Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

SkiBikeSki · Apr 19, 2002, 02:24 AM

Let's recollect about when and how we started in DC projects. When we joined Team MacNN. And if you joined the team cause you saw it on MacNN or the forums, then tell how you dicovered MacNN or the forums.

I was looking for more web sites that had Macintosh rumors, and I found AppleInsder, that had a link to MacNN, that had a link to the SETI team. I was just starting SETI cause of a friend and was interested. I started reading and posting in the team forum. Then I registered to post this topic. Sadly no one replied. Ever since then I have expanded my posting in the team and other forums. And ever since spring 2001 I expanded into RC5. Then recently into Ubero, dFold, and a little little bit of F@H.

So what's your story?

jbcool · Apr 19, 2002, 02:47 AM

I had done RC5, Folding@home, SETI, UD, before I came across the Ubero DC project. Decided to help a team out an joined the MacNN team effort. Then stated reading the forums and decided to join in.

Shaktai · Apr 19, 2002, 02:57 AM

Hmm! I had started solitary in SETI a long time ago, eventually joined a team for a time, then started my own (that went nowhere). Eventually heard about RC-5 and worked that for a while. Was looking around the various forums on news/rumor websites, and came across these. Next thing I new I was crunching Ubero for Team MacNN, got into folding at home, and then one day decided to benchmark Distributed Folding and by accident a new team started, and I was involved. My post numbers tell the rest of the story. It is fun, and a nice diversion. Don't figure I will always be this active, but for now it is great.

Archangel · Apr 19, 2002, 03:10 AM

I honestly can't remember. I think I saw an RC5 recruitment ad at the top of a forum, decided to check it out, and have been crunching since then. Yes, it is a nice diversion. I check my stats every night before I go to bed.

reader50 · Apr 19, 2002, 03:14 AM

I started crunching away for MacAddict. I'd gotten my G4, had my MacAddict magazine subscription, and their website led to SETI. But their SETI page was pretty dead.

Ran across MacNN News, and followed a link into the Forums. Started posting. After a few months, it dawned that everyone I posted with was here, I've got less than 10 posts on the MacAddict boards. And the MacAddict SETI page was really dead. Still.

The SETI account moved to MacNN. 125 units, wow.

Then our SETI site went kinda dead itself.

Got involved in writing new pages for our site. Then started sending large sums of money to gorgonzola each week, and got my Moderator wings.

But some things don't change. The MacAddict SETI page is still kinda dead. Their stats too, those died some months back when Berkeley made a bunch of page changes, and no one has managed to fix them. Guess my units will be staying here.

The Placid Casual · Apr 19, 2002, 05:24 AM

I ended up here after a trail of forums and a failed takeover...

I've been an Mac user for years and years but never really contributed that much to places online. I went to the UK Macworld magazine forum as I had a tech query, and then to Macassist, where I found a link to MacNN...

The UK forums were OK but didn't really feel 'right'...Lots of 'In' jokes etc, so more and more I began to visit MacNN and the Forums...although I didn't contribute for a *long* while...

Then one day, I came to the site and found it strangely 'PC' (!?)...the start of the 3 day Newsfactor design era! I registered and began to contribute then and there, and have stayed since....(Info for people who missed the NF incident: I don't know the intracies (are they still about behind the scenes?), but Newsfactor News bought (?), or aquired the site and overnight pulled the MacNN homepage and replaced it with a generic page used for all their other sites. Then even had M$ share prices above Apples etc etc. Needless to say there was a bit of a popular uprising, and things got abit heated...A member of their staff was given admin rights in the forums and started deleting threads, and any users accounts who argued with him! Anyway within 3 days the NF page was pulled, MacNN got back control and things were back to normal...it was all very strange!!)

I guess the fact that it became clear that here 'users' were listened to and could change things, has ensured that it feels like my Mac home online...sad I know!! 'The greatest group of Mac users assembled'? yep I think so!!

