Engadget's Folding@home team crosses the 100,000,000 point mark

It's not often we get to boast about 100,000,000 anything but now, thanks to many of you, we can happily announce that Engadget's Folding@home team has crossed the 100,000,000 point mark, a number likely only rivaled by our combined Xbox Live Achievement Points. Of course, there's plenty more Fold@home points where those came from, and it's never too late to hop on board and put those spare computing cycles of yours to good use (we hear you can even use a certain game console nowadays). Head on over here for all you need to know about getting started.

[kingofwale @ Jan 28th 2008 3:54PM]

*insert PS3 lacking game jokes*

*sighs*

[Jonathan Keim @ Jan 28th 2008 5:09PM]

Unfortunetly, Endgadget doesn't allow us to edit comments :-)

[mike @ Jan 28th 2008 3:56PM]

I think I should give my PS3 folding to Engadget instead my own team...

[ET @ Jan 28th 2008 5:12PM]

Please save some energy, the @homes have waste so much energy with no findings.

[aguiluz @ Jan 28th 2008 4:00PM]

Right! I am hopping aboard!

*prepares microserver*

[Kaiser @ Jan 28th 2008 4:17PM]

Have there been any actual useful discoveries as a result of this app? Or are we all just wasting power?

[aguiluz @ Jan 28th 2008 4:26PM]

http://folding.stanford.edu/English/Science
http://folding.stanford.edu/English/Papers

None YET. But considering the potential of the protein folding to be understood, cures for diseases can - and will - be discovered. Personally, my family has a little line of cancer, and one of them is gone and another is struggling because of it. Worthy cause I say... Worthy cause...

[aguiluz @ Jan 28th 2008 9:12PM]

Is Engadget team 39227? That's what the others said...

Anyway, my microserver:

MODEL: IBM PC 200
OS: Windows 2000
CPU: 200 MHz Pentium 1
RAM: 16 MB
HDD: 3 GB

I have the apps stripped down for it, and it contains a firewall, uTorrent with WebUI (no torrents seeded yet) and Folding@Home. It only has a power cord and an ethernet wire. No Monitor, keyboard or mouse. Remote controlled by TightVNC. Yes, I know it's crappy but it helps and my old 1GHz laptop will join the ranks soon after I wrestle linux in it.

P.S: Guess my screen name... Aguiluz!

[Erwin @ Aug 13th 2008 1:56PM]

Folding@Home is a worthy project, can't say the same for SETI@Home...

[Andrew Rivlin @ Jan 28th 2008 4:00PM]

I gladly donate my PS3 Power 24/7 well when I am not playing Uncharted or COD4, to the Engadget team. 97 Units in 2008!!! WOOT!

[theCardinal @ Jan 28th 2008 4:00PM]

Pity it can't fold in the background, during movies for example. I can't really justify leaving the PS3 on just to fold.

[Greg @ Jan 28th 2008 4:44PM]

It doesn't take too much power, and the PS3 stays quite cool.
I've left mine on for many days straight doing folding... erm... unfortunately, not for engadget, but for my fraternity's folding team.

[DSwarP @ Jan 28th 2008 4:01PM]

F U engadget, team 11314 for-ev-ah!!!!!!!





Seriously though, congrats, nice job helping the cause. :)

[MadMike @ Jan 28th 2008 4:08PM]

My PS3 is set for Team Engadget and I leave it on 24/7. I have it set to come on after being idle for 10 minutes. I also have my 17" MBP crunching in the background when its idle. I had a Windows Server 2008 Enterprise test system running F@H at work, but IT Security quickly blocked it after 2 WU.

I'm building an ultra-low-power PC which uses multiple ARM processors running Slackware Linux. No display, just an Ethernet port with SSH. I can try to load F@H on that.

[Joseph @ Jan 28th 2008 4:10PM]

it appears that engadgets Team Number is 39227
I am going to try and see what my mac pro can do for a little while.

[Phillip @ Jan 28th 2008 4:23PM]

Quick question. I've been trying to find the answer, but I've been unable thus far:

What has "Folding@Home" accomplished thus far (other than making impressive computing records, etc.)? Not being down on it or anything. Just wondering.

[Ali @ Jan 28th 2008 6:04PM]

Absolutely NOTHING! Not Folding, not SETI, not the 50 other rip-offs, nothing has been accomplished and nothing will be from this. There are other ways to tackle these problems... Sorry but I dont believe in this crap..

[Phillip @ Jan 28th 2008 7:30PM]

Hey! The comment-reply email links work! w00t!

[Joseph @ Jan 28th 2008 8:11PM]

according to their site? 51 articles about it.

I think it measures your e-penii of your site/team/.

[fourthletter @ Jan 28th 2008 4:23PM]

folding@home = Huge amounts of energy.

Where do these "spare" cpu cycles come from ? I turn mine off when they are not in use or at least put my media center to sleep, I'd have to leave these on to run folding and therefore use electricity to run my pc (or games console).

Distributed computing is a great tool but the illusion that you use spare cycles is nonsense, Whats really funny is when climate models are run using it, dumping even more carbon into the atmosphere. 1000,000 home computers maybe alot cheaper than a supercomputer but they do use alot more juice ;)

[Jon @ Jan 28th 2008 4:40PM]

I wish the would fix the danged Mac client to run with a NICE priority. I have a 8 core mac pro that sits idle all day that is a serious a$s-kickin machine.

