TSA Folding@Home Team: September Update
How has TSA's Folding@Home team been doing?Published 02/09/2009 at 19:30 by Watchful
TSA Folding@home Team: March Update [11]
TSA Folding@home Team: February Update [19]
TSA Folding@Home Team: January Update [22]
We have got a great community here at TSA. Community members are always helping out one another and sometimes that help extends beyond TSA and into the wider world. One of the ways the community achieves this is by contributing to Stanford University’s Folding@Home project.
What is Folding@Home?
It is an application the makes use of your PS3’s processing power to solve biological puzzles. These particular puzzles are looking at how protein molecules assemble themselves or ‘fold’. Proteins are exceptionally important molecules and F@H’s biomedical research is currently studying diseases like Alzheimer’s, Huntingdon’s, Parkinson’s and cancer as well as working to develop new antibiotics.
Other research aided by F@H recently has been the, very topical, study of the influenza virus looking at how mutations might affect transmission rates of different strains of the virus to help predict and understand future pandemics. It is not only biomedical science that benefits either. Earlier this year two of the principal scientists behind F@H presented a paper entitled “Folding@home: lessons from eight years of distributed computing” at the IEEE International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium.
By contributing to F@H you are helping advance biology, chemistry and computer science, you get to do your bit for the good of humanity, become part of the most powerful distributed computing cluster in the world, according to Guinness, and join in with TSA’s community. If you often listen to music stored on your PS3’s HDD then your PS3 could be Folding while you listen. So go on, join our team and see how high you can climb in our list of TSA’s top 50 folders.
How do you Join the Team?
The first step is to make sure that you change your PS3’s F@H identity from the default “PS3″ to your TSA ID. It could be anything but if you use your TSA ID it will help us recognise you. Then you will need to tell the F@H application you want to be in our team.
This Month’s Stats
Jas-n does a great job each month compiling these stats so credit for the rest of this post goes to him as it is just copied for his forum post.
Here are the rankings for the 1st of September, thought I’d change the format slightly now, make things a bit better.
- You’ll now see your rankings for last month,
- You’ll now see your total Work units
- New users that rank in the top 50 have a hyphen (-) in last months ranking, so you can see the new members.
- The team ranking is now at the top of the rankings in Italics, and you can see we’ve gone up 350.
| Rankings | Contributor |
Score |
Work Units |
|
| This Month | Last Month | |||
| 2727 | 3077 | TheSixthAxis | 728993 | 2564 |
| 1 | 2 | markwijnants | 88538 | 319 |
| 2 | 1 | sonicsteve | 88175 | 346 |
| 3 | 3 | Watchful | 71383 | 154 |
| 4 | 4 | whodey12 | 70268 | 280 |
| 5 | 5 | BORTEN | 56087 | 200 |
| 6 | 8 | pOOpInFlames | 41127 | 164 |
| 7 | 6 | ParagonKnight | 40457 | 147 |
| 8 | 7 | TheDeathAvenger | 35551 | 113 |
| 9 | 9 | Jas-n | 34018 | 111 |
| 10 | 11 | Jeebers | 30336 | 90 |
| 11 | 10 | jediryan123 | 28947 | 95 |
| 12 | 21 | RedStarGlow | 18343 | 73 |
| 13 | 12 | Vandix | 15770 | 63 |
| 14 | 13 | colossalblue | 10355 | 36 |
| 15 | 14 | Kai | 10313 | 28 |
| 16 | 28 | greenie1985 | 8300 | 33 |
| 17 | 15 | MayfieldAlpha | 7519 | 30 |
| 18 | 16 | CrazyKrissZ | 6525 | 26 |
| 19 | 17 | Mr-Flame-Head | 5278 | 17 |
| 20 | 31 | mcduff1979 | 5222 | 14 |
| n/a | n/a | PS3 | 4844 | 20 |
| 21 | 18 | theshockwave | 4248 | 17 |
| 22 | 19 | GregThorn | 3837 | 12 |
| 23 | 20 | Kevatron400 | 3757 | 11 |
| 24 | 27 | Colinbarr66 | 3275 | 13 |
| 25 | 26 | gaffers101 | 3010 | 12 |
| 26 | 24 | Kyorl | 2903 | 10 |
| 27 | 22 | Scholes_Goals | 2762 | 8 |
| 28 | 23 | GTOWN | 2757 | 11 |
| 29 | 25 | BioEye | 2516 | 10 |
| 30 | 29 | LordMooch | 2232 | 19 |
| 31 | 30 | Jonathan_Carson | 1757 | 7 |
| 32 | 34 | phantom001 | 1499 | 6 |
| 33 | 37 | FintanStack | 1259 | 5 |
| 34 | 32 | LiquescentShadow | 1255 | 5 |
| 35 | 33 | pchristian | 1255 | 5 |
| 36 | 44 | CCasey123 | 1004 | 4 |
| 37 | - | gazzagb | 1004 | 4 |
| 38 | 41 | Glenndog84 | 1004 | 4 |
| 39 | 35 | Korn71 | 1000 | 4 |
| 40 | 46 | kissablekirst | 759 | 3 |
| 41 | 36 | debasemasonsgrog | 757 | 3 |
| 42 | 38 | Spawnofboredom | 757 | 3 |
| 43 | 39 | Artefx | 753 | 3 |
| 44 | 40 | Azman87 | 753 | 3 |
| 45 | 42 | uksonic | 753 | 3 |
| 46 | 43 | Boomshanks | 749 | 3 |
| 47 | 45 | Hicko | 502 | 2 |
| 48 | 52 | mpb1955 | 502 | 2 |
| 49 | 47 | yogh_wayne | 502 | 2 |
| 50 | 48 | Binchi | 287 | 2 |
Remember:
- We only show the top 50 members, for the full list you can view the official stats here.
