My folding task for the day is done

TheKnat

TheKnat

TheKnat

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13 May 2007
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Lancashire, UK
So I got bored today at work and sat here with all these unused machines around me, I got an idea. Why don't I try and utilise them for my evil folding empire ?

Can't really format the drives as they might have something important on them (not likely but best to be sure), so I need a way to make it into a temporary folding beast.

Since then I've been spending my afternoon getting a USB memory key prepped, loaded up with Ubuntu, installed the F@H client on it and its now hapily folding away. The best bit about this is that at any moment, I can shut it all down, remove my memory key and start folding on another spare computer :D

I'm still trying to get the client to auto-start in a terminal window so I can keep an eye on it, but its only one command to run when it starts. So far it will only run automatically as a service, but thats not as interesting to look at :p
 
You could have tried the Notfred diskless folding on the USB key, that way you would not have to even boot up the machine :) I guess your idea is as good as that, I didn't really notice a difference PPD wise between notfred and a VMWare Linux instance.

Hopefully they are all on the network so you can use Fahmon to monitor the output and to see if any of them machines stop for some reason. Or are you only doing this with one USB key for now?

Hmm.... I see that OcUK do cheap 1Gb USB keys ;)
 
Only got 1 USB key on me atm, but I'm thinking about getting some more. The pcs can run completly headless as well so I only need to plug a network cable and power into them :)

I'll have a look at that Notfred stuff, looks like it might be better than my solution
 
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Wow, that's some impressive dedication! :D

Usual warning though: be careful folding on machines you might not be allowed to. Folding's phenomenally important but not as important as keeping your job!
 
Yeah I know. The machines in question are old machines that I've recentally replaced with much more up to date hardware and have been sitting next to my desk for a few months.

I'm not going to go silly, installing the client around the whole network :) Just a few extra clients around my desk is all.

Trying out the CD version of that diskless boot now, seems to work a treat.
 
Been running notfred for 2 monthsish now. Spot on. Except for some reason its been saving files to the USB stick and not actually deleting them at the end. Have to pull the stick out and delete it when they start failing. Its annoying tbh.
 
It's funny the phases you go through with folding. Sort of a folding syndrome.

At first it's "I'll just install the screensaver, I'm not that into it," then you think "Hmm, I suppose the downstairs computer is on a lot doing nothing, I'll install it on that as well."

Then about two weeks later you've borged everything at home, work, your mother in laws; basically anything connected to the mains supply that has an x86 processor.

Then over the coming weeks and months you usually sort of wind it down a little, realising the breville toastie maker ppd is not worth the electricity. At this point people usually go down two routes; a dedicated folding box, or ploughing money into beefing up their current main machine.

There are exceptions to the "rule" of course, some lucky people have access to a lot of computing resources. Barstewards. :)
 
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