Has Folding@Home been forgotten?

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: nagger
What the Folding@Home TeAm needs is some sort of publicity around here.

I suggest we sort out some stats, milestones and welcome threads for new members.

I am going to ask any of our TeAm's statsmen if they can give us a hand on this project.

BTW my current rig configuration is up to 3 processors:

- 1 Athlon XP 2100+
- 1 Athlon XP 1900+
- 1 Pentium III 500

I'm on the lookout for one additional XP 2100+ and also some XP 1800+ and Durons.

I'd be glad to do stats once daily, but I would need to make some sort of script, and my programming skills are pretty much non-existant. 🙁

Also if stats were implemented, it would be easy to check for new members and make welcome threads.

 

[randomlinh]

isn't that what this site is for?

anyway, i was wondering the same.. our production has trailed off so much. my celery 720 is chuggin along slowly, but surely. when the nforce2 comes out, I will have an xp1800+ or better... 2400 was my goal, but amd didn't push out their processors like i had hoped to get it to drop in price by the time i wanted it.. heh

c'mon and fold everyone!

Linh

 

[narzy]

I keep drifting back to SETI for some reason, I guess I am in search of my perfect DC project, somthing like the Dnet client, but not Dnet.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: narzy
I keep drifting back to SETI for some reason, I guess I am in search of my perfect DC project, somthing like the Dnet client, but not Dnet.

Looks like you're going to be left without anything, until maybe BOINC gets done, but I don't know how the interface on that works, or if the BOINC system even has GUI code (it might be left up to the individual project developers...)

 

[PeterN]

Since ECCp is finished, I've put my home machine onto F@H. 😀
Not much, but it should still make a few extra wu's.

Good news, in about a month or so, a new machine will arrive at home.
Want to put it on F@H (at least until the end of the year). It is a XP2100 with 1.5Gb internal memory. 😛

 

[muddocktor]

I've been wondering what was happening with you guys. I fold for 2 other teams, but I've been watching you guys for a while. If you all could welcome new users to the team and post up milestones more often, maybe it would help recruit new members to the fold. I know that there have been various problems with servers and the program in the past, but it seems to have gotten a bit better in the last few months and I think that version 3.14 has even cleared up some of the dialup connection problems too, although I have been on sat broadband for about 4 months now. Also, there is another monitoring program out there that I use which is pretty nice. It is called EM3 and can be downloaded from www.em-dc.com. The guy that made the program folds for Hardocp and he is always striving to improve it. Hope this helps you guys out and good luck in growing your team.

muddocktor

 

[sparkyclarky]

Well, I joined the team yesterday. I was kind of lonely folding by myself (200+ units), so Im helping you guys out now.
Two systems
1. 1.4 tbird, 768 DDR
2. 866 PIII-M, 384 PC133

 

[Strawa]

Originally posted by: sparkyclarky
Well, I joined the team yesterday. I was kind of lonely folding by myself (200+ units), so Im helping you guys out now.
Two systems
1. 1.4 tbird, 768 DDR
2. 866 PIII-M, 384 PC133

welcome to the team sparkyclarky! 🙂
nice systems 🙂

I have only one system: axp 1600+ clocked to 1800+ and im doing and seti and f@h with that litlle comp 🙂

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: sparkyclarky
Well, I joined the team yesterday. I was kind of lonely folding by myself (200+ units), so Im helping you guys out now.
Two systems
1. 1.4 tbird, 768 DDR
2. 866 PIII-M, 384 PC133

Welcome to the TeAm, sparkyclarky! Glad to have you onboard. 😀

 

[kmmatney]

I still do a little F@H, but I don't like the GUI much, and the work units are getting too long. I still have about 1.5 GHz on the project, though.

 

[nagger]

Originally posted by: kmmatney
I still do a little F@H, but I don't like the GUI much, and the work units are getting too long. I still have about 1.5 GHz on the project, though.

I lost almost a full day in production yesterday because of the thunderstorms, my ISP was out for a few hours and I wasn't @ home to renew my IP :|

I can't seem to get a new work packet right now is anyone having the same problem?

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: nagger

Originally posted by: kmmatney
I still do a little F@H, but I don't like the GUI much, and the work units are getting too long. I still have about 1.5 GHz on the project, though.

I lost almost a full day in production yesterday because of the thunderstorms, my ISP was out for a few hours and I wasn't @ home to renew my IP :|

I can't seem to get a new work packet right now is anyone having the same problem?

I got a WU (or is that a FU? 😉) earlier this morning, but there's one unit in my queue that's been having trouble sending; FAH has tried to send it several times throughout the night, and it's not gone. 🙁

 

[Strawa]

Originally posted by: jliechty
I can't seem to get a new work packet right now is anyone having the same problem?

