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Folding@Home FAQ for new users:

What is Folding@Home?
A Stanford University project to find out how proteins fold.

Why it's important: Proteins folding wrong causes all kinds of diseases, like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and forms of cancer. Folding@Home uses novel computational methods and large scale distributed computing, to simulate timescales thousands to millions of times longer than previously achieved. Through Folding@home, scientists now have the horsepower to study the mechanics of protein folding. With its ability to share the workload among hundred of thousands of computers economically, Folding@home can help scientists understand how proteins snap, or don't, into their predestined shapes - and may help to explain the origins of diseases such as Alzheimer's and apparently unrelated diseases. We're fueling research that could end all that.


How does it work?: You download a safe, tested program (see link below) that is certified by Stanford University. It gets work from Stanford, runs calculations using your spare computer power, and sends the results back to the University.

Is it safe? Yes! Folding@Home rarely effects computer performance in any way and won't compromise your privacy in any way. It only uses the computing power you aren't using so it doesn't slow down other programs.


How do I get started folding for Team FreeRepublic?:
1.) Download the folding program from Stanford University's folding download page (Folding@home Client Download). Type in your desired username.
2.) Type in 36120 for the team number. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT - if you get the number wrong, you won't be folding for team FreeRepublic!
3.) The third question asks, "Launch automatically at machine startup, installing this as a service?" - We recommend you answer YES. Otherwise you will have to manually start the program after every reboot.


How can my computer help? Even if he were given exclusive access to all of the world's supercomputers, Standford still wouldn't have as much processing power as they get from the supercluster of people's desktop systems Folding@home relies on. Modern supercomputers are essentially a cluster of hundreds of processors linked by fast networking. But Stanford needed the power of hundreds of thousands of processors, not just hundreds.


There's no reason to not get involved! It's free, easy, and you can know you're helping every minute without lifting a finger.

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List of Relevant Folding Links
Why Fold - Watch This !!


Another Folding Clip


Folding@home Client Download


FreeRepublic.com Folder Stats


Extreme Overclockers Stats for FreeRepublic


Another Stats Page


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Competition (Not!!) Dummies ..Daily Kos


Dummie Folding Threads #7 #8 #9#10#11 #12


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Other Useful Stuff - Links


How much are those work units worth? And what are they?
All Projects Listed
Point Summary for Workunits


Stat Image Generator


Fahmon Third Party Monitoring Software

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Past FreeRepublic Folding threads


#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #17 #18 #19 #20#21#22




1 posted on 11/06/2006 9:41:32 PM PST by texas booster
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To: texas booster

Bumpity Bump!! Go FR Folders!!


2 posted on 11/06/2006 9:45:01 PM PST by Clintons Are White Trash (Lynn Stewart, Helen Thomas , Molly Ivins, Maureen Dowd - The Axis of Ugly)
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To: 1066AD; 11Bush; A.Hun; abner; AbsoluteGrace; Advil; aft_lizard; ahayes; Alexander Rubin; ...

Pinging a new thread on Folding@Home.

We hit some great new milestones this week:

Klutz is #90 of all folders,
JCEccles hit 100,000 points, and
Malsua hit 1,000,000 points over all!

Way to go guys!


3 posted on 11/06/2006 9:45:17 PM PST by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120))
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To: texas booster

I've been donating cycles to United Devices in the cancer research for the last 3 years +. Is this one better?


4 posted on 11/06/2006 9:45:41 PM PST by SideoutFred (Save us from the Looney Left)
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To: jinx; JosephW; Jubal Harshaw; just deserts; justshutupandtakeit; kAcknor; kaibabbob; Katya; ...

Pinging a new thread on Folding@Home.

We hit some great new milestones this week:

Klutz is #90 of all folders,
JCEccles hit 100,000 points, and
Malsua hit 1,000,000 points over all!

Way to go guys!


5 posted on 11/06/2006 9:46:26 PM PST by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120))
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To: texas booster

ping to self for later


7 posted on 11/06/2006 9:47:44 PM PST by kinoxi
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To: texas booster

bump


8 posted on 11/06/2006 9:52:05 PM PST by lesser_satan (EKTHELTHIOR!!!)
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To: texas booster

Election Eve bump.


9 posted on 11/06/2006 9:52:30 PM PST by Route66 (America's Main Street)
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To: texas booster
I'm still trying to figure out how to run two instances of the program at the same time on a dual core CPU.

Anyone have any ideas?
10 posted on 11/06/2006 9:52:50 PM PST by Private_Sector_Does_It_Better (The UN did such a great job with Oil for Food in Iraq, let's let them run the whole country)
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To: texas booster

Anybody using F@H's GPU enhanced client? for ATI GPUs?


12 posted on 11/06/2006 10:01:29 PM PST by ozoneliar ("The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants" -T.J.)
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To: texas booster

Big Texas Tuesday bump for the Free Republic Folders!


21 posted on 11/07/2006 2:47:18 AM PST by houeto
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To: All
My shameless self-promotion for this thread:

If you're interested in tracking your folding machine(s) over the web, please Freepmail me.

Available features include:


24 posted on 11/07/2006 4:23:50 AM PST by Egon (I stand beside you as your partner, in front as your defender, behind as... hey! nice butt!)
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To: texas booster

BTTT


32 posted on 11/07/2006 10:24:28 PM PST by dfwddr (Join our Folding@Home team (Team# 36120) keyword:folding.)
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To: texas booster

Ping to say hello!


:O)

P


41 posted on 11/14/2006 3:52:57 PM PST by papasmurf (Join Team 36120 Free Republic Folders. Folding@Home Enter Name:FRpapasmurf)
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To: texas booster

anyone else not able to fetch new work packets? I finished one yesterday and haven't been able to get a new work packet in probably 18 hours. Any ideas?


48 posted on 11/16/2006 11:47:12 AM PST by TheMightyQuinn
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To: texas booster
Okay--tried folding a while back, computer so very not happy with the program. Got new graphics card and a spiffy 400w power supply with dual fans last week--trying it again. So far, been folding for about 20 minutes and no problems yet. Last time it shut my comp down in about 2 minutes (and that was with the non-graphical client)

Hoping I can help!

51 posted on 11/18/2006 6:45:52 AM PST by SoftballMominVA
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