(I apologize for the sensational title.)

-- Cancer Research Project FAQ v0.7b.txt begin


After almost 2 years, we're up to 120 active volunteers, 138,910 results (our team rank is 61st), 127:320:02:33:00 CPU time. Yes, we've contributed 127 years of computation. Kudos to all!

Any more volunteers?


http://www.avsads.com/teamavs/teamavs2.jpg
Banner graciously created by our own eshylay from South Africa.

§    What?


Oxford University (http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/) (UK) is employing distributed computing (à la SETI@home (http://www.computer.org/cise/articles/seti.htm)) to accelerate the development and testing of drugs for life-threatening diseases like cancer. National Foundation for Cancer Research (http://www.nfcr.org/) (US) funds the project. Intel (http://www.intel.com/cure/research.htm) (US) is a sponsor. United Devices (http://www.ud.com/) (US) provides infrastructure. In February 2003, all research projects moved from ud.com to grid.org ("The Grid").


§    How?


To join the AVSforum team: go here (http://www.grid.org/services/teams/team.htm?id=588A9216-D96E-4EDA-AA67-73132F3DDDB9) and select Download (on the left).


§    Why did you write this post?


I learned several AVS members are directly or indirectly affected by cancer: Scotty (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=28721&), son of Wayne Gerdes (xcel), one of Chivs's relatives (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?threadid=80669), and perhaps others. These posts were my call to action.


§    Where can I learn about the project?


Oxford University's Screensaver Lifesaver (http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/curecancer.html) project home, FAQ (http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/cancer/oxfordfaq.html), news (http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/cancer/news.html), and the What? links above.


§    Caveat


Don't install on your organization's computers without your manager's prior written permission (if email, print it). So doing would be abusing company resources. Don't get fired!


§    Notes


Hyperlinks trail the relevant text and look like this: «« (foo). The character « is a left pointing guillemet (double angle quotation mark). The traditional URL format is to underline text (foo) but with (foo1) consecutive (foo2) hyperlinks (foo3), the URLs become obscured.


· Firewall/proxy: Try SOCKS5 or SOCKS4. HTTPS didn't work but YMMV (http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=ymmv*1+0) .

· Data loss: The UD agent can lose some data if Windows 95/98/ME hangs or you reboot. Periodically (preferably when the percentile changes) exit the UD agent to flush data to disk «« (http://forum.ud.com/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=22&t=000049) .

· Time: Work units may require 20-50 hours on 300 MHz computer.

· UD agent FAQ «« (http://www.grid.org/projects/cancer/faq.htm) read first.

· Start Here «« (http://forum.ud.com/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=22&t=000034) from grid.org forums «« (http://forum.ud.com/) Community FAQs «« (http://forum.ud.com/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum;f=22).

· Server status: UD is slow to inform when problems occur. The agent automatically tries reconnecting; to force a reconnect attempt, exit and restart the agent.

· Agent version: Open agent, 1. select checkmark icon (bottom, 3rd from left) or 2. shift-V.

· Teams: Results accumulate only when you are on that team. If you switch teams, results contributed to the first team don't move to the second team (by design). Teams are merely a vehicle to report statistics and perhaps foster community involvement.

· Teams: Why am I not listed? Wait 24 hours (updates at 00:30 UTC (http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/UT.html)) or try the last page (50 names per page).

· OS I've tried: WinXP, Win2K, Win98, WinNT 4.0 .

· AVS threads: xcel's son Scotty «« (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?threadid=28721) Chivs's relative «« (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?threadid=80669) Bernd «« (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?threadid=79830) .

