Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Just started folding@home - Help!

It tends to be pretty random. The higher point ones take longer to do. It balances out in the end. Some say you can change your settings to get different WUs.
 
Seasought said:
My attention was brought to Folding@home and I've been using the GUI version (for now) for about a week now. I've joined the MacRumor's team and find the concept behind the software to be quite interesting and worthwhile.

The one I'm working on is also called p2305_BBA5_Mut.
Click to expand...

I just started folding the other day also and I'm working of the same protein as well!
 
Hey all...new to folding here...and i just wanted to know if this is a good client to be running:

http://calnet.sdsu.edu/mc68k/

I'm using the single processor one from that site on a 1 GHz TiBook (1GB ram)

Is that the most efficient one? (I don't need any visuals, i just want good performance)

Thanks!


Oh, also...where does FAH store the logs for completed WUs or the progress its made through the current WU?

Thanks
 
Yep, it is the best and most efficient one. FAH stores its documents in the same folder where it installed its app in. So, for the script of mc68k this is in the folder F@H of your own home directory. You can check the progress of the of a WU by typing "work" in the terminal, and "pause" to pause the folding (if you want to do a heavy game or something), and "resume" if it needs to go back to folding after you paused it. These are the only commands you really need for letting it fold. Check out the read me that came with installer script. You can also open the file "FAHlog.txt" in the in the F@H folder if you want to know the progress of the WU.

Welcome to the team!
 
Dreadnought said:
Yep, it is the best and most efficient one. FAH stores its documents in the same folder where it installed its app in. So, for the script of mc68k this is in the folder F@H of your own home directory. You can check the progress of the of a WU by typing "work" in the terminal, and "pause" to pause the folding (if you want to do a heavy game or something), and "resume" if it needs to go back to folding after you paused it. These are the only commands you really need for letting it fold. Check out the read me that came with installer script. You can also open the file "FAHlog.txt" in the in the F@H folder if you want to know the progress of the WU.

Welcome to the team!
Click to expand...

Great...one more thing...and this is more tied into how OS X works.

I have a cool screen saver that i set to go on after 5 minutes of no activity. But i have my display set to sleep after 10 minutes of no activity. I don't want the screen saver to run while folding after the display sleeps, but i'm not sure if the screen saver is actually running while the display is off.

Does anyone know that?
 
MBHockey said:
Nevermind, i did an experiment per a friend's instructions over on MacOSXHints.com (http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?p=264539#post264539)

and it showed that the screen saver does not run once the display is slept.
Click to expand...
Thanks for finding that out, I had been wondering the same thing. But I was lazy and just set the screen saver for "never" and set my display to sleep after 3 minutes.
 
I'm using the graphical client from Stanford. Is there a better/more efficient version I should use?

When I was just starting I didn't want to have to mess with the trickier stuff, but now maybe I'll be able to.
And how would I go about switching from the Graphical version to something else without loosing my work?

Thanks
 
EricNau said:
Wait, now I'm confused. You don't have to use a download from stanford to fold? :confused:
Click to expand...

mc68k includes the console version of the folding application with the scripts, etc.

EricNau said:
I'm using the graphical client from Stanford. Is there a better/more efficient version I should use?

When I was just starting I didn't want to have to mess with the trickier stuff, but now maybe I'll be able to.
And how would I go about switching from the Graphical version to something else without loosing my work?

Thanks
Click to expand...

You can switch to the screen saver (the worst) version without losing your work. Actually, if you use the console version directly from Stanford, you won't lose any work but with mc68k's setup, I believe that it deletes or replaces the current work folder.

Of course, you should wait until the current work unit has finished until you switch at all.
 
EricNau said:
OK, thanks.

One more question: What makes mc68K better than the text console from Stanford?
Click to expand...

Ummm, my code to help you figure out where the progress is? :D :p

Stanford doesn't have any scripts to make it easy to use. You have to start folding@home each time you log in whereas mc68k's setup puts it in the crontab so it will start as an automatic process and you don't have to mess with it all. If you have dual processors, it's not any more difficult with the scripts but Stanford makes you decide how to do it. For the technically-inclined, it's not difficult but a bit tedious.
 
I use increase, its a great program.
BTW, does anyone else think it would be cool if those who folded for MacRumors regularly got to get an icon or something next to their username to show their contributions?
 
Laser47 said:
I use increase, its a great program.
BTW, does anyone else think it would be cool if those who folded for MacRumors regularly got to get an icon or something next to their username to show their contributions?
Click to expand...

You have to be careful with InCrease to make certain that you've got the right team number since it defaults to another team.
 
bousozoku said:
You have to be careful with InCrease to make certain that you've got the right team number since it defaults to another team.
Click to expand...
Yea sneaky increase defaults to team 1971, but i made sure it was team 3446 when I installed it.
 
EricNau said:
After seeing all of the MacRumors folders, I thought I'd give it a try.
At first I tried downloading the terminal version, that was over my head, so I got rid of that and switched to the Graphical version (NON-screensaver).

Now I don't know what preferences I'm supposed to set...

I figured out the identity settings (I'm EricNau and my team is set to "3446" (MacRumors).

As for the Proxy settings; I don't even know what a proxy is. (As far as networking and Internet goes; I'm clueless). I'm I supposed to use a proxy server, if so, how do I set it up? Does it make a difference?

Should I allow WU larger than 5 MB? (I'm using the iMac in my sig)

What number of polygons should I set, and what should my checkpoint frequency be?

Finally, what view should I set; Spacefilled, Ball & Stick, Wireframe, or Alpha Trace? I don't really care what it looks like, I just want to cut down on wasted CPU usage (as it is much better used to fold). Will Hiding the entire window help?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I am a fresh folder as well. I had a couple question but in the desire of saving a new thread I was wondering if anyone could help.

I just downloaded the .dmg of folding and tonight is my first experience folding so I have got the protein started but I have a couple of questions.

First off, I know that on the FAQ page it says that this program will not over heat your computer as long as it is properly cooled. However I am on a 2-yr old PB that is my main and only machine so with recent posts and threads talking about HD failure after a couple of years it gets me a little concerned. I assume however that this is not a HD intensive only processor intensive which I am more comfortable with but still I would like to know the realistic amount of wear and tear on which components of my machine.

Second according to my calculations the progress is 0.25 after 30 minutes of time. Wouldn't that mean this protein would take 200 hrs? (30x4=120mins(0.25x4=1%) 120x100=12000mins or 200hrs) My concern is not over the run time but over if this will even be useful data after 200hrs. I read somewhere that if the protein is not received in enough time then it can not be used and instead only the stats are added to the folding group which no offense doesn't mean as much to me as the scientific stand point.

Thirdly I understand that running the console uses more processor cycles and therefore isn't as efficient. With that being the case is running terminal the most efficient way?

And last which is least important and more of just a comment/observation, a dual-core or quad-core G5 must dominate these folding tasks. Anyone have any idea if those super computers around the world are doing these calculations? Like that one at Virginia - Tech?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back