





Note: This is the information thread. Please visit the discussion threads to discuss Folding@Home related topics



Brony@Home Official Site



Brony@Home Team number: 212997





Extreme Overclocking stats













Contents:



What is Folding@Home and Brony@Home?

FAQ

Stats

Competitions







What is Folding@Home and Brony@Home?



Folding@Home is a non profit organisation run by the Pande Lab in Stanford University, aimed at simulating the assembly process of proteins. It launched on the 1st of October in 2000, and since then, has produced nearly 100 scientific research papers, directly as a result of this project.



The project itself uses a method called Distributed Computing to obtain its results. That is, all the data that is required to be simulated is split up in to many tiny pieces, sent off to volunteers around the world, completed, then returned. This is an alternative method to more expensive supercomputers, which would have to be hired out (at expensive rates). However, due to the popularity of this project, Folding@Home is, in essence, one giant, global supercomputer, with more combined power than almost every single supercomputer in existence. Interestingly enough, it was only in 2011 that the first actual supercomputer exceeded the combined processing power of Folding@Home.



It must be noted that the primary function of Folding@Home is not to cure cancer. After all, one cannot cure cancer, unless cancer is first understood. That is the true purpose of Folding@Home; to understand how and why proteins misfold, and cause many of todays cancers and other diseases. Furthermore, Folding@Home has also worked towards understanding viruses, and how they infect host cells, including the flu virus, and HIV. For more information on what diseases Folding@Home works towards, visit the Diseases Studied FAQ.



Folding@Home can be run on any CPU as old as a Pentium III, and on any video card as old as the GeForce 8xxx series. Furthermore, the program is also available on the PlayStation 3. On computers, the program is cross platform, so it can be run on Windows, Mac, or Linux.



Folding@Home Official Site



Brony@Home is one of the many active teams contributing to the project. It was created by hiigaran late in 2011, and no sooner than a few days had passed before activity and members shot up dramatically from the MLP community. Since then, out of thousands of active teams, Brony@Home has become one of the highest producing teams. Despite being late to the party, the team has reached the top 170 in a relatively fast amount of time, and still gains ground on other teams.



Twice a year, Brony@Home holds major competitions to attract more members and increase scientific contributions, for a chance at winning prizes, both great and small, with massive turnouts (most signed up in a single competition: 115).







FAQ



How do I get started?



Visit the official Folding@Home website to get started. Picking a client should be straightforward, but if you are unsure of what to do, visit the Support page at Brony@Home, for a list of links to appropriate clients, and detailed instructions on how to get Folding@Home up and running.



Why trust strangers with science? Why not use a supercomputer?



First of all, let's differentiate between a supercomputer, and a collection of computers from all around the world...in essence, there is no difference, other than geographical location. How is that useful? We as volunteers save Pande Lab a heap of money in hiring out a supercomputer. As Pande Lab is not for profit, it greatly benefits them, and medical science in general, especially when almost every single supercomputer in existence is slower than the combined power of so many volunteers.



Can I run Folding@home on a computer other than my own?



You are not limited to running Folding@Home on just your own computer. Naturally, any unit you own can be allowed to run the program under your name. However, if the computer/PS3 is not your own, you should first get permission from the owner to install the program first. This is especially important in the workplace environment, as people have been severely reprimanded over installing this program without permission.



Won't this raise my power bill?



Yes it will. However, most people won't see more than a few dollars extra on their bill. Those with heavily overclocked, enthusiast level hardware, folding 24/7 on both the CPU and GPU, the bill will of course be higher. If you would like a rough calculation for finding out how much extra power you will use, and the subequent payments involved on your power bill, use the following formula:



Maximum power consumption of CPU and/or GPU - idle power consumption = Power difference

Power difference / PSU efficiency (between 0.8 to 0.95) = Power draw

Power draw * average hours of usage per day * 0.03 = Kilowatt-hours per month

Kilowatt-hours per month * cost per kilowatt-hours = Maximum total cost of folding per month



Note that doesn't factor in your normal computer usage. Therefore, whatever value you get with the above formula will be the maximum amount that you would pay extra on your electricity bill. If, for instance, you are a heavy gamer, the extra costs of folding will be much lower, as the computer diverts power from folding, to your gaming.



Applying the above to a real situation: If an i5 2500K CPU folds for 12 hours a day at $0.15 per KW-h, the power difference will be 103 - 40 = 63 watts. At 80% PSU efficiency, that's 79 watts. Multiply 79 by 12 hours, then by 0.03, and you get 28 KW-h. At $0.15 per KW-h, that's a maxium of $4.20 a month. Note that the power difference for this specific CPU is obtained from reviews that measure the power consumption of the actual hardware, not the total system. If you use the latter in the formula, you can easily quadruple the final value, leading to an incorrect figure.



If you can't find information about the power consumption of your hardware, don't hesitate ask in the active Brony@Home Discussion Thread



Doesn't this heat up my computer?