· Agent status: What's happening on my machine?
--
How do I get the status of what's happening at any time on my machine? (gordf 05-02-01 12:07 AM)

xcel 05-02-01 02:46 AM

You will see a blue KB icon in your system tray. Double click on it and a menu will pop up. The first one is pertinent with how far the current project has advanced as well total points and CPU time … Click on the i and you will see the molecule being worked on. I can leave this run through a DVD under Windows 2000 without problems but to be on the safe side, you probably should shut it down under Millennium specifically when playing back DVD's. Snooze does not shut it down for good but for the time you set it up to stop the calculation only. After that period of time, it will again start calculating. Clicking on Exit will shut it down and you should immediately relaunch the UD project immediately after your DVD is through. It works in the background and the only way you know it is running is when taking a look at CPU utilization. You will see that it stays pegged at 100% and your conformer counts are still racing up the percentage scale. Oh, your CPU temp will be a bit higher than normal given it is being pushed hard as well ;)
--


Even if you don't leave your computer on all the time or you think that old clunker is too slow, please consider helping. Every spare processor cycle benefits the cause. (If you use your computer only a few hours a day, results may not upload for a week but they will eventually.)


Mike


Join AVSforum (http://www.grid.org/services/teams/team.htm?id=588A9216-D96E-4EDA-AA67-73132F3DDDB9) team to help Scotty (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?threadid=28721) (son of AVS member) fight leukemia.


-- Cancer Research Project FAQ v0.7b.txt end

Bump ^.

This is a great cause and I didn't want this thread to bury. What a great feeling it would be if us home theater nuts had even a small part in finding the cure for cancer.

JHolmberg, thanks for volunteering your PC in the fight against cancer. 81..

Do I hear 82?

Daniel Gannon, genixia: thanks for the help. We're up to 83 current members (those not retired).

Some haven't returned results; see the bottom of the stats page (http://members.ud.com/services/teams/team_members.htm?id=588A9216-D96E-4EDA-AA67-73132F3DDDB9&ord=RESULTS&rsps=250) . Please check your configuration and post here if you have a question; I'll do my best to help.

I'm getting a dual-Xeon 1.7ghz system in the next week - you can sign me up when it gets here, so long as it doesn't cause any stability problems http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif

I bet I'll crank a few units out.


------------------
Lex MC1/Sunfire CG/Hales Rev3's x3/M&K SS150 tripoles/Quadscan/Plus UP1100/Homemade screen

Ok, so I downloaded the software, and joined the AVS team - however after completing my first unit of work, it will not connect to the server - "The UD agent has encountered a problem while attempting to send results to the UD server..." is this thing frequently down or is there something else I need to do?

I hate unstable software - it will be promptly deleted and back to seti@home or RC5 unless this gets solved quickly.



------------------
Lex MC1/Sunfire CG/Hales Rev3's x3/M&K SS150 tripoles/Quadscan/Plus UP1100/Homemade screen

Originally posted by PAP:
is this thing frequently down or is there something else I need to do?
I hate unstable software - it will be promptly deleted and back to seti@home or RC5 unless this gets solved quickly.


Welcome to the team. Their server seems to be down right now. Unfortunate timing for you.
In the 3+ months that I've been with UD, I would say that it's more stable than SETI@home ever was for the 1+ year that I was contributing to it. The UD servers do go down occasionally, but not as often or for as long as SETI did in my experiences. My overall impression is that UD servers are less overburdened than SETI which always seemed to be straining to keep up with demand. (For example, with UD you don't have to worry about trying to look at stats during peak hours)

As for the client software, I don't think it affects my system(s) as much as SETI did. I leave it running in the background 99% of the time.

I can't speak for RC5 as I haven't tried that.

Steve

pprior, shodoug, Robert Tichelman, ii289: thanks for joining; we're up to 87 volunteers. Do I hear 88?

..Mike

Bump...

------------------
rm -rf /bin/Laden
---
.sig shamelessly stolen from a /. post. Feel free to use it.

Took a while, but #88 finally arrived.

My sister-in-law passed away 8/31 from non-smoking related lung cancer. With the help of many other dedicated and brave individuals, she founded Lungevity (www.lungevity.org) to help fight this deadly and devastating illness.

The team is still growing! #98 joined yesterday!

