Join the Engadget Folding@home team

So at the request of Engadget readers (or listeners, as it were) who overheard our otherwise waylayed grand plan of storming Stanford's Folding@home project, we're officially announcing the Team Engadget Folding@home, uh, team.

What is Folding@home? Well, in a nutshell you can donate your processor's spare cycles (when it's not computing for you, that is) to the incredibly complex study of protein folding; possible uses for the data including curing many forms of cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's, and all sorts of other diseases.

Want to know more? Go here.
Want to learn how to optimize your system for F@H? Visit hackaday's Folding@home How-To (just don't join their team, join ours).
Want to check out our team page? Go here.

Ready to go? Ok!
Team Engadget's F@H team ID is: 39227

Other questions you may have.

Q: Will Engadget compensate me for my time/cycles/electricity/etc.?
A: Nope.

Q: Do I win anything for being the #1 F@H unit producer on Team Engadget?
A: Nope. But never say never.

Q: Why bother?
A: It�s altruistic, it�s fun, and it might just cure a disease you may one day become afflicted with.

[mroach @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

I think we should start a WhatPulse team, too.

http://www.whatpulse.org

[incognitojoe @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

Hey guys, I think this is a great idea and I am going to jump on board. I like the idea of being even a small part of the research. Many of my family have died as a result of disease so I'd love to help!

Thanks!
Incognitojoe
how not to write a book

[matt2 @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

aw but instead we could all join the folding at home hack a day team

[Robert Aitchison @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

I've got too much invested in Seti@home to stop now :-)

http://setiathome2.ssl.berkeley.edu/fcgi-bin/fcgi?email=robert%40aitchison.org&cmd=user_stats_new

[alex @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

hrmmmm...i'm already on techreport.com team for some time now on my work machine. I'll probably join you guys on my home machine.

[2bkolohe @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

I just registered a G5, 2 G4s and a beefy PC. Good times...

[david @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

havn't did this folding@home thing in a while, so I'll join this later today

[roberto @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

im sticking with the hack a day team. you guys should just join forces. then conquer the world....mha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
no but really you should. then we'd be a force to recon with

[John @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

Will this slow down my computer at all? I realize it only runs while I am not using the computer, but does that mean that you need an always on connection? Can someone describe the details on how it works in a little more detail?

[John @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

Will this slow down my computer at all? I realize it only runs while I am not using the computer, but does that mean that you need an always on connection? Can someone describe the details on how it works in a little more detail?

[Nushio @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

As a daily reader of this blog, I just signed up.

Incredibly, I was considering in doing this (without joining any particular team) today.

I'll sign up my PC at home, and the PC I use at School :D

[John @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

For example, I am sure many people use Peerguardian while simultaneously getting the latest torrent. Not sure on specifics of PG except the basics, but would that interfere with sending recieving packets for F@H?

[dj @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

Already with SETI@Home

sorry.

[Adam @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

There are many projects like Folding@home. The Ligo Scientific Community has set up a similar project to search for gravity waves. It is called Einstein@home. This, along with SETI@home use an open source program called BOINC to handle the data. BOINC will allow you to easily run both SETI@home and Einstein@home on the same machine and divide the time evenly between the two.

See: http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/

[Alex @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

Hey i signed up to help you guys, how come i'm not even on the team page

I went to the trouble of putting your team number into the preferences as well

??

[Chris @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

well i downloaded the program for my G4 ibook, but how exactly do i "join the team?" i don't see a field to enter the number...

help?

[Kevin @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

hey when you complete a WU, you will be on there.

[Concetta @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

Haven't done F@H in awhile, so I hooked up with your team.

Such a cool way to donate to a worthwhile cause.

:-)

[Crankster Ed @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

This is awesome. I am definitly doing this. I'm going too through this onto all 7 of the computers at my house when I get a chance. I think engadget should do more of this type of stuff.

Crankster Ed
http://www.crankcasting.com

[Crankster Ed @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

This is awesome. I'm definitly doing this. I'm also going too throw the client onto the other 6 computers in my house. I think engadget should do more of this type of stuff. Keep up the good work!

Crankster Ed
http://www.crankcasting.com

[Draous @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

I just joined, looks like it takes a long time to do one of theses things. I leave my computer on 24/7 anyways, might as well put it to use.

[Q @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

If you're serious about it, and you want a truly kick-ass team, you will need to pimp the team often and also create a team page somewhere (with forums IMO). Much like how HardOCP and Overclockers Autralia (top 2 FAH teams) do it. If an organized Engadget team does evolve, I'd drop my current team and join.

