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Jeff posted in General Babble, Techie Stuff on January 27th, 2006

I pulled this from a website that I recently started with a new friend of mine … it’s a great idea and helps too! Here’s a rundown that he posted (he goes by Gator)…

Our goal as Folders is to help Stanford University in their quest to find cures for disease. By Folding, we mean Protein Folding. As explained on the F@H homepage, Proteins are the workhorses in human biology and carry out many important functions to keep us healthy and strong.

When Proteins do not function properly, or actually “misfolding” takes place, misfolded proteins are the causes for many of todays’ most serious diseases. Among these are Alzheimers’, Mad Cow Disease (BSE), CJD, ALS, Huntingtons’, Parkinsons’, many cancers and caner-related syndromes.

If you’d like to join our team, let us know and we’ll be happy to help you get started in this very worthwhile cause. We are team #48688, and our home website is http://www.serenityfx.com. I will be posting the Links soon, to download Folding@Home on your computer. It’s easy to do, use only your unused CPU cycles, does no harm to your computer and doesn’t cause interruptions in your daily computer tasks.

If you have any other questions about what the Folding project is, feel free to post them here. I or others here will be happy to help you understand!

Folding for a cure!

Gator
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[Addendum]

You can find the Folding@Home distributed computing homepage here:

http://folding.stanford.edu/

From there, you can access the download page, or click here:

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

Read the frequently asked questions (FAQs), help, stats and more from the FAH homepage.

It’s pretty easy to set up, plus there are installation instructions on the Download page. First, pick a Folding username by doing a search to see if it’s been taken. Now it’s time for the software. Just begin by finding your Operating System (i.e. Windows XP, 98/ME, Linux, Mac,…), decide which “client” type you’d like to use. How do you decide? Well, most people begin Folding by using the GUI (Graphical User Interface) Client, so they can see the proteins being worked on in a graphical display. It’s actually pretty cool!

You can find the instructions here, for Windows Graphical Client:

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

People using Linux or Macs are generally a bit more computer “savvy” than the beginning Windows user, so they should be able to figure it out on their own but we’re still here to help, regardless of what System you’re using.

The “text only” version is what most Folders end up going to in time but the Graphical Client is by far easier to set up for beginners and it’s fun to watch the animations. By default, the GUI version sets up to run whenever Windows starts and this can be disabled, simply enough, should you choose. There are instructions for this as well, or one of us can help. There’s also a Screensaver option within the GUI client, if you only want FAH to run as a Desktop screensaver during idle times. Once again, I’d like to further emphasize that Folding gives your computer something to do during idle times, runs off the CPU cycles that aren’t in use by other programs, usually runs unnoticed in the background except for the display when it’s up. It can sometimes interfere with 3-D applications, such as games, especially on older, slower computers. If this happens, if you see too much “lag” or stuttering with FAH running, just shut it down until you’re finished with the application and restart it when you’re through, no problem.

There are many options, little tweaks and tips but too much for one page. The best thing is for me or someone else here to help people on an individual basis, or answering questions here where the answers can be shared with all. The Links I’ve provided can answer most questions pretty well but with anything new there can be some confusion (I had many questions when I’d first started Folding). We’ve all had to begin somewhere; none of us were instant FAH experts. The way I see it the only dumb question is the one not asked so please don’t hesitate to ask questions and don’t feel badly if you decide you’re not interested. I, for one, will never hold it against you if you decide not to participate, for any reason whatsoever! I won’t judge you based on your decision either way, it’s completely voluntary. I’m here though, if you ever need any help and I don’t have all the answers. I will do my best to help you find them.

Best wishes to all,

Gator