Mac OS X Client Released For Folding@home

throwthag writes "There is finally a Mac OS X client for Stanford University's protein folding distributed processing project and I have created a team for all Mac OS X users out there called, appropriately enough, Team MacOS X."

Comments

Folding @Home

[douglips]

I thought this had something to do with a certain bankrupt cable ISP.

Confusing title(OT)

[Strog]

I thought there was some kind of OSX client for an @home cable network going under.

Back OT

This looks pretty interesting to me. My wife has a biology degree (among others) and I remember this stuff from her bio-chem days. I used to help her study and this goes way beyond that but still interests me anyway.

Distributed computing and gene pools

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, I need some volunteers to run some software that, um, runs simulations of nuclear explosions. How about a nice game of chess?

copyright?

[dewhite]

Have these guys gotten the green light from the Berkeley people to use the @home monicker? I'm sure they don't _have_ to, but I just wonder if the Berkeley team has a warm spot in thier heart for these folks, or if it's viewed more as competition for our processor time.

BTW I'm a long time S@H user, which is why this interests me (I have about 2400 units done over the course of the last 25 months).

Re:copyright?

[Daniel Dvorkin]

There are now a whole bunch of ...@home projects going on, and I don't think the Berkeley folks have complained about any of them.

Join team #MAFirc!

[RevAaron]

Hola! Team #MAFirc is #1855... a bunch of refugees from the dying MacAddict forums who are denizens of #mafirc on irc.openprojects.net, plus a whole bunch who aren't. :)

Well.

[Anonymous Coward]

Even if they somehow got the copyright "*Anything*@Home" (impossible I'd say, though look @ Verizon, they managed to copyright the peace sign), I'd assume that being an institute of learning they could care less. Seti and Folding @Home are both good uses of the world's unused clock cycles.

F@H Client issues

[ShmakDown]

I've been folding for a while now from my linux box. I recently downloaded and installed the OS X terminal client but haven't had any luck with it. Has anyone gotten it to work on an iBook successfully? I haven't seen it complete a frame yet....

Re:F@H Client issues

[Anonymous Coward]

If you are folding Protein A, the project schedules you 9 days to complete it (and it'll take at least a few days)--this will give you an idea of the amount of patience you will need to see it finish a work unit.

Run it minimized and ignore it. It'll do the work.

Re:F@H Client issues

[ShmakDown]

Like I said before, I have been folding with my linux box. I understand the process and how long work units and frames take. When I start the OS X terminal client on my G3 iBook, it freezes before it gets to the point where it starts working on frames, and if I leave it there over night or running for a few days it still does not complete a single frame. It's like it gets hung up in the initialization process. Jim

Is it just me?

[SengirV]

But, when processor hungry apps like this are released, they should be screen savers first then be released as stand alone. Not the other way around.

With out a screen saver "mode" this has been placed immediately in the trash.

Re:Is it just me?

[SirRichardPumpaloaf]

It runs at a low priority, so it's pretty much the same thing. I've been running it for a few days now and haven't really noticed any impact on my normal use of the computer.

PS: If a P-II 400 really can process a frame in one day as they say, then either the Mac client is badly coded or my iBook is a total wuss. :-)

Re:Is it just me?

[Eccles]

PS: If a P-II 400 really can process a frame in one day as they say, then either the Mac client is badly coded or my iBook is a total wuss. :-)

The app I work on runs under OS 9 and OS X, and some purely cross-platform, no-user interface code runs almost three times as slowly under OS X. I don't know what they did to hobble the processor so, but they sure did something awful.

Presumably the folding computations require 64-bit accuracy, and thus can't take advantage of Altivec.

Re:Is it just me?

[Anonymous Coward]

Depends on the protein. The PII comparison is spurious--nobody can do the latest proteins in 24 hours.

Just be patient with it. In this case the cause outweighs all other issues, IMHO.

Re:Is it just me?

[Incadenza]

>It runs at a low priority, so it's pretty much the same thing.

And even if it doesn't just remember you are working on *nix. In case of doubt about any distributed computing process, just use the renice command. At nice 20, it will have no impact whatsoever on your performance. (well, that's not entirely true: some clients are memory hogs that will increase swapping and thus decrease performance)

Why folding?

[Paradise Pete]

So why should I do protein folding rather than some other distributed project?

I'm not being sarcastic, I'm really asking.

Re:Why folding?

[Jonny 290]

It's got a medical use. And yes, there are other distributed clients for medical use, but make sure that they're for nonprofits (e.g. universities.) A couple of pharmaceutical companies thought it'd be slick to try to get a large number of distributed clients doing work for them for free, while they profit and sit on the cure for AIDS (sorry, off on a tangent there).

Seti@home is being taken care of nicely, and the encryption breaking DC things are just silly. They *know* that they can crack it given enough time. Shouldn't that be enough of a consolation?

Re:Why folding?

[jeblucas]

Protein folding is the "great problem" of bio-science today. The Human Genome Project is small taters next to the -real- big issue--The Proteome Project.

Genes are nice, they certainly ~do~ indicate predilictions towards diseases, behaviors etc, but proteisn are the actual workhorses of the body and the actual CAUSE of the diseases etc. The more we understand about proteins, the closer we are to understanding, well, just about everything about us. Read here for a nice intro.

And folding is the real stinker. We can get the gene that codes for a protein. We can see the little ribosomes chug along and make the protein. And then the protein folds up and that's why it works. If it folds like ~this~ it's normal, all friendly. If it folds like ~that~ it's a prion that convinces other normal proteins to fold up just like it and you die of Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease.

Finding some alien radio transmitter sure would be nice, but finding out why folks die from cystic fibrosis might be a better way to spend downtime.

Re:Why folding?

[Paradise Pete]

Thanks. You've convinced me.

Re:Why folding?

[kevincoleman]

Because I'm asking you to. Seriously.

My son has cystic fibrosis, a life-shortening genetic disease. The folding@home project is helping to find a cure for (among other illnesses) CF; this is obviously something that is near-and-dear to me, and I personally thank from the bottom of my heart anyone who contributes to CF research, be it by donating spare computer cycles to fund raising to whatever.

Just my two cents.

Kevin

What about MP support ?

[mAIsE]

I am running the client on a dual 1GHZ quick silver and it looks like it is fully monopolizing one processor only, not both like distribute.net will.

maybe that is for 2.1

...and I thought it was a joke

[brarrr]

I saw "folding@home" and I thought they were talking about an ex dot com at first.