FR Folding@Home Project Update -- We're in the Top 75 of all teams with 9.75 Million points

Stanford University's Folding@Home Stats page ^ | 08/02/2006 | Texas Booster

[texas booster]

Time for a new FreeRepublic folding@home thread.

Our FreeRepublic team of 358 members comprised primarily of Free Republic members in good standing have banded together to donate their excess CPU cycles to a worthy cause. Via distributed computing, millions of computers around the world, contribute directly to scientific research, in the quest for a greater understanding of diseases such as Alzheimer's, Cancer, and Mad Cow (BSE).

Currently, the team is in 75th place (with 1009 active CPUs - 55,700 completed Work Units and 9.75 million points).

This is an entirely voluntary program, and if you want to learn more, please see the links posted below (or read one of the previous 20 folding threads)

[RebelTex]

"Instead of being taken to FAH's project summary page when you click on a project, you're taken to a project page showing stats based on our team's experiences with that project."

WOW!    Way Kewl.

I just took a gander at the new format and that's impressive.  This is going to be fun.

hmmm - Egon, you might need to tweak it a little. Take a look at p2125_lambda_5way_melt_4_10011.

User	Machine	Date Started	Date Completed	Elapsed (hh:mm)	PPD

Bush_Democrat

BD1

07/21/2006 18:10:48

07/21/2006 19:09:48

59

9567.46

But, hey, if it's right, then I'm posting an urgent call to Bush_Democrat.

Urgent call to Bush_Democrat:  

You've simply got to tell me what kind of CPU/system that BD1 is.  I want one of those.  LOL

;-)

WHOA - I just took a look at the stats for BD1 - AWESOME!   That's one mean machine.  It's racking up numbers like a mainframe.

WHAT IS IT?  The computer equivalent to Dirty Harry's .44 Magnum?    I got's to know.  LOL

[HKMk23]

I'm lagging behind my earlier pace because I've been adjusting the throttle on the FAH service. It was running my CPU so hard that, on hot days, it would shut down from the heat buildup. Even with the additional ventilating fan I installed in my computer desk.

I had been knocking down about 100 points a day, but it's down to about 90, now.

I have the CPU demand setting at 93%. If things are as I think they are, I'll be changing CPU demand seasonally. 100% in the winter, 93% in the summer...that kind of thing.

Guess I'm doin' alright for a mere para-geek.

[BreitbartSentMe]

Shhhh, that's the Karl Rove Diebold-2008 machine I'm testing for him - it's supposed to be a secret. Turn the decoder ring to 23B4l for the rest of the message:

01000100 01010101 01001101 01001101 01001001 01000101 01010011 00100000 01010011 01010101 01000011 01001011 00100001

[RebelTex]

"Shhhh, that's the Karl Rove Diebold-2008 machine..."

ROTFLOL

Man, I knew you had connections, but how did you get that 'Top Secret' clearance after that Saturday night party? 

You'll need level 5 clearance for the rest of this message.

01001100 01101001 01100010 01100101 01110010 01100001 01101100 01110011 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01110011 01110101 01100011 01101000 00100000 01110111 01100101 01100101 01101110 01101001 01100101 01110011 00101110

[BreitbartSentMe]

Well, you know 'What Happens In Vegas Stays in Vegas' - and to think that the DUmmies were so impressed with their little chocolate fountain. That's SO last year.
The Dom Perignon hot tub, on the other hand...

[Son Of The Godfather]

Hmmmmm... I've been running SETI@home for several years, but now that I see FReepers have a good cause (and DUmmie competition), I'll have to look into this Folding@home thing.

Thanks for posting.

[Son Of The Godfather]

OK, I'm on board. :)

[E.G.C.]

BTTT

[Son Of The Godfather]

Any tweaks to make it crunch faster?

[texas booster]

Any tweaks to make it crunch faster?

First, turn off screen savers and just allow the system to turn off the monitor after xx minutes of inactivity.

Heat is the biggest danger to computers. I run my main desktop at 100% with no heat problems, but I run all other desktops at 75% to 90%. Laptops I set to 50% to 70%, depending on their thermal characteristics.

I also run the Console version for XP, so that it continues to fold even if the system is at a login prompt. The console version seems to be about 10% faster than the GUI version, but the real help is that it always folds, logged in or not.

Adding more memory is always good, and it seems to fly when you have over 1 GB of RAM.

Thanks for waiting till morning for me to reply. What part of the world are you in that you are awake all night?

[texas booster]

# 22
17,176 overall
FRpapasmurf
64,431 points

Good morning kind sir. Hope all is well on the highways these days.

Miss you around here.

[Egon]

You've simply got to tell me what kind of CPU/system that BD1 is. I want one of those. LOL

Hah! Yeah, one of the downsides to the methodology I'm using is that the monitor can't differentiate between a WU that was turned in correctly vs. a WU that was abandoned for a new WU.

After I started looking through the stats of various projects, I noticed that there are several instances of WUs finishing in 2 minutes, 30 minutes, etc. I may have to write a script that looks for anything under 59 minutes, and clears it out. I think even the smallest projects take 4- 5 hours to complete.

On the flip-side are machines that hang for several days, are restarted, and eventually complete their projects. These projects show much longer completion times than the norm.

[Drango]

As TB has outlined, there isn't much you need to do to optimize your "folding". It comes out of the box, ready to go. The tweaks may help somewhat, but the bottom line is that the "speed" of folding is determined by your CPU. So if upgrading is option, go for it.

However, as this option costs, many of us find friends and relatives or work computers that we can add to our effort and results. (affectionately called "borging"; always ask the owner for permission before "borging" a 'puter.)

[texas booster]

(affectionately called "borging"; always ask the owner for permission before "borging" a 'puter.)

Ummm ... you ask for permission before borging?

Wow, what a gentleman!

I have ... heard ... of folks doing drive by borging, but that is for amatuers. We fine folks at FR would never (cough cough) stoop so low.

[ezsmoke]

I will be down indefinitely. The power keeps going on and off. over and over again.... I only have the laptop running now to post this. None of my boxes will be crunching WUs for now.

[texas booster]

Where in NY are you? I thought that power problems are localized to old NYC boroughs.

The only power problems we have in Texas is cost - a lot of our new supply is natural gas fuelled. Times like this the electric bill hits $500 just for lights and minimal AC.

[dfwddr]

Times like this the electric bill hits $500 just for lights and minimal AC.

So turn out the lights, sweat a little, and you got you a new folding box come Sept.1.
LOL

[SC Swamp Fox]

54 68 65 79 20 73 68 6f 75 6c 64 20 73 63 72 65 65 6e 20 74 68 65 69 72 20 63 61 74 65 72 65 72 73 20 62 65 74 74 65 72 2c 20 74 68 61 74 20 77 61 73 6e 27 74 20 63 68 6f 63 6f 6c 61 74 65 2e

[Son Of The Godfather]

Thanks for waiting till morning for me to reply. What part of the world are you in that you are awake all night?

I'm in Camarillo, CA... I just work the hours of the creatures of the night. :)

[Son Of The Godfather]

OK, I've switched from GUI to console...

I'm being told I've completed 0 out of 500000 steps.

Looks like I have a ways to go?