Idle CPU programs

     For the vast majority of the time your computer is on you aren't using its CPU at capacity. Exceptions to this would be intensive tasks like gaming or watching videos. Several organizations offer free software to let you harness this wasted power and put it to good use.

1. Parabon: put your computer to good use when you're not using it! Let this organization use your CPU power to calculate projects for medical science.

2. The Intel® Philanthropic Peer-to-Peer Program: This "virtual supercomputer" uses peer-to-peer technology to make unprecedented amounts of processing power available to medical researchers to accelerate the development of improved treatments and drugs that could potentially cure diseases.

3. Entropia: "Entropia makes it possible to perform research that will improve our world in almost every imaginable way, from eradicating fatal and debilitating diseases to accelerating scientific discovery to creating safer and more functional products that will elevate our quality of life." And I think they pay ya!

4. Seti Screensaver: help analyze extraterrestrial data in the search of life. I personally don't support Seti since I believe they are wasting their time. If they wanted to learn more about alien life they would be doing things like the Disclosure Project.

5. Folding @ Home: screen saver shows real time visualizations of the simulations being performed. From Stanford U. Judging from the poor quality Web site I'll give this one a pass.

6. Google Toolbar with Integrated CPU feature (beta)