As for DC I saw the link on MAcNN a few months ago, and a few people sigs, and decided to give it a go...I didn't get involoved before because I just didn't have the time...but I'm glad I did!

Marc

Arkham_c · Apr 19, 2002, 08:09 AM

I'd done RC5 a few years back, both on the RC5-64 and on previous challenges. I saw the recruitment posts, and figured "hey, why not since I have some fast hardware lying around". I started crunching again, and here I am, some 640,000 blocks later.

xyber233 · Apr 19, 2002, 10:25 AM

Hehe, I joined this week because I got just cable modem. I was always aware of Team MacNN but since I had 56k, I couldn't be online 24/7.

The_Equivocator · Apr 19, 2002, 10:53 AM

Well, I started crunching SETI a while ago... back in the days of 7 hour work units. I first joined my school team, but every one there slowly stopped running SETI and became less interested in DC.

So, I left the team, not wanting to be a part of a group that never actually did anything. A little while later, I started lurking on the MacNN forums and noticed the Team forum and pages. I told myself that I wanted to be a part of the best Mac DC team, so I started looking around.

This is the team that impressed me most. We have helpful optimization and installation instructions. Our web pages rock. Our stats pages are the best. Our forums are active. We have proxies.

What more could I ask for?

DocWest · Apr 19, 2002, 01:22 PM

Umm, ages ago I remember a thread in the Third Party Apps forum about starting a SETI team here. I pretty much ignored it until it was 4 pages long or something then I read it and got interested in it. I joined the MacNN SETI team when there were about 50 members I think. I did that for about a year until we made the RC5 team and I jumped on that straightaway. Haven't moved since.

And I have always been a supporter of "If you read MacNN, then crunch for Team MacNN." I remember saying that in a early recruitment thread in the lounge, as a "Doc says:" kind of thing.

jarling · Apr 19, 2002, 01:33 PM

Been running SETI for a while (Cant tell with my meager 60 units). But I wasnt so religious about crunching out units back then as I am today. Hey, I've got a team to fight for now. Also, SETI didnt really interest me since I didnt see the benefit to mankind.

So a few months ago I was searching the web for other DC projects for the mac (things that werent on www.aspenleaf.com/distributed (my second favorite DC site)) I Found Team MacNN (still wondering what the NN stand for) and loved its charts. I must admit, though, that I cheated on the team for a while and went to the better ranked MacAddict. But I came to my senses during the Seti recruiting drive and switched back.

Not like it really matters. I only run SETI at night when my F@H unit is almost complete. As soon as F@H came out (notice I'm member #3 on that one...just need to change my rank to match), I've been crunching that non-stop. Just wish we'd stop falling behind other mac teams. But I've learned my lesson...they may be higher in the ranks...but our team is still better.

slipjack · Apr 19, 2002, 02:05 PM

Scott's sig.

SkiBikeSki · Apr 19, 2002, 02:13 PM

Originally posted by jarling:
still wondering what the NN stand for

NN Stands for "News "Network" our parent organization. Most teams have one, except for FreeDC and some others.

Originally posted by xyber233:
Hehe, I joined this week because I got just cable modem. I was always aware of Team MacNN but since I had 56k, I couldn't be online 24/7.

SETI or RC5 are easy projects to do over a modem. I had my G4 350 set to cache 2000 RC5 blocks and not auto-connect, and I normally manually flushed it once a day. SETI noramlly took about 8 hours per unit (v2.0.4) so I manually connected 3 times day.

[ 04-19-2002: Message edited by: SkiBikeSki ]

slipjack · Apr 19, 2002, 03:27 PM

Originally posted by SkiBikeSki:


SETI or RC5 are easy projects to do over a modem. I had my G4 350 set to cache 2000 RC5 blocks and not auto-connect, and I normally manually flushed it once a day. SETI noramlly took about 8 hours per unit (v2.0.4) so I manually connected 3 times day.

[ 04-19-2002: Message edited by: SkiBikeSki ]

3x day easy??

