Join the SatelliteGuys Folding@Home Team!

Scott Greczkowski

Welcome HOME!
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Staff member
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Cutting Edge
Sep 7, 2003
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Newington, CT
(First off thank you to our friends from Siriusbackstage.COM it is where I stole this explanation of Folding@Home, its one of the best explinations I have ever seen.) :)

SatelliteGuys.US has started a "Folding Team" in an effort to help in the fight against serious diseases. Stanford University is leading the way of this research with their "Folding@Home" effort and have provided the means for individuals and teams to participate. The results of this research could lead to the prevention, treatment or cures for diseases such as Alzheimers, Cancer, Mad Cow, Parkinson's and other serious diseases, and in fact has already had some positive results. As a member of the SatelliteGuys.US community you are encouraged to join our "folding" team to contribute to this important research. This won't cost you anything so please read on.

You can read the details of this research program on the Folding@home Page

View a short flash slideshow for an overview of why you might want to join: Slideshow

As you can see from the SatelliteGuys.US Official Team Page, points assigned to each member and each team to provide rankings within the team and amongst all of the teams. While points aren't the primary motivation for doing this, it does provide some feedback to members that participate to see their names listed and their level of contribution. We hope to make SatelliteGuys.US a major contributor for this great cause with the help from our members.

To get started, all you need to do is Download the appropriate software - MAC, Windows and Linux are all supported. It only takes a few minutes and you will be up and running.

If you have a Playstation 3 system you can also join in and put your PS3 to good use when your not playing games! For more information on how to use your PS3 to help the cause please CLICK HERE!

Installing:
When you install it, you can use any name you want to be on the list, but it's best to use your SatelliteGuys username so we can recognize you. After installing, make sure that the name is filled out and the team number is set to 55236 . On windows, you can right click on the little red icon in the toolbar and select the "Configure" menu option. Once you are up and running, spread the word by adding the image above to your signature in your profile.

Here are some Questions and Answers to some common questions we think you might have.

Q: Is it Secure?
A: Yes, it is very secure. It will only contact Stanford's website to download new problems to solve, and upload the results when it has completed. No other information is gathered and transferred between the computers. It uses the highest encryption possible to validate the download and the results to provide the most secure exchange possible. Furthermore, you can only download the application from their servers so they have control over it. Let's put it this way, it's more dangerous to use email or browse the web than to run this software imo. Read more about security Here

Q: I have more than one computer, can I run multiple copies and get credit?
A: Yes, there is no limit to the number of computers you can put to work with your name getting the credit. The more CPU's you have working, the faster the points accumulate. The more the better!

Q: Is there a reward for getting the most points?
A: Not at this time, but you will be recognized on the list as a participant with a team ranking. In the future perhaps we will have other ways to recognize those that participate on behalf of the Sirius Backstage Team.

Q: Will it slow my computer down?
A: No, it only works when you aren't. Even while browsing or typing you are using only a small percentage of the CPU - this program will use whatever is left over. In the event that you feel you need to disable it, you have complete control and can pause it and resume it at any time. You can turn off your computer and it will resume where it left off next time you launch.

Q: I have a family member that would like to do this, do they need to be a member of SatelliteGuys Member to be on the team?
No, everyone is invited to join the SatelliteGuys.US folding team. All they need to do is make sure they use the team number 55236.

Q: What if I decide to quit participating?
A: No problem, simply uninstall the software. At least you gave it a try.

Q: I joined and have it setup with the correct team number but why hasn't my name shown up on the team list?
A: Your name will not appear until the first work unit has completed so be patient. Sometimes a work unit can take anywhere from a day to a few days.

For a full list of Frequently Asked Questions visit the following Folding@home FAQ's

If you have any other questions, please post them here in this thread

Thanks for participating!
 
Unfortunately there are a lot of "@HOME" projects which all work for some great causes, and we can't support them all, although we do encourage folks to pick the one that is best for them.

The reason we picked Folding@Home was because of the vast amount of diseases they are working on and also because of the fact that this is now a built in feature of the PlayStation 3. SatelliteGuys has a lot of members who own PS3's and this is a great use for the PS3 when your not playing games. :)
 
I'm in. I have about 3 machines at work that sit idle pretty much the whole day. BTW, I work at Stanford University and the studies and researches that they do here are just amazing. I work in IT so I'm not directly involved but I work for the School of Medicine in the Division of Immunology and I've seen the labs and equipment that they use, amazing researches.
 
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RandallA - this sounds great, but I have a question.

You said:

Q: Will it slow my computer down?
A: No, it only works when you aren't. Even while browsing or typing you are using only a small percentage of the CPU - this program will use whatever is left over. In the event that you feel you need to disable it, you have complete control and can pause it and resume it at any time. You can turn off your computer and it will resume where it left off next time you launch.

Does this mean if I have 90% CPU unused, it will use up that 90%, bring the machine to that unfortunate number of 100% usage?

I ask because on my laptop I am always browsing the web -- oh, alright, I am always browsing this site ;) - and nothing sucks worse than when it runs at 100% CPU.

If someone is using Firefox will it not run?

Can you easily turn it off when you need to really get work done?

I will definitely put it on my desktop, which does not get used nearly as often, but I wanted to get this clarified.
 
Michael,

Actually, Scott started the thread. I knew about the folding@home group here at Stanford but didn't really care to read into the details until now.

The FAQ page has a lot of info:

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

If you have 90% CPU unused, it will use some of that percentage to process. You can also pause the processing whenever you need to.
 
This is the 2nd time I've tried installing folding@home and it blows up my system each time. Video just goes blank and I have to do a system restore. I think its a video related problem, I have an ATI Radeon card. I'll look around a bit but if anyone has any suggestions I would appreciate it. I've wanted to run this for a while!
 
This is the 2nd time I've tried installing folding@home and it blows up my system each time. Video just goes blank and I have to do a system restore. I think its a video related problem, I have an ATI Radeon card. I'll look around a bit but if anyone has any suggestions I would appreciate it. I've wanted to run this for a while!

Your video card is most likely the problem. Have you tried updating the video drivers?
 
Does this mean if I have 90% CPU unused, it will use up that 90%, bring the machine to that unfortunate number of 100% usage?
No I have not seen mine go past 60% usage.

If someone is using Firefox will it not run?
It has nothing to do with your browser. You will be fine. :)

Can you easily turn it off when you need to really get work done?
Yup just exit out of it and its gone. :)

I will definitely put it on my desktop, which does not get used nearly as often, but I wanted to get this clarified.
No need to put it on your desktop it runs in your taskbar, and only kicks in when it notices you havent done anything in awhile. When you start using your computer again it stops working and waits for you to stop using it again. :)
 
Michael,

Actually, Scott started the thread. I knew about the folding@home group here at Stanford but didn't really care to read into the details until now.

The FAQ page has a lot of info:

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

If you have 90% CPU unused, it will use some of that percentage to process. You can also pause the processing whenever you need to.


Thanks. I'll try to get it installed this weekend! And I might put it on my work machine, which also sits idle a LOT.
 
BTW I couldnt get it to run on my Vista machine at home, but am using the command line version and it has been running fine. :)
 
to install on vista try downloading the file and then right click run as administrator to install. That should allow graphical interface. It worked for me. Its running but i had to go down to 50% because my laptop was starting to melt from the heat
 
I wonder if I'm allowed to run this on my work PC?

Right now I have it on my PS3 and linux workstation at home. I'm a little leary about leaving the PS3 powered on all the time tho.

-John