Why do people fold@home

S

slayer9019

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Apr 2, 2010
Messages
1,599
I just was wondering why people fold at home?

I understand what its about (i think) and idk why people fold when they arent even on their computers.
 
Because the more reasearch we can do the closer we get to finding the cure. There are also many of us that have family that have or are currently suffering from some the the things F@H researching currently. We know it will be a while before we see medication, but every bit helps.

There are a few of us the build beasts of a machine just to fold.

Ill let the others fill ya in on more of the details.
 
I know they are for folding proteins but for which cause and for whom?

It just seemed a bit vague.

Plus building and running those machines must cost a fortune.
 
Plus building and running those machines must cost a fortune.
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You have no idea LOL

I dont have time now as I'm trying to OC a 1500$ computer entirely for folding lol
But I'll put my sad story up here later, but must OC for now!!!
 
Vaulter98c said:
You have no idea LOL

I dont have time now as I'm trying to OC a 1500$ computer entirely for folding lol
But I'll put my sad story up here later, but must OC for now!!!
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wow...for me to even afford a 1500$ computer is a crazy thought.

Do post later if you can...i am interested (also interested since [H]ardforum is the #1 on folding@home)
 
slayer9019 said:
I know they are for folding proteins but for which cause and for whom?

It just seemed a bit vague.

Plus building and running those machines must cost a fortune.
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Well...their front page pretty well provides the majority of the answers you speak of.

Which cause? You are vague on what you mean by cause, but it covers many causes. Posted on the front page: Protein folding is linked to disease, such as Alzheimer's, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease, and many Cancers

For whome? Again, you are vague on what level of whom you are looking for. But, click on their link for the Executive Summary on the front page. It says:

"Who "owns" the results? What will happen to them?
Unlike other distributed computing projects, Folding@home is run by an academic institution (specifically the Pande Group, at Stanford University's Chemistry Department), which is a nonprofit institution dedicated to science research and education. We will not sell the data or make any money off of it. Moreover, we will make the data available for others to use. In particular, the results from Folding@home will be made available on several levels. Most importantly, analysis of the simulations will be submitted to scientific journals for publication, and these journal articles will be posted on the web page after publication. Next, after publication of these scientific articles which analyze the data, the raw data of the folding runs will be available for everyone, including other researchers, here on this web site."

Yes the systems cost money to build and run. This forum is filled with enthusiasts that spend more then the average folder. In actuality, most contributors don't build systems just to give free resources away. Most contributors are just using the systems they purchased already for other uses and therefore the only real cost was running it extra hours outside their own personal use.
 
Gilthanis said:
Well...their front page pretty well provides the majority of the answers you speak of.

Which cause? You are vague on what you mean by cause, but it covers many causes. Posted on the front page: Protein folding is linked to disease, such as Alzheimer's, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease, and many Cancers

For whome? Again, you are vague on what level of whom you are looking for. But, click on their link for the Executive Summary on the front page. It says:

"Who "owns" the results? What will happen to them?
Unlike other distributed computing projects, Folding@home is run by an academic institution (specifically the Pande Group, at Stanford University's Chemistry Department), which is a nonprofit institution dedicated to science research and education. We will not sell the data or make any money off of it. Moreover, we will make the data available for others to use. In particular, the results from Folding@home will be made available on several levels. Most importantly, analysis of the simulations will be submitted to scientific journals for publication, and these journal articles will be posted on the web page after publication. Next, after publication of these scientific articles which analyze the data, the raw data of the folding runs will be available for everyone, including other researchers, here on this web site."

Yes the systems cost money to build and run. This forum is filled with enthusiasts that spend more then the average folder. In actuality, most contributors don't build systems just to give free resources away. Most contributors are just using the systems they purchased already for other uses and therefore the only real cost was running it extra hours outside their own personal use.
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I did look around the site and read that is about folding (misfolding) and all but it was more about it seemed that it covered a wide wide varity of cures/diseases and idk i just kinda breezed over the whole site quickly. I have seen alot of it floating around stuff (folding on PS3s) and such.


Interesting stuff though all together.
 
Well...look at it as the foundation of a larger set of research. With the results they get here, other researchers can go off and do their research using this information. Keep in mind that not all cures and break throughs start and finish from one body of research. There are actually a few protein related projects out there other then F@H. The majority of them reside on the BOINC software. I hope this helps a little more.
 
I fold because if I didn't, I couldn't fit all my clothes in my dresser. :)

Hey someone had to say it.

All kidding aside, it's for a great cause.
 
