Posted on 12/29/2005 8:34:56 PM PST by systematic
OK, new thread to celebrate reaching a major milestone! Within a few hours Team FreeRepublic will be in the Top1000!!!!
We should pass Dean for America, around noon tommorrow. Other liberal teams want to challenge us (DUmmies and Kos) but we're humiliating them beyond description.
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 it works: You download a safe, tested program 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 to starting folding for Team FreeRepublic: 1.)Download the folding program from Stanford University's folding download page. 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.
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Summary - Folding Links of Interest (as compiled by Klutz Dohanger on the previous thread)
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
NOTE:
Only the top 2000 teams are included on Overclockers, and when a team reaches the top 800, individual stats are included.
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=48157
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=view_all&address=104x5672092
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
Laundry bump!
Absolutely, as long as most of the team members agree on the new image
Will this program slow down my computer?
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
I was about ready to hit ctrl-paste, when I noticed that you'd already moved the links over.
Looking at the stats page, it looks like we'll hit the 1000 mark around midnight. We've got about 6 deadwood teams in front of us, which will give us enough of a bump...
NO. The software runs in the background, using unused CPU cycles and not interfering with or slowing down any of your regular programs.
I tried to download the program--but all I ended up with was a desk top animation of Bill Clinton with his pants down chasing a half-dressed, young intern around the Oval Office desk!
You SURE this program is safe?? It's not like the " the telephone company wants you to put a plastic bag over the receiver end of your phone to blow all the dust out of their lines " is it?
DAB
My sevrer is ALREADY FULL with all the Great Information/articles/ Fantastic Art/humor and the " Hillary Clinton Files " already! Let me know how it turns out folks.
To answer your question from the other thread: your points are pretty much normal, I believe. I'm averaging about 75 a day myself per CPU. If you're not doing anything else with your older computers, by all means throw them--our team's success isn't dominated by one person, but by many people pitching in their CPUs to make it work. :-)
Does it run under AIX? I have a quad pSeries box here not doing much.
Will it slow down your computer? No.
I say this as an expert on computers.
You will NOT notice anything different by joining the folding team on FR.
The only thing I caution against is that your CPU will be running max cycles. That means it will run a little bit hotter. It's not a biggie.
The short answer is "no".
The long answer: Assuming you're running Windows XP--hit ctrl-alt-del to access the Task Manager. Click on the "Processes" tab. Under the "Image Name" column, you should see a "System Idle Process"... for the vast majority of users, these will be in the high 90's. That's because CPUs haven't been the bottleneck in computational speed for the average user for a loooong time...
We moved up 243 spots this week - 55 spots today (we're currently #1,036)
see: http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_list.php?s=&p=11
The new sign-ups are kicking in! :o)
Be a while before I add to the bottom line here - I have three boxes going, two of which are crunching 181 point units, and the third is crunching a 600 point unit. But it should be a nice bump in a few days ;)
In fact, as long as your computer is adequately cooled, ie, it came with a decent fan and heat sink, FAH will actually increase your system's longevity. Most computers fail, on shutdown, and startup, and the cooling and heating of the components, is the #1 cause of failure. Now you can either leave it off all the time, or leave it on all the time... me, I enjoy my computers more when they're turned on... :)
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