Ladies and Gentlemen...Folding SFN style

[MolecularMan14]

Hey everyone,

ok, in celebration of the long history of the site, and the incredible number of posts, here, I thought "Why not have a Folding@home team, to get everyone involved?" Well, that's what Im doing right now.

Here's the question...what should we name it? I'll keep everyone posted in order to keep you all up-to-date, and able to join

Thanks!

[MolecularMan14]

Ladies and Gentlemen...I bring to you-

Team #40636 SFNFolding

http://vspx27.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=teampage&teamnum=40636

!!!

[MolecularMan14]

If anyone does not have Folding@Home, then please click the link below

http://folding.stanford.edu/download.html

and download which ever one applies to you

 

Once you have downloaded it (or if you already have it), right click on the Folding@home display (the box with the visuals) and choose "configure". After the next window pops up, type in your User Name, then under team put 40636, and you're set

[Martin]

that's a neat project.

 

I am impressed.

 

I'd like to learn more about how proteins fold and acquire the

key shapes that make life happen.

 

however I am no computer whiz and dont even leave my computer on all the time. I try not to do things that might make it crash. so i will

probably just sit this one out

 

distributed computing is also a neat idea

a bunch of PC's can, on this particular project, be as fast as

a supercomputer, because the different units in the cluster do

not have to be connected very much or very fast

you just have to have a big cluster---and slow connections will do

 

that must be because different segments of a long molecule

fold more or less independently of other segments

 

it is a really cool project, like it better the more I read about it

check out the FAQ, anybody

[MolecularMan14]

I became interested in the concept a while back. I thought it was genius- sending packets of info to thousands of computers, for the greater good- awesome concept. SETI is not scientifically outstanding, but it's still a good goal. Folding is an awesome project, same with UD. All for the good of mankind, and it's good to have that sense of involvement, even if you're not exactly one of the top researchers on staff, you're still processing the info

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Why am I the ONLY person on the team?

[5614]

soz man you are gonna have to count me out.

 

i dont leave my computer on over night and i disagree with leaving it 'open' as it were when i am away from it.

 

as im on a network often the bandwidth is needed and i generally disagree with the folding thing... not because it wont work (good idea if others will do it) but i dont want to. all the same... carry on regardless!

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

It's a background process. You don't need to leave it "open."

Also it only occaissonaly accesses the internet, to get work and to report the results. With the nature of the work it takes hours to finish, so you won't be finding it accessing very often.

[MolecularMan14]

You can also just get it as a screensaver. That way, the only way it will use your computer is when you're away from it. Plus, if you like security, you can go the screensaver properties, and select "On Resume- password protect". so when you esc out of the screensaver, it will prompt you for your password.

[MolecularMan14]

You can also just get it as a screensaver. That way, the only way it will use your computer is when you're away from it. Plus, if you like security, you can go the screensaver properties, and select "On Resume- password protect". so when you esc out of the screensaver, it will prompt you for your password.

[Nalos Surith]

I have had it for sometime now and have been in a team, but I just joined the Team hoping we can more people into this. I noticed that on our teams page that the imagelink and the link to the site is broken due to the missing "http://" in front of the link; can any one fix that.

[MolecularMan14]

Im on it

[MolecularMan14]

excellent, all seems to be working for me! please check for yourselves, just to make sure it works for everyone.

[MolecularMan14]

Some info onto the Folding@Home project for any who arent sure about it...

 

http://folding.stanford.edu/science.html

 

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.

 

 

In order to carry out their function (eg as enzymes or antibodies), they must take on a particular shape, also known as a "fold." Thus, proteins are truly amazing machines: before they do their work, they assemble themselves! This self-assembly is called "folding."

 

One of our project goals is to simulate protein folding in order to understand how proteins fold so quickly and reliably, and to learn how to make synthetic polymers with these properties

 

To solve the protein folding problem, we need to break the microsecond barrier. Our group has developed multiple new ways to simulate protein folding which can break the microsecond barrier by dividing the work between multiple processors in a new way -- with a near linear speed up in the number of processors. Thus, with power of Folding@Home (over 100,000 processors), we can smash the microsecond barrier, simulating milliseconds of folding time and help unlock the mystery of how proteins fold.

 

 

On their site (http://folding.stanford.edu/) they also have a results page- (http://folding.stanford.edu/results.html) giving you an idea on what they've accomplished thus far, and summaries on their findings can be found in the press release page- http://folding.stanford.edu/papers.html

[MolecularMan14]

Why am I the ONLY person on the team?

It doesnt show that Ive joined b/c I have a 450,000 W/U to finish, so u can imagine how long that might take running the background

[postgrep]

I'll join when I can. I need to setup the *nix version, then I'll be helping you out

[MolecularMan14]

It's good to see at least a few more people joining. I'm not very active on the forums anymore, but I still use my computing programs often

Just trying to get the word out; all for good

[Bio-Hazard]

Ok, I'm in.

[Hellbender]

clue me in...whats "folding"? You mean like origami? The links either don't work or lead me to this very thread. Is it some physics thing?