- Members who have the same points are then ranked on WU’s then username.
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
Jas-n | 02/09/2009 19:45
Folding With TSA Co-ordinator.
1218 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
Didn’t think to put N/a by the side of PS3
Watchful | 02/09/2009 19:50
Team TSA: Writer
2084 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
I had to otherwise the site’s formatting collapses the height of that row and leaves no whitespace between “PS3″ and “theshockwave”. I tried non-breaking spaces but it wouldn’t preserve those. And obviously I couldn’t use dashes.
ShovellyJoe | 02/09/2009 20:00
Member
1199 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
I should use Folding@Home more often, maybe when I’m doing guitar practice or something. I’d probably get through at least one work unit a week that way.
matty | 02/09/2009 20:01
Member
1330 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
well done guys. Im scared if i leave my ps3 doing this it will get YLOD
kissablekirst | 02/09/2009 20:09
Member
208 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
note to self – more Folding@Home! its for a good cause.
Erroneus | 02/09/2009 20:36
Wanted "Trophy Hunter" but was too late.
2976 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
I’m a bit partial about F@H. While it’s for a good cause, it does suck up a lot of power and that’s not good, for neither your power bill or your co2 usage.
G_The_Enemy14 | 02/09/2009 21:08
Member
780 TSA Points | Member since: Jan 2009
never use it because of the exact same reason
Erroneus | 02/09/2009 21:47
Wanted "Trophy Hunter" but was too late.
2976 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
I even have a remote power socket for my TV, Wii and PS3, so i don’t use standby power
haza103 | 02/09/2009 22:26
Member
489 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
I heard something in a similar article saying that leaving your PS3 using folding at home uses as much energy as a lighbulb. Sounds a bit like an exxageration, but maybe more plausible with the Slim.
teflon | 02/09/2009 23:32
Member
1994 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
It depends on the lightbulb were talking about and which PS3. The original 60GB used 170-200W, so thats two 100W lightbulbs. The 40GB and 80GB use about 90-120W, but might be a bit lower, so thats one 100W lightbulb. The new slim uses about 75-100W.
In each instance, the lower end is when its idling, so Folding is going to be using closer to the upper end of the scale.
So yeah, about 1 old school lightbulb since 2008, or about 5 energy saving 20W lightbulbs. So maybe about £80 a year (if its 10p per KwH, and the PS3 is running 24/7).
In comparison to, say, a fridge freezer (maybe about 3 times as hefty as a Slim/100W bulb), that’s not really all that much…
hannes_truce | 02/09/2009 20:55
Member
2919 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2008
Nice folding guys, fancy coming to do my washing?
Jas-n | 02/09/2009 21:23
Folding With TSA Co-ordinator.
1218 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
Don’t you generally wash before you fold?
Jas-n | 02/09/2009 21:25
Folding With TSA Co-ordinator.
1218 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
To all those who are worrried about YLOD/Power consumption, you can still “fold” on your PC while you’re using it, and it’s automatically set as the lowest priority so everything else gets priority.
Full details see the official thread (http://www.thesixthaxis.com/forum/general-chat/tsa-foldinghome-team-78731-1/)
matty | 02/09/2009 21:39
Member
1330 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
oo cool might do that abit later
ShovellyJoe | 02/09/2009 21:42
Member
1199 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
I tried to install F@H on my Mac but it didn’t seem to work, I guess I’ve gotta stick with the ol’ PS3 for now.
TheDeathAvenger | 03/09/2009 00:27
Member
1653 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
The link Jas-n posted shouldn’t have the bracket at the end. This link should work though.
ShovellyJoe | 03/09/2009 10:08
Member
1199 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
I mean I tried it a couple of months ago, but it didn’t seem to work. I might try again but I find the PS3 version to be a bit more reliable.
whodey12 | 02/09/2009 21:50
Member
29 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009
what a bunch of pimps
Reiterpallasch | 02/09/2009 22:29
Member
366 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2009
A Slim would be handy for this, with its lesser power consumption.
bunimomike | 02/09/2009 23:15
Member
4766 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
Installed it on one PC. Will do the other in a moment. Might give the PS3 version a go too. Shall see. Just so you know (admin staff type folk) – this link doesn’t work “change your PS3’s F@H identity” in your article.
iNsAnE_gAmInG | 02/09/2009 23:26
* Banned *
-1930 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
I’m actually gonna begin using F@H when I just randomly leave my PS3 on the XMB for no reason.
TheDeathAvenger | 03/09/2009 00:45
Member
1653 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Always good to see the F@H updates on the front page.
Greg the ‘you want to be in our team’ link you have to the F@H forum doesn’t work as it has the date in it, this link is the right one. There is the same problem for the ‘change your PS3’s F@H identity’ (bunimomike noticed this one too), it should be this.
Hodgi92 | 03/09/2009 00:47
The Thumb
1057 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
I really should fold more. I haven’t even done 1 WU…ever!
Kitch | 03/09/2009 00:49
Member
443 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
You can set F@H as your screensaver and to power off after a couple of hours. I do this and charge my controller at the same time. Couple of hours after I go to bed.
Klangaroo | 03/09/2009 07:13
Member
193 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009
I have two PS3s. Can I put the same username in to both and contribute double?
Erroneus | 03/09/2009 09:04
Wanted "Trophy Hunter" but was too late.
2976 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
I can’t see any reason to why not.
TheDeathAvenger | 03/09/2009 11:32
Member
1653 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Yes. Plus if you run F@H on your PC you can use your username there too.