Off topic but important. You can help the fight against CoronaVirus with the raw power of your rig

stitchesofdooom · March 18

There's a website called [email protected] and you can use their client to donate some of your spare computing power (CPU & GPU) to the various protein folding simulations to help the global research collaboration find treatments, vaccines and cures for Covid-19.

Anyone with a PC can help, but we PC gamers particulary can put the power of our GPUs into this project when we're not gaming. Many of these tasks are far better suited to GPUs. We can help to protect the weak and the sick. We all know someone with a trashed immune system, or who is really effin old. Please, PCMR: use your PCMR powers for good.

Obviously Google it first: [email protected]

CMDR_Un1k0rn · March 18

Oh are you the guy I saw in The Rift earlier on PC EU?

But no, seriously. Yes. I agree.

InaMoonlight · March 18

Done.

Sylvermynx · March 18

Moi aussi!

Mindcr0w · March 18

Pffft

I've been donating computing power to [email protected] since like 2003 and those guys haven't found a single alien.

Joking aside this is probably a decent thing to do.

stitchesofdooom · March 18

CMDR_Un1k0rn wrote: »

Oh are you the guy I saw in The Rift earlier on PC EU?

But no, seriously. Yes. I agree.

Yeah, that was me. PCMR are uniquely equipped to make a real difference. Even a potato potato beats a basic workstation.

stitchesofdooom · March 18

Mindcr0w wrote: »

Pffft

I've been donating computing power to [email protected] since like 2003 and those guys haven't found a single alien.

Joking aside this is probably a decent thing to do.

Sylvermynx wrote: »

Moi aussi!

InaMoonlight wrote: »

Done.

thanks for the support. It's not my project, and I'm extremely unlikely to die if I catch it... but for the small percentage to who CoronaVirus is extremely threatening - I choose to use my PCMR powers for good.

dem0n1k · March 19

Folding now

Thanks for the information @stichesofdooom

IndianaJames7 · March 19

Good idea! Just got a 2080 super + 3900x which game performance has prevented me from using anyways... might as well put em to good use!

CassandraGemini · March 19

This seems like a really good thing! Thank you @stitchesofdooom for sharing this information!

Now, here's hoping ZOS will make an exception and not close this thread down because it is not ESO-related. Please, ZOS, be reasonable and just ignore this, there are things that are slightly more important than your game right now and the more people know about it and take it seriously, the better.

nhisso · March 19

The folding at home folks are bringing it back to playstation as well. It was on ps3. Going to ps4.

IndianaJames7 · March 19

CassandraGemini wrote: »

This seems like a really good thing! Thank you @stitchesofdooom for sharing this information!

Now, here's hoping ZOS will make an exception and not close this thread down because it is not ESO-related. Please, ZOS, be reasonable and just ignore this, there are things that are slightly more important than your game right now and the more people know about it and take it seriously, the better.

0% chance ZOS closes this, this should be pinned if anything.

CassandraGemini · March 19

IndianaJames7 wrote: »

CassandraGemini wrote: »

This seems like a really good thing! Thank you @stitchesofdooom for sharing this information!

Now, here's hoping ZOS will make an exception and not close this thread down because it is not ESO-related. Please, ZOS, be reasonable and just ignore this, there are things that are slightly more important than your game right now and the more people know about it and take it seriously, the better.

0% chance ZOS closes this, this should be pinned if anything.

Well, they have closed down other Covid-19 threads before, but those were mostly dealing with memes or other inappropriate stuff, so... I sure hope you're right in this case

stitchesofdooom · March 19

CassandraGemini wrote: »

IndianaJames7 wrote: »

CassandraGemini wrote: »

This seems like a really good thing! Thank you @stitchesofdooom for sharing this information!

Now, here's hoping ZOS will make an exception and not close this thread down because it is not ESO-related. Please, ZOS, be reasonable and just ignore this, there are things that are slightly more important than your game right now and the more people know about it and take it seriously, the better.

0% chance ZOS closes this, this should be pinned if anything.

Well, they have closed down other Covid-19 threads before, but those were mostly dealing with memes or other inappropriate stuff, so... I sure hope you're right in this case

Bethesda should be promoting this

stitchesofdooom · March 19

dem0n1k wrote: »

Folding now Thanks for the information @stichesofdooom

thank you for joining the team.

