Interviewing the Forum: How and why did you begin using folding@home?

[damric]

The title says it all. How did you come about participating in folding@home?

 

For me, I had some curiosity back when I had first joined some of the old overclocking forums back in the day. My buddy @neurotix always told me that folding was the ultimate stability test. So I messed around with it from time to time, but never anything serious until last year when @BWG began looking for testers for the new ETF league here at extremehw. I saw the ETF league as an opportunity to sharpen my overclocking skills, and I had many bumps along the road as I learned that the ETF league was more about endurance than just raw speed. I learned so much from the veterans here, and especially my first team, Out of Beta, that eventually I decided it was time to create my own team, hoping to expand the league a little bit more. Plus, one of my best childhood friends, @JosephStewartPE got very curious about my folding test benches, and I was able to recruit him to my team after we built him a PC. Now I have at least 3 clients folding in our home at any given time. I have my ETF test bench currently running a disappointing Quadro M2000 overclocked darn near +90%, Michele has her GTX 750 overclocked about +40%, and whatever card I'm testing on my extra slot on my main bench. I mostly try and fold on very light power cards, but sometimes I also fold on my Vega64 to help heat the home on cold winter days

 

What about the rest of you?

Edited February 16, 2022 by damric

[Avacado]

Would have been early 2000's for me. LGA 775 Core 2 Duo. Was all about the CPU folding back then. I remember one of the 1st hospitals I worked at, I would install F@H on all of the computers I got my hands on. I think at one point I had installed my "Malware" on 40 computers all running F@H light. Working on getting a rig going again. Will most likely be the 3060Ti and the Tesla M40 Quad GPU.  

[ArchStanton]

I have not participated to date, though joining this forum has convinced me to learn more about it and possible crunch some proteins in the future. 

[schuck6566]

I had ran across an article about it,then ran across it on the old OCN site and had it on my old comp for a week or 2 because I liked the idea of helping the medical field.I was quickly turned off to the idea of being part of a "team" when people kinda complained about low results from me. Now when I get in the mood,I install and run for a week or 2. No pressure and no worries.

[Diffident]

Cause I wanted that cool OCN folding@home badge. Didn't everybody?   But I prefer Boinc.

[tenchimuyo93]

Started with Seti@home, but after my uncle got (and later died from) Cancer, I swapped my cycles to F@H with OCN. 

 

figured it was my way of trying to fight back. 

 

 

Will switch my odroid and RPi3 to seti from WCG if they ever come back up though. who knows maybe ET will cure most everything if we can talk to them

Edited February 17, 2022 by tenchimuyo93

[pio]

I started because I wanted that cool badge that Zodac was handing out over at OCN.  Had to have been like 2008 or so.  Got my badge, quit the folding.  I figure Stanford University has enough scientists and actual equipment on hand, they don't NEED my personal machines to run for them.  So I don't do it for that reason, although if you're into virtue signaling.....hey, I'm helping to find a cure for cancer and covid right?  

 

Joined up here at EHW ONLY because @BWG kept bugging me on Steam to join the forum and fold to help grow the team here.  Finally, one day, he convinced me after several months of bugging me.   Little did I know what I was signing up for here at EHW........

 

Now, I have my folding rig going 24/7 for the team.  It's not much, but its something.  Was able to guesstimate that a 290x would do better than a 580, and somehow it did.  So that helped me to climb the ranks a little bit I guess.  The only reason its still going is because I  each and every one of you here at EHW, and I want to see EHW grow and become what we all know forums can be.  A great place for learning, and a community of like minded people on the pursuit of performance and enjoyment.

Edited February 17, 2022 by pioneerisloud

[BWG]

7 hours ago, pioneerisloud said:

I started because I wanted that cool badge that Zodac was handing out over at OCN.  Had to have been like 2008 or so.  Got my badge, quit the folding.  I figure Stanford University has enough scientists and actual equipment on hand, they don't NEED my personal machines to run for them.  So I don't do it for that reason, although if you're into virtue signaling.....hey, I'm helping to find a cure for cancer and covid right?  

 

Joined up here at EHW ONLY because @BWG kept bugging me on Steam to join the forum and fold to help grow the team here.  Finally, one day, he convinced me after several months of bugging me.   Little did I know what I was signing up for here at EHW........

