[Off-topic] something to keep your computer busy

Hey all-

I know some of you guys like to get your hands in every Cornell-related thing you can, so I just wanted to make you aware of something I've just started organizing. Since your computer is probably feeling lonelier these day without college hockey scores to check, it may make it feel useful again .

If you're familar with concept of distributed computing feel free to skip this paragraph. If not, basically the idea is that the average computer in the world isn't nearly used to it's potential. Even when you're sitting at it using it, there are still thousands or millions of wasted cycles between every keystroke while you're typing, etc. If, instead of wasting those cycles, you could put them to a good use, you could create an incredible supercomputer out of spare moments. Enter "distributed computing." Somebody has a big task they want to accomplish, which they break up into small parts and dole out to any computer which has their software installed. To give you an idea of the power here, one of the biggest efforts logs over 1000 years of computer time every 24 hour period.

Enter one of the most promising of these tasks, Folding@Home. Run by some guys at Stanford ( [folding.stanford.edu] ), Folding@Home studies protein folding. That may not seem so interesting at first, but when you realize that poteins are involved in our DNA, enzymes, antibodies, and several more forms, it becomes a very important key. While they know that protein "folding" is involved in many important aspects of our existence, they know very little about how it actually happens. Also, protein "misfolding" is thought to be involved with Alzheimer's, Mad Cow, Parkinson's, possibly even cancer, and many more serious conditions. If you want to learn more about the science, check out the Science link on the web page above.

Okay, so anyhow, the Cornell part. I just started donating my computer's spare time to this effort a few days ago and have decided to organize a Cornell "team" - the Cornell University Big Red. We've climbed almost 500 places since our humble beginnings this weekend. By entering the team number in your software, your results can be counted towards our team, as well as keeping track personally (if you enter a username ). Our team number is 3148. The software is available for Windows (98 through XP), Mac OS X, and Linux. You can close it at any time to get all your cycles back, or you can set it to only run as a screensaver, so that it only runs when you're not at your computer. Also, it only needs to be online to get a new work unit and send in reults, so it's fine for dial-up users. If you're interested, we'd love to have you. What else are you gonna do, check out NHL playoff scores? Puh-lease

-Fred, DeltaOne81 '03

This sounds like a great cause. I just joined the Cornell "team".

Thanks Adam! I hope others of you are following suit.

I just noticed, the Harvard "team" is one person! Well, still more than they have hockey fans - if you don't wanna do this to beat cancer, at least do it to beat Harvard

Too many smileys, too little homework for me right now...

-Fred

Hey Fred,
I have 8 PC's in my classroom and I'm a bio teacher, so what better thing to have as a screen saver than protein folding ? I'll get the machines going on it tomorrow.
LGR !!
Good luck,
Beth '80

Don't forget team 3148 Beth

Edit in response to the following post:
Sorry, sorry, can't be too safe now .

Got it from your first post. I went to Cornell, give me some credit.

Just joined the Cornell team

Now, now, we know Harvard has at least six hockey fans. Or were some of the six student tickets for Lake Placid purchased by non-fans?

Guess it depends if you put "drunken @$$holes" in the fan category.

(Maybe I'm being too harsh, but it's Hahvahd... I feel obligated)

There were fans, but judging by their behavior, I wouldn't make any assumptions about their ability to use a computer.

They were from the Harvard football team weren't they?

I seem to recall the jerks who tried to pick a fight with our section being a little skinny to play even Ivy football. The guys we ran into that night at Roomers could have been football players, although the fact that they were wearing ECAC Champions hats led me to believe they were hockey players.

Great... another perfectly good thread degrading into Hahvahd bashing ... though 'spose it's my fault )

Your recollection would be wrong then. From talking to them prior to the game, at least 2 of them (Packard's roommates I believe) were football players.

That's entirely possible, since the "action" took place a number of rows in front of where I was standing.

they were right next to me in the aisles. not scrawny enough to not be football players but at the same time, scrawny enough that they might get the crap beaten out of them on the field if they were...but there did look like there were muscles there...not much in the brains department though. it's been a while, the memory's failing me and I was also too pissed off at the time to really notice. I just wanted to beat the crap out of them

judy '01 wrote:

I just wanted to beat the crap out of them

I'm sure they were scared, Judy.

I'm also wondering why no one has mentioned that the Cornell fans were the ones that picked the fight. Sure, the Harvard fans came into our section to taunt us - like we never verbally abuse Harvard?. Presumably the jacket that sailed out of the *middle* of the section to hit the Harvard fan in the head was thrown by a Cornell fan. Admittedly, the Harvard fan refused to give it back right away and a fight almost ensued. Doyle Part II charging into the fray didn't exactly help either. But did anyone actually think he was gonna keep the coat and wear it home? Of course not. If I got beaned in the back of the head with a flying object, I'd refuse to give it back out of spite for a couple on minutes too.

Yes, but THEY CAME INTO OUR SECTION to taunt. As far as I know, no Cornell fan has walked into the middle of another school's section for berating purposes. I mean if that doesn't scream out "I'm looking for a fight" I don't know what does. Not to say I condone beating the guy up - I'm proud of my peers for not taking the bait.

Now back to the original topic, how important is this app for research? Is it something that will really help, or is it really just a pet project side app that does nothing but provide pretty pictures?

Just to warn everyone (since I saw someone mentioning they wanted to install this on their classroom's computers)
Please make sure you have permission to install this software. There was a case in georgia where an IT guy for the university of georgia installed this on about 50 computers. The state of georgia charged him about a year later for stealing computer resources (which if convicted would have been for 120 years) and wanted to charge him something like .59 cents a minute per computer. (it came to 415 grand )

if you wanna read more here is some links.