[wunderbar @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

Bah, you guys should have joined Team MaximumPC, we are currently ranked 9th in the world in folding.

But on a better note, I'm just glad that folding will be getting more CPU's.

Fold until a cure.

wunderbar
Team Maximum PC

[DSLAM @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

I've been on the Overclockers team for something like 4 years now. I wouldn't say it's really worthwhile, but it's nice to know my computer's doing some good while the fan is working all the time.

The other day the fire alarm went off in my dorm at 3AM so we all had to go outside in the cold. Luckily for me, I had my notebook running folding@home at 100% CPU usage tucked under my shirt. Ahhh...

[ajma @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

Yay. I've been running 8 clients since the afternoon and I'm showing up on the team page already :)

[acidreflux @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

People devote their machines to SETI but not to mankind. That is mankind for you.

Well, I guess I have a second processor to spare, so maybe you might have a new member. Like to do a little homework on it first.

Does anybody know if you can run, say, like, Einstein@Home and Folding@Home at the same time overnight? Are you not able to run multiple projects?

[MrMiles @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

Bit of a moral dilemma - to Fold at home or to save the planet by reducing energy consumption? Although, I can always offset my carbon emissions. What I need is a computing equivalent of TerraPass: http://www.terrapass.com

[BillytheImpaler @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

Hey, Engadget, what is this? You're using our body of work to pimp your own differnent team?! Write your own How-To.

That said, if you want to get folding, I suggest you read the How-To -AND- the comments becasue many things are explained in greater detail in the comments; things that I did not cover completely enough in my initial article or things that have changed since its original publication.

END THE FAH APARTHEID! JOIN TEAM 44851! HELP US BREAK THE TOP 100. (See, I can pimp my own team.)
BTW, we're in 178th place right now.

[HellSpawnCometh @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

Just signed up my work comp and will add 2 or 3 more comps at home as soon as I get there...

now I wonder if anyone here will notice if i leave the work comp on 24/7 ?? ROFL

[AndrewCG @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

Just signed up. I hope my name will be on the list soon.

[Shawn @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

Well, I tried. I have over 25 machines sitting in an office that are idle 2/3 of the day, but I can't get them running folding@home because we don't have a proxy for port 8088. Frankly, I can't risk setting one up at this time.

Too bad for folding@home, I guess.

[nizzy1115 @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

ill put my 3.4ghz HTp4/1 gig ram computer on it

[ShatterWulf @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

Can I put multiple computers on one account to get my numbers up?

[zim01 @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

shatterwolf...absolutely

[w3designer @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

Oops, i followed hackadays tutorial a little too closely, and joined them. oh well both are great sites working twords a common goal anyway. maybe the "(just don�t join their team, join ours)." should be in bold:P

[janglehouse @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

joined with five cpu's today.

[Morten Skogly @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

I'm in. But I must say that I'm a little paranoid about the results ending up in closed patents. I couldn't find anything about that on their pages, which is not a good sign. I'm shure I'm just being silly, but I'll take silly over naive any day.

[Screwballl @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

Already fold with MaximumPC for almost a year now. To answer some questions here, it will not interfere with any other program on your computer, it will not block or stop any network functions. It uses SPARE cpu cycles so if you fire up HL2 it will back down its usage and allow HL2 full reign of the cpu power. When you're done it will ramp itself back up.
For more info try here:
http://maximumpc.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8036

[Christopher Shortt @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

I am in!

Chris

[Futhark21 @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

Just signed up 4 different servers that I run and 3 beefy pc's... Fun stuff!

[Silver @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

Yea, seriously, join up with Hack-a-Day. We're all (or used to be anyway...) one big family. And I don't want to have to pick between my farourite blogs.

[Tim @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

Wil it work on a iMac G3? What to do whit the screensaver? What about sleep?
I like to join.

[Tony @ Mar 23rd 2007 11:41AM]

Just joined and put the PS3 online - at 4% done still have 8 hours to go, but don't think it will take that long.. love the globe background, hopefully more zoom and detail get added one day!

Thanks,

BonesSK

[awaken @ Jun 4th 2007 4:16AM]

The thought of idle CPU cycles picking through massive, if not infinite amounts of radio signals intrigues me(SETI) ... At the same time, protein interactions are currently being mapped at a speed which only mass computing can allow. My comment is, why not put our eggs in one basket and speed up the SETI bandwagon in hopes that ET will just tell us the secrets we need so desperately to know! I predict the Folding@Home team will discover hundreds if not thousands of cures, meanwhile, team SETI will waist countless cycles looking for something that pretty much doesn't exist and brag about their WU's.