I'm not sure about that...

wheeles · Apr 19, 2002, 04:17 PM

I heard about DC projects (particularly distributed.net) a couple of years back. I had a Digital laptop (recently deceased (with the aid of a hammer

)) which I started crunching a few blocks on. I joined the most successful UK team there was (it's still ahead of MacNN) but after a couple of months got bored with it as it didn't feel like 'home'.

I bought a G4 and thought I'd have a crack at RC5 again. I was amazed at the increase in power. However, I got bored with that team again.

In the meantime I was trying to find all the useful Mac sites. OmniWeb's preloaded bookmarks led me to MacNN. I began to check the home page religiously as it was my best source of Mac news.

After almost a year I wondered what the 'Team' tab was all about and clicked it. That was only a few weeks ago. I started reading the forum and realised that this was the Mac 'home' that I'd been looking for. So I jumped RC5 team to MacNN, had a quick go at Seti, F@H and Ubero, then saw Shaktai posting about dFold. As it was a new team I figured I could hit the top 10 instantly, which I did for a few days. Then my Mac started crashing mysteriously and I slipped down the ranks. My Mac is healthy again. Now all I have to do is crawl back into the top 10 (easier said than done). Hopefully my new (secondhand) cube can help me.

zac4mac · Apr 21, 2002, 08:41 PM

I'm still here, crunching RC5 every day, all day. I missed the start of the S@H team here because I got on Bob&Barb Moriarty's team at MacCPU(a now defunct mail-order upgrade house) about two weeks before wlonh got the SETI team here going. I'd been hitting the boards here a lot back then, chasing info to OC my lagging 8500 and the feelings of guilt for not crunching for MacNN never went away(I was raised Catholic).
I jumped on the RC5 bandwagon right away after OC'ing my DP500 to 550 and seeing how badly it stomped all other platforms and processors. When Bockie got the team page up, I signed up right away. Member growth was slow at first, but has really taken off. Wow, 245 members now at RC5...
I do RC5 on my duallie, alone on OS9 and with S@H on OS X.
S@H also runs on a 7500/604e-233, an 8500/G3-454 and starting next week, a new 12" Combo-drive iBook.

I haven't been dropping in as often lately. I just got a new Harley(totally rebuilt 1982 FXWG, 90cid), last month, and I've been doing a LOT of riding. It's gonna be a nice summer. Z

reader50 · Apr 21, 2002, 10:15 PM

For anyone who is interested, this thread is where Team MacNN began. I'd been meaning to hunt it up, the link will presently be added to the FAQ.

This also gives us a date: 3-3-2000 as when the team was founded. The team site seems to be mentioned first 6-29-2000, but from the context it was up sometime before that.

JAmZ SeSSioN · Apr 21, 2002, 10:24 PM

Originally posted by zac4mac:


....... and starting next week, a new 12" Combo-drive iBook.

Ive heard some scary stories about running SETI on notebooks. There is not enough cooling going on......putting a 100% load on the CPU running SETI could be disasterous

. But, sounds like your getting a nice little SETI farm going.

Keep it up. And.....be careful.

Shaktai · Apr 21, 2002, 11:36 PM

Originally posted by JAmZ SeSSioN:


Ive heard some scary stories about running SETI on notebooks. There is not enough cooling going on......putting a 100% load on the CPU running SETI could be disasterous

. But, sounds like your getting a nice little SETI farm going.

Keep it up. And.....be careful.

I have been running dFold, SETI, F@H, etc on my iBook 600 with no problems other than the airport card cutting out when it got too warm. Mac notebooks tend to run quite a bit cooler than PC notebooks due to the chip design. I do recommend though as a precation, that when the iBook is running while sitting on a table. or other flat surface, that you place some strips of Carboard or rubber underneath it. This will do 2 things. One it will minimize scratches to the case, and 2 it will allow cool air to flow under the laptop so that it runs cooler. This simple solution eliminated my airport problems and also allows the CPU to run cooler when crunching.

