[NOS2Go4Me]

Alright... the few of you who know me well enough know that I love my distributed computing for cancer research.

The project I've been supporting for 2 years now has been starting to wind down with not much disclosure over how much progress has been made.

I was thinking of creating a "FocusCanada.net" Folding@Home team.

Running the bugger is dead simple. The guys at F@H have made a foolproof installer for the main (graphical) client, and there's a nice no-nonsense console version with service-install option for us computer guys.

Is anyone else here interested in helping Stanford University fight cancer?

If so, I'll create the team tonight. I just got started with this project, but as a precursor to show I'm committed, I'll let you know know how many combined CPU years the current team I have has contributed: http://www.grid.org/services/teams/team.ht...56-DD0F8EB22B3B - That's 40 CPU YEARS. Of continuous work.

The reason I say approximately is because as I went to login to Grid.org and check our stats... the damn login to the secure member pages is BROKEN. They've been on a downhill slide for months, and that's why I want to shift us away to the other project.

So, in a nutshell: Folding@Home is good. It's easy to install, run and join the team.

Any takers?

Folding@Home's main page

[Phantom]

sure wth I used to fold.. start the team up I'll join on.

[darkpuppet]

Sorry, I can't help with folding@home, but I already have a grid client on my machine.

www.worldcommunitygrid.org

powered by IBM, and better managed in my opinion. The projects they're working on are pretty much the same as all the other grid schemes -- protein folding.

to be honest, I've only been running it for the past week and a half, but have amassed over 30 days worth of computing time...

[NOS2Go4Me]

I call that project the bastard project, as IBM half-ass left the Grid.org project to do the Human Proteome Project and then "forced" it on Grid.org members. The downside is that the University of Oxford Cancer Research workload wasn't being reciprocated to the Worldcommunitygrid.org members. That's also a reason I was leaving to create a team for F@H. It's much better in terms of support and proven results.

http://teamx.webhop.org - 25 active members, lotsa time contributed. Hopefully the majority will follow me over to the new project.

[CheckMyVitals]

start the team and i'll join

[NOS2Go4Me]

Alright, support is coming along... that's good to see.

I know we have a lot of community-minded members here, and even a few fuktards ;)

If this does really start taking off... what about a DC forum under Canadian Focus Community? This way we can support each other without cluttering OT and subjecting those new members attracted by the group to OT's craziness :D

Alright, I've created the team - use team# 45644 when adding client machines to your account. You don't need to create an account with the F@H website, just "use" your board screen-name if you want with each machine you use, and join team 45644.

Jay (ZX3TUNR) - is there a simple GIF or JPEG I can deep-link to from the board for a team logo? Just the FC.net main logo perhaps? I don't wanna set anything that affects bandwidth without permission.

Remember guys / gals, you need permission for every machine you want to use that isn't yours.

Happy crunching, and address any questions you might have about the F@H clients or the project to me here till we find out if we can have a sub-forum or not.

[BrooksZX3]

can you explain what this is to the 'so so' technically savy folks?

[NOS2Go4Me]

http://folding.stanford.edu

It's a way to use your computer to understand why proteins "misfold" and cause medical problems, such as genetic abnormalities and cancers.

Basically, you run the program and the program uses your CPU when you're not using it. You can leave the program running 24/7 and depending on your home computer you're not using much more power than 1 1/2 lightbulbs' worth 24/7. Your fridge uses lots more than that. LOTS. And your fridge isn't helping you look for a cure for cancer and other ailments. ;)

I've even tested this one (I test all my projects the same way) by gaming, using the Internet for surfing and email, and burning DVDs. It never interfered ONCE. I do have a high-octane machine, but so long as you have 256MB of RAM or more, you're good to go.

I'm working on getting some promotional material in one spot for this one. I've also just re-assigned my laptop at work to our new team, and the two machines at home that are currently "folding" for another team will be switched tonight.

Any other questions?

[NOS2Go4Me]

Here's a quick link to our page on the main Folding @ Home website:

http://vspx27.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py...e&teamnum=45644

There will be a more involved stats page as well once we start contributing results, hosted by Extreme Overclockers.com

Here's the link (or link-to-be):

http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/use....php?s=&t=45644

And the placeholder pic is PRICELESS! :lol:

[BrooksZX3]

interesting... so is there some monster algorithm that is running or what... what exactly is my computer doing when 'folding' - not sure on that term... so in plain english, how is my computer searching for a cure? Where is it looking? lol ... maybe that's why we haven't found one yet, anyone think of that? :P

seriously though, I'm interested in this for sure but I'd like to understand a touch more.

[NOS2Go4Me]

Well, it downloads a dataset and a working (background) program. It uses the program to run some algorithms against the data in the dataset to simulate the "folding" of proteins. How proteins "misfold" determines whether or not people get cancer, Parkinson's Disease, and other wonderful facts of life.