 

Now, I have my folding rig going 24/7 for the team.  It's not much, but its something.  Was able to guesstimate that a 290x would do better than a 580, and somehow it did.  So that helped me to climb the ranks a little bit I guess.  The only reason its still going is because I  each and every one of you here at EHW, and I want to see EHW grow and become what we all know forums can be.  A great place for learning, and a community of like minded people on the pursuit of performance and enjoyment.

 

@zodac? Who is 'Z'odac?  We love you too, man! Thank you for getting back into it.

 

I bugged so many people over my year to join and fold. I'd like to claim partial responsibility for the astronomical increase in folding production vs the only @axipher era . I was very much looking forward to at least a 200% increase in pay in 2022 when @ENTERPRISEfinished out annual staff reviews. 200% of 0 = 0

 

But, I came on here to update what's going on in the other thread. Saw a few tags. I might as well spill the beans on the OP. I am off tomorrow through Monday. Much needed break.

 

I got into folding because of zodac. I thought it was a cute girl. (kidding) I believe it all started for me during a Chimp Challenge in 2011. Not too long after than, he was leaving, and I was one of 3 people picked to replace him, and I began Editing to collectively fill his shoes which we could never fill because he was a beast at tasking. I truly wonder what % of his life was dedicated to all of this during the time he was Editing because I never saw someone accomplish as much as him on a Forum. But, youth mixed with not a whole lot of responsibility = time. I remember around that time, or shortly after, was when axipher, sweffymo, jedixjarf, and amd_sli_guru edited. I still talk to all of those guys after all of these years. anubis1127 stepped in after retirement #1. We talk daily even if it's just me saying I got a Baconator this morning.

 

No matter what happens, I do try to stay in touch. Even if it's just inviting everyone to Steam Chat 1x annually. I still occasionally IRC in the #No! chan I passed onto scraps along with ss_patrick, blitz_6804, and a few other old names that I could never get to fold again.

 

One thing I will say to @damricand everyone else here. I was never a folding wiz. I was a people person. I am not the most inclined in software or coding, although I have dabbled. I am a decent overclocker. I've done some things that were pretty risky and cool (like the K5000 that's at 50% folding production yet benchmarks fine - never could figure that out - tried flashing, drivers, clean installs etc.) You don't have to be a folding wiz to lead a team. You can learn to be, or at least study what you can. There were groups of people in the past that zodac organized who were gurus. Strong coding skills. Understanding how folding functions. Things like that. Folding Focus Group. cptasian, tictoc, axipher, and probably the most up to speed person right now would be firedfly, in my opinion. You can learn a lot on the folding forum for f@h. Also, they have a Discord Server. 

 

/end rant

 

 

Edited February 17, 2022 by BWG

[ENTERPRISE]

11 hours ago, pioneerisloud said:

I started because I wanted that cool badge that Zodac was handing out over at OCN.  Had to have been like 2008 or so.  Got my badge, quit the folding.  I figure Stanford University has enough scientists and actual equipment on hand, they don't NEED my personal machines to run for them.  So I don't do it for that reason, although if you're into virtue signaling.....hey, I'm helping to find a cure for cancer and covid right?  

 

Joined up here at EHW ONLY because @BWG kept bugging me on Steam to join the forum and fold to help grow the team here.  Finally, one day, he convinced me after several months of bugging me.   Little did I know what I was signing up for here at EHW........

 

Now, I have my folding rig going 24/7 for the team.  It's not much, but its something.  Was able to guesstimate that a 290x would do better than a 580, and somehow it did.  So that helped me to climb the ranks a little bit I guess.  The only reason its still going is because I  each and every one of you here at EHW, and I want to see EHW grow and become what we all know forums can be.  A great place for learning, and a community of like minded people on Pushing It To The Limit.

 

Fixed.  

 

4 hours ago, BWG said:

 

@zodac? Who is 'Z'odac?  We love you too, man! Thank you for getting back into it.

 

I bugged so many people over my year to join and fold. I'd like to claim partial responsibility for the astronomical increase in folding production vs the only @axipher era . I was very much looking forward to at least a 200% increase in pay in 2022 when @ENTERPRISEfinished out annual staff reviews. 200% of 0 = 0

 

But, I came on here to update what's going on in the other thread. Saw a few tags. I might as well spill the beans on the OP. I am off tomorrow through Monday. Much needed break.

