FR Folding@Home Project Update -- We're in the Top 75 of all teams with 9.75 Million points

Stanford University's Folding@Home Stats page ^ | 08/02/2006 | Texas Booster

[texas booster]

Time for a new FreeRepublic folding@home thread.

Our FreeRepublic team of 358 members comprised primarily of Free Republic members in good standing have banded together to donate their excess CPU cycles to a worthy cause. Via distributed computing, millions of computers around the world, contribute directly to scientific research, in the quest for a greater understanding of diseases such as Alzheimer's, Cancer, and Mad Cow (BSE).

Currently, the team is in 75th place (with 1009 active CPUs - 55,700 completed Work Units and 9.75 million points).

This is an entirely voluntary program, and if you want to learn more, please see the links posted below (or read one of the previous 20 folding threads)

[texas booster]

Folding@Home FAQ for new users:

What is Folding@Home? A Stanford University project to find out how proteins fold.

Why it's important: Proteins folding wrong causes all kinds of diseases, like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and forms of cancer. Folding@Home uses novel computational methods and large scale distributed computing, to simulate timescales thousands to millions of times longer than previously achieved. Through Folding@home, scientists now have the horsepower to study the mechanics of protein folding. With its ability to share the workload among hundred of thousands of computers economically, Folding@home can help scientists understand how proteins snap, or don't, into their predestined shapes - and may help to explain the origins of diseases such as Alzheimer's and apparently unrelated diseases. We're fueling research that could end all that.

How does it work?: You download a safe, tested program (see link below) that is certified by Stanford University. It gets work from Stanford, runs calculations using your spare computer power, and sends the results back to the University.

Is it safe? Yes! Folding@Home rarely effects computer performance in any way and won't compromise your privacy in any way. It only uses the computing power you aren't using so it doesn't slow down other programs.

How do I get started folding for Team FreeRepublic?:
1.) Download the folding program from Stanford University's folding download page (Folding@home Client Download). Type in your desired username.
2.) Type in 36120 for the team number. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT - if you get the number wrong, you won't be folding for team FreeRepublic!
3.) The third question asks, "Launch automatically at machine startup, installing this as a service?" - We recommend you answer YES. Otherwise you will have to manually start the program after every reboot.

How can my computer help? Even if he were given exclusive access to all of the world's supercomputers, Standford still wouldn't have as much processing power as they get from the supercluster of people's desktop systems Folding@home relies on. Modern supercomputers are essentially a cluster of hundreds of processors linked by fast networking. But Stanford needed the power of hundreds of thousands of processors, not just hundreds.

There's no reason to not get involved! It's free, easy, and you can know you're helping every minute without lifting a finger.

*******************************************

List of Relevant Folding Links
Why Fold - Watch This !!

Another Folding Clip

Folding@home Client Download

FreeRepublic.com Folder Stats

Extreme Overclockers Stats for FreeRepublic

Another Stats Page

*******************************************
Competition (Not!!) Dummies ..Daily Kos

Dummie Folding Threads #7 #8 #9#10#11 #12

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Other Useful Stuff - Links

How much are those work units worth? And what are they?
All Projects Listed
Point Summary for Workunits

Stat Image Generator

Fahmon Third Party Monitoring Software

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Past FreeRepublic Folding threads

#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #17 #18 #19 #20

[texas booster]

New thread so we can watch the clock tick down to 10,000,000 points produced by the newest big team on the server!

Go Team Ronaldus Maximus!

[fanfan]

Wow!


BTTT!

[texas booster]

Check out this thread by Dr. Scarpetta on the role of vitamin B6 on protein folding:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1676666/posts

---

"Vitamin B6 is essential for metabolism of protein and proper immune and nervous system function, and is found in both meat and vegetables.

There is evidence that high levels of the amino acid homocysteine could cause damage to brain cells. To see whether higher intake of folate and vitamins B6 and B12, which can reduce homocysteine levels, would also reduce Parkinson's risk, researchers followed 5,289 men and women aged 55 and older who were free of the disease at the study's outset.

During nearly 10 years of follow up, 72 people developed Parkinson's disease, Dr. Monique M. B. Breteler of Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam and colleagues report in the journal Neurology.

The researchers found no association between consumption of B12 or folic acid and risk of developing the disease. However, the more B6 people consumed, the lower their risk."

---

Bump to eating more veggies and meat!

[Straight Vermonter]

We finally passed those Tasmanians!

[Egon]

My shameless self-promotion for this thread:

If you're interested in tracking your folding machine(s) over the web, please Freepmail me.

Available features include:

• Timely snapshot of each machine's progress on it's current project
• Point values for project
• Estimated completion dates/times
• Warning indicators for machines that appear to have stopped communicating or folding
• Warnings for machines that won't make their deadline
• Team ranking status box (courtesy of EOC)
• Machine stats like PPD (points per day)
• Project comparison stats: PPD, average time taken to completion, etc.
• It's free-- and always will be
• ...other features as time permits, and people request

Beware. It's addictive.

