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First off, tell us about you.
Where do you call home?
Home is where I hang the "Do Not Disturb" sign on the hotel room door. But, really I call NW Pennsylvania home living about an hour north of Pittsburg, PA.
What is your family situation?
I have been married for the last 13 years and we have 2 wonderful kids a 4yo daughter and a 5month old son.
What do you do for a living?
Living oh thats what they call it now? Well I started out in 94 joining the US Army as a 35H that is the identifier for the job I did. Calibration, TMDE (Test, Measurement, Diagnostic Equipment Specialist) I work with electronics and some other items like torque wrenches ensuring the equipment remains in specs or periods of time. I got out about 6 years ago. No I work for a rather large company in the same field. My job requires me to travel around 290 days a year working from Va to NY doing a big circle year ago.
Does your forum name hold any significant meaning?
My nick is an old name of a D&D character I had when I was much younger. And it is one of the few nicks I have had that has stuck.
Did you ever post in the "Let's see your mug... " thread? Why or why not?
Honestly I am not sure if I did or didnt. One sec let me go look! BRB OK back and after 25 pages I found I wasnt in there. But I am sure I have posted pics in the forums before! Or you can just goto http://www.halomade.com/DC/ Its some older pics of my systems mounted on pegboard and the one of me is in my room while I was stationed in S. Korea was a small room I even had a system under my bed running with one of those small deltas on it. You can see a rack behind me with a few more naked systems running.
What other hobbies or interests keep you busy?
Hobbies often become jobs if you do it right. Electronics is a main one for me. But I also like to work on cars, played UO/EQ/WoW for the last 10+ years or so. I also enjoy watching tons of Tech Podcasts in the like of the old ZD-NET days of The Screen Savers. Mainly things from TWIT.TV Revision3.com and DL.TV or Make and Instructables.com And, I mostly enjoy time with my children teaching and playing with them. Oh and umm long walks on the beach and world peace.(with the sparkle of a shinny smile and a slight tilt of my head.)
Tell us about your involvement in DC.
Who or what got you stated in DC projects? About when was it?
DC projects the bane of my existence. Lol It all really started while I was in Bosnia I was researching and planning the new computer I was going to build when I got back. It was a BP6 with dual 533s Golden Orb coolers running at 600MHz each!! Yea Wow I know! Back to DC I spent a lot of time on the BP6.com forums and there I got interested in SETI. When the team stated to die down and F@H was just starting I moved to [H]ard|OCP with a few other guys and started right up in the very first days of F@H1.
Why do you participate?
Why wow didnt think that was one really still ask around here. But, here it goes. It all started with the science then I found out my father had cancer so I pushed harder. Now I continue pushing in the hopes that we will find some cures and it will be one less thing my kids wont have to worry about as they get older.
If DC'ing could find a cure for just one disease tomorrow, which one would it be and why?
Many ppl would answer this with the one with something that is closest to home for them. Right now I would be just happy to know we did get a cure from our work. And hey who knows what we will find next week.
What projects have you contributed to? Any others you find interesting?
Seti, Folding@Home, Genome@Home, Folding@Home (2), Did some UD and a few other smaller projects for testing but never produced a lot for them.
What teams have you contributed to?
Wait what do you mean there are other teams? This will need to be brought up at the next town meeting and dealt with swiftly. I did SETI with BP6.com an then move to [H] ever since.
Why did you choose the Horde?
Its [H]ard! Again I followed a few friends here from BP6.com and really liked the enthusiast views I saw here towards doing things different from the norm. And stayed do to the friends I have made and keep here!
If your current project ends, which one will you move on to?
Wow, really dont want it to end unless the goal has been achieved but, if that does happen WCG seems like a good place to start looking.
Current level of production and how's it spread around?
Hmm, I think I am around 14kPpW which still seems low to me. But its hard to check on things when I am on the road all the time. I have a few other borgs but I never count on their production cause I honestly never know if they are on or not. Other then that my farm is all home grown.
Where do you see the [H]ard DC sub-forum in the near future? Long term?
I hope pretty close to the same it has been. It isnt always a bubbling kettle of stuff going on. But its the community that we created there that keeps ppl coming back. Like me over the last 7+ years.
Any ideas on improving the [H]ard DC sub-forum, or suggestions or improvements for our Team?
Keep it real. Continue to learn and help out ppl when they ask for it no matter how dumb the question may seem to you. No one is going to stick around a place when every time they ask a question they are told RTFM, use Search or whatever. Make for an open and friendly environment and ppl will want to stay and become more then just team mates.