I got a WU (or is that a FU? 😉) earlier this morning, but there's one unit in my queue that's been having trouble sending; FAH has tried to send it several times throughout the night, and it's not gone. 🙁[/quote]

it happens all the time to me, i just put line " -send all " and it is ok.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: Strawa

Originally posted by: jliechty
I can't seem to get a new work packet right now is anyone having the same problem?

I got a WU (or is that a FU? 😉) earlier this morning, but there's one unit in my queue that's been having trouble sending; FAH has tried to send it several times throughout the night, and it's not gone. 🙁

it happens all the time to me, i just put line " -send all " and it is ok.[/quote]
I've tried -send all at various times throughout the morning, and it never worked. I finally deleted the unit out of the queue, but now KDFold's stats are messed up. Maybe it's time to wipe out the F@H CLI folder after this current FU finishes and reinstall. 🙁

 

[Assimilator1]

Something else you guys could organise is to finish the F@H site at teamanandtech.com
Adding the
stats link mentioned earlier would be a good start🙂

I'm in the process of helping Virge update the SETI side of it ,if we could do it togther soon then it would save him updating it twice.
I still have some info to send to him atm ,so I think he's holding on for now.

Daily stats in the forums would be a great idea too ,would give more activity in F@H[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: Assimilator1
Daily stats in the forums would be a great idea too, would give more activity in F@H[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

Yea, I'm just trying to figure out how to sort the stats out to find new members, et al. I already posted a thread about this a few days ago, but apparently nobody cared to help. :disgust:

Again, I'd be glad to do it, if I knew of a way to do it without spending 2 hours per day (my schedule wouldn't allow that!) 🙂

 

[Syntax]

Lets get production back to where it used to be!! So a challenge to the following members...... see if you can take my 7th place spot away!!

8 Bunker 2694.65 1177
9 RustyNale 2666.3 1156
10 ST4RCUTTER 2647.74 1075
11 networkman 2507.14 1336
12 Stanman 2494.11 910
13 r0tt3n1 2478.23 1032
14 ShotgunSi 2274.87 846

Kris....Im coming after your spot... but have a ways to go.....

 

[ShotgunSi]

I'm a ways away, but if I can find a cheap power supply, I'll have another 933mhz to my fleet 😀

 

[RustyNale]

Originally posted by: jliechty

Originally posted by: Assimilator1 Daily stats in the forums would be a great idea too, would give more activity in F@H[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

Yea, I'm just trying to figure out how to sort the stats out to find new members, et al. I already posted a thread about this a few days ago, but apparently nobody cared to help. :disgust: Again, I'd be glad to do it, if I knew of a way to do it without spending 2 hours per day (my schedule wouldn't allow that!) 🙂

Wish I could help ya, all that I used to do was keep a track on paper of who the new members were, as for stats-- I used statsman's page to post any numbers. If there is an easy way I wish I knew myself. 🙁

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: RustyNale

Originally posted by: jliechty

Originally posted by: Assimilator1 Daily stats in the forums would be a great idea too, would give more activity in F@H[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

Yea, I'm just trying to figure out how to sort the stats out to find new members, et al. I already posted a thread about this a few days ago, but apparently nobody cared to help. :disgust: Again, I'd be glad to do it, if I knew of a way to do it without spending 2 hours per day (my schedule wouldn't allow that!) 🙂

Wish I could help ya, all that I used to do was keep a track on paper of who the new members were, as for stats-- I used statsman's page to post any numbers. If there is an easy way I wish I knew myself. 🙁

So far I've had ideas ranging from exotic excel worksheet and access database combinations to just plain old bash shell scripts with the standard unix utilities. The first thing I need to tackle is getting the data out of table format on statsman's or folding@home's site and into something more usable. It may be a week or two, but I do plan to have something (even if it's very simple) for the FAH TeAm. 🙂

 

[randomlinh]

glad to see somethings goin on 🙂

how effective are celeron 533's these days anyway? i'm running a 720, and it seems to lake longer and longer 🙁

 

[JWMiddleton]

Could someone post a Quick Guide to F@H. Mastertech did that for D2OL and it made getting involved very painless.

Also, give me some idea of resource requirements: how much RAM, HD space needed, best CPU, etc.

