T3h BiLL
Ya, It's A '68.
join:2003-11-18
Mountain Home, ID | reply to T3h BiLL
Re: What are you guys doing?
So what is it doing with my computer? i dont get it all i see is molecules. Im not really helping find a cure when its just running a program like that. i dont get it |
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rusdi
American V
Premium,MVM
join:2001-04-28
Flippin, AR
clubs:
1 edit | said by T3h BiLL  :
So what is it doing with my computer? i dont get it all i see is molecules. Im not really helping find a cure when its just running a program like that. i dont get it
"What does Folding@Home do? Folding@Home is a distributed computing project which studies protein folding, misfolding, aggregation, and related diseases. We use novel computational methods and large scale distributed computing, to simulate timescales thousands to millions of times longer than previously achieved. This has allowed us to simulate folding for the first time, and to now direct our approach to examine folding related disease."
The client will use spare CPU cycles,(when you are not using them for any other programs), (this happens automagically, it is VERY unobtrusive), to crunch work units & return them to Stanford University, to add to others.
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For my Mom
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howieh
It's Spring
Premium,MVM
join:2000-08-06
Metuchen, NJ
clubs:
 ·Teleblend
| reply to T3h BiLL
You start the program. The program requests a work unit from Stanford. The program process the work unit. When the work unit is completed, the program returns the results and requests a new work unit.
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Hey Buddy, can you spare a cycle? Join Team Helix |
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RayW
Premium
join:2001-09-01
Layton, UT
clubs:
 ·XMission
| reply to T3h BiLL
said by T3h BiLL :
So what is it doing with my computer? i dont get it all i see is molecules. Im not really helping find a cure when its just running a program like that. i dont get it
You have to understand what distributed computing is. In a nut shell, it is a bunch of processors running a tiny bit of code and data, that will eventually be combined with other tiny bits and pieces to give a meaningful result.
Imagine if you will 20 people doing a new driveway. Any one person does not look like he is doing any good, but when you look at them all, you see the driveway being built.
You are right, what you would be doing if you join us or another group is worthless when looked at out of context. It is a tiny fraction of a second of a partial protein action in a specific environment that might occur in real life. But you take all the processors and all the units we do and tie it together, you have a computer simulation of the complete reaction that cannot reasonably be done on any supercomputer without a large cost. We are using waste time that any PC that interfaces with a relatively slow organic organism (people) will have.
Since us organic organisms depend on (among other things) the correct response of proteins to avoid certain malfunctions, this is one way of exploring why those malfunctions take place in hopes of effecting a cure.
So if you expecting a huge rush like skiing a 5000 foot drop in 40 inches of fresh powder (or whatever you do for excitement), you will be disappointed, go elsewhere. If you just like to feel good knowing that you helped to either find a possible cure, extend knowledge, or even just eliminate a false hope, then this is something you can do.
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I am not lost, I find myself every time. |
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DSLDUDE
Got The Folding Farm Itch
Premium
join:2002-01-07
Norcross, GA
clubs: | Couldn't have said it better with someone else saying it for me! |
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