As a kid, I remember reading all sorts of books on futurism, particle physics, astrophysics, etc and found it all really impressive. So I wanted to be a physicist and develop basic science into stunning new technologies. I pretty much fit the stereotype.

In the real world, it turns out that I'm not mathematically or research-inclined. Too bad. So instead, I'm fulfilling that by running some astronomy and physics-related projects, giving to some science nonprofits and participating in Zooniverse projects. So I'm making a contribution to science after all!

My computer broke down a while ago. As soon as I have a new one, I'll start crunching for the C again.. Wonderful project!

Why do I contribute to Cosmology@home? I guess because I love learning science and other topics in general. As a kid, I read sci-fi books and books about quantum physics and the like. I never liked any of the science teachers as they seemed to have favorites in class. I was also at a catholic school and the science teachers were priests and I had no religion. So I moved more toward English classes and writing classes. Then worked for UPS in the sort, a few pre-schools as a teacher, then worked at a few recycle centers, then to being a home care aide for paralyzed people for my current work. Every 5 years I get a new computer and I keep remembering to install BOINC and I keep joining 19 to 21 projects and Cosmology is one of them. I forgot my user name and password for some of the projects so 2019 is my new start date for Cosmology, but I probably started it when it first started. I started crunching for seti in 2000 and added a few projects each year after that as they started up. Just glad to help out crunching when the computer is idle. I'm 52 now, but I guess that isn't unusual about being a participant, but maybe the other stuff is. (^:

I’m participating simply because the hardware capacities of my computer several times overwhelm the needs of my daily activities. Why not try to contribute to the development of science through participation in BOINC?
As for the project, humanity has always been interested in how everything around us began and what will happen to the Universe in the future.

I just took it on as a hobby.
Started out with Folding @ home, but after some mean and rude comments of the moderators, left that project behind.
Went to Boinc.
There I did a variety of projects, until I found the Collatz, that could boost my score up to match people who've been crunching for years.
I made rigs specifically for boinc over the years, and re-learned Linux in the process, all as a hobby.

But saw that most GPU projects are meaningless (to me). Calculate prime numbers, Latin squares??
Instead I noticed that most projects (AI, Protein/DNA research/cosmic or science) all used CPUs instead of GPUs.
So I bought myself 2x Ryzen 9 CPUs (12/24 C/t and 16/32C/T), with the sole reason of maximizing the use of this hardware.

Instead of being 99% idle in the 4 year lifespan, I wanted it to be 99% used, while doing something beneficial for mankind.
I'm just a regular clerk, with a hobby.

Not any more.

This is horribly maintained. Most of your packets you get no credit for. The site cannot even keep its SSL cert current.

I signed up because this was an Illinois project and I'm in Illinois. Turns out this project is run just as well as Illinois' government.

Goodbye

Good riddance