FR Folding@Home Project Update -- We're Now # 55 of all teams with 20,000,000 Points

Stanford University Folding@Home Distributed Computing Project ^ | 03/03/2007 | Stanford University

[texas booster]

Time for a new Free Republic Folding@home thread.

Our Free Republic team of 428 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 55th place (with 1,025 active CPUs - 106,120 completed Work Units and 20.25 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 30+ folding threads)

[texas booster]

Celebrating the start of March Madness with several new folders!

Welcome and PLEASE ask question so that your folding experience is as pleasant as possible.

[texas booster]

Bump to all of our current folders, and to all those that want to join.

Check in and let us know how folding goes!

[texas booster]

Bump to all of our current folders, and to all those that want to join.

Check in and let us know how folding goes!

On or off the ping list, I am the guy.

[SoftballMominVA]

Folding going well here - burned out a 400 watt power supply, so upped to a 550 and just a humming along.

[texas booster]

Several folks have asked to learn more about the Folding@Home project. I will provide information here that talks about the science and the math behind F@H.

Above all, remember that F@H is about finding a cure to the diseases that take the live and minds of our loved ones. Basic research is generated concerning the causes of Alzheimers, Parkinsons and BSE, among others.

F@H is an outgrowth out the Genone@Home project started back in the 90's. That project ended April 14, 2004 and Folding@Home is its offspring.

Folding@Home is a combination of Distributed Computing and Serious Math, sent out all over the world to about 190,000 contributors and 1,900,000 computers.

Check out these links to learn more about F@H:

http://folding.stanford.edu/results.html

http://folding.stanford.edu/papers.html

http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/allprojects

http://fahwiki.net/index.php/Runs%2C_Clones_and_Gens

[texas booster]

Power supplies are becoming the weak link in systems. A 550 watt power supply is no longer a luxury reserved for file servers.

I still repair older systems with 135 watt power supplies that keep chugging along, somehow.

[texas booster]

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 they were given exclusive access to all of the world's supercomputers, Stanford 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 #23 #24 #25 #26 #27 #28 #29 #30 #31 #32

[brityank]

Plugging along through ups and downs.

Free Republic Folders - A Tribute to Ronald Reagan ^

[Click for info; opens in new window]

[texas booster]

Are you running the GUI version of F@H? Often you can get more points by running the console version, especially if you have a login screen.

I used to use the GUI exclusively but have switched most of my systems over to the console version. I find fewer conflicts with games and can keep it running even if no one is there to log in.

[brityank]

Unfortunately the Ver. 4 GUI is the only one I can run -- Win98/ME.

[Egon]

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

[Quix]

Am curious . . . I have a pretty complex AMD DUAL CPU 2002 system 1 GIG memory; 1 Gighz; lots of HD storage etc.

XP-P OS . . .

but I also have problems routinely . . . not sure why all . . . I'm on 24/7 and so could probably contribute quite a lot. But I'm hesitant to complicate things further.

Anyone have a similar system or can anyone comment about the process complicating a complex system?

Mother died of Alzheimer's so I have more than one good reason to join.

[Quix]

I ordered a super hefty power supply when I had my system built in Taipei before leaving for home.

[Quix]

I seem to have a chronic memory leak. I use SYSTEM MECHANIC 7 to slap it back into shape 1-3 times/day. How would that problem relate to folding?

[Quix]

I have the excellent webshots.com screen saver and wallpaper. I don't want anything messing with that.

[Quix]

Please FREEPMAIL me that info. thx.

[texas booster]

From what I see the best thing to do is to load the console version v5.04. Download it here:

http://folding.stanford.edu/download.html

If you truly have a dual CPU system you could actually run two copies of F@H console. For now just run one copy and lets see how it runs.

The screensaver will slow down F@H but they will co-exist.

[Quix]

OK. Will likely load from your link an hour or two before I go to bed.

Thanks.

[texas booster]

To be honest, the memory leak could come from M$ Winders directly. Make sure that you have all of the most recent updates from M$.

However I bet is that the screen saver is the culprit for the memory leak. They are notorious for ignoring proper garbage dump protocols and running roughshod over Windows.

[Quix]

Both are conceivable.

I have Windows update on automatic. Maybe I should scream at webshots and see what they say. I love it too much to give it up. Absolutely wonderful pics.

Thanks tons for your input.