[Arkham_c]

Ok, so I've been away from Team MacNN for a while. The last time I was here, RC5-64 was recently cracked, people were still using Ubero, and some of the current projects didn't exist.

So where do we stand now? In which projects are we competitive? In which ones do we need more power? Are any of the projects worthwhile socially? Do any of them have cash prizes/incentives to participants/winners?

I've got a 1.6 GHz PC that's been running RC5-72 since the beginning, plus a G3/900, a G5/dual 2GHz, a G3/350, and an older P3/750 I can put to use if I find one I like.

[reader50]

From the title, I first thought you were announcing a new Mac DC project.

Project Landscape
"Distributed computing to determine the best shrub locations, and the optimum sprinkler layouts, for all standard back yard shapes."

Anyway, our landscape looks something like this:

• High Interest
• Folding - lots of AltiVec, useful science, we are doing well in the ranks but not advancing.
• D2OL - some AltiVec, apparently useful science, we are in the Top 10 and some more power could put us much higher.
• Limited Interest
• dFold - no AltiVec, apparently useful science, glitchy clients, opportunity to rise in the ranks.
• RC5-72 - lots of AltiVec, dubious value, cash prize, we seem stable in the ranks but could advance with more power.
• SETI - no AltiVec, BOINC client architecture in beta testing, science value hard to quantify (BOINC will be analyzing data for stellar purposes as well as ET), difficult to advance in the ranks.
• Low Interest
• Lifemapper - unknown AltiVec, don't know if the science is valuable, client is new to Mac (stability & speed unknown), chance to rise in the ranks.
• Ubero - no AltiVec, no science value, old data, we have been passed for #1.

"Interest" assessments based on member participation and posting. Others might give a slightly different project order.

[Kevin Moon]

I tried installing Lifemapper but had errors come up. For some reason it was unable to uncompress the files through the terminal. Stuffit uncompressed but then it wouldn't run because the server.dat file was corrupt. I sent an email to the project with any luck it will be an easy fix for them. Folding@home is probably the most posted about lately and has about the most activity. I like F@H because I can start it let it run for a week and it's still going with no problems when I check up on it. Once in a while there are problems just doesn't seem as often as some of the others.

[Arkham_c]

Ok, so I downloaded Folding@Home. It looks like the client only uses one CPU. Can I run two copies safely and use both CPUs?

[Mac4evan]

Originally posted by Arkham_c:
Ok, so I downloaded Folding@Home. It looks like the client only uses one CPU. Can I run two copies safely and use both CPUs?

Yes you can if you put a -local at the end of the command

This is how I do it...

Client1:

./fah4 -local

Client 2:

./fah44 -local

[reader50]

Also, you must set a different Machine ID for the 2nd client, or they will be issued the same work units. The safest way is to unstuff a 2nd copy, and launch it through the usual setup. Specify a Machine ID of '2' in the advanced setup options.

[Shaktai]

Originally posted by Kevin Moon:
I tried installing Lifemapper but had errors come up. For some reason it was unable to uncompress the files through the terminal. Stuffit uncompressed but then it wouldn't run because the server.dat file was corrupt. I sent an email to the project with any luck it will be an easy fix for them. Folding@home is probably the most posted about lately and has about the most activity. I like F@H because I can start it let it run for a week and it's still going with no problems when I check up on it. Once in a while there are problems just doesn't seem as often as some of the others.

While it is not clear from their site, the Mac Client is still Beta, and will only work on the beta website. It is fast, but unstable. Lifemapper is one of the possible candidates for moving to BOINC. Right now they don't seem to have any interest in resolving the Mac Client issues. Currently, Lifemapper is only suitable for Windows and Linux.

[Shaktai]

Originally posted by Arkham_c:

So where do we stand now? In which projects are we competitive? In which ones do we need more power? Are any of the projects worthwhile socially? Do any of them have cash prizes/incentives to participants/winners?

Welcome back Arkham. Folding@Home or D2OL appear to be the two projects where we can do the most good and be competitive. It is a lot easier to run multiple clients on F@H then on D2OL. In my mind both are good projects.

SETI is currently the same as always, though beta testing is taking place for SETI to run on BOINC. BOINC is a possible future platform also for Climate Prediction, Folding@Home and Lifemapper.