Naturally, as you are running your hardware at full load. Of course, your hardware should be able to take the temperatures at full load, as that's what it was designed to do, but in any case, it's always a good idea to keep an eye on the temperatures for your first few minutes of usage. If the temperatures approach within 10 degrees (C) of the maximum temperature for your hardware, do not use this program, or set it to use less than 100% of processor usage (or you may just have a dust buildup).



I have installed the program and added my settings. What now?



Thats it! This program is designed to not have to bother you once you have set it up. Depending on how you have set it up, you may either have the program running as a service, so it would be completely invisible upon restart, as an auto start, so you can see the program, or you can manually start it each time.



How can I track my progress?



If you are referring to the progress of your current work unit, you can check the logs found in the FAHControl program. If you are referring to everything you have done, you can check out the stats from Stanford, or from a third party website like Extreme Overclocking, where additional information regarding predicted future production, team info, and graphical representations of progress can be seen. See the Stats page for more information.







Stats:



What are these stats?



The Folding@Home project has a rather ingenious way of getting people to contribute more, by showing stats for users and teams, allowing for competition between one another. Some go as far as to purchase hardware more suited to folding, just for an extra edge in competing, and for bragging rights. In any case, it is definitely a positive thing overall.



These stats will show information on users, including how many points and work units have been completed, along with a ranking system based on overall points. Similar information is available for teams. Third party sites offer more information, including predicted values and trends for various aspects, and average production, which can be used in determining the instantaneous performance of all active teams.



The official Brony@Home stats page can be found here



More detailed stats can be found at Extreme Overclocking



Note: Under normal operation, the stats are updated every three hours. However, from time to time, Extreme Overclocking, and all other third party stat sites will show zero output. This is caused by servers going down for various reasons. All points during this period are backtraced once the servers go back online.



Advertise for the team!



Are you a regular on another forum, or somewhere else that allows you to display a signature image? Why not display a banner with stats on the team? These banners update on the same three hour interval as the stat sites, and come in two forms that either show user and team info, or just team info. Furthermore, both types of banners can be customised with different colour schemes.



The default banners for team only, and team + user are as follows:







To use these banners, place the image URL in between image tags. These tags will vary, depending on where you would like to display the image. The URL for the team only, and team + user banners above are:



https://i.neoseeker.com/u/e/16/sigimage_dqk.gif



http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/sigs/sigimage.php?u=*YOUR USER NUMBER HERE*



For the team + user banner, place your user number at the end, as shown above, after the 'u='. Your user number can be found by visiting the Extreme Overclocking user list, clicking on your user name, and copying the numbers in the address bar right at the end, after the 'u='.



Custom banner colour schemes:



Granted, the above banners are rather bland, so there is also an option to customise the look of the banners. If you would like to try creating a custom colour scheme for your banner, follow these instructions. Alternatively, below are a list of premade colour schemes based on character designs, along with their respective URLs:



Fluttershy:



https://i.neoseeker.com/u/e/16/sigimage_dqk.gif&c1=41D0B7&c2=FFFF90&c3=FFFF90&c4=FF70FF&c5=FF70FF



Applejack:



https://i.neoseeker.com/u/e/16/sigimage_dqk.gif&c1=5EC04B&c2=FDBC5F&c3=B0822D&c4=EF4135&c5=FFF797



Pinkie Pie/Pinkamena:



https://i.neoseeker.com/u/e/16/sigimage_dqk.gif&c1=186F97&c2=F8B9CD&c3=F8B9CD&c4=EF5091&c5=EF5091

https://i.neoseeker.com/u/e/16/sigimage_dqk.gif&c1=9C2C83&c2=C8A0CC&c3=C8A0CC&c4=9C2C83&c5=C54B93



Rarity:



https://i.neoseeker.com/u/e/16/sigimage_dqk.gif&c1=536CAC&c2=EAEBEE&c3=EAEBEE&c4=523D94&c5=523D94



Twilight Sparkle:



https://i.neoseeker.com/u/e/16/sigimage_dqk.gif&c1=643189&c2=D7A5EA&c3=642F88&c4=293873&c5=E3488E



Nightmare Moon/Luna:



https://i.neoseeker.com/u/e/16/sigimage_dqk.gif&c1=FFFFFF&c2=00002E&c3=000000&c4=0000CC&c5=0C8ED0

https://i.neoseeker.com/u/e/16/sigimage_dqk.gif&c1=7EDFFF&c2=7364B6&c3=532A6D&c4=C5CED2&c5=EDF2F9



Celestia:



https://i.neoseeker.com/u/e/16/sigimage_dqk.gif&c1=f188ec&c2=fff9fd&c3=ffe592&c4=5dd6aa&c5=82b0fc



Spike:



https://i.neoseeker.com/u/e/16/sigimage_dqk.gif&c1=aee162&c2=b981be&c3=54cf53&c4=4e943b&c5=dcf1b6



Trixie:



https://i.neoseeker.com/u/e/16/sigimage_dqk.gif&c1=deeef7&c2=6daedf&c3=9373d0&c4=cd82c7&c5=bfe5f4



Bon-Bon:



https://i.neoseeker.com/u/e/16/sigimage_dqk.gif&c1=255a5f&c2=f5f7d9&c3=39598f&c4=fb92df&c5=fb92df



Lyra:



https://i.neoseeker.com/u/e/16/sigimage_dqk.gif&c1=41AF88&c2=92FFD7&c3=A4ECEE&c4=F0C152&c5=41AF88







Competitions:



What are these competitions?



