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PS3 Owners To Simulate Gene Folding
fistfullast33l writes "According to IGN UK, the next version of Playstation firmware will include a joint venture from Stanford University and Sony called Folding@Home. Similar to the infamous SETI@Home project, Folding@Home will be an idle application that participates in a simulation that 'aims to map the way that genes change shape (or fold), so they can be studied by scientists and, potentially, cure illnesses such as Parkinson's or a variety of cancers.' The application will download a 'work unit' that it will unravel to completion, update Stanford's servers, and then download the next unit and continue." We've previously discussed the client; it will be available as an update at the end of the month, and should appear on your cross-media bar once installed.
So who's Gene Folding?
Usually you release distributed computing applications on computers which have a large market share... Meh, I'll be doing my part though (when i'm not playing FF-(fill in the blank))
"Dictator Flakes. They WILL be delicious."
Yet the article and blurb seem to imply that it's a new thing.
Also, here's the info on the Folding@Home website:
http://folding.stanford.edu/FAQ-PS3.html
There's not much else to do with a PS3.
I was thinking recently: if I could get the credit card cycle beginning right, I could defer payment on any electricity I buy for 110 days. (55 days from first day of electricity billing cycle to due date, 55 days from beginning of credit card to its due date.) If I use it steadily for the whole month, that's on average 95 days still, or about a quarter (of a year).
So, if there were a way to convert electricity into roughly its monetary value, I could put it in a money market account for (on average) 95 days, and then keep the interest that accrued. (5% per year at today's money market rates)
So, anyone know if you can charge enough for PS3 computing cycles for this to be worth it?
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
Maybe you guys mean protein folding?
Maybe this is the application Sony is looking for to utilise the full power of the PS3.
Any sufficiently advanced bug is indistinguishable from a feature.
I must have missed something, since when is SETI@home infamous?
It's sad when choosing an installation directory on your own qualifies you as an "advanced user."
proteins do..
So, would I need to leave the PS3 running 24x7 folding@home, racking up $100+ in costs, for this?
Explain to me why SETI is considered "in"famous? from everything I've heard and read, the project was a major breakthrough in multi-computer processing of data, opened up a new way of analyzing data on a massive scale, and even revealed some possible locations in which to begin looking for radio transmissions. Excepting a few debacles with people getting fired from using work computers, how could SETI be considered anything but a complete success?
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
...but the numbers keep on circling me.
Just a little help for those who were wondering what the department's name was all about.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Hmm... Sony pretending that something that's been around forever is something new and exciting because it involves the PS3? Surely you jest!
(Sorry, sorry, I know, cheap shot. I just couldn't resist.)
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
Eh, I'm still glad to see a company put that out there. It's good work, pure science, and the results aren't "owned" by anyone.
Definitely makes me think more kindly of Sony...It's obviously a PR scam, but I really don't care...They could have done a lot of different things for PR, and this one will actually do some good.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
Stupid question maybe, but why would this be distributed as a firmware update and not as a downloadable 'game' from the Playstation(R)Network Store?
I can understand (and have commented before on the need for) a firmware update to add 'applications' or some such option to the XMB for non-game software, but I can't see that the software itself should require this distribution method.
Anyone able to shed light on this?
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
Exactly. The problem is that SETI is a long shot.
When you participate in gene-folding, or protein-folding (as in the Baker Labs at the University of Washington, which win year after year in best predictions), you know that it's going to useful research that actually helps us understand how things actually work.
Nothing against SETI - I did many packets for them back in the day.
But, practically, it's more fun to do something like cure cancer (UK site) or fold proteins (UW - search for Baker Labs in Biochemistry, my old department) that are used to find cures for malaria, TB, and so on.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Maybe they can use this massive amount of distributed processing power to come up with a game worth playing.
Really, really. It's the games. Home might be nifty (although also microtransactiony) and this might be a good idea, but neither of these are going to move systems. I get the feeling Sony's treading water, hoping for something to pop up.
Why was the SETI@Home project "infamous"? What did it do that was evil or malicious?
These isn't even a malapropism because you didn't use it to mean "not famous" as most do. Why don't people proofread a single paragraph that goes to millions? (I'll never no...oops, I mean "know")
-- I'm embarassed to look like Hemos.
A a good game for the Ps3...heheheh
I kid I kid
What do you mean? How are the results not "owned" by anyone? The only people who will profit are the pharmaceutical companies. Other scientists may benefit from the use of this data, but in the long run all it does is provide a free pool of data at the user's expense that will ultimately benefit the companies doing research into drugs to treat disease so that they can charge an arm and a leg to keep people alive.
Curing cancer and other disease is still beneficial to the world, but it's not like this information is itself going to be put to some altruistic use that will benefit all of mankind through some sort of free pill that will cure you. It'll be used by companies like Pharmacia & Upjohn to help their R&D create drugs that you'll take the rest of your life to not die. Now, if they want to pay me for the utilization or at least cover my electric costs, I might reconsider. Otherwise... meh.