Tell us about your farm
Where did you begin?
Started with SETI@Home in 2000 with BP6.com then moved over to [H]ard|OCP on early 2001 for Folding@Home.
What are you running today?
At home I have a q6600 ocd to 3.2GHz running SMP client with 2 90600GTs running the cpu clients both slightly o/cd with 1800 shaders. My next machine is another q6600 running stock with a SMP client and a 8800GT card(its my MediaCenter). Then a AMD 4000+ I think its not mine but its running the notfreds distro on it. Then I have my wifes machine upstairs with a e6600 stock with a single client and a 8500GT running the gpu client. Lastly is my laptop I carry around with me while on the road. It has a T7200 2GHz cpu running the SMP client as often as I can keep it running in the hotel. In number this is a far cry from some of the other larger farms I have run. At times my home farm had reached well over 20 cpus.
What plans do you have in moving forward? Where do you see your DC'ing activities in the next year or two?
Probably pretty much the same as I have now slow and steady. I think gone are the times of me having close to 30 pcs in my home folding. Currently I am sticking with duals, quads and a few gpus dont see much of a reason to switch from what works.
Do these boxen have day jobs or are they dedicated folders?
99% of the time my home systems are folders. My wife uses her system on rare occasions and the same goes for my machines since I am near never home. Well other then my laptop which is my everything machine, TV, games, video, programming, work, well everything!
How are these boxen configured? OS, client, etc?
1 Quad runs XP(SMP and 2x GPU client) the other Vista(SP and 1x GPU). The AMD machine running notfred, wife machine running Xp(Single client and GPU) and my laptop is running Vista(SMP) dual booting Ubuntu and will soon make the change over if I can work out some minor problems.
Have you been successful borging? If so, what kind of borging worked for you? (For example, friends, family, and/or work?)
Borging me? No way. HAHAHA Yeah I have done some borging I my day. I had all my work computers running while in the army which was about 20 machines doing Genome and UD since most were slower machines. I got it to work as long as it didnt affect everyday work. I also borgd a few familys systems when ever they needed work done and got consent for them. Yes Consent to borg!!
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Fold for the Cure. Make love not war! We are the Horde!
Did I forget to ask you anything?
Yes, yes you did. And the answer is: Yes I do make you Randy baby!
Where do you call home?
Home is where I hang the "Do Not Disturb" sign on the hotel room door. But, really I call NW Pennsylvania home living about an hour north of Pittsburg, PA.
What is your family situation?
I have been married for the last 13 years and we have 2 wonderful kids a 4yo daughter and a 5month old son.
What do you do for a living?
Living oh thats what they call it now? Well I started out in 94 joining the US Army as a 35H that is the identifier for the job I did. Calibration, TMDE (Test, Measurement, Diagnostic Equipment Specialist) I work with electronics and some other items like torque wrenches ensuring the equipment remains in specs or periods of time. I got out about 6 years ago. No I work for a rather large company in the same field. My job requires me to travel around 290 days a year working from Va to NY doing a big circle year ago.
Does your forum name hold any significant meaning?
My nick is an old name of a D&D character I had when I was much younger. And it is one of the few nicks I have had that has stuck.
Did you ever post in the "Let's see your mug... " thread? Why or why not?
Honestly I am not sure if I did or didnt. One sec let me go look! BRB OK back and after 25 pages I found I wasnt in there. But I am sure I have posted pics in the forums before! Or you can just goto http://www.halomade.com/DC/ Its some older pics of my systems mounted on pegboard and the one of me is in my room while I was stationed in S. Korea was a small room I even had a system under my bed running with one of those small deltas on it. You can see a rack behind me with a few more naked systems running.
What other hobbies or interests keep you busy?
Hobbies often become jobs if you do it right. Electronics is a main one for me. But I also like to work on cars, played UO/EQ/WoW for the last 10+ years or so. I also enjoy watching tons of Tech Podcasts in the like of the old ZD-NET days of The Screen Savers. Mainly things from TWIT.TV Revision3.com and DL.TV or Make and Instructables.com And, I mostly enjoy time with my children teaching and playing with them. Oh and umm long walks on the beach and world peace.(with the sparkle of a shinny smile and a slight tilt of my head.)
Tell us about your involvement in DC.
Who or what got you stated in DC projects? About when was it?