The project is now also able to search for a treatment for anthrax.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20020123/tc/attack_anthrax_computers_dc_2.html

I just installed the application and joined the team. I can't even tell the application is running. It is very nice and seems to be very stable.

Thought I'd bring this to the top again, it's certainly a good cause and I think there should be a whole lot more of us participating.

I've been running the program for the cancer research for sometime now. However my computers are now running the Anthrax and although they will switch back later, I've decided to continue donating my computing time to the Cancer research.

If you also wish to concentrate on the cancer cure, edit your profile in the "My Device Manager" portion of the UD Home page.

Been doing this for a few weeks now, but just added my efforts to the avs team. ( 2 machines.. a p3 500 and a compaq ml350 server running dual p3 750s' ).

Count me in!

After 1 year, we're up to 97 active volunteers, 114,213 results, 85:196:14:42:24 CPU time. Yes, we've contributed 85 years of computation. Kudos to all!

3 more, we made it to 100 volunteers!

im in then

I'm still crunching, but I switched to TIVO team which is really a part of AVS as well. Wish we could all get together. I like AVS, but I -love- my TIVO :)

Everyone should join -a- team, however, if your computer is just sitting there, put it to work!

(P.S) -- Oh, and by the way, for those of you who have dialup connections - make sure you download and install UDdialup which is a program which will let the UD program dial and contact the server whenever a new workunit is needed. If you have broadband, of course you don't need this.

Just wanted to refresh the thread again... I recently switched to AVS team from theregister.co.uk. Feel more like home here... :rolleyes:

All-time number of AVS team members crunching numbers on their idle time is 120. Currently there are 111 active members who have donated almost 100 years of valuable processing time.

Put your HTPC to work!

Hi Icvama:

___From the bottom of my heart, my Scotty and I thank you.

___As a small update, Scotty is now in his second stages of chemo (less invasive since it is mostly pills except for every few weeks with the shots :(). He is still in remission which I pray every day will continue for the rest of his natural 75 + years of life. He has been on an Alaskan cruise thanks to his grandparents and is heading to Hawaii over the Christmas and New Year holidays thanks to the organization called Make a Wish (http://www.wish.org/). We go bike riding almost every day as well as see movies together whether that is from the HTPC or the local movie house. He loves his own personal HTPC although he mostly plays Warcraft III on it as of late and X-Box’s quite a bit on the big screen as well. He is attending school normally now and the local school district arranged it so that his 3 best friends over the last few years are still together with him in his same class home room.

___Thank you again.

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.
___Waynegerdes@earthlink.net

Bump. We're up to 120 now. Once my stats get added in we'll have contributed over 124 years of processing time. Let's get some more.

I'm in!

Had a bugger of a time getting to the team sign-up page.

Wow, this thread has been around since August of 2001?! I wish I'd known about it sooner.

The new link is here btw:

http://www.grid.org/services/teams/team.htm?id=588A9216-D96E-4EDA-AA67-73132F3DDDB9

I'll try to get my htpc setup with the software in the next couple of days.

Ok, I thought that this is a noble cause. Please don't flame me for the mega-bumb. Yeah, I know it's been a year, but still.....

As soon as I get my HTPC installed in the next few weeks, I'll be joining. Too bad they don't have a Mac version..... Oh well, Folding@Home is always on.

I think that anyone who has a HTPC connected to the internet should install this on it. Let's really make a difference. Maybe not now, maybe not this year, or this decade. Yet one day, our computing time will make some difference.

been a AVS member for awhile and never saw this thread...

I use to run UD on all my PCs until Keith Davies left and started Find-a-drug.org

The best person I've ever known is fighting Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma so naturally I try to recruit others.

Glad a lot of you are running UD, Id rather see you running FaD but either way its a great cause.

Keep on crunchin.

As the saying goes "Better late than never"

I'm in too.

Hope some day this helps us all in one way or the other.