[Jeremy K. @ Jan 28th 2008 5:09PM]

I used to use Folding@Home but have since stopped using it. I was curious if actually using Folding@Home would better the world. I think that rhere are better distributed computing programs out there. World Community Grid seems to be for better purposes; curing aids, cancer, etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Community_Grid

[Raheem @ Jan 28th 2008 5:15PM]

I can't believe no one has mentioned SETI@Home. Come on people, that's also worthy!

[Nick J @ Jan 28th 2008 5:48PM]

I don't think the @home projects are a waste of energy or resources.

Innovation always has to be pushed forwards and when you consider the alternatives are not doing the research or building large supercomputing arrays at huge monetary and enviromental expense then the @home projects become attractive.

[Kido1986 @ Jan 28th 2008 7:35PM]

#40 here on [H], the #1 team in the world. ;-)

[Joseph @ Jan 28th 2008 8:15PM]

it would be a bigger deal if you helped Engadget become #1. you would be singlehandedly responsible.

[Kido1986 @ Jan 28th 2008 9:04PM]

Most of my folding machines are back at a high school I used to work at. I can't get back there with admin rights to change anything. Ive been folding for a few years.

[Dustin Leiblein @ Jan 28th 2008 7:43PM]

I just joined the time! Hopefully my badass quad-core overclocked system will jump up in the ranks soon. :D

[Marvin Quach @ Jan 28th 2008 8:26PM]

Yay! I helped with this too!

[Doug @ Jan 28th 2008 9:32PM]

419 Work units since the PS3 got Folding@Home for Team Endgadget!

My electric bill didn't change noticeably.

[ark_v2 @ Jan 28th 2008 10:40PM]

Do you realize you're just turning this into a sick and nonsense competition?

[Joe Anstine @ Jan 28th 2008 11:07PM]

congrats

[Blaine @ Jan 29th 2008 12:37AM]

Why is it Engadget names Xbox in this blog and they don't even give credit to the "certain game console" that is responsible for the vast majority of folding@home's computational power? PS3 should definitely be named and credited in this blog, and Xbox deserves no free publicity here.

[ioni @ Jan 29th 2008 2:31AM]

We are not quite on your heels, but getting there :)
http://folding.by/news/2008/01/29/komanda-engadget-preodolela-pubezh-v-sto-millionov-ochkov/

[Wwhat @ Jan 29th 2008 4:29AM]

Yeah great concept, let me waste my energy on researching for the weasel medicine manufacturers who can then sell with profit margins of 100000% at prices I can't even afford.
I'm so excited, where can I sign up, and let me buy 3 sony PS3's to prove my adoration.

Incidentally rumsfeld and cheney have a lot of stock in these firms, even more encouragement.

[Ben @ Feb 18th 2008 10:43PM]

Guess you've never had a relative or a friend get diagnosed with Parkinson's, or die because of cancer. Well, I have. Both, multiple times. It's not exactly fun. I intend to download F@H to my PS3 asap, and fold essentially 24/7. I wish you could see the good that this can do.

[Wwhat @ Feb 19th 2008 8:46AM]

Your assumption is wrong, and having people die and seeing the weasels get rich from it does NOT bolster my confidence, thanks.

[axendo @ Jan 29th 2008 11:24PM]

Arguably AIDS research hasn't gotten far, should we give that up also?

[Peter Graham @ Jan 30th 2008 3:19AM]

I'll no doubt add myself to this team. I run Folding@Home on the PS3 and personally think its an amazing concept, but i don't quite understand why so many are choosing Seti over projects like this. I do beleive in Seti and think its an amazing idea but realistically, even if we did find a signal it would no doubt be 100 of thousand years old, extremely degraded and we may not even be able to decode or comprehend it, we wouldn't be able to reply because that could take another 100 000 years, it may be good to know if there is intelligent life out there, which i beleive there is but getting a signal from an alien civilisation wouldn't change much, fair enough we'd know but thats it we wouldn't be able to do anything with it. But with things like Folding@Home, projects like this secure our future and ourselves in sense, helping beat some of the biggest killers on the planets, now how can that not be a benefit to everyone, fair enough certain countries would suffer but in the long run more would survive. As the above comment states about corperations making money, im lucky i stay in the United Kingdom so i'm entitled to free health care, so what profit would be making money then ? Projects like Folding etc are far more likely to produce results than Seti ever will. Was just a thought i run Seti & Rosseta@Home on my desktop and run Folding on my PS3 so i hope for a result from either one, keep on folding, it'll benefit us all one day hopefully.

[ecyrblim @ Jan 31st 2008 9:14PM]

I think folding@home is a great idea, Wwhat. Guess you don't know what this is for. It's not for some medicine manufacturer, it's for Stanford University to research and one day cure diseases like cancer and Parkinsons.

[Tarry @ Aug 14th 2008 3:37AM]

This is great news

http://www.chasetheglow.com

[Tarry @ Aug 14th 2008 3:37AM]

This is great news

http://www.chasetheglow.com