Charity and Potential Ron Paul Publicity via ::Folding@home::

[specialkornflake]

What is Folding@home?
Folding@home is a program by Stanford University in which you contribute directly to scientific research by donating your computer's resources. The scientists send your computer work involving the way proteins fold together. Then, your computer automatically processes the work and sends back the results. When us Ron Paul supporters group together we can process a lot for charity/science and with enough support we can be in the top 10 or 100 of groups participating in the program!

To Participate
Download the program from the Folding@home Homepage and read the instructions.
Username: Make up a username not already in the system (check here to see if it is already used)
Group/Team ID for Ron Paul 2012: 182919

The process to participate with multiple computers is the same as the first, just simply input the exact same username and Team ID as you put in the first one.

How is our team (Ron Paul 2012) doing?
These are the official stats for our team.
These are more detailed, independently created statistics.
Another set of statistics.

Using your computer
If your computer already has a hardware problem running the program might help make the problem more evident and it will cause normal wear and tear. If your computer has software problems like running super slow, adding this program might incrementally add to those existing problems. Your computer temperature should be monitored for overheating. Laptops are more prone to overheating with continual, heavy processing and should be closely monitored. The program will use your CPU (called SMP if you have multiple CPU cores) and Video Card (called GPU) if it is new enough. The CPU is designed to give priority to other programs but the GPU does not have that ability, so if you are going to game or something similar pause the GPU work. I had to update my video card drivers for the program to start using my GPU.

Please Participate!
By joining you will have fun by contributing and seeing our team do great! Please post any of your questions about participating so we can get more people to join!

[JuicyG]

Nicely done! There was another thread on folding@home but here people can get all info in one clean post, without browsing through all the pages.

[specialkornflake]

We are up to 22 users!

[Texan4Life]

For example, when my video card started processing it makes an extra high-pitched noise that might be a sign of a start of a problem.

Could also be "capacitor whine" which is harmless. Though it could be annoying or worrying so totally up to you.
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Another tip in general is if it has been awhile since you have blown out the dust on your computer it would to be good to do so to help lower temps. You can use the pre packed dust cans. Or even better (and free) is a blow nozzle if you have an air compressor. Just take the side panels off and have at it. If using the dust cans, I would just concentrate on the cpu/gpu and other heatsinks. If you have any left over be sure to get into the power supply as well.

[cornell]

Can anyone comment if this is safe to run continuously on what amounts to a budget ($400-$500) laptop? I downloaded the regular one since I don't have a video-card GPU.

[specialkornflake]

Can anyone comment if this is safe to run continuously on what amounts to a budget ($400-$500) laptop? I downloaded the regular one since I don't have a video-card GPU.

A new budget laptop is as fast as a high-end laptop two years ago (or something like that) so that's not a big consideration. This program runs just fine on computers that are 10 years old. It will simply just run slower. If you read the considerations in my post and the discussions in the other thread (one poster had concerns about laptops towards the end) and are comfortable with things then go for it!

[PolicyReader]

thanks for consolidating this all into one clear source

[JuicyG]

Can anyone comment if this is safe to run continuously on what amounts to a budget ($400-$500) laptop? I downloaded the regular one since I don't have a video-card GPU.

You can try the beta as it uses all CPU cores. I believe the regular version only works single core.

Doesn`t matter you don`t have a video card. It will run just on CPU but use all the cores unlike the regular version.
If you have an onboard video card, software will just ignore it and use CPU only.

[specialkornflake]

I've updated the original text to better reflect the advantages of the new Beta version that takes full advantage of your multi-core CPU and the graphics card. I'm trying to balance the first post between information and simplicity, let me know if you guys have any questions and I'll try to answer. On a side note, anyone know what's going on with Sullivan on our stat page? 186 WUs but no points.

[specialkornflake]

We've broken into the top 4,000! Exactly: 3987 of 209711! We need more help to keep rising as fast as we have been!