Hello there

[Nastidon]

Well, this isn't really my first post, but I registered about two days ago, and missed this 'Please introduce yourself request' so here goes.

I heard of this forum through another forum, I believe it was Computer Hope, when I started looking through here, this forum has the topics I was looking for, such as modding and the like, as I have recently upgraded and will continue to upgrade my own setup. I've been into computers all my life, but never really got into the technical aspect of the hardware (mainly a gamer here). I knew just enough to tweak my computer to get the games running as best they could. It wasn't until recently that I actually began to want to mod cases and things like that, it really all seems interesting to me, the cooling especially. Lets see, what else here? I'm from Texas, 22 years old, doing the whole college thing, hopefully what I learn from you guys will help me out , from what I can tell there is nothing but an awesome bunch of computer goers here, and would love nothing more than to send my input as well.

I guess that should do it, it was very nice to meet you all, and I will definitely enjoy my stay.

[stopthekilling77]

glad you found us! welcome to LR!!

[DMB2000uk]

It always amazes me how deep links to LR penetrate the web, i keep finding them all the time.

Glad you've found us, welcome and enjoy your stay.

Dan

[kenc51]

Welcome!

[Darkstar]

Welcome! now start folding

[Nastidon]

Welcome! now start folding

Yes, the folding, I'm still not quiet clear on what the heck that is. I mean I read a bit about it, 'protein folding' I believe, was the fault of proteins going nuts for whatever reason and causing certain ailments. I understand that part, but what does processing and CPU's have to do with it?

[DMB2000uk]

Basically they run simulations of how the dna folds.

These simulations take up months of processing time to create just a few seconds of video (they are that complex), to hire a supercomputer for that amount of time would be more money than stanford has.

So they have used what is known as a distributed computing method, they break the work up into thousands of 'tiny' pieces and send them out to computers all across the world. Everyone who runs this program gets one of these small chunks and lets their computer work on it when the computer is on and idle and then submit the results back to stanford. Stanford collects all these results and then can patch them back together to create the simulation of how the protiens actually fold, and more importantly how they can mis-fold and cause diseases such as Alzheimer's, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease, and many Cancers and cancer-related syndromes.

So by running this program you can help stanford understand more about these diseases, and maybe develop cures.

Dan