Every six months, Brony@Home runs a competition that allows participants to register themselves and compete against others for prizes, based on the category they win in. This encourages people to output more work units and accelerate scientific progress, for a chance at winning something.



When do these competitions happen? How long do they last?



Competitions are announced at least two weeks in advance, and last for eight weeks. Competitions always begin on the first day of a month at 00:00 GMT.



How do I enter?



Entering the competition is simple. Once a competition is announced, make a post in the active Brony@Home Discussion Thread, stating your intention to join the competition. You do not need to register on Neoseeker to make a post, but it is recommended, in case you need to be contacted. Make sure you provide your username that you use in Folding@Home, otherwise, the name you use when making a post will be added to the list of competitors.



I have entered the competition. What do I do now?



If you haven't done so already, install Folding@Home. For details on how to install it, visit the Support page. Once you have the program, and you have verified that it is working on a work unit, you are ready to go! It is highly recommended to have a passkey as well, as it will qualify you for bonus points, which give you more points, the faster you finish work units.



Do I have to wait until the competition begins to start folding?



Nope! You may begin folding at any time. Any points you have accumulated before a competition will not count, so it won't matter. In fact, it is recommended to begin as early as possible, just in case there are unresolved issues with the program, or your settings. The sooner you start, the sooner you (or we) can identify any problems you might have, and resolve them. Feel free to ask in the forums, or the IRC channel if you have any issues.



How does this competition work?



As far as the competitor is concerned, he or she simply runs the program. Behind the scenes, the team leader monitors the stats of each competitor periodically, checking for possible problems in points output, and contacting competitors that might be showing signs of issues, as some competitors may be unaware that they are not outputting anything, unless notified. At the end of each week of the competition, a stat file is downloaded from the Stanford servers, containing all user points. The total points for each competitor is then added to the score sheet, and the relevant mathematical formulas (shown on the sheet) are applied to calculate points in different categories.



Rules & Important Info:



Once you have made a post with your intention to join the competition, you should be added to a list of participants within the day. Your username will be added to four lists: A score sheet, a list on the forums, a list on this site, and a list for a score grabbing script. With the exception of the script list, all lists are publicly visible.



You must add the Brony@Home team number (212997) to the relevant area in Folding@Home. Otherwise, you will not appear on the stats.



Winners are chosen by the team leader (hiigaran) only. Winners will be contacted via the winner's preferred method of contact. The award process involves all winners sending in a list of the available prizes in order of preference. After all winners have sent in their preferences, the first place winner will have first priority of a prize, if multiple winners chose the same price. The second place winner gets second priority, and so on. At this stage, each winner will be contacted individually, and referred to the donor of their prize. No prize is attached to any award or category.



Electronic, non-physical prizes such as Steam games will incur no charge to the winner. Physical prizes that have to be shipped will incur a shipping cost on the winner if specified. Generally, smaller items will be shipped at the donor's expense, but larger items, and/or those that are shipped internationally, will likely cost a bit of money for the winner. Be aware of this if you choose such a prize.



There are three different categories for awards: Highest overall points, consistency, and random draws. The first and last categories are self explanatory. The second category is a little more complex, as it is not pure consistency that allows a competitor to win. A mathematical formula that compares each week's points to eachother will determine how many points a competitor will get. The more consistent these points are, the more points will be awarded. However, it still favours those with higher point production.



The ranking of awards is as follows:



1st place in overall points

1st place in consistency

2nd place in overall points

2nd place in consistency

Random draws



After the winners have selected their prizes, random competitors will be contacted for the random draw for the remaining prizes. Prize selection is similar, in the sense that the winners send in a list of prizes in order of preference. Priority to conflicting selections is awarded to the winner who sends in his or her list first.



All winners have three days to claim their prizes, before a runner up is chosen.



One prize per winner.



Latecomers to a competition will still be allowed to participate in a competition, but if he or she registers after the first week, he or she will be excluded from random draws.



If no progress has been made by a competitor for two weeks in a row, he or she will be disqualified.



Competitors may use as many computers, PS3s, and clients as they wish, so long as they are all under the same username. Entering the competition under multiple names is against the rules, and all usernames involved will be disqualified.



The team leader (hiigaran) is not allowed to join any competition, or win any prizes. This is to prevent any possible disputes that may arise from others who might suspect that I would just take a free prize.



Competitors who have donated prizes may not win their own prizes, nor would they get special consideration.



The mathematical formulas that calculate everyone's points are publicly visible on the score sheet.



Random prizes are chosen by an online randomiser.



Decisions on winners are final. Disqualifications are final. Rules and prizes are subject to change, with or without notice.





