[SOLVED] Warming my lap

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Eshan Wells

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Feb 24, 2015
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I sit in my house, with no control of the air-conditioning, freezing to death. I am wondering if there is some software I can download that can make my macbook pro run warmer, therefore warming myself up. The idea is that i can turn it off when i perform high intensity tasks, and turn it on when i want to do boring stuff.
I have heard of ways you can use your computer to connect to a university and perform chunks of calculations, like a supercomputer, but i have been unsuccessful in finding the software
Many thanks
 
Solution
Folding@home or Seti@home are good applications to run. You could also farm cryptocurrency if you're less altruistic with your power bill.

Additionally you could put on a jacket 😉



I like the sound of this cryptocurrency, could you elaborate?
And is a jacket the best solution for a computer nerd? not some amazing way of sticking CPUs on myself and playing a resource intensive game like Payday?
 


There are collective groups with websites that pool computers together to increase their chance of cracking an encrypted key to a digital coin. The coins have nominal value in some online marketplaces, most can be exchanged to dollars through one way or another. Look up bitcoin or dogecoin farming.

If you want to melt your CPU: a good game for that would be dwarf fortress if you don't want to pay attention (you'd download an interesting fort somebody exported, and you can watch as cat populations melt your computer and frame rates).

Any modern game with all settings put to max for playable framerates if you do want to pay attention
 
If you want to have children you might like to think twice about the idea of using your laptop to warm your lap.

A computer is a most inefficient way of warming a room. Wither wrap yourself up im warmer clothing or else use a heater designed for the purpose. It will cost you less.
 


The first point is true, the second point is not really true. A computer has basically the same efficiency as an electric space heater, sure gas heating would be cheaper, but the guy doesn't have control over his apartment's thermostat.
 

A computer converts electricity into heat, sound, and light. A good electric heater converts electricity into just heat, and so is more efficient at that job than a computer. It makes sense that something designed for a particular task is going to be better at that task than something that achieves the same end only as a side effect.
 


I'm not certain you've ever studied thermodynamics, but all of those things just break down into heat, provided that there's an appreciable amount of insulation in his room. And why waste your money heating the room as a primary action, when you can do something fun or productive for society WHILE heating the room?
 
I certainly have studied thermodynamics - enough to know the difference between a closed system and an non-closed system. Are you really contending that no light or sound can escape from the OP's room? If so, I suspect that the question of how to heat it is academic. 😉

A hammer is not a suitable substitute for a screwdriver, even though it may achieve the same end.
 


It is true that it is not a perfectly closed system, but the losses are minimal in a modern building. So in that regard I will concede it is more efficient in raising the room's temperature to just use a space heater.

I would not suggest that it is more efficient in the global scale of things should he put his system towards solving protein folding or the search for ET, since somebody has to be spending that energy somewhere. I did get caught up in the idea of doing some good with the original suggestion, or putting on a sweater like your second suggestion.
 
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