 

[Assimilator1]

Good luck jliechty 🙂

 

[nagger]

A simple QA that can serve as a basis for a TeAm FAQ:

Q. What is Folding at Home (F@H) ?
The Folding@Home project seeks to understand the process behind protein folding. In order to carry out their function (e.g. as enzymes or antibodies) the protein must take on a particular shape. It makes this shape by folding.
Understanding how proteins self-assemble ("protein folding") is a holy grail of modern molecular biophysics. What makes it such a great challenge is its complexity, which renders simulations of folding extremely computationally demanding, and difficult to understand. The Stanford group has developed a new way to simulate protein folding.
A protein can fold itself in one-millionth of a second. It takes 1000 computers to simulate a fold in the same amount of time. Stanford needs your help and so does Team Anandtech.
For more information check the science page over at the Folding@Home site

Q. How can my spare cycles help?
A. The behaviour of proteins, called folding, is very complex. To simulate this with one computer would take a major mainframe, but by splitting this calculation into minor steps and then giving these to computers all over the world the University can use their meager computers to combine our work and produce more results overall. That's where we come in, we download these little bits and along with their programme which does the calculations, uploads the completed work and downloads new work, and so the cycle begins again.

Q. What are these bits of work called?
A. These units are called 'work units', the number of work units you complete is one of the markers used in the statistics to which teams often allude.

Q. What other figures are used in the statistics?
A. The other statistic reported is your 'total score', this is based on the time you take to complete a work unit as compared to a P2-400 Mhz - which is expected to complete one work unit in one day. (If a P2-400 takes 3 days to complete a protein then the score allocated will be 3)

Q. Is there a time limit to returning a work unit?
A. Yes. It depends on what project you're currently running.
Each work unit is benchmarked on a dedicated 500 MHz Celeron machine without SSE/3DNow. We look at how many days it takes, and multiply this by 2.5. This corresponds to requiring such a machine to fold less than 10 hours a day in order to meet the deadline. From our experience, the majority of donor machines are faster than our benchmarking machine, and virtually none are slower, so this shouldn't be a problem (if a machine is slower, it may need to fold more hours a day). Occassionally, deadlines may be set longer than the above calculation indicates, but the reason for having deadlines at all is that the sooner we get back work units, the sooner we can put the results to good use. We are looking into, in the very near future, having the assignment server take machine speed into account in making assigments, thereby allowing slower machines to receive smaller work units.
Check this page for more info.

Q. What is the minimum PC capable of running folding at home 2?
A. Reading the above question the minimum spec of a PC should be a PC that can complete a work unit within the time schedule, which running flat out is a PC that is 1/3rd the power of a P2-400 (anyone want to agrue the ratings of both Intel & AMD is welcome to try and calculate the actual chips required).
There should be sufficient ram to handle the operating system and the folding client (at least 64Mb on win9x), any less ram and you will use the hard drive swap file and therefore this too will have a slight affect on the requirements to run f@h2 - usually you wont need to worry about this. You must also have an internet connection available.

Q. Can I download more than one unit at a time?
A. The algorithm we use works best if everybody downloads one work unit at a time, and checks back after each unit is completed, so therefore there is no option to download multiple units. If you have multiple processors in your computer, it is possible to have each processor work on a different unit; see what do to here (http://folding.stanford.edu/faq.html#run.dual). Don't try to run two copies on different machines that use the same directory on the same filesystem, either-- they NEED to run in different directories.

Q. Why does adjusting the core process priority via the task manager not affect its performance? How do I manually adjust the priority of the Folding@home core?
Currently when users try to change the priority of the core via the Windows NT/2000/XP task manager this does not affect how much CPU the core gets. The reason for this is that the work is done by the core thread, which is fixed to run at idle priority and is not affected by the task manager priority for the process (which displays as 'normal' by default). In order to change the priority manually users must use a program that allows thread-level priority adjustments.

Q. Can I run Folding@home when SETI@home is running?
Yes, Seti@Home and other distributed applications can be run alongside Folding@Home, provided you have enough system memory. Some programs, including Seti@Home run at a higher priority than Folding@Home, which prevents Folding@Home from progressing if it is run at the same time. If you notice that Folding@Home is not progressing, you can fix this by enabling the "Slightly Higher Priority" Option in Folding@Home. This can be done through the advanced options page for the Windows client, or by running "FAH2Console -config" for the console versions.

Q. I have a machine which cannot connect to the internet, can I use it?
A. Yes. Download and install the client into a separate directory on the internet machine, configure it and download a work unit. Then stop the client and cut & paste the entire directory to the other machine & restart the client. When the work unit is complete reverse the order to upload the completed work and download the next unit. I have tested & proven this to work.

Q. Where can I see my stats?
A. Stats can best be seen here at a great site by rshands: Team AnandTech Folding@Home Stats
When you first join you will be unlikely to see any stats for at least 6 hours after the first work unit is submitted.

This QA was taken of the FAQ from this site here and from the Folding@Home site.

 

[ProviaFan]

Nagger: thanks, great work! 🙂

We should add a section about how to join Team AnandTech (198), and a recommendation that preferrably the CLI or system-tray GUI client be run instead of the screensaver client. I'll try to have a F@H-as-a-service FAQ written up sometime soon as well.