Folding@Home

[jedijeff]

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/772/772947p1.html

 

It sounds like a worthwhile project. How much it will help out is difficult to tell. I'll probably let my PS3 work on these while I'm sleeping and at work. If anyone else is interested in this maybe we could start an AtariAge group.

[Jess Ragan]

It's hard to complain about the folding project, because hey, who wants to defend cancer? I know I don't, but I still think this is a rather tasteless approach to selling a game system.

 

I think all this adds up to a lot of obnoxious, overreaching hype, like back in 2000 when Sony told us that the Playstation 2 could be used in Iraq as a weapon of mass destruction. On one hand, Sony's finally making good on its tall promises by offering SOME proof of its claims, but on the other, there's nothing the Playstation 3 can do for cancer research that couldn't be done BETTER with a PC or Macintosh.

 

Secondly, if this does happen to cure disease, who do you think is going to get all the credit? I can guarantee you that it won't be John Thasselhatch from Oak Falls, Nebraska, who left his PS3 on for months, but Sony itself. On top of that, who's to say that this research won't become the intellectual property of Sony? You might feel charitable enough to help cure cancer by leaving on your PS3 until it melts, but I strongly doubt that Sony itself will be as generous in distributing that cure.

 

No thanks. I say that if you feel that strongly about the issue, just give the $600 directly to your favorite cancer charity. Much more will be accomplished.

 

JR

[jedijeff]

It's hard to complain about the folding project, because hey, who wants to defend cancer? I know I don't, but I still think this is a rather tasteless approach to selling a game system.

 

I think all this adds up to a lot of obnoxious, overreaching hype, like back in 2000 when Sony told us that the Playstation 2 could be used in Iraq as a weapon of mass destruction. On one hand, Sony's finally making good on its tall promises by offering SOME proof of its claims, but on the other, there's nothing the Playstation 3 can do for cancer research that couldn't be done BETTER with a PC or Macintosh.

 

Secondly, if this does happen to cure disease, who do you think is going to get all the credit? I can guarantee you that it won't be John Thasselhatch from Oak Falls, Nebraska, who left his PS3 on for months, but Sony itself. On top of that, who's to say that this research won't become the intellectual property of Sony? You might feel charitable enough to help cure cancer by leaving on your PS3 until it melts, but I strongly doubt that Sony itself will be as generous in distributing that cure.

 

No thanks. I say that if you feel that strongly about the issue, just give the $600 directly to your favorite cancer charity. Much more will be accomplished.

 

JR

 

First of all, pull your head out.

No-one even implied this was a reason to buy a PS3.

Why are you so worried about who would get credit if something does come out of it? It's Stanford's project so they would get the credit. Apperently with your short sighted little temper tantrum you don't want to see any progress against these health issues. I, on the other hand, don't have any problem helping someone with a project to increase their knowledge.

[Jess Ragan]

If you want to support cancer research, send that six hundred dollars to a respected charity. It'll have a more profound impact than buying a game system for yourself and pretending that it's for anyone BUT yourself. You're like that narcissist from U2 who spent $100 million dollars to raise $15 million dollars to cure AIDS in Africa.

 

JR

[+remowilliams]

Wow, this place has had some insane increasingly idiotic hate ranting lately, but this has now officially gone over the top.

[jedijeff]

Wow, this place has had some insane increasingly idiotic hate ranting lately, but this has now officially gone over the top.

 

I agree. Posting anything remotely interesting or positive will always get replies from people so filled with hate they can't see straight. Here I thought Stanford's project was an interesting idea, but according to at least one person, how dare they try to learn anything.

[Agent X]

It's hard to complain about the folding project, because hey, who wants to defend cancer? I know I don't, but I still think this is a rather tasteless approach to selling a game system.

 

What does this have to do with selling a game system?

 

I think all this adds up to a lot of obnoxious, overreaching hype, like back in 2000 when Sony told us that the Playstation 2 could be used in Iraq as a weapon of mass destruction.

 

No, it adds up to people banding together to use their computing devices to bring about some good. But feel free to believe whatever you want, if it makes you feel better.

 

On one hand, Sony's finally making good on its tall promises by offering SOME proof of its claims, but on the other, there's nothing the Playstation 3 can do for cancer research that couldn't be done BETTER with a PC or Macintosh.

 

Who cares? You don't have to use a PS3...run the client on your platform(s) of choice.

 

But, since you decided to bring it up...here's the CPU stats for Folding@Home:

 

http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=osstats

 

As I write this, 16,464 PlayStation 3 systems are currently contributing 60% of the overall workload out of 212,898 total active machines in use. Impressive!

 

Secondly, if this does happen to cure disease, who do you think is going to get all the credit? I can guarantee you that it won't be John Thasselhatch from Oak Falls, Nebraska, who left his PS3 on for months, but Sony itself. On top of that, who's to say that this research won't become the intellectual property of Sony? You might feel charitable enough to help cure cancer by leaving on your PS3 until it melts, but I strongly doubt that Sony itself will be as generous in distributing that cure.

 

Oh, man...this is so petty. Again, who cares who gets the credit? It's the end result that matters. I'm not expecting to have some gold medal pinned on my chest for this.

 

It's evident that you don't have any real knowledge on the project to be speaking about it. Maybe you need to read this:

 

http://folding.stanford.edu/faq.html#project.own

 

It's a shame that you feel so compelled to contort this into your personal anti-Sony vendetta, hoping that maybe, just maybe someone out there reading this will be discouraged from buying a PS3. That's the vibe I'm getting from your rant. This isn't about buying a certain piece of hardware or supporting a particular video game company, it's about being able to join a large community of users and doing something good for scientific research. You need to understand that.

