The Making Of A Folding Fanatic
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
The Making Of A Folding Fanatic
I remembered seeing our beloved moderator's posts as he was taking his first folding steps, so I thought I'd dig around for a bit and see if I could trace his descent into Folding Fanaticism.
Appropriately it was Halloween 2003 when David (haysdb) joined the SPCR folding effort. Almost immediately he had a minor setback, but he continued undaunted, figuring out the details as he went along.
Within a few days, David was running multiple systems and installing F@H on anything he could find around the house. This should have been our first real hint as to what was coming. This was also where we started to see him emerge as a budding "cheerleader/whip" for the SPCR folding team. Again, we should have seen the signs.
A scant ten days into his folding career, David discovered the folding blade farm concept. This was a revelation that planted "an idea" in his brain...
One day later, David realized something had changed in his psyche, but he was at a loss to explain why. Still nurturing fantasies of folding farms, he hit his first major milestone in folding: Becoming "green" in the old EOC stats. He soon figured out that he craved the competition in folding, but Mormakil and the rest of SPCR (and probably David) still didn't see the folding fiend in the making. When he started celebrating the conquest of entire countries we were just barely beginning to get a hint of where he was headed.
David continued taunting Mormakil while making his way into the top 100 on the SPCR folding team. He was still a snot-nosed 20-day-old folder, but he was running 4 machines! About this time we also started to see his stats obsession come out as big-time cheerleading for other members of the team. He also made the first of his infamous "folding flamer" posts.
Feeling the frustration of advancing through the ranks at a steady pace, David considered bringing his low-horsepower notebook back on-line. "The idea" planted by the Australian folding farm was still festering in the back of his mind.
A scant month after he started folding, David started the popular "Interesting Races and Folders-on-the-move" thread to highlight accomplishments, encourage teammates, badger low producers, and generally cheer the team on. At this point he was making about 7 posts in the Folding forum for each post he made in a non-folding forum. OK, we probably had a clue what was happening by then.
We definitely figured it out when it became obvious that "The Idea" was gaining traction and he was making evil plans for Christmas gifts. He made a cry for help but he didn't want to be saved from his addiction, he wanted MORE! And we were happy to help. WHAT WERE WE THINKING?!?
Soon he was learning about Linux, wrestling with motherboard specs, and hammering out his plans for a folding farm. He definitely showed his gratitude to those who helped him out. Eventually he settled on a configuration for his first folding blade. Still, though, he seemed to be in a bit of denial about how much a part of his life Folding had become. "...just a hobby..."?!?!?!?!?
After many fits and starts, the fledgling folding farm finally came to life! Soon David was building a home for his creation. His obsession grew to the point where family members started to notice. You'd think he would have figured it out when he stayed up to the wee hours to watch as he made it to 20000 points. Nah, no obsession there, folks!
Soon we got to see the haysdb folding farm in all its glory. Though David was clearly doing his best to rise through the SPCR folding ranks, he still continued cheering the team on at every opportunity. And he certainly wasn't afraid of taunting other teams. All the while, though, he maintained his humility. Kinda. A little, at least. OK, not much at all. In fact, he was a bit arrogant about it at times.
OK, I just realized that this may soon get too big for a single post (I'm working backward through all the 2000+ haysdb posts and I have 46 pages of posts left to go), so I'll wrap it up by saying that David rose quickly through the SPCR folding ranks, provided a ton of help for other folders on the team, keep up the cheerleading and taunting, built a new condo for his folding farm, and was the obvious choice when Mike C was looking for a moderator for the Folding forum.
I still don't think he's come to terms with his obsession, though. I'm glad I don't have that obsession.
BTW, David, if I survive the current round of layoffs at work, I may be pestering you for your opinions on the current crop of mATX motherboards as folding blades...
Scott
Appropriately it was Halloween 2003 when David (haysdb) joined the SPCR folding effort. Almost immediately he had a minor setback, but he continued undaunted, figuring out the details as he went along.
Within a few days, David was running multiple systems and installing F@H on anything he could find around the house. This should have been our first real hint as to what was coming. This was also where we started to see him emerge as a budding "cheerleader/whip" for the SPCR folding team. Again, we should have seen the signs.
A scant ten days into his folding career, David discovered the folding blade farm concept. This was a revelation that planted "an idea" in his brain...
One day later, David realized something had changed in his psyche, but he was at a loss to explain why. Still nurturing fantasies of folding farms, he hit his first major milestone in folding: Becoming "green" in the old EOC stats. He soon figured out that he craved the competition in folding, but Mormakil and the rest of SPCR (and probably David) still didn't see the folding fiend in the making. When he started celebrating the conquest of entire countries we were just barely beginning to get a hint of where he was headed.
David continued taunting Mormakil while making his way into the top 100 on the SPCR folding team. He was still a snot-nosed 20-day-old folder, but he was running 4 machines! About this time we also started to see his stats obsession come out as big-time cheerleading for other members of the team. He also made the first of his infamous "folding flamer" posts.