Grozni Majmun · Apr 22, 2002, 12:22 AM

I run DC on an iBook as well. Never had any overheating probs. The processor stays at 36C / 97F. The part that seems to get hottest is almost the HD. Shaktai, does your iBook HD ever spin down when you leave it crunching? I am especially interested in whether you can get it to spin down with dFold or F@H, since those are the ones i plan to be running. (I'm just crunching a SETI or two now to keep the dogs busy). I wouldn't be so concerned about leaving the book running with DC for loger periods if just the HD would spin down.

Grozni Majmun · Apr 22, 2002, 12:46 AM

Oh, I should probably also say something on topic, right?

<- my favorite smiley

I was surfing around for mac news. The best Danish mac web site was always quoting MacNN, so I figured I might as well drink straight from the source. I then discovered the forums, posted a few times and discovered the team forum. I had been lurking for a while before I started crunching. I was just trying to figure out why all those crazy nerds were running around looking for aliens. And waddayanow, one day I woke up and discovered that I had myself become a crazy nerd. This has actually been a great way to learn about MacOSX and unix, tweaking with all the little scripts. I have become very good at all that stuff, now I just need to become a 'veteran member'

[ 04-22-2002: Message edited by: Grozni Majmun ]

Shaktai · Apr 22, 2002, 01:12 AM

Originally posted by Grozni Majmun:
 Shaktai, does your iBook HD ever spin down when you leave it crunching? I am especially interested in whether you can get it to spin down with dFold or F@H, since those are the ones i plan to be running. (I'm just crunching a SETI or two now to keep the dogs busy). I wouldn't be so concerned about leaving the book running with DC for loger periods if just the HD would spin down.

No, it never does with those projects because they frequently write to a progress file. And I think you are right, that the Hard Drive is a major source of heat. However, by keepking the iBook slightly elevated so that air can flow under it, that problem is easily taken care of. The drive in my iBook is a Toshiba, and seems as capable as any desktop drive, so I haven't worried about it except for the heat factor.

SkiBikeSki · Apr 23, 2002, 02:54 AM

I wish it was easy to make a RAM disk in OS X. Then you could configure the clients to never write to the HD. You could however have it write to an Appletalk server. Then the iBook could spin down, and the HD of, say, a G4 could run like it always does.

Camera God · Apr 23, 2002, 03:35 AM

Well, the story of joining Team Macnn is kinda funny and short. Scotttheking came over and said: "Here put this on your computer"
Then I said: "What is it?"
Scott: "It doesn't matter, just put it on"
Me: "Uh, ok"

Kinda funny huh?

(It was RC5 that he put on comp)

chris v · Apr 23, 2002, 06:35 PM

I found the forums originally, when I tried to switch to Netscape 6, and it blew up in my face. I was sort-of just rooting around the web, looking for opinions to see if it was just me, or if it really stunk, like I though it did (Netscape 6 stinks, BTW). Found the forums to be a friendly place, and just sorta stuck around. I didn't pay much attention to the SETI forum (wasn't it called just SETI for a while?) until I'd been around a few months. Ran SETI nonstop for a few weeks, then found RC5, and hae been churning it nonstop for about a year, now, with the occasional SETI w/u thrown in. (I keep a SETI w/u on my machines for those days when the RC5 keyservers go down)

Oh, and lookout. I've got a dual gig tower showing up here tomorrow, so now I'll have a real "farm." with it, plus my G4 450 AGP and my Cube, (the venerable Power Center 150 is going out to pasture) I should be crankin' 7 or 8 thousand units a day, no prob.

CV

SkiBikeSki · Apr 23, 2002, 10:04 PM

Back in 2000 the team was only for SETI. Then in spring 2001 someone mentioned RC5. Scott, zac4mac, bockie, others, and myself looked into it and then started a team. From that point on Scott became a moderator, changed the forum name, and that just about brings is up to last summer. From then on we discovered Ubero, Folding@Home, and now Distributed Folding. Let's hope there are more projects to come and more members to join.