 

No thanks. I say that if you feel that strongly about the issue, just give the $600 directly to your favorite cancer charity. Much more will be accomplished.

 

You contribute in your own way; I'll contribute in mine.

[CPUWIZ]

As I write this, 16,464 PlayStation 3 systems are currently contributing 60% of the overall workload out of 212,898 total active machines in use. Impressive!

 

When I was running mine earlier, the ~11000 PS3's contributing at the time, were delivering 355 TFlops of processing power.

 

Check out the stats right now:

 

http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=osstats

 

Ten times the amount of PC's aren't even close.

 

P.S. You guys need to learn how to ignore trolls instigators, like JR.

[+remowilliams]

Ten times the amount of PC's aren't even close.

Damn, that is insane!

[jedijeff]

I started a team named Atari Force.

If anyone would like to join, pm me for the group number.

[jedijeff]

I checked cpuwiz's link again and the 23556 active PS3's are delivering 577 TFLOPS. It's nice to see people helping out on Stanford's project.

 

http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=osstats

[Agent X]

Those of you who are using Folding@Home on PlayStation 3 might want to participate in Sunday Night Foldathon, which is tomorrow, March 25. I originally heard about this on this thread from NeoGAF, which has a reference to this article from QJ.net.

 

Over at the official U.S. community site of PlayStation, member Xenokai posted about the up and coming event this weekend that involves the Folding@Home feature. If you're not familiar with this, it's actually a joint project by Stanford University and Sony that aims to research protein folding and misfolding in order to gain an understanding of how these are related to disease.

 

Anyway, the said event is dubbed as Sunday Night Foldathon (SNF), and here's how it goes: This Sunday night, March 25, all PS3 users are encouraged to turn on their systems and run the folding program. It could be anytime you want, even right before you go to Dreamland and you can just let the program run until you wake up in the morning. And that's it.

 

According to Xenokai, the purpose of this event is to let Sony, or Stanford University for that matter, know that their work and project is being appreciated and that the PS3 community is willing to help out. In simple terms, it's a "show of force" on the part of the community. One important thing to note is that SNF was conceptualized and is now being implemented purely by members of the community. Both Sony and Stanford have no hand on this whatsoever. Regardless, we know the two would be very thankful if this turns out to be a success.

 

Folding@Home attempts to understand diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and many forms of cancer among others. It will be an optional feature bundled with the next PlayStation 3 (PS3) firmware update.

 

I also suggest that you click here to view Xenokai's original post on the official PlayStation community forums where this all started. The post includes some information on the Folding@Home client for the PlayStation 3.

 

If you've got a PS3, then I encourage you to download the client onto your PS3 and help contribute to the cause. If you don't have a PS3, but know someone who does, then spread the word and let them know about this event.

[+remowilliams]

Anyway, the said event is dubbed as Sunday Night Foldathon (SNF), and here's how it goes: This Sunday night, March 25, all PS3 users are encouraged to turn on their systems and run the folding program. It could be anytime you want, even right before you go to Dreamland and you can just let the program run until you wake up in the morning. And that's it.

Sounds cool, I'll add my P3 might to the event

[CPUWIZ]

Anyway, the said event is dubbed as Sunday Night Foldathon (SNF), and here's how it goes: This Sunday night, March 25, all PS3 users are encouraged to turn on their systems and run the folding program. It could be anytime you want, even right before you go to Dreamland and you can just let the program run until you wake up in the morning. And that's it.

Sounds cool, I'll add my P3 might to the event

 

Mine is crunching.

 

The "Atari Force" team number can be found on the team summary list btw.!

 

56067

 

I hope Microsoft will let Stanford develop their app for the 360, 9.6GHZ is nothing to shake a stick at afterall.

[+remowilliams]

Mine is crunching.

Did everyone see the computing power increase from the PS3s? - HOLY CRAP!!!

 

"Today I glanced at the leader board, which breaks out the calculations being performed by platform, updated hourly, and realized that the PS3 has taken the program to a completely new level, accounting for 666 of the 920 TeraFlops (72%!) of total distributed flopping power."

 

a snapshot of stats

 

 

What a great alternative use for all that raw power. I hope MS takes a serious look at getting a client for the 360.

Edited March 26, 2007 by remowilliams

[NE146]

Don't you need to leave your PS3/360 (if the 360 gets one) on though to do this?

Edited March 26, 2007 by NE146

[MegaManFan]

Secondly, if this does happen to cure disease, who do you think is going to get all the credit? I can guarantee you that it won't be John Thasselhatch from Oak Falls, Nebraska, who left his PS3 on for months, but Sony itself. On top of that, who's to say that this research won't become the intellectual property of Sony?

 

As the closest thing to a resident "John Thasselhatch from Oak Falls, Nebraska" here I'll say this:

 

1. I don't care whether I get credit or not, but if I did want it shows up on my Folding@Home Team Page anyway.

2. Just because you happen to be a large corporation doesn't mean you can't do SOME charitable good.

3. Stanford University is to say, not to mention Vijay Pande.

[jedijeff]

It seems like everyone wants to have their own team for this, not that there's anything wrong with that. The more the merrier. If anyone else is looking to join a folding@home team, the Atari Force team number is 56067. Happy folding.

 

http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.p...p;teamnum=56067

[MegaManFan]

Anybody else's count off; my PS3 says I've folded 52 but my stats on Stanford's server only count 51. And yes, this is waiting 8-10 hours for it to update several times.