• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Why should I or anybody FOLD?

H

honkee

2[H]4U
Joined
Aug 6, 2003
Messages
2,438
please explain pros and cons of folding.
i have many pcs that can fold for the [H], maybe 7 ghz worth but they are hardly ever on.

My main concern here is the 100% cpu usage and power bill.
i dont want a jacked up bill and to shorten my lifespan of the cpu, for something i have no idea about.
also what exactly is folding and what does it accomplish?

sorry if i came off rude but any information and help appreciated.
 
lol im not really into poetry and let me get this straght.
You guys are folding proteins for biological experiments?
man im lost, if i run this folding thing on a work pc people wont think im some kinda of dr evil making new organisms and stuff right?
 
Actually we run two separate projects under the team banner, first is Folding@Home, which is a protein research programs from Stanford. Essentially it takes various proteins and sees how they react under varying conditions in the hope of finding the appropriate conditions that cause, and can reverse the effects of diseases such as cancer and diabetes. Second is the United Devices Grid.org project. This project is run in conjunction with Oxford, and does similar projects but is more focused on developing drugs to combat disease.

Most of us just find it to be a more worthy pursuit than something such as Seti, as there is the possibility that one of our boxes could turn in a result that could lead to a major breakthrough that could help someone.

If people have questions, the best place to point them are to the project homepages. You can't get a much more succinct answer as to what these projects do than by going there.

As for the hardware and power bills, most of us leave our PC's run most of the time anyhow so its a question of why not. And the power bills aren't appreciably higher unless you are running a pile of equipment. There are some threads in the FAQ that talk specifically about power usage so you might consider looking at that.

 
It is not just poetry in there. Basically. Many of us do it because we have lost someone to cancer, or various other medical problems, that the Folding@Home project (hopefully) will someday find a "cure" for. It takes something we are already interested in (computers) and something that has had a big impact on our lives, and putting the two together we hope that we can benefit humanity. Many others fold because they are dealing with things in their own life, and hope to find a cure to save themselves, and others do it for their future, or the future of their children etc. So if you took the time to read, you would realise that although there may be poetry there, we do not fold for poetry, but to save lives. Next time take the time to read some of it, as it IS the answer to your question of why we do it.

http://folding.stanford.edu said:
What are proteins and why do they "fold"? Proteins are biology's workhorses -- its "nanomachines." Before proteins can carry out their biochemical function, they remarkably assemble themselves, or "fold." The process of protein folding, while critical and fundamental to virtually all of biology, remains a mystery. Moreover, perhaps not surprisingly, when proteins do not fold correctly (i.e. "misfold"), there can be serious effects, including many well known diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease, and many cancers and cancer-related syndromes.

What does Folding@Home do? Folding@Home is a distributed computing project which studies protein folding, misfolding, aggregation, and related diseases. We use novel computational methods and large scale distributed computing, to simulate timescales thousands to millions of times longer than previously achieved. This has allowed us to simulate folding for the first time, and to now direct our approach to examine folding related disease.
Click to expand...
 
Is it possible to fold in small intervals?
i plan to fold with my pcs when im not at home, but as soon as i get home they will prolly have them turned off!!

im reading abuot work units and if i cut something off before it finishes this "work unit", can it be resumed later?
 
im sorry i was led to believe that this is some sort of game.
that everybody was trying to get the most work units and battling with other websites for a top position.
If it is truly for a good cause like cancer research then u can count me in
 
Yes, it will resume the work. Some Work units have time limits, but if are running a fairly recent computer then they shouldn't be a proble if you are running the computers for 8-12 hours a day.
 
All the talk of competition and all, is based on the point scale that they created (Stanford) to measure progress and work completed for the project. It is a novel way to keep interest and bring in people who would not do it normally, and to hold interest in the project. While it seems sometimes that is the primary focus, the hope to find a cure is what really drives us!
 
That's the kicker, its a little of both. We fold for cures, for fun, for pride.

Right now, we are 2nd place in the F@H stats to Overclockers Austrailia, but are coming up on them pretty quickly. Standford and Grid both attached a point ranking system to their projects so the friendly competition is a by-product of the cause, finding a cure. :D

And on that note, welcome to the team!

 
Glad to have you onboard.

I have linked this thread on the front page because I would like to hear other people talk about "Why people should join the folding team".

While this is a good question, YOUR answers are what will make people understand why folding is so important.
 
Thanks Steve, as always, for your support!

It's important to know that F@H and UD are background processes. They only work with "spare cycles" of your CPU... Your mouse and keyboard have a higher priority than F@H... Many of us game, surf the web,etc on our machines without any noticeable difference.

F@H is designed to take a back seat to every other request for the CPU...

I've lost a number of people in my family to cancer, this is my way of fighting back... The points add some fun to a very serious area, but in the end I want to help find a cure to help humanity....



Keep on Folding!! For the [H]orde!!

 
This is great i have 7 ghz in amd 64 machines that will be folding by later tonight.
dont get me addicted to this because i will just gun for the top spot like i always do.
:)
 
ok... :(

guess you guys could always use an extra cheerleader on the team right?
:D
 
honkee said:
dont get me addicted to this because i will just gun for the top spot like i always do.
:)
Click to expand...

