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  • Ken_g6 - Friday, November 18, 2016 - link

    In case it wasn't clear, that last link (https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/11th-annual-f... is the place to sign up for the race.
  • Gothmoth - Friday, November 18, 2016 - link

    does not anandtech and toms hardware belong to the same media conglomerate now....??
  • negusp - Friday, November 18, 2016 - link

    Yup. And most of the tech articles are the same and come out on the same day.

    The only thing really different is that Tom's Hardware has a fairly decent hardware/forum community and covers a few more obscure but interesting tech articles.
  • Ryan Smith - Friday, November 18, 2016 - link

    "Yup. And most of the tech articles are the same and come out on the same day."

    To be clear, AT and TH don't share editorial calendars. Any similarities are either due to product embargoes, or are entirely coincidental. (Assuming of course that our foes aren't copying us)
  • arjunp2085 - Monday, November 21, 2016 - link

    "Fritz Nelson is the Editor-in-Chief of Tom's Hardware US. He oversees the editorial arms of both Tom’s Hardware US and AnandTech."

    Thats the Profile of FRITZ NELSON @fnelson in Abut the Author
  • Ryan Smith - Monday, November 21, 2016 - link

    The About page is a bit wrong.

    Fritz is my direct boss. But it's mostly for internal organizational convenience at Purch to handle the business odds & ends. He isn't involved with the editorial calendar or direction of the site.
  • MrSpadge - Friday, November 18, 2016 - link

    That's why Ryan can afford the humorous tone. I suspect a similar article just went live at Tom's, painting a similar picture from the other perspective.
  • BrokenCrayons - Friday, November 18, 2016 - link

    There is an article over there with a very similar tone.

    http://www.tomshardware.com/news/protein-folding-t...

    It's all in good fun regardless of which site wins, but why not make a little competition out of it?
  • geekman1024 - Saturday, November 19, 2016 - link

    "Dear--Roland - I can't help but notice that the Bloodshots you are fighting..."
  • BrokenCrayons - Monday, November 21, 2016 - link

    Are you accidentally replying to the wrong article? I'm not sure what you're trying to say.
  • Pix2Go - Friday, November 18, 2016 - link

    Perfect time of the year for this contest - all those GPUs running at 100% 24/7 will help keep your house warm!
  • BrokenCrayons - Friday, November 18, 2016 - link

    Totally what I was thinking as I was reading the article! Which, by the way, was amusingly written. :)
  • StevoLincolnite - Friday, November 18, 2016 - link

    ...You obviously don't live in Australia. :P #SummerIsComing
  • ddriver - Friday, November 18, 2016 - link

    I have a couple of questions to "folding enthusiasts":

    1 - how transparent is this process, is there any way to tell that you are indeed folding proteins to cure diseases, or say computing the advancement of a biological weapon?

    2 - has the initiative made any breakthrough, has it cured anything yet?
  • tabascosauz - Friday, November 18, 2016 - link

    F@H is run by a group at Stanford, if I'm not mistaken.

    1. When you embark on a new project, you can use the number of the project to look it up online. It corresponds to a specific researcher and his or her project. You can then read about it (some keep it short, some give a comprehensive run-down of what they do). No, there's no guarantee that it will be for a biological weapon. But I think it's pretty certain that these researchers aren't taking time and resources (and income) out of their research to advance such a nefarious cause.

    2. F@H has provided valuable data for understanding and solutions for certain diseases and conditions. It's like your computer; it isn't doing absolutely essential work 24/7. It spends a good chunk of its time idle. F@H gather as much data as it can, then researchers decide what to do with it. Perhaps a specific project will be fruitless. Perhaps data from it will be pioneer work in finding a cure for Alzheimers. That depends on what the men and women behind the projects do with it.

    I'm pretty sure the website has a list of things that F@H data has contributed to. Go have a look.
  • ddriver - Friday, November 18, 2016 - link

    "or say" was supposed to be "and not say" actually.

    "F@H gather as much data as it can, then researchers decide what to do with it"

    Possibly, biological weapons. Or maybe they will see the potential for such, and just ignore it, rather than sell it to the highest bidder?

    To my understanding of modern scientific research, the process is not really "we are gonna cure X" and work strictly in that direction, modern research is in reality a brute force arbitrary direction approach, combing the sand for something interesting, with further applications potentially years in the future. It is not an "opening the right door" approach, but an "let's pay enough people to open all the doors and see what we have there".

