Team FTL

[7im]

It was very clear there was a problem before, and PG took the appropriate action to zero the team. And FTL never came here to this forum to explain, apologize, or promise that they would do better. (and if the team captain email had worked, the zero wouldn't have needed to be done.)

And now, after being quiet for so long, they pop up again with a huge surge of users? And no explanation in the blog? No announcement in the blog? No Rally Cry in the blog to get all those users to join up?

How does one get so many "anonymous" user names, but all specifically on one team? People are typically more competitive (or more self-interested) than that, especially IF they then also select a team number.

Could it be that some software "trick" is being used to install fah and get them to fold? A trick that allows them to pick "any user name you like", but ALWAYS forces them to fold for TEAM FTL? (note that Any_username_you_like is one of the top names on that team...)

Do any of those thousand users have individual passkeys? Probably not, and how likely is that? 1000 users on one team all NOT wanting to get a bonus?

Why were all the clients UNI clients and no SMP clients? Software trick. Why were all the work units from a single user name like Any_username_you_like all coming from different and geographically diverse IP addresses? Does this look at all normal? FAH Stats on Any_username_you_like

Dig deeper, and discover the truth.

[jimerickson]

MAKE GO BOOM!

+1

[Grandpa_01]

I do not disagree there are many things that point to unusual distribution of F@H by team FTL. But there are also some things that point to user input in order to set it up such as the vast majority of members having individual names. Are they doing something like Goggle or Yahoo tool bars where when you download and install something it asks you to install F@H and if you want to install F@H it explains what it is, does it give the option to opt in / out and if they are is this acceptable. I know I do not like what Goggle / Yahoo and a few others do but allot of people seem to think it is OK. But if the people folding for FTL genuinely have a choice and want to fold then I for 1 do not have a problem with it. We do not know the answers to these questions are we jumping to conclusions ?

I have long thought that if more people knew about F@H and were given a simple way to easily install it they would fold, perhaps team FTL is doing things legitimately, but due to their history I doubt it. Not counting the PG Default anonymous (which by the way turns in 10,000 WU's per update the single largest contributor to F@H) and Goggle, they are now the 2nd largest group of folders out there with the [H] being #1. Perhaps there should be some more investigation before they MAKE GO BOOM! are they doing anything wrong or are we just convicting them.

[MtM]

Let's just say their history is speaking against them

I would like to rebute their claims but alas their folding installer is not available for download... says enough I think, and therefore I to say 'Make go BOOM'.

Even if the installer seems legit, it still downloads from the stanford pages which is against EULA unless prior written permission has been obtained. No matter how you twist it, this permission I'm sure is lacking, and that alone would warrant sanctions.

Really, unless the creator of the installer a> get's in touch with PG and shows them the installer code and b> PG decides after this the creator of the installer will get permission to download the files from the Stanford pages it's pretty clear how this will end.

Edit:

To clarify, b> wouldn't happen unless it meets certain criteria which I doubt it will ( but won't rule out, miracles do happen once in a while )

[bruce]

Don't worry, Grandpa_01. Requests like those from 7im and jimerickson (below) will not be acted on mindlessly. The Pande Group may be gathering evidence to make a decision, but they take the EULA very seriously, both in terms of taking enforcement actions against violators and in terms of protecting the rights of those who follow it. (The servers do have access to a lot more information than any of us have.)

MAKE GO BOOM!

+1

[7im]

Requests like those from 7im and jimerickson (below) will not be acted on mindlessly...

And PG never has, nor will they ever act mindlessly.

Like last time, the process to gather the information to make a mindful decision is manual, and takes a while. And while I know (past FTL history) PG is serious about dealing with any infractions in a timely manner, something like this may not be a top priority.

My post was only to serve as a reminder. MAKE GO ______ (insert appropriate action as needed).

[spider220075]

A question for people more experienced than me. Don't know for sure if the issue is related or not to this team's activity, but it is pretty strange. One of my teammates reported to the team's forum an erratic behavior of his GPU client. Here's the sequence of events as narrated to me:
1)the client was running normally 24/7 at 50% usage-50% fan speed 2)the client crashed suddenly in the middle of a unit 3)he restarted it 4)the client resumed from the point it stopped but he heard the fan working at maximum 5)he entered the settings to check and he noticed all of them were changed. Username was different (user-something, he can't recall exactly), team number different (can't recall either), usage at 100% 6)he stopped the client, uninstalled it and reinstalled. All back to normal.
He was running v6.23 client on an ATI 4xxx card. He sent me all he managed to save from his log file, unfortunately after the reinstallation.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/97/foldk.jpg/

[7im]

Not related. If the config file was corrupted, the client would create a new default config and continue folding (redundancy by design to stay productive). That could explain the changes to the client settings, but user name would be anonymous, not a specific user name. If the new user name was anything but anonymous, then someone made the changes purposefully.

[bruce]

If he downloaded something from the internet just before he noticed the changes or entered some data into an on-line page somewhere, we'd be interested in knowing what it was. (Don't post the link. Send it to my by PM.) Does he have any recollection of ever entering anything that might have been used to construct a portion of the new Username?

[Nathan_P]

Still chugging along

http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/ ... =&t=149135

[spider220075]

@bruce PM sent, but i'm not sure if you have received it. It is stuck in my "outbox" folder.

If he downloaded something from the internet just before he noticed the changes or entered some data into an on-line page somewhere, we'd be interested in knowing what it was. (Don't post the link. Send it to my by PM.) Does he have any recollection of ever entering anything that might have been used to construct a portion of the new Username?

[bruce]

@bruce PM sent, but i'm not sure if you have received it. It is stuck in my "outbox" folder.

If he downloaded something from the internet just before he noticed the changes or entered some data into an on-line page somewhere, we'd be interested in knowing what it was. (Don't post the link. Send it to my by PM.) Does he have any recollection of ever entering anything that might have been used to construct a portion of the new Username?

I'm not here every day...and when a PM has not been opened by the recipient, it stays in the outbox folder.

We're still looking for links to a source of a trojan-like code distributed somewhere on the web that would register you as part of FTL even though that is not your intent.

[MtM]

They are not releasing torrents on big trackers ( I got some feeds I'm watching, no hits yet ). I would guess the installer ( legit or not ) is spread using private trackers and websites.