Folding @ home

[StarsMine]

I dont know how many of you guys already do BIONIC or WCG, or anything of the sort. However I do know all of you are gamers with at least a semi decent computer that you are not using all the time.
Why not put it to use to help solve health issues. Due to the work of F@H there is a drug candidate in the works for curing Alzheimer by preventing the misfolding of a beta peptide protein.
While I would not necessary recommend running this on a laptop due to heat problems, if you have well ventilated one give it a go.
http://folding.stanford.edu/


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7sJx9z1uB9k

I myself for for team EVGA
http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/user_summary.php?s=&u=555243
You can keep track of your points here. If you make yourself a name, or you can just run under anonymous and default teams.

If you are running SMP it helps to get a passcode so you can get quick return bonus for getting the work in quicker.\

I also find this page interesting.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtDZlHnA_WpldGFiM184dnpJbllrck50NnJnUS1Cd VE#gid=0
that everyone doing this is getting a combined 11 Pflops.

[ZERO]

Used to run this almost 24/7 but had to stop to eliminate it as one of the things possibly causing system crashes.

When I was at school in the winter I would run it on all the spare computers I have to provide heat in the winter.

[Steamer]

^
I like this.

[StarsMine]

yea turn off the heating in the room and used the money saved for the electricity cost of using the computer as a space heater. I want to see the price difference. even if the electricity cost is up there I can view it as donating to science/charity.

[ZERO]

The % of energy converted to heat for a physical heater should always be better as heat is a result of inefficient chip design not a goal as is the case with a physical heater. In my case only the room with the computers was heated (well it could have been but I also opened the windows). I kept the room temp around 55-60F and just kept a coat on.

[StarsMine]

rXK6g6TDqxg

You should be able to fold on AMD cards very easily in the near future

[DJ_MikeyRevile]

wth is folding?

[StarsMine]

Protiens fold to do job in our bodies, usually they fold with instructions from RNA. This is simulating protien folding with the computer to find out information about what happens when they misfold (like misfolding beta peptides gives rise to Alzheimer).

Here are some diseases they are working on
http://folding.stanford.edu/English/FAQ-Diseases


There papers if your interested as well
http://folding.stanford.edu/English/Papers

[DJ_MikeyRevile]

do they compensate you for the extra electricity costs!

So what you are essentially saying is... if i run this program for XX amount of time, i am effectively helping doctors create a medication to cure Alzheimer? Then inadvertently jump starting "planet of the Apes" in real life?

[StarsMine]

No, as with any distributive computing they dont. Its a way to donate your computer power to a cause. Though EVGA does offer evga bucks to its folders, up to 10 a month that can be used to buy anything evga. I have 230 now so thats a free 660 if I chose to cash in.
F@h just helps people at stanford understand folding proteins, but yes it helps doctors cure Alzheimer and whatever else they decide to research with this program.

The project used to have more compute power then the largest super computer, though two new computers got built in 2012 (like the titan) that beat it so its would be the 3rd most powerful "computer" in the world. Still it does 12 petaflops worth of science consistently.

[BladeTwinSwords]

Don't you mean BOINC

[StarsMine]

To what are you referring to?
Bionic has a different code then folding.