Team CFC: Folding@Home project
- Thread starter Abaddon
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Absolutely. Every contribution helps. Beside my 4-core behemoth, I have a seven year old Mac that's running the single CPU client. It cranks out a WU every six days or so, for 200-300 points. It's not setting the world on fire on its own, but if enough people do that it *will* make a difference. Ever heard of "the long tail"?
Everything's relative.
I look at sahkunder's output, at over 4 times mine,. Or I look at the high rollers on page 1 of the All Users List, doing 10-20-50 times my rate. If I followed your logic I'd stop running F@H, as well!
EconomistBR
King
I am not talking about points, I don't care for points or status.
I am talking about importance and relevancy of my contribution.
I wished I were making an average contribution, but I am not. I am WAY below average.
I just want to contribute meaningfully, if the average contribution is like 2,000 a week and I contribute 25 or 50 a week I think I will not do it.
Let's be honest, if I contribute 10 a year, could I say I am contributing?
scienide09
Regular lurker
Yes, you are.
I would say that there's so such thing as a "average" contribution. So individual users have entire computer labs (or farms) set up to crunch, all contributing under one user ID.
What you do as an individual contributor, no matter how much or little, is:
1) forwarding scientific discovery
2) forwarding technological advances
3) proving that the sum is greater than its parts
Most distributing computing projects do not distinguish between who contributed what work unit to what project. They know that it could be a single work unit that cracks the safe and proves most useful.
I would say that there's so such thing as a "average" contribution. So individual users have entire computer labs (or farms) set up to crunch, all contributing under one user ID.
What you do as an individual contributor, no matter how much or little, is:
1) forwarding scientific discovery
2) forwarding technological advances
3) proving that the sum is greater than its parts
Most distributing computing projects do not distinguish between who contributed what work unit to what project. They know that it could be a single work unit that cracks the safe and proves most useful.
Your logic is flawed.
Half of the WU points are contributed by users producing at less than the average. That's the definition of "the average". If all those users quit, as you suggest then the WU points produced would halve. Then the average would increase, and another bunch of users below the new average would quit, and so on until there was only one folder left.
You should also remember that users with high points per day are running multiple PCs. Sahkunder has at least 23 running in a lab or office somewhere. I have two. If you must make comparisons then do it on a per-PC basis. I would guess that TeamCFC's active folders are producing an average of around 300 points per PC per week.
Why not wait and see what your PC does before condemning it. If it's way below that rate then it may be because there's something wrong with your set-up. Any computer capable of running games is capable of contributing a few hundred points per week.
And, as scienide09 has said, all those completed WUs haven't made a medical breakthrough yet. Your next WU could be the one!
Half of the WU points are contributed by users producing at less than the average. That's the definition of "the average". If all those users quit, as you suggest then the WU points produced would halve. Then the average would increase, and another bunch of users below the new average would quit, and so on until there was only one folder left.
You should also remember that users with high points per day are running multiple PCs. Sahkunder has at least 23 running in a lab or office somewhere. I have two. If you must make comparisons then do it on a per-PC basis. I would guess that TeamCFC's active folders are producing an average of around 300 points per PC per week.
Why not wait and see what your PC does before condemning it. If it's way below that rate then it may be because there's something wrong with your set-up. Any computer capable of running games is capable of contributing a few hundred points per week.
And, as scienide09 has said, all those completed WUs haven't made a medical breakthrough yet. Your next WU could be the one!
Man, I hope they get the SMP client going as a service soon, there's a few boxes I'll be able to get it going on at that point.
Are you sure it doesn't? My OS X SMP client just runs as a background daemon - the Mac equivalent of a Windows service, I guess. The only visible evidence that it's running is if I open a monitor window to view the log file. There is a graphical window that I can open, but it doesn't run by default, it isn't required for the program to run, and it doesn't show anything useful if I open it.
That was from a view of the download page, but I just checked the F@H forum to be sure, and this thread confirms it. 
Furiey
No Longer Just Lurking
Nope, the Windows SMP client does not run as a service yet. Hopefully by the time I get a new PC (I keep hoping soon but something always comes up) it will.
As for contributing below average, I've been in this from the start of this team, my old 1.7GHz P4 has been chugging away slowly contributing. It may not be fast, but there are lots of people with slow PCs and it all adds up. I always remember Radioactive Monkey, Elephant and Goldfish from IglooDude's days of experimenting with old Intel Celerons - they racked up lots of points in a short time just due their numbers!
As for contributing below average, I've been in this from the start of this team, my old 1.7GHz P4 has been chugging away slowly contributing. It may not be fast, but there are lots of people with slow PCs and it all adds up. I always remember Radioactive Monkey, Elephant and Goldfish from IglooDude's days of experimenting with old Intel Celerons - they racked up lots of points in a short time just due their numbers!
While running the text-only version as a service, my computer froze, and I had to hold the power button for a few seconds. (This is the equivalent of pulling the plug, but since I have a laptop, it wouldn't do anything.) So my WU started over. I was at 70%. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH
Furiey
No Longer Just Lurking
Yep, that happened to me a lot when there were lots of little power cuts in my area. To avoid losing too much (mine may take a week for a WU) I copy the folder to back up the data so I can restore it if there is a problem. If you search the folding@home forums I believe there is a backup utility that will keep a rolling set of backups for you. It was no good to me though as (like many things these days) it needs at least XP.
EconomistBR
King
I've now officially begun contributing to F@H project.
I can now be added as a team member.
Unfortunately my maximum contribution to the team per week will range in the 700-1000 point range, which represents a less than 1% point increase to the team, but I can't do more right now, I am sorry.
I can now be added as a team member.
Unfortunately my maximum contribution to the team per week will range in the 700-1000 point range, which represents a less than 1% point increase to the team, but I can't do more right now, I am sorry.
Godwynn
March to the Sea
- Joined
- May 17, 2003
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I've now officially begun contributing to F@H project.
I can now be added as a team member.
Unfortunately my maximum contribution to the team per week will range in the 700-1000 point range, which represents a less than 1% point increase to the team, but I can't do more right now, I am sorry.
146 EconomistBR 343 1
That is one nice starting WU!
I've now officially begun contributing to F@H project.
I can now be added as a team member.
Unfortunately my maximum contribution to the team per week will range in the 700-1000 point range, which represents a less than 1% point increase to the team, but I can't do more right now, I am sorry.
What's to apologise for?!?!
That is an excellent start
Your forecast rate looks like twice my estimate of the average points per active PC for the current team members. The team's accumulated total is irrelevant. We need to see that the team as a whole is making a contribution to the project as it goes forward. We are currently in the top 300 of all the teams, and moving up thanks to everyone's efforts - including yours.
EconomistBR
King
I don't want to change teams, I simply want to invite people to change to our team.
So how do you change teams while keeping your WU score?
So how do you change teams while keeping your WU score?
Godwynn
March to the Sea
- Joined
- May 17, 2003
- Messages
- 20,524
You don't. You just start over from zero.
schmiddi
Prussian
AFAIK you have an "account" for every team you donate in.
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