Folks, this is getting serious. Team PimpRig needs your help, and in a bad way.

In the recent months we’ve fallen 10 full spots in the overall competition from 38^th to 48^th. And we’re looking to keep falling in the recent future.

I’m not positive of the actual numbers (Thrasher, I know you keep a fairly close eye on this, do you think you can provide some examples?), but there has been a marked decline in overall team production. This is a bad thing as it not only means we’re going to keep dropping from our former holding place in the top 40 overall teams but it also means that there is less work overall being produced to help out an outstanding cause.

I understand there are several reasons for no longer folding, and most of them are indeed good. I’m not going to play on guilt to try to convince EVERYBODY to fold, but I will attack at least 2 major concerns.

• Folding drags down the performance on the computer.
  • This is flat out wrong. The program is designed to run on leftover processes in the background. If you are running the Graphical version, its much more obvious in presentation, so if you feel it’s interfering, just shut it off. However, if you run the console version, it’s totally in the background, doesn’t interfere with your systems performance in the least, and you can even forget about it even being there, if you want.
• Folding will eventually destroy my processor due to overheating.
  • Sure, if you have poor cooling in your system, running ANYTHING that pushes your processor 100% for great lengths of time will burn it up. But in all versions of the software, you can throttle back the CPU usage so if you only want it to push the processor to 70% for heat concerns, there you go.

Basically, in my mind and in the mind of everyone here who’s taking our Folding @ Home team seriously, There is NO GOOD REASON not to fold. Please help.

If you want to know more, go to our Team Pimprig subforum – Team PimpRig (F@H and more) - PC Apex Forums

More importantly, visit the official Folding@Home site to find out what the hell I’m blathering about – Folding@Home Distributed Computing

And finally, partially an ego-link, but mostly to spread the information, How to set up Folding@Home to run unseen in the background – http://forums.pcapex.com/team_pimpri...n_windows.html


edit:: The new beta1 version of the Console is up. Check it out!

If you have any specific concerns that you feel you would like an opinion or help on, PLEASE voice it here. We want to help everyone who wants to fold! It's for a great cause, it's fun, and it finds a use for all those unused cpu cycles!

d

This needs a sticky! +rep coming as soon as I can rep you again.

Ah! I feel really pressured into helping now... I keep intending to start folding.

You forgot electricity cost.

Additionally, I've become skeptical of the purpose of the Folding@Home project. Since 2001, I have yet to read of any results that have actually accomplished something, other than to confirm what has been generated independently of the Stanford project.

I've seen several other research groups releasing results that do not utilize any type of @Home project. Other research groups have found such things as discovering the genes that cause diabetes, beginning gene therapy to restore sight, and how to minimize Alzhiemer's Disease.

The entire point of the F@H project is to see the effect that water has upon the folding of proteins in our body. What it doesn't take into account is the composition of the water, whether it has impurities in it that will affect the folding of the protein nor the genetic makeup of the protein. Instead, it is simply using H2O as the basis. When was the last time you ingested pure H2O?

Dr. Pande was quoted as saying that a disease simulation used to take two years on a supercomputer but now is able to have it completed in a week (referencing the new PS3 folders). Still, there have been no real results from this program.

I'm sorry, but just don't see the project as being useful and that's why I quit folding a long time ago. When they are able to say, "hey, we found a cure for ______", then I'll apologize and begin folding again.

Quote: Originally Posted by Rob You forgot electricity cost. Additionally, I've become skeptical of the purpose of the Folding@Home project. Since 2001, I have yet to read of any results that have actually accomplished something, other than to confirm what has been generated independently of the Stanford project.

The reason I didn't mention electricity costs initially, Rob, is that with hardware under 4 years old, unless you are maintaining a large folding farm or are using the GPU folding or PS3 folding programs, the increase in avg electrical usage is pretty minimal. Even with 4 full time cores in my house, it hasn't had more than a couple of dollars a month impact.

As far as the rest, there really isn't much I can say to negate it. I'll be honest and say that I have to agree that we are still waiting to hear about some real results. But that's not gonna stop the hope that what we're doing will do some good in time. It's hope that keeps me folding on each machine I have and it's what keeps me willing to fold on each new machine I get in the future.

d

Rob, I hear ya about the results, but you have to remember one thing. Having confirmation of theories that have already been discovered is actually very important in the scientific community. If your results are not repeatable and verifiable, they are useless. That said, it would be nice to see something more than some white papers coming out of the project. But again, we don't know if perhaps that basic nugget of data in a white paper produced by Stanford wasn't the key factor for someone else to discover something. Who knows.

On the other hand, I have to disagree with you Drougnor on the impact on electricity costs. I live in Levittown, NY which is on Long Island. Now, granted, my house is electric/oil so the stove and dryer both use electricity, but my bill skyrocketed from about $300/month to over $400 when I had all my machines folding. It is not just the cost of the electricity to run the machines, but also the additional cost to cool the room they are in that adds up, at least in areas that get hot. Just 'cause it stays cool in Maine (relative to other parts of the country) and electricity is inexpensive there doesn't mean it is the same elsewhere.