    I am also aware that practically all of the most dangerous weapons ever researched were done by scientists in research institutes. A substantial part of which by US research institutes. Have researchers at stanford taken an oath or something, that would in any way prevent them from using the results to develop a biological weapon? Maybe they are searching for a cure to alzheimers, which may well involve finding the cause mechanism of alzheimers, thus making it possible to make a biological weapon that causes alzheimers, which may then be used on a nation deemed a "threat to US national security". Are there any safeguards against that?
  • MajGenRelativity - Friday, November 18, 2016 - link

    I understand where you are coming from. But, following your line of reasoning, why have biologists at all? Their research may also lead to bio weapons by doing their job!
  • ddriver - Friday, November 18, 2016 - link

    Well, that's the reality of the situation, but my concern is not if they develop biological weapons, but if they are developing biological weapons with my help.
  • Communism - Friday, November 18, 2016 - link

    The only reason medical advancements happen in European style (Which includes close European colonies, like the US) research systems are for the use in war.

    The crumbs that have actually been used for anything other than war-fighting were researched by taking "folk medicine" and then patenting the process of manufacturing and producing maintenance medication to have people in mandatory subscription services ideally for the rest of their lives.

    Only a fool would think that any research funded directly by state funds like the Stanford F@H project will be used for anything other than primarily war-fighting purposes and secondarily as corrupt kickbacks to the pharmaceutical patent industry as a sort of free research funds for furthering of their patented mandatory subscription services.
  • K_Space - Sunday, November 20, 2016 - link

    Medical research which directly involve patients/participants will -or rather should- have ethic committee approval. Following that any patient/participant who sign up to such research will have their informed consent taken (usually written and signed) following discussion with the researchers overseeing the project. It's on that basis that Facebook was deemed guilty when conducting their "emotional manipulation study", as users were in effect direct participants. Link:
    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/30...
    As we are volunteers who are indirectly helping with projects, our contribution does not -seem- to require the same degree of strict regulations as with direct participants. Should that be the case? “direct participants” often contribute physical samples, take drugs, but sometimes it is simply a clinical history or contribute with mouse clicks (for example visual tests, brain testing), sometimes it is even more subtle: a thought process during functional MRI?.... we as volunteers contribute CPU time/money, etc. Where should the line be drawn?

    However even if the researchers do redirect contributors to a web page where strict ground rules for the use of data are laid and we tick: yes please.... is that a sufficient guarantee that they won't use the data for nefarious reasons?

    People in this regard arguably fall into three categories: I) those who trust the researchers and a verbal, implied consensual agreement is as good as a written one II) those who do not trust the verbal, implied or written agreements from researchers III) those who trust a written consent but not a verbal, implied consensual agreement.

    The latter group is as valid the previous two, but perhaps it is small enough for online research to ignore, after all it is all voluntary.
  • Meteor2 - Friday, November 18, 2016 - link

    Sigh, don't be a dork. Go read the published papers from the Pande group and others. You don't need distributed computing to build a bioweapon.
  • ddriver - Friday, November 18, 2016 - link

    What great, non-dorkish argumentation skills you have there. Such a valid point, and so eloquent and thoroughly substantiated. You sir are far above a mere dork, you are the dorkest of them all.
  • Meteor2 - Friday, November 18, 2016 - link

    F@H is effectively the largest supercomputer on earth, and doing a tremendous amount of work, particularly around dementia. I'm no medic though, so best read for yourself what they've achieved.
  • bill.rookard - Friday, November 18, 2016 - link

    Alrighty, time to break out the guns... for Toms Hardware!!!! lol.

    I've got a bunch of cores sitting around - time to put them to use! Down goes Anandtech! Down goes Anandtech!

    (j/k)

    Seriously I have three Xeon x3450/70 series, one with dual GPUs (main rig), two more Haswell based i3's (hyperthreaded) and some Haswell pentiums doing not much. So - I figure I have about 40 cores worth of processing... :D Plus the temp is supposed to drop about 40 degrees (F) between today and tomorrow. Yes, I live in Michigan. It's a running joke that if you don't like the weather here, give it 5 minutes, it'll change. ha.
  • TennesseeTony - Sunday, November 27, 2016 - link

    Good luck with your victory, Bill. ;) Snicker snicker.

