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
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To: 1066AD; 11Bush; A.Hun; abner; AbsoluteGrace; Advil; aft_lizard; ahayes; Alexander Rubin; ...
New thread so we can watch the clock tick down to
10,000,000 points produced by the newest big team on the server!
Go Team Ronaldus Maximus!
2 posted on
08/02/2006 5:19:10 PM PDT by
texas booster
(Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120))
To: texas booster; Dr. Scarpetta
Check out this thread by Dr. Scarpetta on the role of vitamin B6 on protein folding:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1676666/posts
"Vitamin B6 is essential for metabolism of protein and proper immune and nervous system function, and is found in both meat and vegetables.
There is evidence that high levels of the amino acid homocysteine could cause damage to brain cells. To see whether higher intake of folate and vitamins B6 and B12, which can reduce homocysteine levels, would also reduce Parkinson's risk, researchers followed 5,289 men and women aged 55 and older who were free of the disease at the study's outset.
During nearly 10 years of follow up, 72 people developed Parkinson's disease, Dr. Monique M. B. Breteler of Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam and colleagues report in the journal Neurology.
The researchers found no association between consumption of B12 or folic acid and risk of developing the disease. However, the more B6 people consumed, the lower their risk."
Bump to eating more veggies and meat!
4 posted on
08/02/2006 5:23:24 PM PDT by
texas booster
(Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120))
To: texas booster
We finally passed those Tasmanians!
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:
- Timely snapshot of each machine's progress on it's current project
- Point values for project
- Estimated completion dates/times
- Warning indicators for machines that appear to have stopped communicating or folding
- Warnings for machines that won't make their deadline
- Team ranking status box (courtesy of EOC)
- Machine stats like PPD (points per day)
- Project comparison stats: PPD, average time taken to completion, etc.
- It's free-- and always will be
- ...other features as time permits, and people request
Beware. It's addictive.
6 posted on
08/02/2006 5:26:26 PM PDT by
Egon
(We are number one! All others are number two... or lower.)
To: All
I finally managed to get off my butt and write a stats page for the projects.
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.
I'll be adding some more in depth analysis as I think of some, and get more ambitious.
8 posted on
08/02/2006 5:30:56 PM PDT by
Egon
(We are number one! All others are number two... or lower.)
To: texas booster
9 posted on
08/02/2006 5:31:15 PM PDT by
Drango
(A liberal's compassion is limited only by the size of someone else's wallet.)
To: texas booster
12 posted on
08/02/2006 5:41:22 PM PDT by
JCEccles
To: texas booster
Still in the 50's here although my production has dropped dramatically. With thunderstorms my chief computer has been off a lot, now we have a heat wave so I'm shutting it off to save electricity and prevent overheating (AC at 80 likewise to save electricity!), and for some reason the people at work keep rebooting the computer there and it doesn't restart the program, so that's lagging too. I should go set that up to restart on reboot as well.
23 posted on
08/02/2006 6:11:42 PM PDT by
ahayes
("If intelligent design evolved from creationism, then why are there still creationists?"--Quark2005)
To: texas booster
To: texas booster
Laundry bump!
85 / Flyer_FR / 19902 / 123
31 posted on
08/02/2006 6:49:45 PM PDT by
Flyer
(Don't question the questioner)
To: NerdDad
33 posted on
08/02/2006 7:07:45 PM PDT by
NerdDad
(Aug 7, 1981, I married my soulmate, CDBEAR. 25 years and I'm still teenager-crazy in love with her.)
To: texas booster
Thanks for starting the new thread.
I've been really busy the last few days.
35 posted on
08/02/2006 7:10:02 PM PDT by
soccer_maniac
(My new blog: http://capitalistpundit.blogspot.com/)
To: texas booster
37 posted on
08/02/2006 7:47:47 PM PDT by
DocRock
To: texas booster
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.
To: texas booster
To: texas booster
Any tweaks to make it crunch faster?
To: texas booster
I've been folding using Bionic and not affiliated with any team. I just uninstalled it and installed @home and signed on to the FR team.
Wish I'd know about the FR team a while ago.
79 posted on
08/03/2006 10:34:19 PM PDT 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)
To: texas booster
I did this for SETI for a few years. I'll be folding very soon.
98 posted on
08/05/2006 9:34:37 AM PDT by
Delta 21
( MKC USCG - ret)
To: texas booster
I made 20,000 points, do I get a cookie?
Not bad for one computer.
If I had a dual core CPU would it be twice as fast or more like 30%?
To: texas booster
Add me to your list. I'm a system administrator and we have a few servers/workstations that can run this program along with my own workstation.
120 posted on
08/07/2006 10:59:51 AM PDT by
ParityErr
(Evolution - Religion for the Ignorant.)
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