The research goes towards many things, not just cancer - but cancer histories in both mine and my wife's families, as well as being a parent are the 2 reasons I do it.

My father had prostate cancer, my mother had breast cancer.
My wife's mother, grandmother, and 3 aunts have had breast cancer; her aunt died from it a year ago and another aunt now has it bad to where it's spreading and they don't know if they can help her. Needless to say my wife is scared she'll get it soon (she's 34).

I have a 5 1/2 year old daughter and a newborn baby girl on the way in late September - I will do what I can, no matter what it takes, to give to causes such as this in the hopes that maybe some day down the road, my idle computer time contributes to something worthwhile like a cure or a better method of testing and diagnosis.

~just my $0.02c ;)
 
We fold are and hardcore about it because it is believed that protein folding and misfolding is responsible for a number of diseases. My dad is a cancer survivor with it being in remission. Some of these diseases like Alzheimers are so horrible that I would hope a cure can be found one day.

Our team is diverse in that we have a bunch of people who use their computer's spare cycles to fold. Others have built dedicated rigs because this is a cause we believe in. If you go to the main page at http://folding.stanford.edu , you'll see that the folding project has allowed scientists to get a better understanding with numerous research papers being written and published.

Folding is also a very competitive DC project and many of us also enjoy the fun we have competing amongst ourselves and against other teams.
 
To save on my sob story (not that bad really) but go off what they said, not only do we do it for others but a lot of us suffer from things folding is linked to ourselves

I for one have Crohn's (still havnt learned to spell it right lol) and while it's usually not an issue about once a month or two I'll get a nasty flare up. Besides that, I had to change my diet for ever

but there's folks here with truly terrifying conditions, makes my eating disorder (lol) look like a cake walk (another thing I can't eat lol)
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
To save on my sob story (stolen from Vaulter98c's post).

I have Aspergers Disorder which is just a milder version of Autism as well as Cluster Migranes. My hope is that one day, by folding or whatnot, they will find a cure, or even a better way to cope with such issues, alot of which are genetic and could lead to better health (maybe not my own, but at least for my son and his children).
 
so not to diverge in my own thread but...
So lets get me going on folding!

I got a p4 and a AMD64 that I can turn into dedicated boxes...

I also have a server (that is in moderate use) twin quad core xeon 3ghz 16gb

would it significantly impact the servers proformance if i ran it on there or am i better running on a dedicated box
 
slayer9019 said:
so not to diverge in my own thread but...
So lets get me going on folding!

I got a p4 and a AMD64 that I can turn into dedicated boxes...

I also have a server (that is in moderate use) twin quad core xeon 3ghz 16gb

would it significantly impact the servers proformance if i ran it on there or am i better running on a dedicated box
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As long as you setup the priorities rite in the sever you should see little to no impact on its other duties.

Get the SMP client going on it. Find the sticky for the Give Away boxen. Guides and a contest to win a system are in there.
 
I fold because my wife has survived Leukemia as a teenager and various other cancers such as melanoma. Also my grandfather just passed away Friday from advanced stages of Alzheimers. So I do it just to help to maybe someday find a cure so other families won't have to go through what mine has.


 
No sob story here. I fold to get the free subscription to General Mayhem.
 
So f@h can be set to only run in when the computer is idle?

How well would it run on a 300kbps average connection? And is it a total network hog?

Otherwise I'll start folding, I leave my computer alone quite a bit sometimes.
 
King Icewind said:
So f@h can be set to only run in when the computer is idle?

How well would it run on a 300kbps average connection? And is it a total network hog?

Otherwise I'll start folding, I leave my computer alone quite a bit sometimes.
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The client appears to always be running even when you have it set on idle. What I notice is that when set to idle, it will use all of the spare cycles and give up cycles as needed when you start running other stuff. Some of the folks here even game while they fold without stopping the client. What some people have done is turn down cpu utilization in the config to leave more free cycles or to reduce heat in the case of laptops.

The only time the folding client will use the internet is when it downloads and uploads work units. During the upload of a completed work unit, it is a total resource hog as it bogs down the internet. Luckily, it won't be using your network much as work units can take a good amount of time to complete. My folding rig in generall only uploads a few work units per day and they range in size from 20-67megs.
 
Vegas P11 said:
I fold because my wife has survived Leukemia as a teenager and various other cancers such as melanoma. Also my grandfather just passed away Friday from advanced stages of Alzheimers. So I do it just to help to maybe someday find a cure so other families won't have to go through what mine has.


Click to expand...

My condolences to you on the passing of your grandfather. My wife's grandmother passed away several years ago from health issues related to Alzheimers.
 
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