Team CFC: Folding@Home project

[JonnyB]

Hi, I think I'd like to join this effort, but I have a question, does it have to be your best computer? I have a pentium 3 PC that I don't use just sitting in my basement, can I set it up to do this and just ignore it while it works?

Yes you can, or you can use both to fold.

It must need internet access to get started, but does it need a dedicated line, I only have dial up and I don't leave it pluged in.

It doesn't need an internet connection while it's working. However it does need one when it finishes a work unit to send it's results and obtain a new one. WU's also vary in size and duration so if you want to set it and ignore it you may want to leave it connected.

And by ignore it, I don't mean not check on it, just that it won't need to run anything else, so I can let the whole processor work this program only. That should help, right? It doesn't require you to use the computer, too, does it?

Correct, using the computer would actually slow it down.

 

[Marsden]

Thank, I think I'll get it out and get going on it.

 

[Abaddon]

Congrats to Gyathaar for just finishing a monster..jumping 26 places in the process!

 

[AlanH]

TeamCFC has now completed 10,000 work units

Well done everyone. Keep it up

 

[fezzic181]

Been running Boincs climate change experiment for awhile. However decided to switch over to Folding@home today. I've jumped on the team and have my small computer platoon folding away.

For those of you who like boinc but find seti a bit less then useful you could try their equivilent to folding known as rosetta@home.

 

[Abaddon]

blarghrfhgdf MORE MEMBERS NEEDED!

 

[DvD-IT]

One more found.

 

[ironduck]

Welcome newcomers!

 

[azzaman333]

I've almost finished another WU, the little icon thing says 4950/5000.

 

[RFHolloway]

Igloo dude make it to 500,000 points! - well done!

Also Gyathaar seems to have stopped processing - I did see that on the PS3 you have to activate F@H each time you switch the machine on and it won't prompt you to do it. (either that or he has given the PS3 to Bamspeedy)

 

[AlanH]

Gyathaar has been out of town for a week or three.

My system already lost a completed 1440 point unit last week bacuse of server problems, I think. It is currently on its third attempt at another 1440 point unit that it has aborted twice at 39% without submitting. So I've lost about 40 hours and 3000 points in the last week

 

[Abaddon]

Thats sucks

 

[El_Machinae]

Been running Boincs climate change experiment for awhile. However decided to switch over to Folding@home today. I've jumped on the team and have my small computer platoon folding away.

For those of you who like boinc but find seti a bit less then useful you could try their equivilent to folding known as rosetta@home.

Let us know if you like boinc or folding better.

I think that a bit of diversity is a good thing. I wouldn't recommend someone choosing folding over boinc, because I don't know which process will lead to the most useful successes.

However, I don't think either is a waste. I'd rather people do one or the other than do something like spend money on wasteful products like US magazine!

 

[Bamspeedy]

Also Gyathaar seems to have stopped processing - I did see that on the PS3 you have to activate F@H each time you switch the machine on and it won't prompt you to do it. (either that or he has given the PS3 to Bamspeedy)

I got my own PS3 at just the right time to take over for him during his absence.
I ran it 24/7 for the first week and jumped 59 spots!

If someone started with 0 points and ran the PS3 24/7 they would probably jump 100 spots in the first week.
But I had to start playing some games on it to get my investment out of it, and why I dropped from 900-1000+ points/day to 600 or whatever I'm at now.

I got scared right when I hit the 7 days because it wasn't uploading the finished WU (it failed at least 3 times) and was thinking maybe the PS3 was crashing from running that many days non-stop and because Gyathaar also stopped after about 7 days. But it must have been a problem with the connection or something, because I turned it off and back on again and then after it uploaded the WU (very slowly), everything was back to normal.

Yes, it sucks that you must manually turn on the folding each time with the PS3. I read somewhere that they intend people to leave it running while they go to sleep and be able to complete 1 WU each day because it takes about 8 hours to do a WU on PS3. (Who gets 8 hours of sleep anymore? )

 

[Abaddon]

Thats silly, they need to come up with a prog that will autorun

 

[scienide09]

I want a PS3. Unfortunately, my next investment will be in a new computer. I will then come here and bug Mac users like AlanH for tips.

Also, a welcome to the new members, and hello to fezzic181. I was a Boinc user, and still run it on a separate computer. I've just switched my main box over to F@H in the past month.

I was a Seti@home classic user before switching to Boinc for Seti and other projects. The search for intelligent life may be a long shot, but this program introduced a lot of people to distributed computing.

As El_Machinae said just above, there is no choosing between Boinc vs. F@H in terms of better. A lot of this just depends on personal taste. The advantage to Boinc is the possibility of contributing to multiple scientific projects, while Folding's specific goals may one day rid the planet of one of the leading causes of death and illness in humans.

 

[AlanH]

I want a PS3. Unfortunately, my next investment will be in a new computer. I will then come here and bug Mac users like AlanH for tips.

Please do, if that means you are buying a Mac And be sure to visit our Mac-specific forums to ensure that you get one that will do a good job with Civ4.

 

[El_Machinae]

But I had to start playing some games on it to get my investment out of it, and why I dropped from 900-1000+ points/day to 600 or whatever I'm at now.

I found this amusing
Of COURSE you want to get your money's worth out of the PS3! And its main function is as an entertainment device. (I felt all smug, because I thought that a Wii was a better investment ... and then the PS3 comes out with a pro-science application)

I want a PS3. Unfortunately, my next investment will be in a new computer. I will then come here and bug Mac users like AlanH for tips.

Now, a computer really can be an investment! And not just in a "pro-science, or pro-fitness" way!

 

[ironduck]

Getting fun out of your money seems like a pretty good investment to me

 

[El_Machinae]

Absolutely; but I think it's better if you can find other benefits besides fun. Basically, it's not wrong to try to add utility!