Shopping]
PicClick is a web-based shopping search engine that scours eBay and Amazon and returns results in thumbnail format. Instead of scrolling through long and rather linear pages of search results you can quickly scan over a whole page of results with the price, image, and with eBay auctions the time left. You specify keywords, minimum and maximum price, zip code for proximity, and the size of the thumbnails, which is adjustable with a slider. Standard sorting tools available on the web sites themselves, such as highest to lowest prices sorting, are available from within PicClick.
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