Folding @ Home - Let's find a cure for cancer

[vraa]

I just created a team for FerrariChat, X5world, and mbWorld. I'll be creating teams for a lot of other forums as well. I think it'd be cool to have a cross car company competition for saving the world

A lot of folks don't know what I'm talking about. Well, here is a summary. I'm talking about Folding@Home. Folding@Home is a project helped out by Stanford to fold proteins. Folding@Home's website explains it well--> http://folding.stanford.edu/ Folding proteins defined by google is ..

protein folding: the process whereby a protein molecule assumes its intricate three-dimensional shape; "understanding protein folding is the next step in deciphering the genetic code"
So basically, we're helping scientists to discover new things about our genetic code. This could help cure a large amount of diseases!! It just uses your spare CPU cycles! You can't even tell it's working, I've been involved in distributed computing projects for the last few years now without any negative drawbacks!

So, let's get started shall we?
I went ahead and created a www.ClubLexus.com Folding@Home team.

Now we have to download the client and setup the program so the ClubLexus team gets credit!

We suggest you use your CL Screen name as your user name.
The ClubLexus.com team number is 45435.

My next post will be a tutorial on setting up the program.

[vraa]

Here is the tutorial. I had typed up something nice but my computer crashed. If you have any questions, e-mail me or PM me.

First thing we need to do is download the installation file. You can do that by going to this link

http://folding.stanford.edu/download.html

And find your operating systems link.
As a quickie, if you use Windows XP and you are not the best at comptuers, I suggest you download at this link.

http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandeg...ng@Home503.EXE

Then run the program and install it. Use all the default settings until you get the the screen that has two options.

1) Run Installed Application (or something like that)
2) Read the readme.

There should be a filled in checkbox next to each one. Uncheck the one next to the second option (the readme) and press Finish or Next, whatever it says.

Then another page should come up that looks like the attached picture.

You'll want to put in your ClubLexus.com username instead of vraa, and instead of 0 put in 45435 so that ClubLexus.com gets the credit.

You can check the other tabs for different options, but the stuff we have put in right now are pretty good.

After you press okay, it'll look like the screen disappears. Just go to your taskbar, and you'll see a red flower thingy. Double click that, and a really cool screen will come up. That's the proteins being downloaded and processed.

You're on your way to helping solve diseases!

PS remember to put ClubLexus.com team number is the spot below (our number is 45435) as the image below shows '0'.

For more advanced computer folks - if you have a Dual Core or Quad Core machine that can dedicate time to folding, I advise looking at the "SMP" client which will take advantage of your computer's better processing capabilities (and produce a lot more points)!

If you have a PC with an ATI 1800 1900 or 1950 video card I recommend also running the "GPU" client which will use the processor/shader and memory on those video cards to fold.

There are folding clients for Macintosh, Linix, PS/3s - please pitch in!

[GFerg]

Wow, I would really love to help, but I kinda dont understand how this works(I know a little bout computers, but obviously not enough).

Also, not trying to have my computer crash, when downloading.

Its good that you thought about this though. Sounds interesting.

[vraa]

Dude, I would be more than honored to answer any questions you have, so.. just fire away

This won't crash your computer unless you already have heating problems, which in case, you should get it fixed, and that's another story altogether which should be saved for another thread. I can help you with that too

Basically what we're doing is just downloading a small client, which every few days downloads a small 'workunit' from the Stanford Univ. servers and processes it. From what I understand, it tries to simulate how proteins 'fold' or assemble themselves into the building blocks of what we are pretty much made of. When these proteins mis'fold' they can turn into horrible diseases such as Alzheimers or cause cancer or a multitude of other disasters. By understanding the genetic makeup of the proteins, and how they fold, we can cure that.

First though, it requires a lot of grunt work to help understand it, and that's where this program comes in. It's like asking a math wiz the answer to a math test, but pretend you could ask him three billion questions (a lot more actually) and he would respond! We're those math whizzes right now, and those questions are what we get our computers to process. It's a lot faster than going one at a time, on one computer. That is similair to what we call Distributed Computing.

If anyone thinks I'm wrong, please feel free to correct me!

[dough boi]

I'm already on the rx7club team, last I checked (long long time ago) we were beating the piss out of supraforums.

[vraa]

Originally Posted by dough boi

I'm already on the rx7club team, last I checked (long long time ago) we were beating the piss out of supraforums.

Nice! But neither of those are ClubLexus. Therfore you are on the incorrect team

[dough boi]

haha, just switched over to CL team

[vraa]

Originally Posted by dough boi

haha, just switched over to CL team

Sure thing!

45435

[vraa]

So I assume it'll take about a week for the stats to really get updated.

We can start off with a friendly competition.

http://vspx27.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/m...&teamnum=45431 <--mbworld
http://vspx27.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/m...&teamnum=45430 <--X5World
http://vspx27.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/m...&teamnum=45428 <--FerrariChat
http://vspx27.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/m...&teamnum=45435 <--ClubLexus

[vraa]

Nice to see there are folks on the CL team.

Us at mbworld are still whooping yall up!

[SupraCoup3]

sorry, but I'm already signed on with the Folding Supras...

30k points and climbing

[vraa]

Originally Posted by SupraCoup3

sorry, but I'm already signed on with the Folding Supras...

30k points and climbing

Bro it's cool, at least you folding!

[1SICKLEX]

I am a lil lost here

[vraa]

Where did I lose you at?

[1SICKLEX]

Originally Posted by vraa

Where did I lose you at?

TLN here, I figured it out, I'm rolling