[www.wired.com]

[www.businessweek.com]

This has been big news in the distributed computing circles for a while now but I assume most people at this board do not follow stuff like this.

Yes, but THEY CAME INTO OUR SECTION to taunt. As far as I know, no Cornell fan has walked into the middle of another school's section for berating purposes. I mean if that doesn't scream out "I'm looking for a fight" I don't know what does.

Umm...perhaps you weren't there for the Semi-final. Because that's exactly what happened when a group of several fans wearing Cornell jerseys walked into the middle of the RPI section for berating purposes. They stood near the front of the section to the left of the RPI band and seemed to be shouting back and forth with RPI fans until arena officials removed them from that section shortly thereafter. I thought of that when the Harvard guys did the same thing during the final, only the RPI fans were good enough not to have any physical contact with our guys.

So insert an appropriate cliche here: pot/kettle would be my choice. Many of us spend a lot of time defending our own fanbase who get labeled as a bunch of foul-mouth hooligans who just come to games to swear, say "sucks", and threaten anyone wearing other colors with physical harm. My argument is usually that every school has their share of good fans and bad fans in their fanbase...it's just that we get tagged with the bad label because we're loud, roudy, organized, and annoying at opposing rinks. At the same time, when I criticize the Colgate student section (ever look under the bleachers after a game at Starr? Let's play 'count the empty liquor bottles!') or the Harvard meatheads who offered me an invitation to "step outside" for some fisticuffs at Bright for no real reason...I have to remember that there are indeed punks in our fanbase too, and each year there are one or two incidents like the one we are discussing to prove it.

It was a case of bottled up spit and vinegar. I’m not proud of how I acted. I’m also not ashamed. School pride runs high in my veins. I was merely defending Cornell University. Nobody should allow himself or herself to be snubbed without putting up a good fight. I guess I am just a scraper.

Works for me. You've also got two years of eligibility if you can skate and hit.

well said adam. i was proud of you!

the morons definitely were asking for trouble.....

First, I think there was a difference between our guys who walked over there in front of their fans and their guys who actually came into and started marching through our crowd with their stupid @$$ signs.

Anyway, to attempt to bring this thread back to some sort of focus (is that even necessary?), our Folding@Home team just passed the 1000-th ranking mark. My original goal had been to do that by the end of the week, and we've exceeded that by about 2.5 days, very cool , so we've definitely on the way up. The more volunteers to help us the quicker we earn Cornell pride

-Fred, DeltaOne81

I was there for the Semi, but I missed that altercation.

I don't condone that behaviour from Cornell fans any more than I condone Harvard. 'Nuff said.

On Folding@Home:

Anyone wanna take credit for being SalsaShark? How about _ (underscore)? Just curious.

So, I was going to ask where you girls got the raw material for your "NO CRIMSON!" signs, but now I'm thinking maybe I don't want to know...

So I've been informed by a little birdie who SalsaShark is, and let me just say I'm honored... exceedingly honored...

that and tired

-Fred

hey we got them in a respectable manner ...

or actually, Adam G. got them. oddly enough one cornell student (Adam)was wise enough to remove their outer cornell layer, go over to the teeny tiny harvard section, pretend they were one of the harvard fans (i mean , how were the sign holders able to distinguish - all the hrvard fans were likely first time spectators. there'd be no possibility of recognizing one another) and ask for a bunch. easy as 1,2,3.

Hmm. Just WHAT did you mean by that JTW?

Except that Adam G. isn't a Cornell student. He was an MIT grad that just transferred his hatred for Harvard to Cornell hockey upon moving to Ithaca.

(He is the same kid that used to make fun of Cornell and call it SUNY- Ithaca)

really? thanks. didn't know that. well. let's make that "one MIT student" then.

or wait. maybe i simply have the wrong adam. cause i'm guessing that the adam i'm referring to didn't go to MIT. He's a stage director (i think) in syracuse.....am thinking that MIT'ers don't go in that direction. can anyone help me?? what's the deal yo?

Same Adam. What makes you think a degree in mechanical engineering for MIT means you can't be a stage manager for $0.17 an hour?

ouch! play nice! i guess i just wasn't thinking about the type of degree. was thinking more along the lines of a theatre arts degree and was unsure about MIT's offerings in this area. Mind you, I know very little about MIT other than its a tech school.

SO, outta curiosity, do they issue any liberal arts degrees? do they have theatresque classes?

Pardon this interruption...

I hearby end my vain attempts to focus this thread by announcing the introduction of [www.people.cornell.edu]

If any of you on the team want to hear what I have to say about it, or if any of you want more information on the team, you can read there from now on, since this thread'll have to die eventually (all threads go to heaven ) ).

Now back to your regularly scheduled Harvard (MIT?) bashing...

-Fred

Much to John's relief, I officially declare this week "Give Adam Shit Week". Much to Adam's relief, it's already Friday.

Adam probably hasn't defended himself because his hair has completely obscured his vision by now, but apparently MIT has a single "I'm an awful engineer but I don't want to leave this hell" arts major.

For those that don't get the joke, Adam and Age used to declare that: "Today is give John shit day. *Everyday* is give John shit day."

And for the record, MIT refers to their majors as Course X where X is the number of the major. (Silly enginerds. Talking to an MIT student about their courses is rather surreal. It goes something like this:

"Yeah, I punted my 2.161 problem set last night."

And everyone knows exactly what that means....

And yes, MIT has Course 21 - Humanities - for people that don't want to be engineers or scientist types. To be fair, Econ, PoliSci and Management also get their own numbers.

MIT's been known to have a few pretty good economists on their faculty.

Al DeFlorio wrote:

MIT's been known to have a few pretty good economists on their faculty.

Very true. But in the end, isn't Econ really just math pretending to be a social science?

Dunno. Harry Truman was always looking for a one-handed economist.