Monday 01/03/04

The winner of FBOX14 is....

Forum name: AERO (286)
Folding name: team_clown

congratulations you have won ...

Case: AOpen Miditower- FFF
Motherboard: Gigabyte SINXP1394 - trotkiller
CPU + HSF: Intel Pentium 4 2.53GHz - leonard
Memory: 256MB PC3200 - FFF
Video Card: PCI 2MB - phoen8x
HDD: Quantum SCSI 9GB - RazorBack
Controller/Cable: Iwill / Rounded SCSI Cable - Xenon/trotkiller

To receive this magnificent prize you must pledge to run it 24/7 and pay for postage. If you agree to these terms send me a PM and we can sort out delivery.

Sunday 07/03/04

This weeks xylus 500 is here.

We will soon have a new core (FahCore_79) to process Work Units with...

For certain calculations we have begun, greater precision is required than provided by FahCore_78.exe. To fill this need, we have prepared a new Gromacs core and called it FahCore_79.exe. (For the technically curious, it's identical in most respects, but using doubles rather than floats.)
The new core doesn't replace the old one, but will be used for certain projects. The first project to use it is 930, for which a small number of assignments have gone out. In the coming week, it will likely roll out wider.

Project 930 is named p930_fkbound_l02 and is worth 47.3 points and goes under the heading of "DGROMACS"

Folding-Community announcement is here

EM recognizes the new Gromacs Core

A new Gromacs core will be used on some projects, currently project 930, but more will follow. EM will recognize this new core.

The new core will not replace the current 78 core but, for certain calculations, greater precision is required than provided by Core_78.exe. To fill this need, a new Gromacs core is being released called Core_79. (For the technically curious, it's identical in most respects, but using doubles rather than floats.) The new core doesn't replace the old one, but will be used for certain projects. The first project to use it is 930. A small number of 930 assignments have just gone out, and more will on Monday. The first version of Core_79 is numbered 1.58, keeping in parallel, initially, with Core_78 versioning.

A big thank you to everyone who has contributed a few dollars to help me keep the EM-DC web site up and running. Every little bit helps and I appreciate the donations.

Please check the protein page to see if you might have one of my missing xyz protein files.

Thanks!

Get the latest version here: http://www.em-dc.com
 

Next we have FBOX15. If you think you are up to it and you haven't already signed up, look here.


Case: AOpen Miditower- FFF
Motherboard: ASUS A7V333 - =BF=
CPU + HSF: XP1800+ TBredB - petercr
Memory: 256MB PC3200 - FFF
Video Card: PCI S3 Virge  - Rob W
HDD: Quantum Fireball SE 2.1 - RobW
NIC: 10/100 PCI - RazorBack

Sunday 14/03/04

Jason has got the stats up once more, they are in their early development stage and require a bit more refinement before they will be finished. Main page , Team stats , OCAU stats

This weeks xylus 500 is here.

Tuesday 16/03/04

Thanks to Computer Alliance we have a ASUS P4T-M motherboard waiting for a CPU to call home. It will take a socket 423 P4 up to 2GHz. If you have one sitting around and want to help make another FBOX come alive, let us know in the FBOX donation thread.

With the revamp of the Extreme stats Jason has decide to do away with Points Per Week and have a "Points 24hr Avg" column instead. To keep the Folding Clubs running I have had to manipulate the 24hr Avg by multiplying it by 7 to get the PPW number we all use. To me and I'm sure a lot of others as well this is the standard for how much we fold.

Numerous other changes include dropping the running 24hr total for "Points Today" which starts at the first update of the day and finishes with the last update of the day. The same goes for the "Points Week" column, which starts counting at the first update on a Sunday and finishes a week later with the last update on a Saturday. Another new feature is the "Overtake page" which shows all the people around and colour codes them into threats or potential conquests. There is also the a new page featuring individual users, the detailed stats for individuals is on the way. Here is the Extreme forum thread about the new stats.

Yes, PPD starts with the first update of every day, and PPW starts first update on Sunday. I figured that would be nicer to display giving a better representation for production. However the "24hr average" is always a running total of the last 7 days.

 Good work Jason now if only we could have back the moving PPW stats back then version 2 would be just about perfect.

 The Statsbar above has been reworked using the V2 stats. You will find the Top 100 PPD page is missing and the "Current Projects" button links directly to Stanford's page.

Saturday 20/03/04

Over at the Folding-Community forums there is a very interesting thread with posts about new hardware for the servers and a restructure of the points system....

We have started our migration to new hardware. We are first migrating the assignment servers. Assign2.stanford.edu has been moved and we expect the DNS propagation will take 2-3 days. Both (old and new) machines are up and accepting requests, but once the DNS is completed, we'll stop the old servers.

Vijay

PS We're "movin' on up" from 500MHz Celerons (here since Oct 2000 -- if it aint broke, don't fix it) to dual 2.8GHz Xeons. Should be nice.

<<<>>>

A new points scheme is in the works. More details later (sorry!).

Monday 22/03/04

This weeks xylus 500 is here.

Tuesday 23/03/04

The static view of a biomolecule, as obtained from X-ray crystallography for example - while extremely valuable only provides an average, frozen view of a complex system. Certainly molecules are live entities, with their atoms continuously interacting among themselves and with their environment. Computer simulations could take snapshots of the dynamics of a molecular system in space and time and provide a rich amount of information.

The Folding-Community thread is here.

I told you it was probably coming and so it has. I've taken Arachnid offline and it won't be back. It's been running now for about a year and a half with very little in the way of trouble, but it's about time for something bigger and better. I'm currently working on a new stats system with support for pretty much every project under the sun. It isn't ready yet, but I decided to take Arachnid down now for several reasons. One is to offload some of the bandwidth usage I'm seeing on this line. The other is to free up some computer resources for use on the new project.

The new system (which I haven't come up with a good name for yet) will be hosted elsewhere on a much larger pipe. It will probably be distributed across several servers and may even become a collaborative effort at some time in the future. I've already got a large chunk of the new codebase written, but it's a long way from being done. I know this leaves some of you without stats for awhile and for that I'm sorry. I promise that I'll try to ensure that the new system is good enough to make up for it. ;)

In the meantime, you can find a good list of stats compiled by my buddy IronBits right here. The page is created primarily for Free-DC users, but if you look in the 3rd party stats column, you'll find an array of links going to other stats sites. Hopefully you'll find something useful among them!

Wednesday 24/03/04

A Short History Of The Double Helix: In April 25, 1953, James Dewey Watson and Francis Crick publish a short description of the double helix in the journal Nature. "It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material," they write. In 1962, Watson, Crick and Maurice Wilkins, who made pioneering X-rays of DNA, are awarded the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine for their DNA discoveries.

Sunday 28/03/04

This weeks xylus 500 is here.

• TEAM RIOT make a big splash and tear up the ranks.

• There is a new poll regarding the running of your PC 24/7.

• The new 160 point WU's are a big talking point.

• Razorback's party comes to an end.

• Tragic takes out the 100k race version 2.

• EM3 update 2.5.0

Tuesday 30/03/04