639 replies to this topic

[Cyto]

We are da Folding freaks I tells ya. *lol*

[dnamechanic]

Yea Bates

We are all freaks of one kind or another

The folding competition is getting much stiffer as we progress thru the ranks.

I have parts coming in for second overclocked AMD Mobile Barton (~3700+), my best producer.

Guess I will bring it online to help.

Engineers like toys. So it's nice that the toys do something for the main cause.

[john e]

Sounds like the road to understanding and developement.
~John
Work hard, have fun, be happy, be healthy, be helpful, be prayerful and prosper!

[reason]

Congratulations to the team in the latest milestone - keep up the good work folks.

[Lazarus Long]

Here is news of a significant event. Google has joined the team in a big way by combining the networking ability of its tool bar with not only this but potentially numerous examples of shared computation projects.

Check out Google Compute

Google Compute
Google would like to request your help with Google Compute, a new feature for the Google Toolbar. By turning on this feature, you enable your computer to work on complex problems when it would otherwise be idle. The work it does is automatically sent via the Internet to researchers who combine it with information sent by thousands of other users.

The first beneficiary of this effort is Folding@home, a non-profit research project at Stanford University that is trying to understand the structure of proteins so they can develop better treatments for a number of illnesses. In the future Google Compute may allow you to donate your computing time to other worthwhile endeavors, including projects to improve Google and its services.

http://toolbar.google.com/dc/

[dnamechanic]

Yep Lazarus,

The Google team is a huge contributor to F@H. Team Google is ranked number two. The Google team is categorized separately from other teams and is listed as an aggregate team.

The number one team is the "Default" team, it includes those folding without a team number or name.

Currently there are there are 41,885 teams folding for F@H, including the aggregate teams.

The Longevity Meme Folding@home team is presently ranked at 398 (including aggregates) and moving through the ranks.

[mrfesta]

Update: Longevity Meme is now ranked 334 =) About 2 months until we break the 300 mark.

[Live Forever]

Update:  Longevity Meme is now ranked 334 =)  About 2 months until we break the 300 mark.

Nice! I just downloaded it to my 2 computers, so hopefully that will help a little.

[maestro949]

Update:  Longevity Meme is now ranked 334 =)  About 2 months until we break the 300 mark.

Nice! I just downloaded it to my 2 computers, so hopefully that will help a little.

every bit helps.

[Live Forever]

I was going to use my own username, but then I saw the username WWW.MPRIZE.ORG in the statistics, so I put that as my username (and 32461 as my team number of course) in the configuration of the little app running down in the system tray. I figured I might as well push 2 things at once (the team and the username) in hopes that both are pushed up the rankings to greater visibility.

[mrfesta]

I was going to use my own username, but then I saw the username WWW.MPRIZE.ORG in the statistics, so I put that as my username (and 32461 as my team number of course) in the configuration of the little app running down in the system tray. I figured I might as well push 2 things at once (the team and the username) in hopes that both are pushed up the rankings to greater visibility.

hehe. I started that username awhile ago with the same intentions , great minds think alike?

Eventually I just started using/still use my username of mrfesta though.

[Live Forever]

Aah, ok, well I guess it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things as long as I have it downloaded and running, but the team competition is an interesting way to follow the progress.

(and yes, great minds think alike)

[rjws]

I had this on both my comps but one had to be recently replaced, have not had time to replace it. On this comp I run alot of media and folding always crashes it to desktop. But I have contributed some Been doin it awhile now and I do use the teamnumber.

[dnamechanic]

Thanks liveforever22 and rjws.

Yes, rjws,

F@H is a CPU intensive program. F@H will cause almost any CPU or RAM instability to show up. It is a very good program just to test CPU & memory stability. Many overclockers use it as a "burn-in" program. F@H, when running a Gromacs work unit, will raise CPU temperature more than any other program that I know of.

Though it uses every cycle of CPU available, F@H will yield to other programs and allow normal use of the computer.

I have two computers that I custom built especially for Folding, overclocked to the max, they never crash even though I use them for everything else.

Keep on Folding, the nanomachines of life will one day yield their secrets.

[mrfesta]

I have two computers that I custom built especially for Folding, overclocked to the max, they never crash even though I use them for everything else.

Just curious, how much did you spend on the overclocked machines?

[mrfesta]

Well, we're close to breaking the top 600, and if we can sustain and perhaps grow our pace, we look set to overtake several hundred more teams in the next 12 months. Getting in the top 400 or 500 would be quite an accomplishment, and I suspect it comes with bragging rights.

And I suspect there are still a few dozen regulars here at ImmInst that have spare cycles they could be donating, which could accelerate the team into the 300's, maybe even the high 200's. We'd need a lot more hardware to break the 200 barrier though. But still, if another couple dozen members donated their CPU time, we could really move up the ranks. I just joined, and I'm not adding much, so I'm using the term "we" loosely here, but the team has already moved from the 800's to the low 600's in a few short weeks. Moving up into the top 500 shouldn't be all that far away, since I see that there are many teams in the 500-600 range that we'll overtake by the end of July.

Its been about 10 months since that post and the team is about to break the 300 mark (about 23 more days). Congrats [thumb]

[dnamechanic]

Just curious, how much did you spend on the overclocked machines?

