What are your (realistic) goals with Folding@Home?

Zyzzyx · Post by **Zyzzyx** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 8:41 am

Just read the comment by someone (and promptly forgot who it was

) that they didn't thing they'd ever make the top 20 in the SPCR team. Got me thinking a bit again regarding goals and FAH.

Specifically, I am getting real close to a long time goal of mine. Being in the top 1000 overall users. Also for the longest time I wanted to make it into the top 30 in the SPCR team. Now I'm at 17, and really don't care where I go in the team from here.

One of my other goals has been to get other people excited and involved with Folding@Home. Unfortunately I haven't been nearly as succesful at that as I'd like. I did get some friends from my gaming guild involved, back before I joined SPCR, but they have mostly forgotten about it now. I got one friend from work going (rmarotti on the team) but he's not enthused about it, just doing the work.

So now I'm wondering what I do after achieving one of my main goals, reaching the top 1000. I'm not going to quit (but probably will scale back during the summer, at least at home), but I don't want to set any unreachable goals from here. Probably just go low key and let it go. Try my best to take after TRC-13.

So, what are your goals with Folding@Home?

mas92264 · Post by **mas92264** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 9:06 am

I'm on the same page as you regarding heat in the summer. I rarely run the ac during the day in summer as it's just too expensive - $300 mo. Swamp cooler! Daytime temps inside can easily top 95F, even with the swamp cooler running which would put nearly all my home boxes out of action. I think.

I guess each folder has both short-term and long-term goals and of course these will differ from folder to folder. My goal was to make 100,000 points and make it to the SPCR top 10. Not sure what the long-term goal is now.

Still having fun, tho, and that's what counts for me.

M

sbabb · Post by **sbabb** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 9:07 am

To pass Zyzzyx again.

Douglas Bailey · Post by **Douglas Bailey** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 9:10 am

personal goal: Top 10 on the SPCR team.
Looks like I might be able to slip in somewhere around #7 with a couple years worth of diligence. That seems worth the effort to me.

isp · Post by **isp** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 9:12 am

I'd like to get up in the top 20 while the team cracks the top 10...

unregistered · Post by **unregistered** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 9:31 am

Zyzzyx wrote:

One of my other goals has been to get other people excited and involved with Folding@Home

That's mine; after all it is a "distributed" computing project. The more the merrier, even if they are not SPCR team folders.

I think when a "major breakthrough" / discovery, that benefits those who are suffering happens, things will proliferate and other discoveries will fall into place like dominoes.

It will be easy to get people to jump on the bandwagon then.

Not so easy at this point

People want instant gratification.

BUT my main goal is to follow this project all of the way through and join SPCR's next distributed computing team.

mas92264 · Post by **mas92264** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 9:43 am

One of my other goals has been to get other people excited and involved with Folding@Home. Unfortunately I haven't been nearly as succesful at that as I'd like. I did get some friends from my gaming guild involved, back before I joined SPCR, but they have mostly forgotten about it now. I got one friend from work going (rmarotti on the team) but he's not enthused about it, just doing the work.

I gave up on telling non-geeks about f at h as I usually got either a blank stare or the patronizing "oh really, that's interesting" thing. Most folks get it confused with Seti and I've even had some insist that what I was talking about was Seti, "it's the same thing as that Seti deal, then." Or, "so, this is better than Seti?" This is my signal that the conversation has gone way past its point of diminishing return.

M

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 11:42 am

My #1 goal is to help the project. That's why I also follow some other forums, including those of our closet competitors, offering what help and motivation I can.

My #2 goal is to help my team. My goal for our team, for the next several months, is to get into the top 20. That means cultivating new and existing folders as best I can.

My #3 goal is to maximize my own production, get as high as I can in the rankings, etc. I want to be "red", I'd like to get up to #6 on our team, and into the top 400 (and then into the top 300) overall.

David

mas92264 · Post by **mas92264** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 2:26 pm

I'd like to get up to #6 on our team

Hey! That's my place!