 

I got into folding because of zodac. I thought it was a cute girl. (kidding) I believe it all started for me during a Chimp Challenge in 2011. Not too long after than, he was leaving, and I was one of 3 people picked to replace him, and I began Editing to collectively fill his shoes which we could never fill because he was a beast at tasking. I truly wonder what % of his life was dedicated to all of this during the time he was Editing because I never saw someone accomplish as much as him on a Forum. But, youth mixed with not a whole lot of responsibility = time. I remember around that time, or shortly after, was when axipher, sweffymo, jedixjarf, and amd_sli_guru edited. I still talk to all of those guys after all of these years. anubis1127 stepped in after retirement #1. We talk daily even if it's just me saying I got a Baconator this morning.

 

No matter what happens, I do try to stay in touch. Even if it's just inviting everyone to Steam Chat 1x annually. I still occasionally IRC in the #No! chan I passed onto scraps along with ss_patrick, blitz_6804, and a few other old names that I could never get to fold again.

 

One thing I will say to @damricand everyone else here. I was never a folding wiz. I was a people person. I am not the most inclined in software or coding, although I have dabbled. I am a decent overclocker. I've done some things that were pretty risky and cool (like the K5000 that's at 50% folding production yet benchmarks fine - never could figure that out - tried flashing, drivers, clean installs etc.) You don't have to be a folding wiz to lead a team. You can learn to be, or at least study what you can. There were groups of people in the past that zodac organized who were gurus. Strong coding skills. Understanding how folding functions. Things like that. Folding Focus Group. cptasian, tictoc, axipher, and probably the most up to speed person right now would be firedfly, in my opinion. You can learn a lot on the folding forum for f@h. Also, they have a Discord Server. 

 

/end rant

 

 

 

Well we are certainly glad that you were the dev...I mean angel in everyone's ears bud.

[Fluxmaven]

I folded a little bit around a decade ago because I thought it sounded cool and wanted to stress test one of my PCs. 

 

The last couple years I got back onto OCN and started participating in the foldathons just in time for folding to pretty much dry up over there.

 

So I finally made an account here and have been folding a bit. Not sure if I want to commit to joining a team yet. 

[ciarlatano]

I've been folding at home as long as I can remember. There was a week back in 2018 when my dryer had a bad ignitor and I took a couple of loads to the laundromat, other than that, it has always been done at home.

[Avacado]

2 hours ago, ciarlatano said:

I've been folding at home as long as I can remember. There was a week back in 2018 when my dryer had a bad ignitor and I took a couple of loads to the laundromat, other than that, it has always been done at home.

[damric]

3 hours ago, ENTERPRISE said:

 

Fixed.  

 

 

Well we are certainly glad that you were the dev...I mean angel in everyone's ears bud.

Interested in your own f@h story when you get time, E.

[ciarlatano]

1 hour ago, Avacado said:

[zodac]

18 hours ago, pioneerisloud said:

I started because I wanted that cool badge that Zodac was handing out over at OCN.  Had to have been like 2008 or so.

 

I think that was before I took over actually, the milestone badges were there before me. I think it was mortimersnerd who was in charge back when I joined. But I'll happy take credit.  

 

I actually only got involved with the community because I was rocking a Pentium D at the time, which was good for ~150 PPD. No job either, so was stuck on that for a couple years until people felt I was embarrassing them and got me some better parts.  So I spent time convincing other people instead and just made a lot of guides. I kept all the screenshots too! And a few plans for other events that I sadly never got around to.  

 

Then I was asked to take over, and started running events. Restarted the TC with help from a lot of other people. Had a lot of fun for a couple of years, but man, did I lose out on sleep and then I nearly failed my uni course.  Huge arguments with other forums whenever the Chimp Challenge came around. Lost a few people in the community too.

 

Eventually took a step back and let people like  @BWG and @axipher get involved.   Now I'm far more casual, but the numbers have skyrocketed so much, feels like I'm just a drop in the ocean. Nice to hang out and chat with folk though.  Plus working on the ETF site gives me something to procrastinate on for my actual job.

[pio]

3 minutes ago, zodac said:

 

I think that was before I took over actually, the milestone badges were there before me. I think it was mortimersnerd who was in charge back when I joined. But I'll happy take credit.  

 

I actually only got involved with the community because I was rocking a Pentium D at the time, which was good for ~150 PPD. No job either, so was stuck on that for a couple years until people felt I was embarrassing them and got me some better parts.  So I spent time convincing other people instead and just made a lot of guides. I kept all the screenshots too! And a few plans for other events that I sadly never got around to.  

