Do you fold?

[gletob]

I mean Folding@Home
So are you?
I am

[kevin11951]

i have my ps3 folding 24/7

[Dr Small]

Honestly, I never understood what it really was. I guess I was just never curious enough.

[kool_kat_os]

whats folding?

[TBOL3]

No understand-o

Edit: Unless we're playing cards...

[uraldinho]

The idea behind folding is that you donate your idle CPU cycles to scientific simulations. The name folding comes from protein folding which requires very intensive computing power, therefore, the need for a super computer. However, supercomputer don't come cheap, instead the computation is distributed to thousands if not millions of PCs around the globe.

It's a pure science project. So, if you feel generous and you would like to contribute to science you should install folding@home or one of the many similar projects and get crunching.

[kool_kat_os]

so all they do is use up your processing power?:confused:

[uraldinho]

so all they do is use up your processing power?:confused:

Yes. To be more precise, they use your idle processing power. Depending on your settings, the program only kicks in, lets say, when your screen saver is on, or after 5 mins of idle period. When you get back to your computer, the program pauses.

Well... it will also use your internet connection to get the computational data and send the results, but the data files aren't huge. With my internet usage, the data transfers of folding@home are basically negligible. You don't have to be online all the time. The program downloads a few files at once, so it can process without any outside communication for some time.

[gsmanners]

Seems kind of pointless to fold on my mere AMD machine when PS3 make up such a huge part of processing.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/ps3folding

[jpkotta]

Join TeamUbuntu #45104.

See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FoldingAtHome for installation instructions.

[jpkotta]

Seems kind of pointless to fold on my mere AMD machine when PS3 make up such a huge part of processing.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/ps3folding

Not all of the simulations can run on PS3s (nor GPUs).

[uraldinho]

Seems kind of pointless to fold on my mere AMD machine when PS3 make up such a huge part of processing.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/ps3folding

Every little helps?

Yes you are right. It looks like only 20% of the current results are PC based. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/32/FAH-tflops.PNG

[bufsabre666]

Seems kind of pointless to fold on my mere AMD machine when PS3 make up such a huge part of processing.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/ps3folding

honestly im tired of people who dont know how to gauge power, its different architecture, like i386 and amd64 ,although both are intel based chips, theyre differnt and there for arent really comparible to MIPS, core, cell, ppc, etc. the 8 core 2.8ghz cell processor isnt really all that powerful, its way better for things that are graphics based. and there is alot of use of this for folding but there are tons of other stuff that if you ran it on the ps3 it would crawl way slower that your 'mere AMD machine'

[bikeboy]

I Boinc, does that count? :)

[pbpersson]

Sorry, I don't do any folding, I don't do any ironing, and I CERTAINLY do NOT do Windows. ;)

[ghindo]

I have a laptop.

I like my battery life to be more than twenty minutes.

No, I don't fold.

[gsmanners]

honestly im tired of people who dont know how to gauge power, its different architecture, like i386 and amd64 ,although both are intel based chips, theyre differnt and there for arent really comparible to MIPS, core, cell, ppc, etc. the 8 core 2.8ghz cell processor isnt really all that powerful, its way better for things that are graphics based. and there is alot of use of this for folding but there are tons of other stuff that if you ran it on the ps3 it would crawl way slower that your 'mere AMD machine'

Gee, thanks for the helpful off-topic input. :mad:

I call it a mere AMD machine because that's what it is, and in all your thread-jacking there you neglected to mention any solid fact that changes my opinion on this particular subject.

[Ub1476]

Well, thanks for the tip.

I noticed the fintsall script download the x86 verison, whilst I'm using x64 on Archlinux. Somethings wrong?

[Golem XIV]

I Boinc, does that count? :)

Yep, me too - I SETI, Einstein, Rosetta and Spinhenge :-)

[Golem XIV]

I have a laptop.

I like my battery life to be more than twenty minutes.

No, I don't fold.

No idea about F@H but Boinc has the option to disable running when on battery.

[Golem XIV]

so all they do is use up your processing power?:confused:

These processes usually run with very low priorities so you never notice any system slowdown. The only problem is that it will get your CPU(s) to 100% usage all the time which may cause a CPU heating problem if your cooling isn't up to par.

[tribaal]

Rosetta@Home here...
Seti for a while, but rosetta seemed a little more prone to short/medium-term benefits :)

- Trib'

[gfg]

Yes I do fold my toilet paper! It's not very environmental, but it sure is comfy! :)

I use my PS3 for FoH all the time, but only because I pay a predefined sum for electricity. Leaving it on all the time can get very expensive if not.

[jpkotta]

I have a laptop.

I like my battery life to be more than twenty minutes.

No, I don't fold.

From: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FoldingAtHome

One can configure ACPI (the power regulation subsystem) to stop the client when the system goes on battery power, and to start it again when the power cord is plugged back in.

Simply create two scripts in the relevant directories.

sudo -i
echo "/etc/init.d/foldingathome stop" > /etc/acpi/battery.d/fah.sh
echo "/etc/init.d/foldingathome start" > /etc/acpi/ac.d/fah.sh
exit

(you should replace the part in quotes with whatever command you use to start/stop the client)

[Lostincyberspace]

For FAH? Yes
For Poker? No way I am on a winning streak.