Originally posted by r961161
As the saying goes "Better late than never"

I'm in too.

Hope some day this helps us all in one way or the other.

Its helping now.

http://www.find-a-drug.org/press6.html

Don't forget Team Tivo - we run out of the TIVO forum here at AVS and we're also proud to crunch for the cure! Go Team AVS!

BUMP!

This should remain on Top!

Wow, finally found a worthy team to join! and I get to bump an old thread

:cool:

i regret to inform that after putting in about a day and a half in total, that must resign form using this program as it was a resorce hog. is there a way to limit the amount of computing power it uses?

The application consumes "idle time slices" which means it basically CAN'T be a resource hog. Windows programs can set their own execution priority levels, and "idle priority" is one of the execution levels that is available. That's how the UD program operates. It only gets processor time when the CPU is literally not doing anything else.

I have run UD on all of my machines for 3 years, during which time they've cranked out nearly 8 years' worth of results. I've never had it crash, and I've never had it interfere with what I'm doing. I'm a programmer, so I'm on my machine constantly. I don't even unload UD when I run resource intensive games, or when I'm messing around with OpenGL and Direct3D programming. My wife does a lot of photorealistic 3D modeling in Maya (an extremely resource-intensive application), and she never has to unload it either.

It's actually a very well written piece of software in terms of how well it "stays out of the way".

It's not an application hog, it's designed to use ALL of the UNUSED clock cycles.

In other words if you look at the CPU utilization it will always be 100% when running the UD application - that's the whole purpose. However if you open something else that needs the cycles it will immediately drop to 0.

If you look at the process priority - it is set at the lowest level.

The only reason not to run it is if you have heat problems as it will run your processor full bore. You can set other programs like folding at home to use less than 100% of clock cycles, but UD has not offered this as an option.

cheers.

put it this way, in internet explorer the drop down list of urls would never come down while it was running, could not run wmvhd at 1080P some 720P's worked but not all
i gots a P4 @ 2.8gHz, don't know what the FSB is,
512MB ram
audigy LS
GF FX 5200 128MB
80GB HDD

it is a dell, no i did not pick it.

Bizarre - I've installed this on probably a dozen computers from a skimpy P3 up to a dual xeon server and never a hiccup.

What os are you running? If NT based (2000/xp) make sure it's set to the lowest priority, which it should default to.

I've honestly never heard of anyone before who had a problem running it. It's the most stable program I've ever used.

i got xp home, i'll try to install it again and see it it's priority is the lowest, but the werid thing was it said i only had 0.5GB of disc space while i have well over 20GB left, found that very odd

Bump!

Excuse, but this cause shoud be reminded to the new fellow members.

Oh, and psycho (6 months later) that disk space allocation can be set in your profile. It doesn't really matter except it affects your "points" a bit, but the program will run just fine.

I'm still crunching - but I only run most my machines in the winter ;)

Bump.

If you're not in on it, you should be.

Time to move this up top again

plan to get this goin once I am online at home again.

Stumbled across this thread while searching for something else, so... BUMP.

Oh, and psycho (6 months later) that disk space allocation can be set in your profile. It doesn't really matter except it affects your "points" a bit, but the program will run just fine.

I'm still crunching - but I only run most my machines in the winter ;)
Hahaha, i didn't notice this reply for a year, I guess I'll give this a shot again since I recently partitioned the crap outta my machine :p

Thanks for the info. I will join when I get home.

^^^ bump

Thanks for the bump.
My mom and Grandmother both survived breast cancer. I had been using my machines for the folding@home project, but could not get it to install on the current build of Vista...

I am now running this as my stress test. ;-)

Looks like grid.org has shut down.

I noticed that the ud agent had had some issues connecting, so I searched and found this. (http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1183937)

Oh well.

I guess it is time to uninstall and look for other programs.

I had heard that they were repeating some results for awhile, but this was a surprise.

This computer shows 25 years of computer time and over 5 million points.

Best Regards,
Doug