M

zuperdee · Post by **zuperdee** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 2:50 pm

My goal is pure and simple: to see to it that Team SPCR moves up in the ranks as high as possible. I think it would be a great way to advertise, and get more people to join SPCR.

sonofdbn · Post by **sonofdbn** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 5:28 pm

My goal is to get into the top 100 of the team, so that I can be on page 1 of the stats. My team goal is to get us above EOC first, and then MacOS X.

CoolGav · Post by **CoolGav** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 12:09 am

Zyzzyx wrote:Just read the comment by someone (and promptly forgot who it was ) that they didn't thing they'd ever make the top 20 in the SPCR team.

That was me. Currently at #30 is very good, seeing that when I joined in December there were over 200 members (some inactive). Seeing my rise through the ranks was fun and adding more horsepower to get up the league faster. I though that without having much resources to throw at this I couldn't really get much into the top 20, so thought it would be a good aim to try. Since I got going there have been others joining who have and will pass me due to more resources for the project. So overall, I may get up a few places, and then lose them. The #28 I held a short time ago could have been my peak at SPCR. I feel glad to have contributed this much, and got so far. I can't crack my goal of #20 in the team due to the large number of fellow SPCR folders who are putting in more points.

I made an oberservation that if I could keep all my horsepower and dedicate it to another team (Gentoo Linux Users Everywhere - GLUE is one I'd like to support because I'm into Gentoo as much as SPCR), I could in theory be thier #1 folder in terms of output, and rise through the ranks fast. I'd feel bad about leaving SPCR completly, so expect to transfer a few boxen to Gentoo's effort and let the rest stay with SPCR - hopefully staying in the top 50 for a long time! Of course my first transfer to GLUE has reverted back to SPCR already - a stupid F@H Linux console/service or my PCs being loyal to reducing noise?

Zyzzyx · Post by **Zyzzyx** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 6:40 am

Well, I've got some interesting ideas for once I reach the top 1000 overall. Just have to wait a couple weeks and see how they do.

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 12:11 pm

I have to ammend my comments slightly. I am not above putting the interests of my team above those of the project in the short term. What can I say, I'm no angel.

When would I do this? When I have some information that would benefit my team and a close competitor equally. I might share that information with my team while "witholding" it from the folding community at large, at least so long as it gave my team a competitive advantage over our competitors.

I do not wish to be guilty of the same hypocrisy some of our competitors are, so I just thought I should "come clean" with this.

David

AZBrandon · Post by **AZBrandon** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 12:31 pm

mas92264 wrote:I'm on the same page as you regarding heat in the summer. I rarely run the ac during the day in summer as it's just too expensive - $300 mo. Swamp cooler! Daytime temps inside can easily top 95F, even with the swamp cooler running which would put nearly all my home boxes out of action. I think.

Holy smokes. I would have to jump off a bridge if I ever let my house get that hot. Then again, I usually let it get no higher than 78-80F in the summer even when it's 115 degrees out and I've still never run an electric bill of more than $175/month. I guess sometimes it pays to have a small house.

On that topic, I might run in to similar problems. I have one of my folding machines in a closet, which it quickly heats to about 6-7F above normal room temperature, but at least that helps limit the heat in my computer room itself. The case and CPU temps have stayed acceptable so far. The real test will be to see how bad the heat is when I move a second system to the closet. I might end up having to underclock them a bit to keep heat down to acceptable levels.

My goal is just to make it in the top 100 I guess, and on a bigger scale, my goal is to see this project really make a difference in the world. People have weird ailments of all sorts that they just have to deal with. Better understanding of protein folding can help to make the world a better place, so to speak. Too bad my electric bill isn't tax deductable as a charitable contribution to the F@H project!

wussboy · Post by **wussboy** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 4:33 pm

My goal is to get back into the top 30. I started folding for the Mighty 31574 days after it was announced, but my AMD 800 T-Bird quickly relegated me to the back of the pack. I quite quickly slipped down to the thirties. Now I have a 1700+, a 2100+, a 2.8HT, a 2600+, and a 2.4 folding for me. I hope to hit 30. That would be awesome. But I need some help. All you bastards have to QUIT PASSING ME!!!

