How would you like to participate in finding a cure for such diseases as Alzheimer's, Cancer, Huntington's and Parkinson's?
What if i told you it wouldn't cost you a penny?
Now what if i told you it doesn't require you to have any medical knowledge and it can be done while your performing your daily computer work/gaming?
You would be very interested in a program like that wouldn't you?
Well here is your chance. Come join Xtreme CPU's Folding@Home Team.
So what is Folding@Home?
Folding@Home is a distributed computing project. People from around the world download software to there computers that allows all the computers running the software to act as a large super computer. With this supercomputer scientist are able to study how proteins fold and miss fold.
So what is a Protein and what does it have to do with curring disease?
Proteins are like natures work horses. Before a protein can carry out its function they have to assemble themselves or Fold. Its when Proteins do not fold correctly, or misfold, that we get diseases like Alzheimer's, Cancer and the others mentioned above. Folding@Homes objective is to better understand how proteins fold so that they can figure out why these diseases happen. From there they are better able to find a cure.
How do i get involved?
Go to Stanford's
Folding@Home page and download the client that best suites your computer. For more information about the different folding clients and which one you should use check the links below.
XCPUs.com Team Needs You
F@H Configuration Guide
Does this effect my computer's performance and does it bog down my Internet connection?
No, the clients are designed to use only the processing power your system isn't using. If your system requires more processing power then the F@H clients back off. F@H only connects to the Internet when it needs to download a new work package (WU) or when it needs to send a completed WU in.
You said something about a team?
Yes. As you complete WU you are awarded points based on the client your running, the WU's size and the amount of time you completed the WU in. You can start your own team or join an existing team helping the team work through the ranks of the more then 74000 teams. You can also work anonymously and not get involved in any teams. When you download and install your client you will be prompted to choose a user name and a team number. Xtreme CPU's team number is 75255. Once you are part of a team you can track your teams stats at EOC's Folding Stats Page.
Here is XCPU's Folding stats. You will see there is a wleth of information there. Only the teams that are in the top 800 ranks get to see there folding stats.
How about those cool F@H images in your Sig?
Once you have submitted your first WU you will be able to add a Sig image that shows your folding stats. Check out our
Sig Image Guide. There you will learn how to set up a sig image.
For more information check out the
Folding@Home Home page and the
Xtreme CPU F@H Section. If you have any questions about F@H feel free to post it in our F@H section.