That said, I still have 2 machines folding full time, but that is down from 6. Of course I am folding for that other team [subliminal message -- fold for GruntvillE Team 35275] that has been trying to catch you guys for a while now, and are only 4 ranks behind you......

my excuse is electric bills

Quote: Originally Posted by DickNervous On the other hand, I have to disagree with you Drougnor on the impact on electricity costs. I live in Levittown, NY which is on Long Island. Now, granted, my house is electric/oil so the stove and dryer both use electricity, but my bill skyrocketed from about $300/month to over $400 when I had all my machines folding. It is not just the cost of the electricity to run the machines, but also the additional cost to cool the room they are in that adds up, at least in areas that get hot. Just 'cause it stays cool in Maine (relative to other parts of the country) and electricity is inexpensive there doesn't mean it is the same elsewhere.

Do the research and you'll see that Maine isn't that far behind NY in electricity costs, actually. From what I'm finding, it's actually more expensive here per KW/hr than every other state BUT New York. (::edit::Correction - New York AND Vermont are more expensive per kilowatt hour. Maine comes in third overall in the continental US in cost.) The state made the mistake of deregulating electricity costs "to draw in competition" and the rates have climbed steadily since then.

Also, during the summer, Maine gets as hot as the rest of the nation. Cooling here is as much work, if not more due to the poor insulation in most of the older houses here (One of which we just bought).

Maybe I'm an exception on the cost, or maybe it's how we're managing the pc's throughout the entire house instead of them all being in one single room.

Either way, the costs shouldn't be that much to have a small number of machines folding.

::Addition:: How many of you just leave a pc or two turned on for whatever reason? Maybe it's a multimedia pc hooked up to the tv that you don't turn off or a file server, something maybe that you use to download files all night. Whatever it is, you are burning up electricity anyway. Why not throw F@H at that machine? That's all I'm trying to get across.

d

Sure folding may be used for protein research and curing diseases but what about the problems it creates such as burning a hole in the ozone. Most electricity is produced by burning coal which is very bad for the atmospehere. When you add an extra $100 or whatever to your electricity bill and multiply that by the number of people folding that adds up to alot of electricity which equals alot of pollution. If folding helps to find a new cure for a disease in the near future thats awsome but think of the future after that. Folding will never undo the damage to the enviroment that it has created.

Quote: Originally Posted by degu22 Sure folding may be used for protein research and curing diseases but what about the problems it creates such as burning a hole in the ozone. Most electricity is produced by burning coal which is very bad for the atmospehere. When you add an extra $100 or whatever to your electricity bill and multiply that by the number of people folding that adds up to alot of electricity which equals alot of pollution. If folding helps to find a new cure for a disease in the near future thats awsome but think of the future after that. Folding will never undo the damage to the enviroment that it has created.

Folding in and of itself is NOT causing any undue damage to the environment. I would wager a guess that at least half to two thirds of the computers that are folding now would have been left on anyway, as they are mostly dual purpose computers (Multimedia servers as well as folders, for example). That electricity would have been used up, one way or another.

This isn't an attempt at justifying the electricity usage, merely my saying "It's going to waste, why not put it to good use?"

Besides, what are you trying to accomplish by shifting the burden of guilt away from the energy industry that currently has the means to shift away from carbon emission causing electricity generation onto us as end users?

d

My condolences, I didn't realize electricity in Maine was that expensive.

But like you say, the machines I am leaving on for other reasons, fold. I just turned off the machines that did nothing but fold.

Quote: Originally Posted by DickNervous My condolences, I didn't realize electricity in Maine was that expensive. But like you say, the machines I am leaving on for other reasons, fold. I just turned off the machines that did nothing but fold.

And that's all I'm asking people to do.

TEAM 596 BRITISH DIVISION REPORTING IN!>............
As some of British division already know, i've had quite a few hardware/os issues BUT,
I Do fold as much as i possibly can!
either way I always do my best to see that at least one of my rigs is foldin' fo the cauze!!
This time next year Im aiming at having 4pc's and a laptop all folding!! once i can afford all the new gear!!
and a quick query....... can a pda fold? if so i got two that i can borg.

I've not seen anyone make mention of PDA's folding. I honestly don't think they have the horsepower needed for it.

Question ......

My board for my Qcore should be here soon , as you can do two instances on a dual core , can 4 be done on a QUAD ??

Quote: Originally Posted by HigHTecHReDNecK Question ...... My board for my Qcore should be here soon , as you can do two instances on a dual core , can 4 be done on a QUAD ??

Indeed you can, sir! Just make sure that you have the four separate folders, one for each core, and that you number the machine id's correctly.

Damn . . . A quad core. . . . Now THAT'S some pimpin' F@Holdin!

Quote: Originally Posted by HigHTecHReDNecK Question ...... My board for my Qcore should be here soon , as you can do two instances on a dual core , can 4 be done on a QUAD ??

Quad core is what the SMP core was made for:
Folding@Home SMP Client FAQ

Ya know, what they should do is put folding on all the computers at best buy becase there always on and never being used so why not. Think of how much processing power is just sitting all over the nation Idle.

Quote: Originally Posted by Spatha Ya know, what they should do is put folding on all the computers at best buy becase there always on and never being used so why not. Think of how much processing power is just sitting all over the nation Idle.

Make it happen!

I shall attempt something similar in PC World (similar setup to Best Buy I imagine...)

Quote: Originally Posted by Spatha Ya know, what they should do is put folding on all the computers at best buy becase there always on and never being used so why not. Think of how much processing power is just sitting all over the nation Idle.

to bad most store demos are not connected to the web =(