I've always wondered exactly how these things work. Not the technical distributed PC stuff, but how they'd find a cure/breakthrough/advancement with this

Why help? If it was cured, most of my idiotic family would still be alive.

The search for cancer? Hmm... one would probably be more inclined to search for a cure... but then again, how can you find a cure without first finding someone with cancer?
Quite problematic.

the search for cancer? sure, you shouldn't have any problem finding some...

I don't get it...

And this always comes up...

Who will own the patent for the discovery of the United Devices Cancer Research Program and which commercial enterprise will profit??

The results from the computing in this program will be compiled by United Devices and subsequently delivered to the University of Oxford and the National Foundation for Cancer Research for additional study. These are both non-profit organizations. The University of Oxford will own the intellectual property associated with any discovery they find and the resulting data will be made available to the public, at no cost, sometime after their initial research is completed.

intel's (a UD sponsor) website

I found cancer...now what? Can my computer cure it? Woe, I'm going to need something to help wash this down.

I FOUND CANCER! IT WAS BEHIND THE COUCH THE WHOLE TIME!

*ducks in case anything is thrown*

LMAO @ FifthColumn

Didja see? Didja see? The Doctor and me?

hahaha Fifth First thing I thought of too.

Does this make us bad people?

I think I'll find cancer at the other end of this bratwurst...

Ok, the power of my fully-armed and -operational web server is now at the service of Team Fark.

Now gimme my TotalFark membership. :P

I'm a cancer survivor. But, that headline cracks me up!

where do we find a cure for lack of boobies and weiners on fark?

I have a friend who's a Cancer... Damn emotional Cancers.

Oh you're not talking about the astrological sign? My bad.

SG: If you love Cancer Boy like I, we are better than everyone else.

Hey...don't want to freak anybody out here but Dahlermendhi has 666 results..

And I'm joining up...My SETI has really done much anyway.

"There's nothing you can do... Unless, you have a cure for cancer. Do you have a cure for cancer Moe? Because that would be really super."

UtahRockabilly - lol, you wouldn't happen to have that pic of Jesus in the couch, huh? :P

My ex-wife is a Cancer, both literally and astologically.

Oh lord, I just comprehended the title. Still, this is a worthy cause. I've run the program for over a year now, and it is nice to think that my computer is at least doing something worthy while I'm busy "farking" away...

I wonder if I can donate my spare cycles to find Sagittarius.


In all seriousness the idea of this is cool but unless I know how my cycles are used to find a cure I'm a bit hesitant to actually run it. I checked out the website real quick and it doesn't seem to have much in the way of info. My cynical side thinks that they sell the cycles to whoever is willing to pay for them and a portion of the procedes go to cancer research. Anyone know more about how the spare cycles are actually used?

Tinrobot: I haven't cracked up like that since you used to use the cyclops in your photoshops. (I think that was you.)

Cool, I'm in.

Does anyone know what "Webmiles" for Make-A-Wish are?

Oi...their member name page is fux0red, it's not listing me even though it said I joined successfully...

I thought they had already found cancer. maybe its something to fight it or somethin. i dunno. This post started out as a wity idea but has quickly gone downhill into something stupid. Thank you drive through.

If you really want to do some distributed computing that makes a difference join Folding@Home. They actually tell you exactly what they are doing and how it will be used, and they have had successful results. It's run by Stanford University and the results will not be owned by anyone in addition to being provided to anyone for free.
Have a look for yourself.

Statistics Last Updated:
11/02/2002 23:59:59 (UTC)
[ 28 hour(s) ago ]

Umm...disregard last post...

Farkwicket: I got the same thing, but when I go to my homepage on their site it lists Fark as the team. Maybe it's just "special"...

Ah, so the Fark servers are funning mathematical computations trying to find cancer, no wonder why fark takes forever to download at times....

The amusing thing about UD is that it's sponsered by Intel, even though an Intel Processor produces the slowest (shiattiest) result per mhz.

Obviousness surrenders.

Anyhow, if you do Join Team Fark.... besides the free totalfark access (my ass) run the command line. The screensaver takes up way too many resources and IS BAD for you. You might get cancer by running the screensaver version.

Drew needs to start a distributed computing project to keep the image server running...

is fark's image server down or is it just my computer?

Cranky: Anyone know more about how the spare cycles are actually used?

From the looks of things (and the brief description of the project in the info window on the app), it's modeling the binding of drugs to proteins.



And no, I don't pretend to know what the hell any of that means. But the rotating 3D molecular model (not shown above) looks pretty damned spiffo, in a geeky Star Trek kinda way.

I don't get whay Fark would want to cure cancer though. We'd have to find a new tag-line for stupid scientific "discoveries"

I mean "Scientific study concludes liking Country music linked to living in rural areas or southern states. Still no cure for... uhhhh... something" just doesn't have the same ring.

Oh, and FifthColumn, "That's OK, my marrow's just low"

Augh, if only they had a linux version. Sorry...

PS: Fuzzygirl and Malinois: your pets rule

I'm with Ruiner1. I do folding@home and am much more comfortable with it since no one, not even the university so far as I know, owns the results. The info on the UD site is a bit ambiguous.

A Mac OS X version would be nice...but until then, I'll stick with SETI.

I'd love to but it's [H]ard to understand ;)

Well, I didn't know you can run the UD agent through authing proxies now. Mwhahahah my work systems will be ingegrated into the Fark UD Collective.


Too bad they don't have Linux or Solaris clients. I could have mad, mad cycles uploaded.

I've been doing this for a long time.

Total Points: 100990
Total CPU Time: 1 year, 18 days, 1 hr, 50 min, 29 s

Only problem with Seti and folding is that they increase my CPU temp by 7C, which is about 3C more than a full load while gaming. Seems odd.

BBRModitha
besides the free totalfark access (my ass)

Where does it say you get free totalfark access?

I had been running it on four machines once upon a time, in the Register's Team.

Vulture Central II
04/06/2001 -11/04/2002 0:199:07:59:35 62,504 710

I vaguely recall a non windows client. It kind of irks me. Maybe that was for dnet or seti...

BBRModitha

You can say bad things about Intel chips when you catch up with me.

so you have time to form a team but there is still no cure for cancer?

Zzeuss

Seti and Folding both have Linux clients.

Folding also has an OS X client.

Str8balling,

I don't know who actually created the account, but there is a team "Fark" on folding@home.

Folding@home Team Fark

The team number is 2233, anyone know who created this?