http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=110202461065&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=001

It helps reduce electricity cost for those that use old computers such as AMD Athlon or Pentium 4s.

Behold, the power of capitalism.

I assume he's trying to earn an honest dollar, which I respect. The starting price is only $10 US, which probably covers electricity.

Personally, I would never send my passwords or account info to someone I didn't know. If I was convinced they were reputable, I would send an encrypted file or some such.

Otherwise, this is not new. Since the 90's, and probably the 80's, there are companies that allow the "renting" of a UNIX/Linux shell and a time-slice or processor-percentage on a server. It's no different than a rented web server or game host. It's just specialized in a different niche.

This does make me wonder: why do you need a password to crunch anyway? Maybe because if anyone can crunch on your account one could also start trashing WU's and send back false results. But it would be nice if one could crunch for someone else, so perhaps a second password would be nice which only gives the possibility to crunch, and not to edit settings. If you don't want anyone to crunch for you, you wouldn't need to set it. This way you could do all kinds of cool stuff like:
- getting paid for running someone else's BOINC projects
- challenge friends who can crunch the most: the loser gets the other one some credits
- use them to sell anything: from web designs to your grandmother
- trade credits between projects: One computer is good at one project, another at a second project. So you can also get credit in projects at which your computer sucks.

See the just-added WeakAuth.

Here in my computer room i have

8x xeon 2.8GHz quad's = 32 cores alltogether
7x xeon 1.8GHz quad's = 28 cores alltogether

Total 60 cores.

Most of them i never turn on due to continuios electricity costs....

But i will keep them on 24/7 and crunch for someone if they paid me via paypal to do so.

Rent 1 core or 1 quad maybe rent them all i'm easy.......

Here in my computer room i have

8x xeon 2.8GHz quad's = 32 cores alltogether
7x xeon 1.8GHz quad's = 28 cores alltogether

Total 60 cores.

Most of them i never turn on due to continuios electricity costs....

But i will keep them on 24/7 and crunch for someone if they paid me via paypal to do so.

Rent 1 core or 1 quad maybe rent them all i'm easy.......


Okay, I'll bite, as a turned off computer is such a thing to waste when it could be doing useful research.

What do you expect to charge, monthly, for electricity, for 1 of your Xeons plus, I assume, something for the service? Please remember, British Pounds, Euros, and U.S. dollars are valued more than many of our currencies so currency exchange is also an expensive, mitigating, factor.

-ChinookFöhn