Feeling the frustration of advancing through the ranks at a steady pace, David considered bringing his low-horsepower notebook back on-line. "The idea" planted by the Australian folding farm was still festering in the back of his mind.
A scant month after he started folding, David started the popular "Interesting Races and Folders-on-the-move" thread to highlight accomplishments, encourage teammates, badger low producers, and generally cheer the team on. At this point he was making about 7 posts in the Folding forum for each post he made in a non-folding forum. OK, we probably had a clue what was happening by then.
We definitely figured it out when it became obvious that "The Idea" was gaining traction and he was making evil plans for Christmas gifts. He made a cry for help but he didn't want to be saved from his addiction, he wanted MORE! And we were happy to help. WHAT WERE WE THINKING?!?
Soon he was learning about Linux, wrestling with motherboard specs, and hammering out his plans for a folding farm. He definitely showed his gratitude to those who helped him out. Eventually he settled on a configuration for his first folding blade. Still, though, he seemed to be in a bit of denial about how much a part of his life Folding had become. "...just a hobby..."?!?!?!?!?
After many fits and starts, the fledgling folding farm finally came to life! Soon David was building a home for his creation. His obsession grew to the point where family members started to notice. You'd think he would have figured it out when he stayed up to the wee hours to watch as he made it to 20000 points. Nah, no obsession there, folks!
Soon we got to see the haysdb folding farm in all its glory. Though David was clearly doing his best to rise through the SPCR folding ranks, he still continued cheering the team on at every opportunity. And he certainly wasn't afraid of taunting other teams. All the while, though, he maintained his humility. Kinda. A little, at least. OK, not much at all. In fact, he was a bit arrogant about it at times.
OK, I just realized that this may soon get too big for a single post (I'm working backward through all the 2000+ haysdb posts and I have 46 pages of posts left to go), so I'll wrap it up by saying that David rose quickly through the SPCR folding ranks, provided a ton of help for other folders on the team, keep up the cheerleading and taunting, built a new condo for his folding farm, and was the obvious choice when Mike C was looking for a moderator for the Folding forum.
I still don't think he's come to terms with his obsession, though. I'm glad I don't have that obsession.
BTW, David, if I survive the current round of layoffs at work, I may be pestering you for your opinions on the current crop of mATX motherboards as folding blades...
Scott
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- Posts: 542
- Joined: Mon Aug 11, 2003 5:54 pm
Yep, I started the same day or the day before. Folding has been a VERY interesting experience.
My original plan was to install the client and "just" let it run . I certainly did not have time for tweaks-tags, etc. let alone track my and other team mates/ teams.
Much of my folding efforts have been haysdb inspired.
Things change, it sure is fun.
My original plan was to install the client and "just" let it run . I certainly did not have time for tweaks-tags, etc. let alone track my and other team mates/ teams.
Much of my folding efforts have been haysdb inspired.
Things change, it sure is fun.
As I remember, the competitive juices really started flowing when Mormakil said "You'll never catch me David"
I can tell you, it doesn't seem like that long ago, and in fact it really wasn't, that I folded my first protein. The first week was EXCRUCIATING, as I watched my first WU abort, and then my second, and possibly even my third, I don't remember. I had a folding 'sig' before I turned in my first WU!
I keenly remember the feeling of being absolutely CLUELESS. The exclamation "I'm Green!" left me scratching my head. Gromacs? Tinker? Switch from the GUI client to the CLI client? SCARY!
Every step of the way, I had help and encouragement. I believe NeilBlanchard was the defacto "cheerleader" at that time, and did a fine job of it I might add. Zhentar, tragus, tangled, Cosine, Zyzzyx, WarpedPlatter, all were active in the forum, keeping things stirred up, answering my thousand and one questions. CharlieChan was my savior when I set up my folding farm. I would NEVER have gotten it finished without his help, as well as a few others, including TRC-13 and Lockheed, if memory serves.
Through it all, I have never given as much as I have received.
Thanks Scott, I'm touched!
David
Edit: Fixed the spelling of Zyzzx. I just got my pinky on the wrong key.
I can tell you, it doesn't seem like that long ago, and in fact it really wasn't, that I folded my first protein. The first week was EXCRUCIATING, as I watched my first WU abort, and then my second, and possibly even my third, I don't remember. I had a folding 'sig' before I turned in my first WU!
I keenly remember the feeling of being absolutely CLUELESS. The exclamation "I'm Green!" left me scratching my head. Gromacs? Tinker? Switch from the GUI client to the CLI client? SCARY!
Every step of the way, I had help and encouragement. I believe NeilBlanchard was the defacto "cheerleader" at that time, and did a fine job of it I might add. Zhentar, tragus, tangled, Cosine, Zyzzyx, WarpedPlatter, all were active in the forum, keeping things stirred up, answering my thousand and one questions. CharlieChan was my savior when I set up my folding farm. I would NEVER have gotten it finished without his help, as well as a few others, including TRC-13 and Lockheed, if memory serves.
Through it all, I have never given as much as I have received.
