This is about the third time I've posted since I left with mouse. I just can't stand seeing such unqualified stupidity.
Folding@home is a waste of resources? Since you do absolutely nothing to back up your assertion, let me just go ahead and do it for you.
According to the folding@home stats site (available
here) There are around 30,000 active CPUs, and just for the sake of ease, we will just call that 50,000 active CPUs.
The PS3 runs at about 200Wh. For the entire system, thats about 1MWh. In your strange little world of power equivalences, this is to be considered a lot of energy. Just for reference, a 30hp engine is outputting 25,000W, which is about the hp used for everyday cruising. In other words, if there were 40 less cars driving an hour in the world, that would offset the power used by folding@home for the ps3 module.
Now for the facts of folding@home, and the good it provides.
There have been over 50 peer reviewed papers released, with dozens in the pipelines.
The first computer based, peer reviewed article, about the misfolding of a protein responsible for 50% of all cancers. Significant research into the causes and into understand Mad Cow Disease, Alzheimer's, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's, and of course cancer, just to name a few.
Millions upon millions of people are affected by these diseases, many doomed to death, prolonged suffering, and long term, inefficient, and expensive treatments. You bitch and moan about the waste of energy, yet don't even think about the amount of energy poured into the creation of drugs that are in the end less effective in that they often can only slow down a disease, and will require the production of that drug for years in highly energy inefficient methods.
You can also ignore the billions of dollars that are lost to insurance, malpractice, and general health care for sufferers, because of these diseases. Strictly from a monetary view, the research on these diseases is worth far, far, more, than the equivalent costs.
The next time you feel the need to apply your juvenile moral superiority on subjects you don't understand and refuse to learn about, just go ahead and slap yourself in the face. If you are going to act in a way that is the equivalent of a slap in the face to those whom you marginalize due to your lack of knowledge, you might as well make it square and do it to yourself too.