- The CPUs were slightly less than $100 each.
- one Motherboard ~$100
- two sets RAM ~$100 total
- One system is small form factor (motherboard, powersupply, & case, etc) $175
- Two hard drives ~$100

A Keyboard, Video, Monitor switch. ~$20

A USB port selectable between computers $10

Plus, I already had one case, power supply, other items, sound cards, etc.

Already had monitor, printer, scanner and other such things, which I use for both systems.

Looks like about $600 for both systems, above the baseline of equipment I already had.

One can get less expensive computers but most are not very efficient in terms of power
(electricity) consumed.

I chose the AMD mobile Barton CPUs because at the time they were relatively inexpensive
and they consume relative low power (somewhat important for systems that run
full-blast continuously).

Motherboards and RAM were selected for overclocking capability.

If building another system I would now probably choose different components.

[Live Forever]

Does anyone know how different the Rosetta@Home project is to Stanford's? I saw a post about it over at Betterhumans, so I was wondering.

[dnamechanic]

Does anyone know how different the ... project is to Stanford's?

Both projects are worthy of support.

Dr. Vijay Pande, principal investigator in F@H, responded in a thread at the Folding Community Forum:

"Some people think FAH is all about structure prediction (which it is not -- that's Rosetta's strength) and some think Rosetta is about misfolding related disease (which it's not, that's Folding@Home's strength)."

It seems to me that F@H's approach is more general and comprehensive.

Rosetta's approach could bring application-oriented results, without necessarily revealing the underlying chemistry and physics of the folding process.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There are several distributed computer projects that could use increased CPU power.

Each distributed computer project, in some way, contributes to the progress of mankind.

These are problems that computers can help us solve.

I think it is best not to wait on advanced technology or a "technological singularity" to solve these difficult problems.
Instead, we should get on with the problems at hand, using the tools we have.

To maximize progress, all computers would be computing all the time.

[Live Forever]

Both projects are worthy of support.

Dr. Vijay Pande, principal investigator in F@H, responded in a thread at the Folding Community Forum:

"Some people think FAH is all about structure prediction (which it is not -- that's Rosetta's strength) and some think Rosetta is about misfolding related disease (which it's not, that's Folding@Home's strength)."

It seems to me that F@H's approach is more general and comprehensive. 

Rosetta's approach could bring application-oriented results,  without necessarily revealing the underlying chemistry and physics of the folding process.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There are several distributed computer projects that could use increased CPU power.

Each distributed computer project, in some way, contributes to the progress of mankind.

These are problems that computers can help us solve.

I think it is best not to wait on advanced technology or a  "technological singularity" to solve these difficult problems. 
Instead, we should get on with the problems at hand, using the tools we have.

To maximize progress, all computers would be computing all the time.

Thanks for the explanation! I saw this one hour lecture (audio/video) given by David Baker, head of the Rosetta@home project and Professor at the University of Washington, in which he explains the science behind Rosetta in laypersons terms, posted by someone else on the Betterhumans thread, and found it quite interesting for anyone else that is interested.

[Matthias]

we have reached the 300

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[reason]

Congratulations to all who have joined into contribute and help bring in other folks - a great effort!

[Live Forever]

we have reached the 300

Nice! As soon as I read that I checked it, and they are currently at 297. (perhaps less by the time people follow the link, haha)

How long till we break the 200 mark? Any bets?

[Matthias]

there seem to be two versions of the statistic:

2006-06-01 12:00:00 PDT 2006
score: 1436334
work units: 9204
team rank: 297
http://fah-web.stanf.../team32461.html

2006-06-01 13:15:27
score: 1436726
work units: 9206
team rank: 300 of 44222
http://fah-web.stanf...e&teamnum=32461

How long till we break the 200 mark? Any bets?

500 : Aug 28 2005
400 : Dec 12 2005
300 : Jun 01 2006
my bet is
200 : Feb 15 2007

[mrfesta]

How long till we break the 200 mark? Any bets?

On July 15th, 2007 we will break the 200 mark.

[Live Forever]

I guess I will throw my hat in the ring too, I'll say Jun 01, 2007, exactly one year from today, we will break the 200 mark. I know that would be an amazing coincidence, but maybe it will happen.

[reason]

http://www.fightagin...ives/000865.php

As you may recall, I sent around some momentos when the team hit rank 500 last year. I'll do it again at rank 200, so consider that an incentive and challenge - sign up for the team and get folding for better biotechnology and medical science!

[Matthias]

"For the Longevity Meme!"

come on, let's defeat the evil 250!

1.) here you can download the MMORPG-Software
2.) choose our guild-ID (32461)
3.) check our high-lvl heros and their special abilities >>here<<
4.) join our nOob-section and improve your magic speed-power
5.) watch out the "Transhumanismus CZ"-force! Their mana today is 6187! Don't let them overtake us!
6.) let's try to increase our mana stably up to 6500
7.) any questions remaining? ask them now - and prepare for the quest. hurry!
8.) this is the attack-plan:

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[maestro949]

How about we take a collection and build a monster folding machine or two. Intel's Quad Core CPUs are coming out soon. The Xeon is due out in early 07. Perhaps keep an eye out for an affordable motherboard/CPU combo and then stuff as many ATI GPUs as possible and voila, WUs galore. I've been watching some forums to see if anyone else has tried this yet, haven't seen much yet but it's still early.

[maestro949]

TechReport did some benchmarks. Despite the 20-40x gains in crunching with GPUs the points output is only 50% more or so...

Webpage

Oh, and multiple video cards per mobo will not work as the CrossFire config isn't yet supported. Maybe down the road.