DC projects the bane of my existence. Lol It all really started while I was in Bosnia I was researching and planning the new computer I was going to build when I got back. It was a BP6 with dual 533s Golden Orb coolers running at 600MHz each!! Yea Wow I know! Back to DC I spent a lot of time on the BP6.com forums and there I got interested in SETI. When the team stated to die down and F@H was just starting I moved to [H]ard|OCP with a few other guys and started right up in the very first days of F@H1.
Why do you participate?
Why wow didnt think that was one really still ask around here. But, here it goes. It all started with the science then I found out my father had cancer so I pushed harder. Now I continue pushing in the hopes that we will find some cures and it will be one less thing my kids wont have to worry about as they get older.
If DC'ing could find a cure for just one disease tomorrow, which one would it be and why?
Many ppl would answer this with the one with something that is closest to home for them. Right now I would be just happy to know we did get a cure from our work. And hey who knows what we will find next week.
What projects have you contributed to? Any others you find interesting?
Seti, Folding@Home, Genome@Home, Folding@Home (2), Did some UD and a few other smaller projects for testing but never produced a lot for them.
What teams have you contributed to?
Wait what do you mean there are other teams? This will need to be brought up at the next town meeting and dealt with swiftly. I did SETI with BP6.com an then move to [H] ever since.
Why did you choose the Horde?
Its [H]ard! Again I followed a few friends here from BP6.com and really liked the enthusiast views I saw here towards doing things different from the norm. And stayed do to the friends I have made and keep here!
If your current project ends, which one will you move on to?
Wow, really dont want it to end unless the goal has been achieved but, if that does happen WCG seems like a good place to start looking.
Current level of production and how's it spread around?
Hmm, I think I am around 14kPpW which still seems low to me. But its hard to check on things when I am on the road all the time. I have a few other borgs but I never count on their production cause I honestly never know if they are on or not. Other then that my farm is all home grown.
Where do you see the [H]ard DC sub-forum in the near future? Long term?
I hope pretty close to the same it has been. It isnt always a bubbling kettle of stuff going on. But its the community that we created there that keeps ppl coming back. Like me over the last 7+ years.
Any ideas on improving the [H]ard DC sub-forum, or suggestions or improvements for our Team?
Keep it real. Continue to learn and help out ppl when they ask for it no matter how dumb the question may seem to you. No one is going to stick around a place when every time they ask a question they are told RTFM, use Search or whatever. Make for an open and friendly environment and ppl will want to stay and become more then just team mates.
Tell us about your farm
Where did you begin?
Started with SETI@Home in 2000 with BP6.com then moved over to [H]ard|OCP on early 2001 for Folding@Home.
What are you running today?
At home I have a q6600 ocd to 3.2GHz running SMP client with 2 90600GTs running the cpu clients both slightly o/cd with 1800 shaders. My next machine is another q6600 running stock with a SMP client and a 8800GT card(its my MediaCenter). Then a AMD 4000+ I think its not mine but its running the notfreds distro on it. Then I have my wifes machine upstairs with a e6600 stock with a single client and a 8500GT running the gpu client. Lastly is my laptop I carry around with me while on the road. It has a T7200 2GHz cpu running the SMP client as often as I can keep it running in the hotel. In number this is a far cry from some of the other larger farms I have run. At times my home farm had reached well over 20 cpus.
What plans do you have in moving forward? Where do you see your DC'ing activities in the next year or two?
Probably pretty much the same as I have now slow and steady. I think gone are the times of me having close to 30 pcs in my home folding. Currently I am sticking with duals, quads and a few gpus dont see much of a reason to switch from what works.
Do these boxen have day jobs or are they dedicated folders?
99% of the time my home systems are folders. My wife uses her system on rare occasions and the same goes for my machines since I am near never home. Well other then my laptop which is my everything machine, TV, games, video, programming, work, well everything!
How are these boxen configured? OS, client, etc?
1 Quad runs XP(SMP and 2x GPU client) the other Vista(SP and 1x GPU). The AMD machine running notfred, wife machine running Xp(Single client and GPU) and my laptop is running Vista(SMP) dual booting Ubuntu and will soon make the change over if I can work out some minor problems.
Have you been successful borging? If so, what kind of borging worked for you? (For example, friends, family, and/or work?)
Borging me? No way. HAHAHA Yeah I have done some borging I my day. I had all my work computers running while in the army which was about 20 machines doing Genome and UD since most were slower machines. I got it to work as long as it didnt affect everyday work. I also borgd a few familys systems when ever they needed work done and got consent for them. Yes Consent to borg!!
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Fold for the Cure. Make love not war! We are the Horde!
Did I forget to ask you anything?
Yes, yes you did. And the answer is: Yes I do make you Randy baby!