 

Then I was asked to take over, and started running events. Restarted the TC with help from a lot of other people. Had a lot of fun for a couple of years, but man, did I lose out on sleep and then I nearly failed my uni course.  Huge arguments with other forums whenever the Chimp Challenge came around. Lost a few people in the community too.

 

Eventually took a step back and let people like  @BWG and @axipher get involved.   Now I'm far more casual, but the numbers have skyrocketed so much, feels like I'm just a drop in the ocean. Nice to hang out and chat with folk though.  Plus working on the ETF site gives me something to procrastinate on for my actual job.

Nah, I don't remember morty running things, it was definitely you when I personally joined the folding community over there.  I think morty was still around at the time though.

[ENTERPRISE]

20 hours ago, damric said:

Interested in your own f@h story when you get time, E.

 

Well I first found out about F@H when I started my journey in tech communities on OCN. It was always of interest to me and I though the project from a human value was very worthwhile, even though I was not invested in it from a personal standpoint (such as having a family member with cancer). To cut a huge saga short, that changed when I found out that there was a family history of Huntingtons Disease that runs in the family. After a long saga and much heartache, I eventually was tested after a year of mandatory counselling. Sadly I was tested positive when I was 18 (minimum age for testing due to suicide rates), meaning that at some point in my lifetime I will develop the condition. 

 

So yeah, that got me a little more invested in it. Granted my ability to fold personally is a no go at the moment, but I feel it important to make sure we have a healthy team here at EHW

[Avacado]

32 minutes ago, ENTERPRISE said:

 

Well I first found out about F@H when I started my journey in tech communities on OCN. It was always of interest to me and I though the project from a human value was very worthwhile, even though I was not invested in it from a personal standpoint (such as having a family member with cancer). To cut a huge saga short, that changed when I found out that there was a family history of Huntingtons Disease that runs in the family. After a long saga and much heartache, I eventually was tested after a year of mandatory counselling. Sadly I was tested positive when I was 18 (minimum age for testing due to suicide rates), meaning that at some point in my lifetime I will develop the condition. 

 

So yeah, that got me a little more invested in it. Granted my ability to fold personally is a no go at the moment, but I feel it important to make sure we have a healthy team here at EHW

Oh my god E, I didn't know you had Huntington's. That's horrible, it might take a few minutes for the other guys to realize what you just told us. Hopefully not symptomatic yet. I can't possibly imagine how you have come to grips with that. I'm really, REALLY sad right now, damn (Like really). Here if you ever need anything. 

Edited February 18, 2022 by Avacado

[ENTERPRISE]

47 minutes ago, Avacado said:

Oh my god E, I didn't know you had Huntington's. That's horrible, it might take a few minutes for the other guys to realize what you just told us. Hopefully not symptomatic yet. I can't possibly imagine how you have come to grips with that. I'm really, REALLY sad right now, damn (Like really). Here if you ever need anything. 

I appreciate the support bud. You come to accept and carry on but the journey to that is long and hard. To be honest, there is no end to that journey. There are good days and bad days from a mental standpoint, its not something you "get over". A lot of the pain was the Saga leading up to and after diagnosis. Family can be..... difficult.

 

Fortunately, not symptomatic yet. 33 and still going. 

 

During the tough days, back in my teens, I buried my head into tech and OCN. The community and helping others helped me from day to day. I was lucky to have that as a passion. 

 

I may one day do a "A Day in the life of ENTERPRISE - The Huntington years" lol, that will be a long writeup.

[damric]

4 hours ago, ENTERPRISE said:

 

Well I first found out about F@H when I started my journey in tech communities on OCN. It was always of interest to me and I though the project from a human value was very worthwhile, even though I was not invested in it from a personal standpoint (such as having a family member with cancer). To cut a huge saga short, that changed when I found out that there was a family history of Huntingtons Disease that runs in the family. After a long saga and much heartache, I eventually was tested after a year of mandatory counselling. Sadly I was tested positive when I was 18 (minimum age for testing due to suicide rates), meaning that at some point in my lifetime I will develop the condition. 

 

So yeah, that got me a little more invested in it. Granted my ability to fold personally is a no go at the moment, but I feel it important to make sure we have a healthy team here at EHW

Wow I didn't really know what Huntington's was until I just read up on it. Says it affects you at a pretty young age too. I'm glad you found it early, and I hope there will soon be better treatments.

 

Now I understand your passion for keeping our team together.