Posted on 02/12/2006 1:46:32 PM PST by soccer_maniac
Welcome to the new FreeRepublic folding@home thread. The previous thread has gotten too large, so we move on to yet another.
While this folding@home team is not officially sanctioned by Free Republic, it's 250+ 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 241st place, having moved up from 1200th place, a week earlier, and is now in the top 100 teams, for daily contributions.
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 8 folding threads)
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 dont, into their predestined shapes and may help to explain the origins of diseases such as Alzheimers 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 (see link below). 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 worlds supercomputers, Standford still wouldnt have as much processing power as they get from the supercluster of peoples 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.
Folding ping list - currently with 247 members (FREEPmail me to get on or off the ping list)
Summary - Folding Links of Interest
1. Where to get the Folding@home client
http://folding.stanford.edu/download.html
2. FreeRepublic.com Folder Stats
http://vspx27.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=teampage&teamnum=36120
3. Extreme Overclockers stats for FreeRepublic.com
http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_summary.php?s=&t=36120
4. Our Competition:
a. Democratic Underground
http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=teampage&teamnum=48157
b. Daily Kos
http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=teampage&teamnum=48083
5. Another Statistics Page
a. Sortable Team Member Stats
http://fahstats.com/t.php?t=36120
b. Team Production
http://fahstats.com/tp.php?t=36120
c. Teams on the Radar Scope
http://fahstats.com/tr.php?t=36120
6. Third Party monitoring software
http://fahmon.silent-blade.org/
7. DU Folding Thread.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=299849&mesg_id=299849
8. How much are those work units worth?
a. http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/allprojects
b. http://fah-web.stanford.edu/psummary.html
8. Stat Image Generator
a.Link http://www.statgfx.com/statgfx/getlink.cgi?service=folding
Previous threads (for those who wish to catch up):
(Vanity) FreeRepublic Folding@Home Project Update (#1700)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1537549/posts
(Vanity) FreeRepublic Folding@Home Project Update (We're in the Top 1,550)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1541538/posts
(Vanity) FreeRepublic Folding@Home Project Update (We're in the Top 1,450)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1542884/posts
(Vanity) FreeRepublic Folding@Home Project Update (We're in the Top 1,200!)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1547014/posts
(Vanity) FreeRepublic Folding@HOme Project Update - top 1000
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1549077/posts
(Vanity) Free Republic Folding@Home Project update - TOP 900!!!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1550060/posts
(Vanity) Free Republic Folding@Home Project update - We're in the TOP 850!!!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1550656/posts?q=1&&page=1
(Vanity) Searching for a name and at #777
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1551486/posts
(Vanity) A tribute to Ronald Reagan
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1554097/posts?q=1&&page=51
(WooHoo! TOP 250!) Free Republic Folders Search for a Cure for Cancer, Alzheimer's
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1572512/posts
Being an original BOINC beta tester from version 0.8 (astropulse - linux) I have to say that's pretty good.
Xcamel boinc worldstats: (current projects only)
Seti@home: 196,867.91
LHC@home 185,027.26
Einstein@home: 112,027.09
CPDN@home: 1,850,690.47
Intrested, but confused about what "folding" is? WATCH THIS
http://short-media.com/files/thraxfoldingflash/
Then join us here!
I'm 50% done with my first WU, and now I don't want to use my computer even though I also want to get some gaming in!
Connect with any IRC or chat client, from most any platform. Regular client updates, and alpha/beta client information. setup/install and bug problems solved here too.
It's clear you've got the folding bug bad. Real bad.
As others have noted, you should be able to game OK, 'cause the "folding" program is secondary to other activities. In a rare case if you find that isn't true, and your game suffers, you can pause the "folding" by right clicking the red "flower".
Good job on the new thread. Your efforts are appreciated.
We need a few cool logos for our FR ping list
Can anyone make a few?
Excellent graphs, SC Swamp Fox
DUmmies have come a long way, but nowhere near close yet :)
Above image copied from Smith288's work
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