Beyonder · Post by **Beyonder** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 4:44 pm

I just want to help out SPCR.com, contribute to folding research and do something worthwhile with my computer, and have a bit of fun.

mas92264 · Post by **mas92264** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 5:02 pm

Holy smokes. I would have to jump off a bridge if I ever let my house get that hot.

The hi today was 103F and it's about 95 now, at 17:50 pst. Inside with the swamp cooler running it's 84 and a little sticky so the humidity today must be a little high. I think the temp in Phoenix is usually about the same as here - maybe a little cooler there as the elevation here is only 250'.

The good news is that a few +100 deg days drives all the tourists back up to Canada, WA and Il.

So, no more left turns from the right lane, cars stopped in the middle of the road and no more dodging folks driving the wrong way on one-way streets.

M

AZBrandon · Post by **AZBrandon** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 9:33 pm

mas92264 wrote:The hi today was 103F and it's about 95 now, at 17:50 pst. Inside with the swamp cooler running it's 84 and a little sticky so the humidity today must be a little high.

Ohhh.. ok, I guess I misunderstood. I thought you were meaning that it would be up to 95 in your computer room. Nevermind then.

Wrah · Post by **Wrah** » Tue Apr 27, 2004 1:53 am

I don't have any personal goals within the team. When I just joined it was a lot of fun racing up the ranks, but I quickly lost satisfaction after I realised I was overtaking people simply because they didn't have the same means to fold at their disposal as I did (I had 5 pc's folding at work once).
So besides the project itself, I'm more into the teamthing right now. KWSN showed me you can make a lot of fun out of overtaking other teams. (I hope they don't read this

)

mas92264 · Post by **mas92264** » Tue Apr 27, 2004 5:37 am

AZBrandon wrote:Ohhh.. ok, I guess I misunderstood. I thought you were meaning that it would be up to 95 in your computer room. Nevermind then.

It can get up to 95 inside during July and August when it's generally more humid.

With the swamp cooler running, it can be 15F cooler inside, but, actually feel hotter as the air is saturated with agua. Only for a few weeks in July and August when the wind comes from the south, bringing wet air up from the Pacific. It's a bitch.

M

tomcat · Post by **tomcat** » Tue Apr 27, 2004 7:48 am

i want to be #1

( goes off to buy more dual xeon workstations ...

)

Markus

wumpus · Post by **wumpus** » Tue Apr 27, 2004 8:21 am

Primary goal: Kicking ass.

My fallback goal, if I can't achieve that, is to ROCK.

mas92264 · Post by **mas92264** » Tue Apr 27, 2004 8:27 am

wumpus wrote:Primary goal: Kicking ass.

My fallback goal, if I can't achieve that, is to ROCK.

I like this attitude.

M

dasman · Post by **dasman** » Tue Apr 27, 2004 9:00 am

I want everyone to change their username to dasman so I can beat on Macaholic!

Dave

EDIT Or better yet, change to Peteamer so he can trade posts with Macaholic

peteamer · Post by **peteamer** » Tue Apr 27, 2004 9:10 am

You Rang .....

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Tue Apr 27, 2004 10:00 am

My goal is to fold as much as possible before I move out of my utility-free apartment. Once that happens, you will quickly see a drop in my folding. Don't worry, I'll still fold for the team. I have a laptop at work that folds 24/7, and I have a small machine here that pretty much does nothing that I'm allowed to fold on.

But I may very well remove all the folding software from my computers, since I will be in the habit of turning them off during the day and after I go to bed.

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Tue Apr 27, 2004 10:48 am

Do what you can, when you can, that's all anyone can ask.

David

What are your (realistic) goals with Folding@Home?

What are your (realistic) goals with Folding@Home?

Re: What are your (realistic) goals with Folding@Home?