A brief note of accomplishment

[anastrophe]

After a couple of years of running, with slowly growing member list, The "Folding at Home" team i created in honor of my father has broken into the top 1000 team rankings -

http://vspx27.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/m...&teamnum=36425

A public "thank you" to those who have participated and contributed. Any and all are welcome to join. If you have a reasonably speedy computer, and can spare some of that horsepower, every bit helps. There's a Folding at Home screensaver that will run when your computer is otherwise idle, or you can run the 'standard' client which uses whatever percentage of your computer's capacity you set it to.

my desire to have the team rise in the rankings is a pleasant diversion, but what really matters is that Folding at Home may find a cure for Alzheimers disease, and other diseases, in our lifetimes. I'm faced with the very real possibility of Alzheimers in as little as twenty years. At least i know i'm actually doing something to help find a cure, without having a medical degree or being able to contribute vast sums of money to research.

By participating, you may be helping yourself.

end of sermon!

[lady cop]

i clicked on the link Paul, and am going to email it to Carla right away, her life's work is in helping Alzheimers patients.

[abbey]

Paul,
Does it take up much space on your computer?
Do you have to leave your computer running 24/7?
Is it easy to set up,(for those of us that are eejits)?
Do i have to switch off my anti-virus to run it?
Cheers.
By the way, well done!

[anastrophe]

Originally Posted by abbey

Paul,
Does it take up much space on your computer?

'it depends'. my installation currently takes up 34 megabytes of disk space. however, that's because i run the always-active client, and there's an option to run 'work units' that are particularly large, thus needing both more disk space and more memory. however, you don't have to select those options, so it can use both less disk space and less memory.

Do you have to leave your computer running 24/7?

no. whether you use the screensaver version, or the always-running client, you can turn your computer off overnight if you like, or any time for that matter. it just means it won't be able to do any work while the computer's off (kind of figures!). i leave my computer on 24x7, and have it running on some servers as well that are necessarily on 24x7. the average PC with the monitor off uses about as much electricity as a 100 watt lightbulb. so if you do leave it on 24x7, it will burn up some electricity and cost you money.

Is it easy to set up,(for those of us that are eejits)?

i don't think it's terribly difficult. you download the installer program, and run it. it installs it, then you configure the program, usually just once - entering a username, a team number [hopefully 36425!], and then selecting a few other options which are fairly straightforward. that's it. if you use the screensaver, it'll only run when you're away from the computer but haven't turned it off. if you run the always-on client, there's a 'slider' to configure just how much of the computer's horsepower you're willing to allocate to it. that's where i think running it all the time is better, as you can turn it down to a point where it won't bother your regular use of the computer, but still always be working on the calculations. i have an athlon 2600+ with 1.5G ram, and i leave it with the slider all the way up - on '11' as they'd say in spinal tap...

Do i have to switch off my anti-virus to run it?

nope, won't interfere with or trigger anti-virus at all. it will need to be able to contact the 'mothership' servers from time to time, to download new work units and upload results.

Cheers.
By the way, well done!

thanks!

[abbey]

I am now officially part of team 36425, i think!
Not too sure i've done it right, i have a little red cog on my tool bar & when i point to it, it says F@h:Attempting to get work packet

[anastrophe]

Originally Posted by abbey

I am now officially part of team 36425, i think!
Not too sure i've done it right, i have a little red cog on my tool bar & when i point to it, it says F@h:Attempting to get work packet

it can take a few minutes for it to retrieve new work units. but it sounds like you're on the right track! thanks for your contribution!

note, if you right-click on the red cog, you can get to the configuration settings, where you can adjust just how much of your computer's horsepower it uses.

[David813]

Accomplishment Noted! Impressive! I am about 7,346 levels below you on computer skills A so I don't understand a shred of it, but Congratulations anyway!

[abbey]

Originally Posted by David813

Accomplishment Noted! Impressive! I am about 7,346 levels below you on computer skills A so I don't understand a shred of it, but Congratulations anyway!

And i about 7,347 below you David, but i did it and thats my accomplishment

[BTS]

oK pAUL.........Got it.
Thanks

[nvalleyvee]

I've got it running on mine now. I've computer shared before with other universities and have never had a problem.