<html><body>Hi All,<br /><br /><br />After reading today's Reg article on gamers' successful solving of <br />the real-world puzzle at <br />http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/19/gamers_crack_structure_of_aids_protein_in_three_weeks/<br />I wanted to add my congratulations and admiration of all involved.<br /><br />I'd vaguely heard of it before but this prompted me to find out a <br />little more.<br /><br />To quote from the article:<br />"The solution of the virus enzyme structure, the researchers said, <br />"indicates the power of online computer games to channel human <br />intuition and three-dimensional pattern matching skills to solve <br />challenging scientific problems.""<br /><br />And to quote from Wikipedia:<br />"Foldit follows the games-with-a-purpose paradigm in which players, <br />as a side effect of playing, help solve problems that computers <br />cannot solve very well."<br /><br />Yeah, humans do that better than computers. I love the fact that<br />someone developed a project like this and turned it into a game that <br />problem solvers can play and presumably enjoy doing so and racking up <br />scores.<br /><br />Do we have any Foldit players on the list?<br /><br />A Slashdot poster brought up the subject of patents, but as far as I'm <br />concerned, if the end result is drugs to control a disease or <br />condition, that must be a good thing. Its now down to investment, and <br />if all proceeds well, it will eventually be good news for so many, <br />both sufferers and relatives.<br /><br />The page for the co-creator and lead designer and developer:<br />http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/scooper/<br /><br />Of the other projects listed on his page, "Active Learning for <br />Real-Time Motion Controllers" interests me as a Blender user.<br /><br /><br />
Best Regards,<br />Fay<br />East Grinstead Linux User Group<br />www.eglug.org.uk<br /><br /></body></html>