Rehab programs for folding@home addicts?

[Leoslocks]

Looks like I fell off the wagon. Glussier over at Hardware Central started talking about how he is building a farm for GPUs. It wasn't long before I started taking a little nip by changing out a 3870 for a 9800gtx+. Next thing you know I had swapped out another 3870. I lost control when I removed the 4870 in my work computer and put a GTS 250 in its place. I justified that by the reduced cost of electricity.
Still I have endeavored to find good homes for these orphans. One card ended up down under and should rejoin the Fold soon.

With our team making a move in the rankings, I tried to get my 4870X2 to fold with no success. I would have settled for just one core working as this is my dedicated gaming machine.
Anyone want to buy a 4870X2? I think I need a 295 to game on.

[COOLDUDEGAMER]

I am a Folding at Home, well, addict. The only problem is though, the electric bill at my house has sky rocketed. I am now having to turn off my lights just to type this as it is indeed night right now, but, my foolish electric company I believe is overcharging my family and I.

Does anyone know if I could attach my road bike to some kind of power inverter to produce electricity to charge let us say some kind of battery, so that I can pedal the electric bill down some?
It would also give me much needed exercise while saving the world from diseases and I would be less of a couch potato.

Signed,

COOLDUDEGAMER

[v00d00]

You do know the solution to your problem is either in solar or wind. Spend some of that money on an alternative power source and use it to power your farm. If you are lucky enough it may even run your house lighting system or AC as well (not that id waste it on AC).

Or you could pedal and get fit, although i dont know if it would charge a battery enough to run folding from.

[avatardelta]

Hello. I'm currently a folding@home addict.

I hit 12kPPD on one rig (i7 920@stock, p6t deluxe, 12gb ddr3 1333, 8800gts 640 (g80) and a 9600GT 512 (g94), dual linux smps via vmware and dual gpu clients)

I went to buy a game off steam, then decided not to because it would bring down my ppd.

hdimage(.)org/images/alr7n8qkqavu2xnfjrx9.jpg

[susato]

I'm intrigued by the idea of human powered Folding even though it is really not practical... the food to fuel your power production would cost orders of magnitude more than the corresponding amount of purchased electricity. Trying it out would involve hooking a standing bicycle to a 12VDC generator to a fast, energy-efficient (~ 30W) laptop running the Linux uniprocessor client. An athlete able to put out 60W for an hour at a time, folding and charging the battery at the same time, would have a fighting chance to finish a small work unit before the preferred deadline.

I doubt if most of us will even be around before Folding finally put to rest and the next problem is focused on.

. Consider that Dr. Pande, who just finished his 10th anniversary at Stanford, has (God willing) at least 30 more years to go in his career and has so much confidence in F@H that he is collaborating with his former graduate students and many other labs to use F@H for a wider range of problems. And it's not just protein folding and aggregation: Dr. Kasson is working on membrane fusion, a process involved in viral infection, protein secretion, conception, and cell replication. You can tell those work units because they don't have atom numbers assigned on the psummary sheet. There are lots more biological and medical problems that can potentially be addressed using the F@H approach: cell/cell signaling is a big one, involved in many cancers. IMHO F@H simulation will never run out of problems to solve - as it matures in one area, new uses will be found for it. (That's one reason I don't mind being a Folding addict!)

[Flathead74]

These are all very impressive! I wish I could increase my output. I wish there were an easy, affordable way for everyone to increase their output. I wish Stanford could afford the upkeep on a really big super computer. Then, perhaps, the Folding Project could reach "solution" and the "Folding Problem" could be classified as "solved". But, wishing never made it come true. I doubt if most of us will even be around before Folding finally put to rest and the next problem is focused on. Which is sad, who knows the progress a final answer could bring to Medical Science?

Each answer may reveal new questions...

[toTOW]

I must admit that I'm thinking about building the bike powered computer with some friends "just to see if that's possible to do so" ...

I think that might be possible with :

- a bike
- a 12V AC current generator from a car
- a 12V battery from the same car (to be charged by the generator or a battery charger for lazy people)
- some electronics (AC/DC conversion and charge control)
- an Atom 330 system that would produce 950 PPD on SMP Linux and can be entirely powered via a 12V DC source.