[Pangloss]

I have a word of caution to throw out here. These things were a great idea back when processors cranked out a dozen watts or so. But today's chips can easily crank out ten times that amount. With the rising price of energy you really have to pause and think about that electrical bill. A lot of folks don't realize how much power these newer CPUs actually consume. Would you be surprised if I told you that it's possible to spend $300+ per year on Folding without even realizing it?

 

I don't mean to be a downer, but do you really want to spend $20-30/month helping some scientist score a Nobel Prize, for which you get nothing?

 

I think the problem is that people see their computers as "sitting idle", and think that they're contributing something that they're not using. The computer is going to run its cycles anyway, so you might as well "donate" those "free cycles" to a worthy cause, right? But computers just don't work that way. When the CPU is idle it's not really using any power. Doing work consumes power. And you have to pay for that power.

 

But hey, if that's what folks want to do, more power to 'em. It sounds like fun and I hope you get a lot of participation. I just think people need to remember the old TANSTAAFL rule. (There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.)

[MolecularMan14]

I have a word of caution to throw out here. These things were a great idea back when processors cranked out a dozen watts or so. But today's chips can easily crank out ten times that amount. With the rising price of energy you really have to pause and think about that electrical bill. A lot of folks don't realize how much power these newer CPUs actually consume. Would you be surprised if I told you that it's possible to spend $300+ per year on Folding without even realizing it?

This corresponds with your other point down below, and its a good one, but if you consider how often (say at work) you turn your attention away from your monitor and it goes to a screensaver. The juice would only be used for that often (unless of course you're doing it competitively like some organizations do). I dont mean for this to be competitive, just something to help the greater good on a daily basis

 

I don't mean to be a downer, but do you really want to spend $20-30/month helping some scientist score a Nobel Prize, for which you get nothing?

I doubt very much that someone will get a prize for the work that distributive computing has done, other than for the work they did in the organization and programming of it. Just the same, if it were to happen, more power to them - I dont mind if my name isnt mentioned in the credits of their speech or not; knowing that I made a difference (even as much as one work unit) satisfies me

 

I think the problem is that people see their computers as "sitting idle", and think that they're contributing something that they're not using. The computer is going to run its cycles anyway, so you might as well "donate" those "free cycles" to a worthy cause, right? But computers just don't work that way. When the CPU is idle it's not really using any power. Doing work consumes power. And you have to pay for that power.

I know what you mean, but if people use it as I do (I assume this is how most people use it), just as a screensaver and even then, only on occasion, you really do limit the juice you're consuming (plus Im working on supplementing my home power with off-grid juice - hooray solar pannels - something I suggest to everyone if they've got the means)

 

But hey, if that's what folks want to do, more power to 'em. It sounds like fun and I hope you get a lot of participation. I just think people need to remember the old TANSTAAFL rule. (There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.)

lol, like I said, I dont mean for it to be competitive ("w00t, we're the number something or another team in the world!!1!1oneone..." - though people are free do participate as such). I figure that as this is a forum concerning all things scientific, that we might as well be part of a larget project.

 

 

clue me in...whats "folding"? You mean like origami? The links either don't work or lead me to this very thread. Is it some physics thing?

lol, no, not like oragami. I cant explain it as well as the Folding@Home site, but it concerns Protein Folding

 

All the same, I encourage anyone interested to participate, even if a little.

[ecoli]

sorry, don't have the money, in terms of energy resourses. Besides, I don't keep my computer running overnight, or even between uses, generally.

[smommer]

It looks like a good idea to me, especially if people leave their computers on at work. That way they dont have to worry about power issues. Ive joined the group, i will also install it on a couple of machines at work as they are left online overnight anyway. Does anyone know if you can have two machines running under the same username concurrently or would i need to put different names in?

[Callipygous]

so just to make sure i understand... they are basically using a worldwide super computer, by using the processing power of everyone that participates, to simulate the way protiens work?

 

is this something i can turn on when i go to bed and turn off when im using it for my own purposes?

[Pangloss]

Yes, that's the general idea. I'm just not sure people realize that it costs them more than if the computer were actually sitting idle. In a faster computer you could be looking at another 10-20 bucks a month just for Folding.

 

 

Sorry, I missed this reply earlier....

 

This corresponds with your other point down below, and its a good one, but if you consider how often (say at work) you turn your attention away from your monitor and it goes to a screensaver. The juice would only be used for that often (unless of course you're doing it competitively like some organizations do). I dont mean for this to be competitive, just something to help the greater good on a daily basis

 

Yah that's a good point. Presuming that you shut off the computer at night, it's not a bad way to toss in some space cycles. It adds up over time, too. But of course then you have this quote from someone else above:

 

It looks like a good idea to me, especially if people leave their computers on at work. That way they dont have to worry about power issues. Ive joined the group, i will also install it on a couple of machines at work as they are left online overnight anyway. Does anyone know if you can have two machines running under the same username concurrently or would i need to put different names in?

 

It's not "free" just because your boss pays for it. Yeesh. Oh well.