Thanks Scott, I'm touched!
David
Edit: Fixed the spelling of Zyzzx. I just got my pinky on the wrong key.
Last edited by haysdb on Thu Apr 29, 2004 4:56 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Hmm, I must have cut back on my participation here recently.Zhentar, tragus, tangled, Cosine, Zyxxyx, WarpedPlatter, all were active in the forum, keeping things stirred up, answering my thousand and one questions.
Zyzzyx
(actually, I am trying to cut back, need to get more work done through the day)
((its funny, I've been using this nick for 5 years now, don't see any difficulties with it; but I guess it can be a tricky lil' critter))
Thanks for the complements, all.
Zyzzyz: In my mind I split your SN into two triads: Zyz-zyx rather than the Zyzz-yx split that you might expect from the syllables. I don't know what relevance that has to anything, but I thought you might be interested. Oh, and you passing me again is what's prompting me to think of a small blade farm, but it looks like you're running a lot more horsepower now than you were when we tangled in the past. A small farm may not cut it.
David: Sometimes I feel like telling stories. I was going to go with a yarn that painted you as a Smeagol-esque character hunched over his precious blades in the basement, nurturing them and loving them and coaxing every last bit of folding performance out of them -- muttering strange incantations about Tinkers and Gromacs and SSE2 and such. But then I wanted to know exactly when you started folding and I made the mistake of clicking on the "show all posts" link in your profile and there was no going back. Perhaps in my mind I still picture you as a folding Gollem, though. A very friendly and helpful Gollem, though.
Zyzzyz: In my mind I split your SN into two triads: Zyz-zyx rather than the Zyzz-yx split that you might expect from the syllables. I don't know what relevance that has to anything, but I thought you might be interested. Oh, and you passing me again is what's prompting me to think of a small blade farm, but it looks like you're running a lot more horsepower now than you were when we tangled in the past. A small farm may not cut it.
David: Sometimes I feel like telling stories. I was going to go with a yarn that painted you as a Smeagol-esque character hunched over his precious blades in the basement, nurturing them and loving them and coaxing every last bit of folding performance out of them -- muttering strange incantations about Tinkers and Gromacs and SSE2 and such. But then I wanted to know exactly when you started folding and I made the mistake of clicking on the "show all posts" link in your profile and there was no going back. Perhaps in my mind I still picture you as a folding Gollem, though. A very friendly and helpful Gollem, though.
Stunning post, sbabb, about how one life can be changed when discover folding Thanks for your efforts to make it happen
It's great post and also fun to read.
Also I would like to thanks haysdb for his presonnal suggestions and it certaingly made the commitment of answering another my possible questions
...and now I know why I did not added the folding stats to my signature - it will sooner or later force me to do something like David did - start creating folding machines and let them fold and fold... Just to get green, then yellow and then red status, just to move from the end of SPCR folding team stats to the first 100, then 10, then...
Just for curiosity, anyone know, on what TRC-13 folding? I mean, how many machines with what CPUs/Mhz
It's great post and also fun to read.
Also I would like to thanks haysdb for his presonnal suggestions and it certaingly made the commitment of answering another my possible questions
...and now I know why I did not added the folding stats to my signature - it will sooner or later force me to do something like David did - start creating folding machines and let them fold and fold... Just to get green, then yellow and then red status, just to move from the end of SPCR folding team stats to the first 100, then 10, then...
Just for curiosity, anyone know, on what TRC-13 folding? I mean, how many machines with what CPUs/Mhz
Really funny sbabb, it makes a lot of good memories come in to my mind
I had been folding for a while when David appeared and it's been lot funnier since them. Certainly without his enthusiasm (and lot of others, but David shines by itself), SPCR wouldn't have growth that much in these months.
I was going to stop folding 24/7 on my PC because of some higher than stock Vcore problems that radomly occurs, in fact it's been off most of the time for a week. But, I think I'm getting the adiction again , maybe you'll see me teal again soon
Ohh man! What have I done?! I created a monsterhaysdb wrote:As I remember, the competitive juices really started flowing when Mormakil said "You'll never catch me David"
I had been folding for a while when David appeared and it's been lot funnier since them. Certainly without his enthusiasm (and lot of others, but David shines by itself), SPCR wouldn't have growth that much in these months.
I was going to stop folding 24/7 on my PC because of some higher than stock Vcore problems that radomly occurs, in fact it's been off most of the time for a week. But, I think I'm getting the adiction again , maybe you'll see me teal again soon
Yup, and not 57... Soon after I made the post I realized that there is the number of CPUs showed, so I take a look and get a "little" bit shocked... He must work as network administrator in middle+ size company, othevise I can't imagine where he can borg so many CPUsdasman wrote:Stanford has him down for 55 processors in the last week...
But hey, creating a folding farm should be pretty bold idea and I bet that even "only" ten AXP3000+ CPUs folding 24/7 can make a difference
(now who pay for this, who set that thing up and finally, who host this rack-monster ...because my quiet house certaingly are NOT supposed to take this )