How I found out about folding@home

unregistered · Post by **unregistered** » Mon Jan 12, 2004 5:33 pm

I think that this is an important topic because it is how I got turned on to folding.

Yeah, OK I'm just a white, single processor (w/pt borg) folder, but I am a folder for a good cause and a fun team. And that's a good thing (i wonder if martha folds?).

I discovered folding in the Newcomers briefing room, where people like Zyzzyx and miker answered my questions. At the bottom of their responses was folding stats.

Curious as I am I had to find out what that was about. Here I am!

I am bringing up this topic for three reasons:

#1 Thanks Zyzzyx & miker and many others for helping me quiet down my box

#2 How do you get that stat bar at the bottom of your post?

#3 AND last but most important: How did you get started folding?

I’m just thinking that if we know where we came from, we can get more people to join in on this effort????

P.S. Zyzzyx/miker :i'll be in the top 100 soon!

miker · Post by **miker** » Mon Jan 12, 2004 5:49 pm

Hey welcome to the team!

I got started by reading some posts at [H]ard OCP forums. Guys were saying how they got such and such pts per day from their new overclock and I was like "Hey, I want points too!". SO I started folding for HardOCP, but at the same time was a junkie for SPCR. When I found out there was a SPCR folding team, I joined this team right away and never looked back.

Zyzzyx hopefully can help you get those stats in your sig.

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Mon Jan 12, 2004 7:08 pm

Excellent topic.

unregistered · Post by **unregistered** » Mon Jan 12, 2004 7:19 pm

My point is that much success has been made here with folding farms. Seems like we are "stuck" at 99-100 folders, maybe farming for folders would be a good thing too. How people got "hooked" on folding is a good way to figure out where/how to plant the seeds.

I've turned 3 people on to folding in the last ~month, one is a P/t borg on my point score and 2 are folding for their school teams. I am glad that they are all folding, I guess I didn't plant the seeds quiet right. Funny, now they are asking me how I got my computer sooooooo quiet. My answer "I have the silent version folding client".

Zyzzyx · Post by **Zyzzyx** » Mon Jan 12, 2004 10:36 pm

unregistered: Thanks for the recognition. Glad to know that somewhere amongst my ramblings has been some good information for someone. I think I remember replying to your post thinking, "unregistered. Now that's one helluva unique login name."

And I'm also glad to hear that my little stats sig has inspired curiosity in folks to get into Folding. (well, I did the graphics for the sig, liquidninjas.com does the coding and database work) That was one of the reasons I wanted to get a sig going for myself, to get others interested. I was (and still am) surprised at how popular the sig has become. Now I can see it was a good thing I took the time to make it match the SPCR color scheme and be as unobtrusive as possible. Actually, might be redoing it a bit, make it a few pixels shorter in height.

So, back on topic here, how did I get into Folding? I had been doing SETI on and off (mostly on) for a couple years. Admittedly it was partly to be mesmerized by their graphical client as it chugged along. It was also a decent benchmark to compare system performance with other folks.

In further reading on SETI, I found that there were other distributed computing programs out there, but nothing approaching the membership levels of SETI. Looking over the various ones I found the United Devices cancer program. I ran that for awhile, glad to be doing something 'useful' instead of searching for critters in space. The UD client had some serious stability bugs and other annoyances at the time, so I moved back to SETI for a bit.

Somewhere after that I found Folding@Home. Read up on it, was immediately in love with the idea. My mom is a survivor of intestinal cancer. I was in 7th grade when she was diagnosed, had surgery, and then chemo. Its really the chemo and its effects that I remember the most. I also have friends with parents who have Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. My girlfriend a few years ago, her mom had Parkinson's. I'd known about it before (Michael J Fox had been going strong about it for a couple years), but spending time at her place, I quickly learned how devastating it too can be.

