Join our cause! (No, this is not about the bsdgeek cult, seriously)

[bsdgeek]

Ok, so not everyone reads the D@M forum, but it's pretty much guaranteed that you'll read this since The Lounge is the core of MURC.

Our Distributed Folding team is very close to the Top10, at 12th place. There are other teams (Procooling comes to mind) that are prepared to flatten us with their DF steamrollers. Show your MURC pride by helping us reach the Top10 and more! (Advancing medical research is a helpful side effect. )

Download the client here, and sign up here. Don't forget to join our team of course.

Also, I'll be doing my best to get a few more boxes online in the next couple of days as well.

[GNEP]

Yup! Anyone still doing SETI or anything - I'm sure you can make the switch

[ZokesPro]

SETI is useless at the moment, they have already analysed ALL the packets already and they do not have enough to give out for testing so IMO, using your CPU for SETI is useless. Besides they already have MORE than enough CPU's for SETI. So in all, you won't have to feel bad about switching to Distributed Folding.

I will join the team, just not right now, maybe tonight if I'm up for it, but one thing for sure is I'm gonna join.

[Tjalfe]

OK.. I joined..
Athlon 3200+, 1GB ram at your service...

[GNEP]

Oh, and there is a useful GUI that you can use:

http://gilchrist.ca/jeff/dfGUI/

Makes setting the options easier, and tracking your energies more, er, "fun"

G

[SpiralDragon]

well i would join the cause but my ISP has cleverly decided that i dont need FTP acces so he closed down that service..... bugger....

[SitFlyer]

Yes, yes, everybody join

.......and if your running NT, 2k or XP, I highly recommend running the client as a service. By doing so you don't have to worry about stopping the client before shutting down or restarting your computer. It's really easy to set it up.

From the readme1st:

Running as a service [Windows NT/2000/XP only]
-----------------------------------------------
The Windows version of the client can be set up to run as a normal Windows NT
service, so that it will start automatically whenever your computer starts up
and run in the background until you shut down. Structures will be uploaded
every generation still, and buffered for later upload at shutdown (so your
shutdown procedure will not be delayed). It runs at low priority so other
tasks will push it out of the way and so it should not noticeably slow your
machine down. Be warned that it will only upload after making a generation
of structures (a few hours, depending on your machine speed) so make sure you
are connected to the internet when using the client as a service. Also,
updates will automatically be accepted (provided they are digitally signed) in
this mode (regardless of whether autoupdate.cfg is present or not) and a large
amount of data may be buffered if you do not connect to the network for a long
period of time. To check progress while running as a service, a file called
"progress.txt" will be written to the directory where the program is installed
so you can monitor its progress still.

To setup the program to work as a service:

1. Open a DOS prompt to the directory you installed the client.
2. If you have not already done so, run the program once (by typing 'foldit'
in the directory where the software is installed) and enter your
8 character handle and answer the other configuration questions it
asks.
3. Type: foldtrajlite /install (and hit Enter)
4. The next time you reboot your machine it will start automatically

To remove the service:

1. Go to Administrative Tools -> Services
2. Find and Stop the service called Distributed Folding Project
3. Open a DOS prompt to the directory you installed the client.
4. Type: foldtrajlite /remove (and hit Enter)
5. It will not be run on your machine automatically anymore

You may install a second instance of the service by changing step 3 above
from 'foldtrajlite /install' to 'foldtrajlite /install2'. Similarly, to
remove this second instance, change step 4 to 'foldtrajlite /remove2'.
Note that if you wish to run two instances, you must install two full
copies of the software in separate directories and install one using
/install and the other /install2. Not following this procedure correctly
will result in unpredictable behaviour. Also there is no benefit to
installing two copies of the service unless you are using a dual-processor
machine.

Configuring the service [Windows NT/2000/XP only]
-------------------------------------------------
You should have a SERVICE.CFG file in your client directory after
following the above steps. If it is not there, remove and re-install
the service. The first line of this file must contain a number
identifying whether it is copy 1 or copy 2 of the service. Next, you
may include any of the following options in any order if you wish:

useram=1 makes use of extra RAM for improved speed (see -rt option elsewhere in this readme); default is useram=0

priority=### where -20<=###<=20 sets the priority of the task just like the -p option (20=passive, -20=aggressive); default is 20

progress=### where 0<=###<=100 sets the update interval for the progress.txt file, like the -g option (0=disable); default is 50

connect=0 disables internet usage - use this if you are on dial-up or temporarily unable to access the internet for some reason; you must eventually remove this to upload your data, but your work will be buffered until then; works the same as the -if option; default is connect=1

uploadonly=1 behaves as the -ut option, instructing the program to upload all buffered work and then terminate. Do NOT combine with the connect=0 option! Default is uploadonly=0

It's a whole lot easier to configure the client with the GUI that GNEP mentioned above

[J1NG]

Uh, will probably be back to the cause Soon™.

J1NG

[Novdid]

Join in for the cause everyone!!!

[Wombat]

I don't like this cause. I checked into it when they first started, and if you check the terms, the company is claiming full ownership of the results. So even if they find a cure for cancer or something, they're just going to use it to make oodles of money.

Basically, you guys are being duped into being a free server farm for some company.

[Jon P. Inghram]

I just switched back to distributed.net the other day, got tired of the way DF goes bonkers if it isn't shutdown before rebooting with Win98. Also the distributed.net has different core routines optimized for various CPU's, it uses very little RAM, and if you're doing RC5-72 you could win real money! . Prime95's fine too, but I don't like the way it takes many days to complete a single unit.

[bsdgeek]

Originally posted by Wombat
I don't like this cause. I checked into it when they first started, and if you check the terms, the company is claiming full ownership of the results. So even if they find a cure for cancer or something, they're just going to use it to make oodles of money.

Basically, you guys are being duped into being a free server farm for some company.

Maybe I'm being a bit dense (it happens quite often ) but "In any event Mt. Sinai Hospital will own any new intellectual property associated with the resulting data, and will make any such discoveries available to the public, at no cost, sometime after their initial research is completed." means that the "cure for cancer" will be given out at no cost?

[Wombat]

Cool! That's not the original language. I hadn't checked up on it since the software first hit slashdot a long time ago.

[Belwarrior]

nope, from above, it is said "... will make any such discoveries available to the public, at no cost ..."
which could mean that you could read about the discovery eg. "Cure for Cancer Found" at their website for free but you need to pay if you intend to use discovery for curing cancer ??

[Chrono_Wanderer]

LOL. I think I will start contributing my CPU. haha.