Why are you folding?

[4JNA]

hi,

wondering if anyone other than me has specific reasons for folding. have not seen a thread or discussion, so thought i would ask. my reason is my sister that i lost to cancer, hence my id; 4 Joan N. A. i couldn't stand to do nothing, and this seemed like a wonderful way to do something and put lots of old hardware back to work at the same time.

hope i didn't ask a wrong question. just curious.

 

[cyberddot]

I started folding with the G5 home computer for several reasons. First, I leave my computer on most of the time and really like the idea that for pennies I can have an application working on something useful for other people. Since I work in...<gasp>...IT, I also like the idea that processor time there is serving some higher cause.

I also lost a family member to cancer, so there is some small motivation there to see if some cumulative work will help in the understanding of these diseases -- though mortality is part of living....

Another reason? To contribute to the MacRumors Team effort and earn props for the team.

 

[4JNA]

an identical list of reasons. cool. thanks for the reply.

i agree with the 'part of living'. it's the last page of the play after all. my sister was working with doctors without borders, was <35, and should not have gone yet. she left a 3 month old, a widow, and a pissed off brother with lots of old computers.

plus, i'm just trying to catch and pass Dreadnought...

 

[spencecb]

I started doing it because I have my iMac on all the time...actually, I started folding on my PowerBook G4 running at 667 MHz...not a lot of productivity, but it helped.

I'm excited to get my MacBook Pro (probably this week) and start on it...although the F@H website does not have an Intel version yet.

 

[Blackheart]

I do it to heat my room... oh, and cure stuff too.

 

[spencecb]

I do it to heat my room... oh, and cure stuff too.

haha, that is so true! I had a much smaller bedroom last year, and I swear when I had my iMac folding it made the room a couple degrees warmer.

 

[4JNA]

i actually debated trying to start an 'igeek' heater project. one computer in each room, add wifi, and turn the thermostat down....

wife said 'hell no', and don't put any more computers in guest rooms...

oh well...

 

[bousozoku]

Concerned about my adoptive dad's memory loss, I started folding in 2002. I know that it won't help him but it might help the suffering of those who are caretakers and sufferers in the future.

We know so little about biology, so if this little bit helps, all the better.

 

[Dreadnought]

My reason was the competiveness of folding, and the taunting. Love that! Also, I started with folding on my G3 B&W and that wasn't fast enough, so I had a good reason to upgrade to a dual G5

 

[snap58]

worthy

It's a worthy cause, and gives my old mac's something to do.

 

[jsalzer]

Mac Cow

It makes my Pismo feel like he can still be useful. I'm primarily in it to help out with Mac Cow Disease. Someone has to look after the cows. Especially if there's a chance it could spread to my prescious Mooses (I'm a moose lover.)

While I owe my start to MacRumors, I actually formed my own little team with the few computers I have control over. I enjoy seeing my team ranking slowly moving up the ranks (we're at around 2430 as a team now!)

Since my Pismo is the team captain (though obviously not the lead producer), it makes him feel good, too.

Edit - the scary part is, I had no intention of typing "Mac Cow". I really did mean Mad Cow. And, yet, I did it twice. Sometimes I think my fingers have a mind of their own. I also can't type "worship". It always comes out "workshop", since I work in continuing ed. Bad fingers!

 

[mc68k]

im not gonna lie, i do it for the points

i like the whole research idea, but i don't think folding is gonna change the world or anything

 

[maestro55]

Like others I have some computers on all of the time. I have two linux boxes and it is easy to run folding in the background and I can never tell. In fact on my Slackware machine I don't even use a GUI, so I have folding on one terminal window and I use Telnet and IRC on other telnet windows. That is about all the Slackware machine does so it can handle a little folding.

Regardless of if my systems make a difference, or I score very many points, I could possibly be doing some good and I have contributed to the team and I think it would be neat to build a Folding cluster of old Macs and Linux boxes.

 

[zelmo]

I have computers running all the time, and this seems like a worthy cause.
My dad died from a brain tumor, and my sister recently underwent surgery to remove a large chunk of cancerous liver tissue [and is starting up chemo very soon ].
It might be akin to throwing splinters from the arms of deck chairs off the Titanic, but it makes me feel like I'm contributing, and the competitive nature of accumulating points is a geekycool bonus.

 

[Apple Hobo]

• I knew of a good person in another online forum who died of cancer.

• There's a threat of Alzheimer's in my family.

• I leave my machine on 24/7 (screen turns off after a few minutes), so why not have it do something useful?

• I like to tinker with scientific software and command line apps.

 

[Heb1228]

I heard people on MR talking about it and thought it was a good cause. Hopefully it'll help them cure some disease or help with some important research at some point. I started a couple days ago and its really pretty easy and doesn't interrupt normal usage, so, why not?

 

[RugoseCone]

Some one from some little European country kept daring me to try and catch up to them.

 

[atszyman]

Some one from some little European country kept daring me to try and catch up to them.

Ditto....

 

[Dreadnought]

Hmmm, can't think of anyone, and I live in a certain small European country...

 

[dmw007]

Why am I folding?

Because:

1) To help find a cure for disease.
2) To help the MR Folding Team.
3) Makes me feel good to have my Mac doing something important.
4) Keeps me nice and warm during winter (and rather hot unfortunately during summer).

 

[Mammoth]

Folding is fun for me because not only do you help research cancer.. I think it's fun gaining points, even though I'm really bad at it.

 

[Sparky's]

Why I'm Folding

I've lost several relatives to cancer.

More recently I was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2002 (lost 6" of it), suffered through months of chemo, but came out OK, then in 2004 found out my Gallbladder burst, OK so the Appendix went also, then to top everything off the cancer came back and invaded my liver. In 2005 I lost over 75% of my liver in a 9 hour operation. I'm just now beginning to fully recover and my liver is almost back to it's original size I'm just grateful to be alive.

I Fold so others may not have to endure what I have, and Kudos to all those that do. I also try to spread the word and get everyone I know who has a computer to do also.

Fold On!!!

 

[mikes63737]

As a previous poster said, I am also folding to heat my room. I am running FAH on my 3.06 GHz Celeron (aka My Server) (see sig) and it is amazing how much heat that makes. Intel's Prescott line of CPU's produce incredible amounts of heat, and the 3.06 GHz Celeron D runs folding at about 125º F, and my case is (shockingly) around 78º F. My parents are really cheap and don't heat the house enough (my room is about 63º F) and when I started running FAH this winter fulltime, I noticed that it went up to about 68º F.

More seriously -

I am folding because my aunt has had cancer twice, and this time it doesn't seem like it wants to go away.

Also, a family friend has cancer in her bone marrow, which they are not sure how to cure. They are trying but they can't figure out how.

 

[mikes63737]

I'm excited to get my MacBook Pro (probably this week) and start on it...although the F@H website does not have an Intel version yet.

Would it be possible to run the Linux version on your MBP? Linux and BSD (Which Mac OS X is based on) are very similar.