I got FAH going on my AMD1700, quickly adding it to the other two computers I had at the time, P2-300 and a K6/2-200. Often the K6 would miss deadlines. I know that now, but didn't really understand the program as much then. After a bit I got my own team going, just to keep track of the difference performance levels of the computers. I also had my work P3-800 going. Was pleased when my work computers was upgraded to a P4-2.2 About then I got the bug planted in my EverQuest guild, 'Legends of Westwood'. There's still a few folks folding for that team. Its down around the upper 400s for point position. Highest I saw with them was nearly 300.

I'd been to SPCR occasionally since the previous summer, but didn't start actively reading, posting, and practicing until summer '03. That's when I noticed that SPCR had a Folding team. And it was doing quite well too. Not too much later I decided to join up with SPCR, mostly for the stats fun. I could see my little team wasn't going anywhere, I've been with SPCR for the last 1 million points.

For awhile I borged about 8 computers at work. That ended quickly when my boss/coworker/friend wanted to know what this "FireDaemon" was on the new computers. (I'm in charge of setting up and installing the systems) He wasn't too pleased with it on there, and I hadn't mentioned it to him, so I quickly went around and removed FAH from all of them. (Hmm.... wonder if he ever reads here... ) Since then I'm back to my 4 computers at home and my work system. I would like to build a small folding farm; not only for the points fun, but also as a learning challenge (but hopefully not QUITE as challenging as its been for haysdb).

Oh, and unregistered, if ya want to use the sig, put the following in your signature.

Code: Select all

[img]http://www.liquidninjas.com/dc/ln_dc_sigs.php?xfahuser=unregistered&xskin=Zyzzyx&xfahteam=31574[/img]

edit: dang, that was one helluva ramble there

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 12:04 am

I like to think I set an example for others...

that even a total bonehead can set up a folding farm...

if he has smart friends.

I love Zyzzyx's sig. It's a low-key way to promote Folding. My experience is that if you talk about Folding, people treat you like some sort of religious nut. The sig isn't blatantly promotional, but says "I am proud of what I do" and the curious will eventually wonder over here to the Folding forum to see what the heck "Folding" is.

The thread that caught my eye and got me over here? "I'm Green, I'm Green". I just HAD to find out what was so damned exciting about being green!

David

unregistered · Post by **unregistered** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 3:31 pm

Well here goes.. lets see if I have a new sig.

I am just looking for ways to get the folding word out. If more people knew more would fold.

I am also adding a signature to all my outgoing emails. I figure that might make people curious. From now on I think that I will get people to go for silence and then folding. Either is good but both is better!

Also you might want to look for my 30 sec spot during this year's Superbowl.

That should do it

.

miker · Post by **miker** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 3:37 pm

I've succumbed to peer pressure and now I use the cool sig as well

haysdb · Post by **haysdb** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 4:20 pm

Whoa Nellie, barely room in the Score column for that number!

For sure, the fact that SPCR has a Folding team is no longer a "secret"!

The irony for me is that I came here for ideas on how to make my desktop machine quiet, but now because of Folding, I am running a Shuttle XPC (as a "farm server") that is anything BUT quiet.

David

sbabb · Post by **sbabb** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 8:27 pm

I had no idea what Folding was when I got here.

I saw it mentioned occasionally in other sub-forums, and I could obviously see that we have this sub-forum specifically for it, but I really had no clue what was going on until I saw somebody mention cancer research.

Cancer (cigarette-induced) is the reason that my daughters have no grandfathers. So I did some looking around to find out what it was and how I could get involved. I started folding on one machine.

Then I discovered the EOC stats, Electron Microscope, and the competitive aspect of it. That wound me up a bit, and I started folding on everything I could find. The competitive aspect and trying to improve my stats is what did me in, I think.

Oh, and for those of you who haven't been there lately, the good old Stanford F@H site now has printable certificates for various levels of folding achievement. For a bunch of computer/biology geeks, they do a fair job at marketing! Check out your individual stats page at folding.stanford.edu

Scott