Darren, long time no see, mate!
ChessBrain is a project which is using DC power to make moves in online chess game(s). It sends out the data on what's where to each computer running the program, and each computer does a certain number of "possible moves", and then sends the data back to the server, so it can use that move against human players.
It is quite good in that it only uses about an hour or so of CPU time per day, so it can run alongside other projects really nicely, without impacting that other project's production.
You need an always-on connection to run it, as it has to be able to do the moves quite quickly I am running it on my 4 computers at home, alongside Seventeen or Bust
I run it as a "quasi-service" by setting it to start at Windows bootup with Task Scheduler in Windows XP, and that works really well On my server, i'm running the CB-MOC (Chess Brain Monitoring Operations Center), which is a java-based app that the nodes talk to and tell it how many moves they have done, and each "work unit" they have done.
Garry