But that's all part of our evil plan. ;)


 
honkee said:
ok... :(

guess you guys could always use an extra cheerleader on the team right?
:D
Click to expand...
Don't be bummed out! We've got big folders and small folders and every one of them counts. It doesn't take that many small folders with a few computers each to match one of the big folders. Welcome to the team!
 
Mattman said:
Don't be bummed out! We've got big folders and small folders and every one of them counts. It doesn't take that many small folders with a few computers each to match one of the big folders. Welcome to the team!
Click to expand...

Very true. (a point brought up often as well).

In the past ~6 weeks the guys who are in the F@H Most Valuable Noob race have (combined) nearly reached my point "level" in 6 weeks, that took me a few months to get :)
 
It’s all about distributed computing. Think of it this way. The weather maps and predictions you see on your evening news or on the Weather Channel are actually calculated by super computers, because the sheer amount of data and math to process this type of information takes a LOT of computing power. This is just one example of a type of data that takes a supercomputer to process in a reasonable amount of time. Basically, in the simplest explanation, these are collections of processors, memory and other basic components that are VERY powerful and linked together to work as one computer.

The only problem with super computers is that they are very expensive to setup and maintain (the cooling costs alone are staggering). Enter distributed computing. Distributed computing (again, simplifying it) breaks up this data into smaller packets and relies on an individual’s computer to process that packet and send it back.

So say I have X data for this experimental cancer drug. I simply break the data up, send it to an individual’s computer to process the variables to see if it will work, and that packet is then sent back along with thousands of other packets from thousands of other computers so the data can then be put together and a result can be given. Again, this is oversimplifying the process, but I hope it lets you get the point of distributed computing. For those institutions that can’t afford supercomputers, this network of volunteer computers allows those institutions to process massive amounts of data and variables where they normally could not do with just a few computers.

The project I’m currently supporting with my CPU cycles is United Devices Grid, which researches various drugs for cancer to see if they will work in certain proteins in either curing or preventing cancer. I have about 5 computers “folding” or testing variables and, depending on the complexity of the protein, the packet can be processed in anywhere as little as 2 ½ hours to over 11 hours.

In the case of UD (United Devices), you simply download a program, register with the service (so they can track your results, no other info will be gathered) and run the program. The program works when your CPU is idle. Meaning that you can actually leave the program on while you are working and the UD release program will take the place of the system idle process, giving any programs you are using the necessary CPU cycles.

In other words: if you open Photoshop and have UD open and Photoshop requires 75% CPU at that moment, UD will give the 75% to that program. It even works well with games, though I tend to disable when gaming. You don’t have to leave your computer on all the time either. The program will simply pick up were it left off when you powered down your system. Also, for work concerns, it only connects to the servers when it needs to either upload a completed packet or download a new one... that’s it.

You can designate how much space you want to allocate via a profile system and they even give you some interesting facts about your computers at grid.org. And finally regarding the wear on CPU... I’ve been running UD since my Celeron 466MHz and with the exception of two CPUs, I’ve yet to experience shortened life. Of course, those two CPU’s were overclocked, so that was my fault.

Anyway, I’m afraid I’m actually part of PCWorld’s team, as they were the ones to introduce me to distributed computing back in the day, but if you are going to join now, definitely join Team[H]ard for a good cause. Oh yes, and I too recommend visiting a site about them. In fact... check out the site below and it will not only give you info on distributed computing, but also a list of all the active projects.

http://distributedcomputing.info/

I personally think one of the cancer/disease research projects are much better spent, especially when compared to the other projects like SETI, trying to find extra-terrestrial life. :rolleyes: Hope this info helps!

- James
 
I fold and continue to fold because it's a good cause that is looking for cures for cancer and many other diseases and problems that are caused by proteins misfolding in nature. Folding@Home is trying to find out exactly how proteins fold and mis-fold in the hope that they will be able to find a way to stop proteins from mis-folding or find a cure when they do.

I personally have not been hit hard with cancer or the other things this can find a cure for. I do have an aunt with cancer that went into and back out of remission. She is undergoing treatment for a second time. I have yet to have a family member die from cancer. I have had a couple of people I went to school with that did. I also know a couple of others that have died from it also. For many of the people that fold for the [H]orde, I have gotten very lucky. There are many stories of what members have gone through because of research posted here in the forum.

For me it's a mixture of personal reasons and the desire to help with something that could help many other people. Yes, down the line this could help my children, grandchildren or other family members or friends. That is another reason why I do this.

It is worth the extra cost in electricity and the extra purchases I have made with folding in mind. To me, it's a small price to pay to help in research that could benefit millions of people.

As we are speaking, my work system is now uploading a 600 point Gromac WU. It makes me feel good to have that done. It will be even better when the system grabs the next WU.

 
Is there an easy way to your folding stats in your signature?
 
Computers are mean to be run constantly (if your system is stable). This is a small price to pay for a possible cure. From what I have read the amount of power your computer uses is only a few extra bux a month on the power bill.

Folding is the best!!!!!!111 :D

I like waking up in the morning and seeing what place I am in today, too.

 
Glad to see you on board, honkee! Too bad you didn't ask me after all those PM's we had. ;)

Speaking of boards, I go the package in the mail.

Full fold ahead! To those of us with cancer survivors and not survivors we care about, it's no game, its a lifestyle!

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top