[bruce]

Well, maybe you should consider just how many hours per day you'd have to ride that bike in order to meet the SMP deadlines.

[toTOW]

The idea is to let the battery power the system all the time, and to ride every day to charge the battery ... which is also a good excuse to do some physical exercises

[kiore]

The idea is to let the battery power the system all the time, and to ride every day to charge the battery ... which is also a good excuse to do some physical exercises

How many cyclists would you need for a dual socket 8 core system?? (would Linux need less) Not that I'm thinking of the big pkts bonus or anything... but labour is cheap here and electricity expensive, you see there are all these people at the gym just peddling pointlessly, and well you get my drift, could be the new screensaver. Put you unused calorific output to work for science!
kiore.

[anandhanju]

How many cyclists would you need for a dual socket 8 core system??

14 mortals or 1 Lance Armstrong, I reckon.

[Zagen30]

No, you people are taking my grand plan, albeit with a much more specific focus!

Several years ago I got the idea that to solve the US's energy, obesity, and unemployment problems, the government should build giant facilities with exercise machines hooked up to batteries, or the power grid, or something, and pay people to exercise for several hours each day. It would especially target the unemployed, because absolutely no work skills would be required- just the ability to pedal a bike or climb the Stairmaster. I thought it would put a dent in the obesity problem since many of those with low incomes can't afford healthier foods, and over time all those cheap, unhealthy foods cause people to get fat. Note that I'm not saying that all poor people are fat; I'm sure I've seen reports that obesity problems are higher among lower-income populations due to this issue. And it wouldn't be limited to the lower class- anyone could do it.

My theory was that hundreds of thousands of people generating energy every day would provide a statistically significant amount of power. Based on talks I've seen since then, as well as classes, I don't think even hundreds of thousands of people could generate an appreciable amount of energy compared to the amount we consume, but if you leave out the details it sounds pretty good, no?

[COOLDUDEGAMER]

You do know the solution to your problem is either in solar or wind. Spend some of that money on an alternative power source and use it to power your farm. If you are lucky enough it may even run your house lighting system or AC as well (not that id waste it on AC).

Or you could pedal and get fit, although i dont know if it would charge a battery enough to run folding from.

Well, there is not much wind at all where I live. (Too far from the Atlantic Ocean.) During winter, Solar would be practically useless as it has the effect of the infamous Nor-Easter where I live. We had a horrible ice storm this past winter that killed the power for about a week on my street. It was extremely cold and the gas powered generator ran out of gas a few times. We did have the generator on to make the furnace turn on until it hit about 80 degrees F before sleeping at around 21:00; in the morning, it was only 55 degrees F when we woke up at around 05:00 to clean up more of the ice mess.

I still could try the pedal my family electric bill down while getting to my target weight. Speaking of solar power, my Dad has a solar panel connected to one of the two batteries in his bass boat. It actually charges it.

I will eventually move out west someday and get a solar panel array.

[COOLDUDEGAMER]

Solar Cell arrays and/or wind mill generators might be a more practical solution to generating power for F@H. Also, simply changing all the light bulbs in your home to the new, more efficient screw in florescent types can save a lot of power (check the watts vs. output labels).

Good choice. If you are in the desert, solar panels would be the choice. If in a windy place such as Nantucket Sound or in parts of Europe such as Amsterdam, that is a good choice.

With the light bulb ordeal, I switched all 4 in my ceiling fan to spirals and a few downstairs. Before any more get switched downstairs, the light switch in the parlor will need to be changed from a circular dimmer to a simple on/off switch.

[mdk777]

I don't think even hundreds of thousands of people could generate an appreciable amount of energy compared to the amount we consume, but if you leave out the details it sounds pretty good, no?

It's a pretty simple calculation really.
World class athlete, TOUR DE FRANCE, = 1/3 Horse power.
Average person = .1 Horse power or 75 watt.

So, even assuming loss-less conversion from say: biking to generator to battery to computer. (True conversion losses would probably exceed %50)
You would need to Work out for 3 hours to run your computer folding for 1 hour. ( 225 watt is what my computer uses folding SMP )

I don't think I could work out for more than 3 hours a day.
Hence my folding would be reduce from 24 to 1 hour a day. (realistically 0 because I don't have three hours a day to exercise)

There is a reason that animal/human power has been supplanted in the modern world.