How long before we bit Abit?

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aristide1
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How long before we bit Abit?

Post by aristide1 » Tue Dec 16, 2003 5:49 pm

And how many Abit computers are being used those Abit guys. 8)

But look at the gap to the next one. :shock:

haysdb
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Post by haysdb » Wed Dec 17, 2003 3:41 am

We will overtake 26th place just in time to get bumped back to 27th by MacOS X. As far as the next step goes, we trail AOA by a lot of points, but we are gaining 5K points on them per day.

David

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Post by Zyzzyx » Wed Dec 17, 2003 7:09 am

Sounds similar to my positioning in the team over the next month. Up 3 places, down 2. One of those to YOU, David.


But then I'm currently set to go back up 3 spots in February. :) And plans to get another system going soon.

wgragg
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Post by wgragg » Wed Dec 17, 2003 7:16 am

You know, I have a theory of why the MacOs team may be growing so rapidly. I used to work for a school district and if there is one market that Mac's are entrenched in, it is schools. It was not unusual for lab teachers in some of the schools I supported to install Seti in their labs. When you have a lab of 20 computers cranking away, you can get some impressive numbers. Add to that many high schools have both Mac's and Wintel machines and you can see what was mentioned in another thread. Wintel machines in the Mac team.

Could it be that something similar is happening here?

I wish I could get permission to install this on the lab computers here at the public library. That would at least be 15 more per day cranking out.

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Post by Zyzzyx » Wed Dec 17, 2003 7:22 am

wgragg wrote:I wish I could get permission to install this on the lab computers here at the public library. That would at least be 15 more per day cranking out.
Have you asked yet?

I remember seeing somewhere in the Folding-Community boards an open letter that one of the larger teams had written, expressly to convince educational facilities to run F@H.

In many other situations I joke that "its easier to ask forgiveness than permission" (often times true when mt biking on 'questionable' lands), but that definitely does not apply when installing F@H.

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Post by wgragg » Wed Dec 17, 2003 7:46 am

Hehe, yeah, I've asked. The problem is that we received these computers from the Gates Foundation and until April, they have control over what we can install on them. They do not want any distributed processing programs running for security and compatibility reasons. Heck, I can't even put on MS patches without their permission!

This does bring up a question for when I finally get control of these. How can I have this program running in the background, even when no user is logged on? As it is now, in 2k and XP, I keep my user logged in at all times. I just lock the computer, but in the lab, I can't do that. Is there a way to run it that way?

Thanks,
Wendell

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Post by haysdb » Wed Dec 17, 2003 11:01 am

wgragg wrote:How can I have this program running in the background, even when no user is logged on? As it is now, in 2k and XP, I keep my user logged in at all times. I just lock the computer, but in the lab, I can't do that. Is there a way to run it that way?

Thanks,
Wendell
Wendell,

The "secret" to making this happen is to run Folding@Home as a "service". Services are processes that start immediately when Windows starts, not just when a user logs on.

Let me run you through a little "thought experiment":
  • Right click on My Computer and select 'Manage'. This will pop open a 'Computer Management' window.
  • Click on 'Services and applications' and then below that, 'Services'.
  • In the right window pane you will see a very long list of services.
  • Look in the list for 'F@H'. That's Folding@Home running as a service. It should say "Started' and 'Automatic'.
  • If you wish to stop the service, right click on F@H and select 'Stop'. If it's not running, click 'Start'
You won't find F@H in your list because you don't yet have it running as a service, but that is what it would look like, and how you would manage it if it were. The only way you would know it was running is if you opened 'Task Manager' and then you would see the process running. There is nothing on the tast bar to indicate it's running. You can still monitor it with Electron Microscope, to monitor progress or view the log file.

HOW you set F@H up to run as a service is the topic for another thread. :D

David

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Post by wgragg » Wed Dec 17, 2003 11:22 am

Thanks. I'm familiar with services, but didn't know if folding can be run as one. I'm certainly not sure how to do it, but will open another thread if it looks like this might really become an issue.

haysdb
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Post by haysdb » Wed Dec 17, 2003 6:59 pm

wgragg,

I did not mean to be condescending. I posted for others benefit who may come across this information via the Search option, and NOT know what a service is or how to manage them.

I have posted specific details on how I got F@H running as a service, including the download links, elsewhere in this forum, but if you can't find that information, feel free to start another thread and I will see if I can fill in the blanks. Basically what I found is a .reg file that you modify for your particulars (if, for example, you installed Folding@Home someplace different than C:\Program Files\Folding@Home) and then just double-click to add that info to the registry. There was also a little installer script to copy some files to where they needed to go. It uses three executables that are available from Microsoft.

The alternative is to use Firedaemon, which is software designed to run programs as a service. A version to run a single service can be downloaded for free.

David

wgragg
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Post by wgragg » Wed Dec 17, 2003 7:02 pm

No problem David. I didn't take offense. I will research it and will see what I can co at work.

Thanks,
Wendelll

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Post by sbabb » Wed Dec 17, 2003 8:14 pm

wgragg wrote:Hehe, yeah, I've asked. The problem is that we received these computers from the Gates Foundation and until April, they have control over what we can install on them. They do not want any distributed processing programs running for security and compatibility reasons. Heck, I can't even put on MS patches without their permission!
GREAT MOTHER OF COWS!!!

The Billy & Milly Foundation gets complete control over the PCs they donate for a period of time?!? I know that they were "donating" a few bucks worth of Microsoft software media (the actual duplication costs) while claiming the retail price as their donation, but I didn't know they insisted that you keep all of the Microsoft-approved security holes intact unless they say you can fix them! I particularly like the part where they don't want Folding installed "for security reasons." I'm pretty sure that Folding won't improve Windows' security and thus tarnish Windows sterling reputation for having security holes you could sail a battleship through.

Maybe they're hoping that you'll get Borged by the Microsoft software and you won't switch to Quicken, StarOffice, or (heaven forbid) Linux when their control expires.

Do they build the PCs with hardware that depends on Windows being installed to run correctly like Winmodems?

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Post by wgragg » Wed Dec 17, 2003 8:50 pm

LOL. Well, honestly, it is because of the security profiles they have put on the machine. They have some very elaborate and picky profiles created that can cause all sorts of BSOD's if a patron runs the wrong thing or an untested program is installed on the computer. As an example, the Gates computers like ours (with Nt4 installed) absolutely choke if a patron installs Yahoo Messenget or the Yahoo toolbar.

If you saw what I had to do to install a patch or to change permissions for something, you would just cry. Anyway, in April, they become ours with no restrictions and the first thing I am planning on doing is putting XP on them and doing our own security.

Heck, at that point, I could put Linux on them if I wanted to.

All that being said, the grants were very generous, but they screwed up things for the first 18 states they offered the grants to. The later states got Win2k and much better support.

Wendell

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