[fanfan]

You're ahead by 7 places!

:-)

[Egon]

I finally managed to get off my butt and write a stats page for the projects.

Instead of being taken to FAH's project summary page when you click on a project, you're taken to a project page showing stats based on our team's experiences with that project.

I'll be adding some more in depth analysis as I think of some, and get more ambitious.

[Drango]

Folding for the Gipper!

[texas booster]

Congrats on breaking 50,000 points. That is great using only three systems.

[texas booster]

Good eyes. I didn't even notice that they dropped off our radar screen.

I am hoping that we can add enough active (and fast) systems to break into the Top 20 of daily folding team production. With Klutz coming back to life, just a couple of new folders would secure 60,000 points each day.

[JCEccles]

My favorite DU folding@home post:

"FREEPers team losing CPUs -- they lost 25 CPUs since May 4--The wheels are coming off the FRmobile." .

[Drango]

That is great using only three systems

And slow systems they are! Just goes to show that you don't need the latest and greatest to "fold". Most of our team points come from people with just one rig "folding" 24/7. Thanks gang!

[ken in texas]

After several week of fighting with an issue, I'm about to drop my laptop from Folding.

When it finishes a WU, it seems to be able to transmit the results back with no problem... but it sometimes sits for days trying to download a new WU to work on.

I've tried an uninsall and reinstall several times to no effect. I can ping the server that shows up in the log file, but it still refuses to download a new WU.

Any ideas??? or else I'll just pull it from this machine. Normal wireless access works fine, but for some reason, it now refuses to download new work.

[texas booster]

I loved that!

CorporateMike seems to be laying low since that little comment.

BTW, the last DU thread listed about is not visible.

"This topic is archived."

Maybe someone here might happen to know why ...

[IslandJeff]

Thanks for the ping. I'll have another box up soon, hopefully. My only problem with F@H, thus far, has been being assigned outrageous WUs and a little bit of a heating problem, which was corrected by adjusting CPU max usage.

And the "display" doesn't really convey any useful info. What the heck am I doing?

[texas booster]

I have three laptops folding for the cause, and none have any major issues. I do have one laptop (#130 on the charts) that is very sporadic about finishing WUs and reporting them, but I blame that on the user.

Are you folding GUI or service?

[Malsua]

While Klutz is the big offender there(school break), I'm partially to blame as well. At least 10 of mine have been shunted. I'll get everything back up by september and add in at least another 15 or so.

[texas booster]

I use the display showing "Ball and Stick" to new users so they can better understand what we mean by folding - a three to six foot protein has to fit in a cell and still accomplish work.

Otherwise I set systems to run F@H as a service so that I get a few more points.

[IslandJeff]

Not sure I really even need the display - any way to run it as a TSR in a text environment? Not sure what you meant by "service" (as opposed to System App?)

[Incorrigible]

I'm getting closer to the top 100 every week!

Eventually I am going to bring that third machine back up and running.

[ken in texas]

Are you folding GUI or service?

I'm using the GUI... it's been rock solid since March or so when I got the new machine... the last few weeks it just refuses to dowload a new WU. It sends the results in just fine... then gets stuck on downloading new work.

I can ping the IP address of the server, Stanford's stats say the sever is working fine... but day after day my laptop keeps saying that it cannot download a WU.

If there's some evidence that the service works better I might switch, but would prefer not to.

[ahayes]

Still in the 50's here although my production has dropped dramatically. With thunderstorms my chief computer has been off a lot, now we have a heat wave so I'm shutting it off to save electricity and prevent overheating (AC at 80 likewise to save electricity!), and for some reason the people at work keep rebooting the computer there and it doesn't restart the program, so that's lagging too. I should go set that up to restart on reboot as well.

[GRRRRR]

Same here, locks up after each WU and won't resume.
Plus, the lap top runs so hot, afraid of burning it out...

So, I'm off for a while.

[ican'tbelieveit]

I run a cooling fan under my laptop. They are fairly inexpensive, I think I spent about $20 on the one I have. Hooks up through the USB port. My system seems to love it.

[ken in texas]

Same here, locks up after each WU and won't resume. Plus, the lap top runs so hot, afraid of burning it out...

I know what you mean about running hot... I throttled the CPU usage down a bit and the temp seems to be normal.

What's strange is all the other places I go to via the wireless access work just fine... the darn thing just won't download a new WU during the last two weeks.

[Egon]

Occasionally, I'll have this problem with one of my machines. I delete the client.cfg file, and reconfigure the application, and everything runs great.

I suspect it refreshes the FAH server-of-choice that it pulls new projects from, goes to a different one, and works thereafter.

[HangThemHigh]

Run as service (or console version)is the WinXP version of the old DOS TSR. You will need to download the console version and install it in place of what you now have.

After installing the console version and rebooting, the Folding program will run automatically whenever you start the machine and it will even run if you aren't around to log on.

If you need help installing, I, or most any of the friendly folks, here will be glad to help.

[Mount Athos]

Take that tasmania!