Team PCMR is 225605 btw

MissBizz · March 19

stitchesofdooom wrote: »

dem0n1k wrote: »

Folding now Thanks for the information @stichesofdooom

thank you for joining the team.

Team PCMR is 225605 btw

@stitchesofdooom there is now an ESOfam team 240473

dem0n1k · March 19

stitchesofdooom wrote: »

dem0n1k wrote: »

Folding now Thanks for the information @stichesofdooom

thank you for joining the team.

Team PCMR is 225605 btw

Thanks joined.

ArchMikem · March 19

...this smells malicious.

InaMoonlight · March 19

ArchMikem wrote: »

...this smells malicious.

It isn't, research it

All you have to do is google/duckduckgo

Pathfindr · March 19

MissBizz wrote: »

@stitchesofdooom there is now an ESOfam team 240473

Thank you. Joined.

Lysette · March 19

ArchMikem wrote: »

...this smells malicious.

[email protected] is not a new thing, but there since a couple of years. Computing how proteins fold is a rather intensive computation and using the power of client machines to distribute the computation is helping research - this is not specifically for corona, but in general it helps researchers in the field with many problems related to the 3d structure of proteins and enzymes. This said, if you graphics hardware has issues with temperature, keep an eye on it - the computations done are using lots of GPU power and it could eventually overheat.

InaMoonlight · March 19

@ZOS_GinaBruno Is there any chance we can sticky this, so we can all see and help out if we can?

Magenpie · March 19

Sorry to ask this but does it contribute internationally or just to the US?

Edit: For anyone concerned like me this seems to be a good jumping off point. I'm very wary of commercial research masquerading as open source research (although I realise the lines are always blurry.) Anyway, sorry to be overly cautious probably.

https://foldingathome.org/2020/03/10/covid19-update/

stitchesofdooom · March 19

Magenpie wrote: »

Sorry to ask this but does it contribute internationally or just to the US?

It's a global collaboration.

stitchesofdooom · March 19

MissBizz wrote: »

stitchesofdooom wrote: »

dem0n1k wrote: »

Folding now Thanks for the information @stichesofdooom

thank you for joining the team.

Team PCMR is 225605 btw

@stitchesofdooom there is now an ESOfam team 240473

I refuse to join a team that uses "fam" in their name.

scorpius2k1 · March 19

Thank you for the info. Done.

wolfbone · March 19

their story's so touching, it sounds just like a lie!

Kadoin · March 19

I pay for electricity, so no. Plus ESO lags enough!

scorpius2k1 · March 19

Kadoin wrote: »

I pay for electricity, so no. Plus ESO lags enough!

wolfbone wrote: »

their story's so touching, it sounds just like a lie!

LOL. How much power does your rig pull Kadoin? I'll gladly pay the extra $2-3 a MONTH if it means helping out the cause and in return keeping posts like these still around for the humor component.

furiouslog · March 19

Just to clarify, this project covers protein folding simulations, one application of which is a set of simulations they are running on SARS in order to understand COVID-19 better and identify the potential for certain kinds of cures - it's not devoted to COVID-19 exclusively and it's actually unlikely (but not impossible) that they will contribute to curing COVID-19 anytime soon. Their primary focus is on diseases resultant from protein mis-folding, like cancer, Alzheimer's, and many others.

I'm pretty sure they are capitalizing on the COVID-19 media frenzy to draw attention to their project by applying their methods to the problem, and it's an area that needs to be explored, but they are not working towards a cure, per se. They are making simulated SARS data available to researchers who are investigating a very specific factor that might result in a cure.

It's good that they are doing their part, and their work is important, but if your primary concern is curing COVID-19, donating your GPU to this probably won't do a lot. But it might do a lot more for curing many other diseases - so don't let your cynicism override your desire to help, just make sure that you are informed and devoting your resources in a way that meets your priorities.

On a side note, if they are a registered charity, the additional power consumption costs you incur by running their models ought to be tax deductible AFAIK, but I don't think that they provide a reliable way to measure that in their software, and their tax ID is not on their website from what I can see.

ZOS_RogerJ · March 19

While not ZOS related, as most of you have kept the thread super constructive, for now we have only removed a few of the baiting/non-constructive posts.