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of Web-enabled roads! Oh, wait, they call those "highways". But seriously, it would take a distributed computing system of impressive strength to predict with decent accuracy what frozen precipitate will come down next. Why hasn't anyone thought of that before? Oh wait, someone has.

Internet-based Distributed Computing Projects has a good list of current projects. I have been waiting for Climate Prediction to start. There have been several stories on it here before. In the mean time I have been giving spare CPU cyctes to Distributed Particle Accelerator Design.

Its a matter of scale. Authors have made much of the impact that learning that there is (well has? by the time a signal would reach us) another civilisation out there. However in the shorter timeframe there are perhaps more pressing and worthwhile projects, be it looking at protein self assembly and nanotechnology, modelling global warming and so forth. Anyway, its your computer to use as you see fit and its up to various projects to press thier case for you idle time.

More specific info on the requirement for the Casino-21 pilot client are here. No *nix client so far: "The current plan is to begin with a rough Linux port for in-house testing and possibly an alpha-release version. Based on registration results so far, the next port would be to a Windows platform (98 or NT). "

If you're interested in lending a hand to such research into climate change, some folks at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory would appreciate your help with their Casino-21 distributed client. Its still in the preparatory stages (ie client comming soon), and requires a significant investment in terms of commitment as compared to such things as SETI@home: "Casino-21 client will most likely require at least 128MB of memory, and 500MB of free disk space".