[SC Swamp Fox]

These graphs will be periodically updated. You may have to refresh your browser to see the update.

[Flyer]

Laundry bump!

85 / Flyer_FR / 19902 / 123

[SC Swamp Fox]

The DUmmies did start a thread #13 after their 12th ended badly. Nobody has posted on it since July 2nd.

[NerdDad]

bump to home pc

[ezsmoke]

I got the new box yesterday and I would have completed a WU by now if the #@$*& power co would stop turning the %$#&* power on and off!

I am somewhat annoyed.....

[soccer_maniac]

Thanks for starting the new thread.

I've been really busy the last few days.

[ken in texas]

Occasionally, I'll have this problem with one of my machines. I delete the client.cfg file, and reconfigure the application, and everything runs great.

Been there, done that. On restart it gets assigned the same IP address to download a WU. I can ping it, and Stanford says it's running fine, but no go on the download.

[DocRock]

BTTT

[ezsmoke]

Do you have it set to get deadlineless WUs? If so they have run out of those. I had this problem a week ago. Setting the client to get any units fixed it.

[ken in texas]

Do you have it set to get deadlineless WUs? If so they have run out of those. I had this problem a week ago. Setting the client to get any units fixed it.

Excellent suggestion... I am now folding away on the laptop again. How did you discover that Stanford was out of Deadlineless WUs?

Many thanks.

[ezsmoke]

It was mentioned on their forums.

[RebelTex]

"Instead of being taken to FAH's project summary page when you click on a project, you're taken to a project page showing stats based on our team's experiences with that project."

WOW!    Way Kewl.

I just took a gander at the new format and that's impressive.  This is going to be fun.

hmmm - Egon, you might need to tweak it a little. Take a look at p2125_lambda_5way_melt_4_10011.

User	Machine	Date Started	Date Completed	Elapsed (hh:mm)	PPD

Bush_Democrat

BD1

07/21/2006 18:10:48

07/21/2006 19:09:48

59

9567.46

But, hey, if it's right, then I'm posting an urgent call to Bush_Democrat.

Urgent call to Bush_Democrat:  

You've simply got to tell me what kind of CPU/system that BD1 is.  I want one of those.  LOL

;-)

WHOA - I just took a look at the stats for BD1 - AWESOME!   That's one mean machine.  It's racking up numbers like a mainframe.

WHAT IS IT?  The computer equivalent to Dirty Harry's .44 Magnum?    I got's to know.  LOL

[HKMk23]

I'm lagging behind my earlier pace because I've been adjusting the throttle on the FAH service. It was running my CPU so hard that, on hot days, it would shut down from the heat buildup. Even with the additional ventilating fan I installed in my computer desk.

I had been knocking down about 100 points a day, but it's down to about 90, now.

I have the CPU demand setting at 93%. If things are as I think they are, I'll be changing CPU demand seasonally. 100% in the winter, 93% in the summer...that kind of thing.

Guess I'm doin' alright for a mere para-geek.

[Bush_Democrat]

Shhhh, that's the Karl Rove Diebold-2008 machine I'm testing for him - it's supposed to be a secret. Turn the decoder ring to 23B4l for the rest of the message:

01000100 01010101 01001101 01001101 01001001 01000101 01010011 00100000 01010011 01010101 01000011 01001011 00100001

[RebelTex]

"Shhhh, that's the Karl Rove Diebold-2008 machine..."

ROTFLOL

Man, I knew you had connections, but how did you get that 'Top Secret' clearance after that Saturday night party? 

You'll need level 5 clearance for the rest of this message.

01001100 01101001 01100010 01100101 01110010 01100001 01101100 01110011 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01110011 01110101 01100011 01101000 00100000 01110111 01100101 01100101 01101110 01101001 01100101 01110011 00101110

[Bush_Democrat]

Well, you know 'What Happens In Vegas Stays in Vegas' - and to think that the DUmmies were so impressed with their little chocolate fountain. That's SO last year.
The Dom Perignon hot tub, on the other hand...

[Son Of The Godfather]

Hmmmmm... I've been running SETI@home for several years, but now that I see FReepers have a good cause (and DUmmie competition), I'll have to look into this Folding@home thing.

Thanks for posting.

[Son Of The Godfather]

OK, I'm on board. :)

[E.G.C.]

BTTT

[Son Of The Godfather]

Any tweaks to make it crunch faster?

[texas booster]

Any tweaks to make it crunch faster?

First, turn off screen savers and just allow the system to turn off the monitor after xx minutes of inactivity.

Heat is the biggest danger to computers. I run my main desktop at 100% with no heat problems, but I run all other desktops at 75% to 90%. Laptops I set to 50% to 70%, depending on their thermal characteristics.

I also run the Console version for XP, so that it continues to fold even if the system is at a login prompt. The console version seems to be about 10% faster than the GUI version, but the real help is that it always folds, logged in or not.

Adding more memory is always good, and it seems to fly when you have over 1 GB of RAM.

Thanks for waiting till morning for me to reply. What part of the world are you in that you are awake all night?