I'll donate my cycles when a company starts offering me stock in compensation.
Wake me when my PS3 can fold all my laundry. I don't even have that many jeans, anyway.
My genes hold up well enough just in a pile with the rest of the laundry, I've never felt the need to fold them.
Cause if it isn't... I imagine there'll be a huge backlash when people notice their PS3 is constantly drawing 0.4kW whenever it's on.
The PS3 actually will cure cancer?
"This thing does science so hard, you say, 'I've never seen that much science.'" -Sam
So essentially, we're taking a console that's notorious for overheating (just visit a few stores with kiosks and count how many are functional), and running the CPU at full throttle, 24 hours a day nonstop. Does anybody else find this slightly unnerving?
I thought Folding@Home was bad because they do work for large private companies. So basically you are doing their work for them, and they get all the $$$.
The PS3 sucks too much power for me to be part of any @Home program. Since I've had my PS3 hooked up (November) I've let it idly on at times, and other times turned off. That's how I've operated my frequently played video game systems my whole life. If I've just finished a game of basketball, maybe I want to leave it on the screen where I can come back later and have a rematch, or maybe I want to pause my game when I get to a boss and pick it up the next day... Well, treating my PS3 like this has resulted in a $15-$20 spike in my electricity bill. In the last month I've been more mindful of keeping my PS3 turned off when not in use, and magically that huge spike disappeared. It's run quietly which is great, but it sucks power like a it's another desktop pc left on 24/7. I don't even want imagine how much it would cost me per month if I let the CPU crunch numbers for some @Home project the whole month.
I'll pass.
Trust me, the results from things like Fondling@Home are pretty much worthless to all drug companies. Especially Pharmacia & Upjohn, since they no longer exist. If you don't like the fact that drugs are created by private, for-profit corporations, maybe you should talk to the US government about where they choose to spend their money. Developing a new drug costs ~1 billion. The US is spending $5bil a month in Iraq. That's ~60 new drugs a year. The FDA only approved ~30 NCE's last year. That's right, for the low low price of one war in Iraq, you could literally double the output of the entire pharmaceutical R&D industry, and it would all be owned by the US taxpayers.
1984 was supposed to be a warning, not an instruction manual.
Wii owners to simulate Gene ironing
Always back up, never back down. ---- Think you're cool 'cos your uid is prime? Take mine, modulo the one digit integers
Actually, they started the project way back in 1976, and time-travalled to our time to get PS3s to start working early, as you can see in http://folding.stanford.edu/abeta-PS3.jpg.
Visualizing these largish molecules is going to be interesting.
The SETI program has just started and has only looked at a very small amount of space outside of our solar system. With the Paul Allen radio telescope array coming on stream in the next few years we will them have a full time SETI telescope looking at the radio spectrum. There are also optical SETI telescopes now coming on line (looking for high-speed laser communication signals that leak out or are intentionally sent). We are just in the first micro-seconds of searching for alien signals, up to now, the SETI program has to borrow telescope time, the discovery of other intellegent life in the universe will have a fundamental impact of this world (perhaps less wasting resources on constants wars).
http://folding.stanford.edu/faq.html#project.own
Who "owns" the results? What will happen to them? Unlike other distributed computing projects, Folding@home is run by an academic institution (specifically the Pande Group, at Stanford University's Chemistry Department), which is a nonprofit institution dedicated to science research and education. We will not sell the data or make any money off of it.
Moreover, we will make the data available for others to use. In particular, the results from Folding@home will be made available on several levels. Most importantly, analysis of the simulations will be submitted to scientific journals for publication, and these journal articles will be posted on the web page after publication. Next, after publication of these scientific articles which analyze the data, the raw data of the folding runs will be available for everyone, including other researchers, here on this web site.
Please get all the facts before being all snotty about a GOOD CAUSE.
Alright, we have phong shading, but at least some specular bloom. Folding@home are taking their first steps into next-generation graphics!
Why bother.
It's not ok to leave the console on because of heat, electricity, cost and inability to use it while folding? But it's ok on the computer because you usually leave it on anyway?
/. over the years, but this wins a special prize. Congratulations, you've just compared an apple to an apple and declared one unfit because it has seeds and a skin. Good luck with that science carreer.
Are you aware that your computer uses more electricity and produces more heat when it's running at max CPU than at idle? Yep, it's true. And maybe you didn't know that when you start using your computer, the F@H client will also stop processing data? Exactly like the console, you must make a choice to help science or use the equipment you paid for.
A PS3 will cost more per flop and will consume more electricity than an off-the-shelf Dell, and it's more likely to overheat to the point of breaking? You just made those up, didn't you? You really have no clue whether they're true. You don't even really have any good rumors or guesses to suggest these are true enough to make a decision on whether or not to run the client.
I've read a lot of stuff on