Atlas Folding

Dad had an infection last week. Illnesses really knock him on his ass. His chorea was monumental. My mother continues to be a trouper and push through no matter what his Huntington’s throws at her, but it’s day by day. It can be hard.

Before we knew it he was ill and he became incontinent for a few days. That was its own, unpleasant thing. He developed a horrible rash and bedsores overnight. They’re still subsiding. Mom struggled against the apathy of home nursing.

Dad is in there, he can still make me laugh. But it’s as though he lives on an island of his own. Crashing waves make it difficult for him to hear us. Shouting his name is required sometimes.

I ramble. I miss so much of my dad.

My new purchase.  Summer restoration fun!

[Show as slideshow]

Atlas Folder has quietly slid past the 300,000,000 point mark.

It’s an interesting time for folding at home, what with the resurgence of the SMP folding client on multi-processor machines.

I’ve been peppered with questions about whether Atlas Folder is going to “modernize” and move to CPU/SMP.  The short answer is “Yes”.  I’m in the process now of experimenting with the technology and devising out a plan to accomplish this both logistically and financially.

Fold on folks.

Jason

Yesterday it was 106 degrees Fahrenheit in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The weatherman promised “only 94″ and rain on Friday which sounds relatively pleasant, but in Tulsa what that means is that it’ll be 94 degress, 100% humidity and intermittent sunshine making a sauna out of the entire county.

The highest temperature I’ve ever experienced personally was 116 at the Hover Dam in August.  Yeah, the humidity was low but at 116 it just doesn’t matter that much.  The lowest temperature I’ve experienced I’m not too sure of but it’s been -15 or so here in Tulsa that I can recall.

So post your weather extreme comments below if you like, I’m curious what other folks are experiencing around the world.

Yesterday Atlas Folder quietly passed mutsu in total points ever contributed to the Folding@Home project.  This event placed Atlas Folder as the #1 private contributor to F@H in total points and #4 in the world in total points behind only:

1. Anonymous PS3s with no team assignment
2. Anonymous CPUs with no team assignment
3. Purdue Data Center (PDC)

Thanks for the well wishes and pats on the back that I’ve been receiving.  I hope to continue to contribute for a long time to come.

Fold on!

Yeah ok, so I woke up this morning to full farm failure.  Sometime during the night the farm’s file server went down.  That machine hosts all of the data for the farm so that effectively sticks a fork in the entire enchilada.

Not sure why it went down other than we had some storms here and perhaps it experienced a brownout.  The farm isn’t battery backed up as it’s not practical; Atlas Folder draws 13,000 Watts of power continuously.

Anyway, drove out to work from home and spent another three hours on it this morning and afternoon.  Seems to be working at the moment but I figure it’ll die about the time I’m locking the door behind me.  Isn’t that always the way it goes?