Folding Forum

What management tool will you use? How will it integrate with a normal dynamic IP address in a home, without enabling access to any other computers or devices on the home net?

That is a great question and one I don't have an answer for. This is why it is great to get so much feedback to my general idea.

Who owns the computer, or more precicely, when does the legal title transfer?

Your poll may be biased because it doesn't give all the information. If you asked who would donate their electricity you didn't specify whether I would be forced to use your team number or if I could use my own. Changing that assumption might move about half of the votes from one category to the other. Some people are completely altruistic about FAH and others are very much into the points competition.

Would you expect to get it back from somebody who takes it on one pretense and then doesn't follow your "rules"

Another great point. I really didn't give much consideration to usernames and who would ultimately get the points. My initial thought was to keep everything under my team so I could see the progress and keep things much neater. I can see where an existing user would want to fold under his/her current team, but a new folder might not have a specific team in mind.

My initial thoughts are that the foundation would own the computer for the 3-4 year period and then transfer ownership to the individual. Again, this feedback is going to help me mold this project and I already see that I have not thought of everything.

I would have some sort of contract in place, but I also realize situations change and someone might not be able to pay for the extra electricity in the future. I'm not sure how I would handle that. It would also be difficult to monitor and then respond if the rules are broken.

Good points, I voted yes, but now I'm considering saying no only because it's not my thing to boost someone else's stats ( or team ). I think your foundation would have enough pr material without the need to have points accumulating.

It's a donor who pays for electricity.. You do realise running costs outweigh investment costs over those 4 years for allot of people. Yes, anyone likes to be given something, but this gift costs allot and you're taking the most important secondary incentive to fold away from people, their points!

My focus for the foundation was to involve as many people as possible and hopefully they would get excited and the word-of-mouth advertising would create more awareness. I didn't factor in that the points were such a big incentive in my plan. Would it be satisfactory that the individual would their own unique username, or do you think I would need to open it up to teams as well?

As I go through this process, it may make more sense for me to expand on my current cluster then to go this route. Only time will tell.

Regards,
Jeff

I edited the poll to add another option. "No, if I am going to use my electricity, then I want to fold for my own team." You should now also be able to change your vote if you want. I apparently reset the poll, so please vote again if you like.

I still would like to get further feedback on this idea, but I think I may change my focus to donating computers to schools. The excellent feedback has opened up questions that I had never asked myself, and quite frankly don't have good answers for. I have worked with schools in the past on different projects, and they are usually very easy to work with. I still need help with configurations which I have a post in the Hardware forum.

Regards,
Jeff

What management tool will you use? How will it integrate with a normal dynamic IP address in a home, without enabling access to any other computers or devices on the home net?

That is a great question and one I don't have an answer for. This is why it is great to get so much feedback to my general idea.

You might start looking into some free solutions. I use a combination of Logmein Hamachi and VNC to log into my home computers. Each computer gets a dedicated IP address on the Hamachi server for the VPN connection.

Why would a school want to put up with a bunch of computers that it could not use, but would have to pay for electricity to run?

If you allowed other use of the computers, you would have to abide by the schools' IT departments' rules, so it is unlikely your IT people would get free rein to log into them. At best they would have to be in noncritical areas. that would also likely dictate Windows and associated costs...

I have answered that I would fold for my own team.. I do support the project primarily and team second but in reality over the timeframe you indicate the power costs out weigh the hardware costs, and as noted before a 4 year old computer is not really a huge repayment. Like your concept, but think it needs to be rethought.
kiore

The idea and concept is a nice one. I really like the suggestion of using a PS3.

I do think it would be a nightmare to manage and monitor such an project.

I can't make my mind yet. A difference slips out of hands... Consideration in progress.

My question is towards whom this poll is geared. Most probably to Americans, even if this hasn't been set in stone yet. The reason I am asking is because of the terrible sums of money one needs to pay to customs offices in Europe, if they are ordering stuff from the USA. Well, unless you would put big labels stating "PRESENT" on it and also include a letter towards the custom officers, explaining and whatnot.

You know, I bought my vga's through a friend in the usa ( no hard feelings here Dave, you're still great! ) and even with the import tax I paid about 1/2 of what they retailed here in the Netherlands. It's 19,5% for consumer electronics, yes it's quite a lot but as I said, I still landed comfortably balance wise!

You could though indeed consider them as presents, you're actually giving them away in exchange for running them x amount of time. Idk I'm not a lawyer but that might not consitute a 'sale' per se?

I'd say yes, but both 125V 15 amp circuits are at 78-85% already. lol.

Still, I'm all for paying the added electricity bills but not looking forward to pay some hundred euros tax for a new computer, seeing that I was not going to get one anytime soon. :B

For someone who is planning to buy a new powerhouse computer, though, it is a great investment.

Already have 3 machines that are folding 24/7.
1 accesses the 'net while the other 2 were purchased EXCLUSIVELY for folding. That is all they do.

Can you edit your poll and add the option.

"No, i would return the computer to the person who gave it to me due to security issues concerning him accessing my network."

The thought of other people accessing a computer on my network smells to much like inviting the government to snoop on me. How do we know your foundation isnt a front for some form of law enforcement looking to identify p2p users by placing a select trojan horse (an i7 computer running FAH 24/7) within there network.

Now im not trying to shoot you down, and the above statement is made more in jest than anything else, but for some people, it would be a real concern. There exists solutions to this.

If i was say to accept your terms and a machine i would require to configure it myself, but if not id isolate my network using a second router and deny all access to your machine. But i have the hardware to do this, not everyone has or can afford that level of kit.

There are other things i can think of, but i think what ive mentioned should be enough to start the ball rolling.

I'm not altuistic; I'm a stats junkie. I fold because it's more relevant than other DC projects but I DC because I'm an addict. Have been since Distributed Folding and Genome@Home.

No way I'm going to pay for electricity (who cares about the bandwidth - that's essentially free) unless the points go to my account and team.

So let's turn it round. If this is being offered for altruistic reasons, you won't care if I fold under my own name and team, will you? If you won't, then you're doing it for the points too!

you won't care if I fold under my own name and team, will you? If you won't, then you're doing it for the points too!

The problem is verifying that the "free" hardware is actually being used as intended.

I think a good option would be to assume that the user was going to use the computer for some other use and configure it so that it folds and also does the other beneficial use for the donor.

For example, a home server requires very little CPU power. Say the "Free" hardware was a high-end CPU, but it came with A LINUX Server program in addition to the Linux SMP CLIENTS.

The computer would be configured to run SMP 24/7. but also allow the donor to add their own hard drives for a home NAS.

Sure, some would be tempted to try and install say windows for gaming, but the majority would be happy to have the "free" server and use it as intended.

Just an ideal.

i would most certainly donate my power and internet connection (that is open 24/7 anyway), if someone were to send me a core i7 rig with the promise that i can keep it after x amount of years.

OF COURSE i would!

who wouldn't????

and wouldn't it be only fair if the points of such a fantastic deal were donated to the team of the man that sent you that computer?

i just don't understand the people in this thread: why in god's name would you demand to be able to donate to your own username and team if some one GIVES you a 1000$+ computersystem?????

i think it's a little sad that it actually needs discussing.


topictstarter, you got my vote, and a wall socket for power, and a port in my router.

and not for the free pc after 3 or 4 years, but because it would help science.

you can have the system back after three years, so you can donate it to a school or something like that.

greetz,

Richard