I'm new to this program / project, so I don't understand as much of the back-end science as I do about the Oxford University cancer research project being run through Grid.org.

The supporting science and math involved in the "looking" is developed and continually improved by Dr. Vijay Pande and his Pande Group of scientists and programmers.

[darkpuppet]

folding @ home researches the folding of known proteins (using existing tools to find why they break).
the human proteome (worldgridcommunity) does research on simulating proteins (like building new tools for researchers to use).

the client runs as a low-priority thread on your computer... the clients sit pretty much quiet until they are given processing time. however, the way OSes handle and switch threads, you'll find that you'll want to disable or put to sleep the grid clients when you need the processor's full attention.

[BrooksZX3]

Well that sounds pretty cool, I would entertain getting that set up on my puter. The only concern I have is the fact that I do my banking and other personal things on my computer... how can you comfort me in believing that it's not an issue. I mean, nowadays we have to be very careful with things like ID Theft looming around.

[NOS2Go4Me]

The client doesn't act as a data harvester, only as a tool for scientific research and computation.

There's always the outside possibility that the program could be exploited for evil purposes... but that's the same of MS Office, Outlook Express, and Windows itself. Operate your computer as you would normally and you're fine.

As far as processor-intensive apps go, I've gamed with each distributed client program running as well... and suffered no ill effects. I'll go along with Puppet tho and recommend "sleep mode" or disabling the client if you really think you're doing something else that requires lots of horsepower (DVD backups, gaming, etc). I don't know what specs everyone else has for a computer and their experiences would not equal my own.

[BrooksZX3]

yeah, I hear what you're saying. well, hook me up I guess... what's next?

[NOS2Go4Me]

Click the "Fold for FocusCanada" link in my sig.

You're going to want to choose the first option which is the graphical client, version 5.03. Download it to a known location on your computer, and then run the downloaded file. Follow the prompts. When it asks you for your name, enter the name you want to be identified by as a member of the team. When you're prompted for your team number, enter 45644.

You can then just let the bugger run in your system tray and then right-click and Display if you're curious as to what the whole shebang looks like. "X" the display when you're done looking at it to ensure that the most work gets done in the shortest period of time :)

I'm still working on getting us our own space here. Gotta talk to Jay again. I forgot this morning.

EDIT - I'm also working on having a F@H "sweepstakes" - a completely random draw after a set date. The prizes will consist of one or more of the following: computer parts or accessories, gift certificates/cards to Canadian Tire, and software (games for either PC or console). I'll post more details as we go.

[NOS2Go4Me]

Found this on the F@H site, explains some of the science:

How proteins self-assemble into their native state (responsible for biological function) has been a much studied problem for over a decade. Progress has been made into how simple models of proteins fold as well as means to design protein sequences de novo. However, these models ignore much protein detail which is likely crucial for understanding how real proteins fold. Thus, the current challenge lies in understanding how particular chemical detail in proteins (such as hydrogen bonding and hydrophic interactions) lead to particular protein folding mechanisms.

We have developed techniques which allows us to make fundamental advances in simulations of protein folding, by speeding atomistic simulations 100 to 1,000 times. This speedup allows us to simulate tens of microseconds and thus simulate the folding of the fastest folding proteins in all-atom detail. However, these methods are extremely computationally demanding, and require 1000's to 10,000's of computers. To solve this problem, we have released our software as a screen saver and have gathered over 10,000 collaborators who run our software. This project, called Folding@home has already lead to great initial results (the folding of proteins in atomistic detail on the microseconds timescale) and we are now continuing to use this technique on other systems as well, including the folding of RNA and non-biological polymers as well as the aggregation of proteins associated with diseases, such as Altzheimer's and Mad Cow (see below).

[nass]

hmm, I could setup like 30 machines here at work to run F@H they're all P4 2.8Ghz 1gb ram. Those could run on a temp basis, but I could have like 5 machines at work going full time.

[NOS2Go4Me]

I'd strongly suggest you get upper-level approval, as there's been many instances of people being fired for downloading / installing software and using it without corporate consent.

If you can, great :) If not, don't sweat it.

[NOS2Go4Me]

I've been doing some serious back-end testing and setup this week.

The good news is that we will indeed be having a draw for some prizes once we reach 15 participants on the team. We've also had our first F@H-specific donation - a P-III 866MHz box, fully ready-to-go. It'll be running a Knoppix image and the Linux text console client.

As opposed to claiming the donated cycles as my own (I have a few machines of my own already crunching for this), I'm going to be creating the FC.net "user account". It's similar to the "Frankenbot" F@H user listing from my favourite tech site, The Tech Report.

Any chance of getting this set as a sticky?