    Great to see the enthusiasm from both sides though, and it's a great way for those approaching winter to add some 'intelligent heat' to their homes.
  • PCTC2 - Friday, November 18, 2016 - link

    Come join us in the fun. Our statistics are available here: http://fah-web2.stanford.edu/teamstats/team198.htm...
  • Meteor2 - Friday, November 18, 2016 - link

    What a great idea. Got to put those GTX1080s to use ;)

    It's quite extraordinary what a GPU can do these days. It's not really worth torturing a laptop CPU for though.
  • LarsBars - Friday, November 18, 2016 - link

    Clearly, AnandTech is going to win this.

    All of the headlines are saying AnandTech is the likely winner, all of the most advanced forecasts, predictions, and experts are giving the win to AnandTech. Even the latest polls are showing AnandTech has an 89% chance of victory. I don't know why Tom's Hardware is even going to try.

    There's no realistic way that Tom's Hardware will come close to winning.
  • TennesseeTony - Sunday, November 27, 2016 - link

    LOL. Darned electoral college might mess up our victory!
  • SeleniumGlow - Sunday, November 20, 2016 - link

    Imma sign up for AT. I hope my dual socket Xeon v4 servers can be of some use to you guys. The only thing I don't have is an expensive GPU. I have an old Radeon 7800/2GB card in one box. The rest are just... servers. I hope that's not a disadvantage.
  • alpha754293 - Monday, November 21, 2016 - link

    "Kicking off on December 1st, we will be holding a one-week Folding race to see which team is better. "

    You say one week.

    The forum thread says one month.

    Please clarify.
  • alpha754293 - Monday, November 21, 2016 - link

    n/m. Sorry...misread the forum post.
  • TennesseeTony - Sunday, November 27, 2016 - link

    Please stop by, no matter which side you are on and get some helpful hints here: https://forums.anandtech.com/forums/distributed-co...

    We would be thrilled if you 'signed up' to race with us for the whole month, but the only signing up you really need to do to participate, is to ensure you enter the correct team number...198 for AnandTech, when you install the Folding at home software.

    Please get an early start, to make sure you don't miss the start of the race! :)

    In the last week AnandTech has had at least 109 new users on the Folding@Home project! Our daily output has already doubled! Thanks so much to all! No matter the amount of contribution, it's needed and appreciated!
  • HighTechJoe - Monday, November 28, 2016 - link

    Anyone know if NVIDIA's 376.09 driver works with folding@home? I had to roll back to 373.06 to get my GPU folding to work.
  • TennesseeTony - Monday, November 28, 2016 - link

    As far as we know, 373.06 is the best choice right now.
  • TennesseeTony - Monday, November 28, 2016 - link

    I'd stay away from this one, breaks SLI for one. Way to go Nvidia, again. ;)
  • bill.rookard - Tuesday, November 29, 2016 - link

    I'm not sure which driver set I'm running - but it appears to be working fine with one of my two 960s - I keep the other for actually being able to use my desktop... :)

    And I have about 14 cores online test folding while I get the other machines online. All in all I should have two GPUs and about 30 cores folding...

    FOR THE COMPETITION. Muuuhahahhaha. :)
  • TennesseeTony - Wednesday, November 30, 2016 - link

    The race will start December 1, 18:00 UTC. That's VERY SOON!

    Start crunching NOW if you haven't already!Here's a UTC clock for ya: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/timezone/ut...

    Give us a hollar if you have any questions! https://forums.anandtech.com/forums/distributed-co...
  • lordken - Monday, December 5, 2016 - link

    Did anyone manage to get their GPU working on demand? I must say that settings of F@H are worse then boinc...
    Even when I click "while I'm working" only job that is running is on CPU , GPU never starts, it only works when screensaver starts. That's pretty lame as my PC rarely goes to screensaver.
    Tried both webcontrol and that other control panel but I just cant find a way how to force GPU to work...its always "waiting for idle"
  • TennesseeTony - Thursday, December 8, 2016 - link

    Well, we beat Tom's Hardware mercilessly, out-scoring them about an (utterly stunning) 10 million points PER DAY.

    Just today, in fact, TeAm Anandtech has overtaken Tom's Hardware in all time points too!

    The TeAm started out in 27th place (globally) about two weeks ago and shortly after the race was announced, the TeAm began to bludgeon it's way up the charts, where we now sit in 21st place globally, climbing over the 6 teams above us in just two weeks!

    Looking to the future, there are two more teams that we may be able to pass before the month is over. So a huge thank you to all who contributed, and who will continue to contribute (a smart way to produce some heat after all, if you are currently in a cold climate).

    It has truly been an exciting ride, and we hope to repeat next year!
  • oranos - Friday, December 9, 2016 - link

    use inefficient hardware to expedite global warming.

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