Bad News...
Today was one of those bad days I hoped would never happen and never realistically thought would. I went to work today and was confronted about somebody that was upset about folding at home on their computer. Although I had received the proper permission, the person went to the rest of the IT department for the city and complained. Needless to say it was decided before I had any input that folding was to be removed from all the city computers. I removed the majority of them today and will get to the rest when I can reach the computers on the network.
I still have the folding farm but will lose significant production very shortly. It was good while it lasted but as always, easy come, easy go. Like many of the narrow-minded administrators I've seen posted about in prior threads it looks like I've fallen victim to them too. I wish they would reconsider their position but it looks to be unlikely at this point. It's too much hassle sometimes trying to convince those making the decisions of the benefits of the simulations and research. The situation can also be a little fragile since it's the employee/employer relationship. I'm glad the project got the past benefit of the machines but it appears it has come to an end.
KingFish
I still have the folding farm but will lose significant production very shortly. It was good while it lasted but as always, easy come, easy go. Like many of the narrow-minded administrators I've seen posted about in prior threads it looks like I've fallen victim to them too. I wish they would reconsider their position but it looks to be unlikely at this point. It's too much hassle sometimes trying to convince those making the decisions of the benefits of the simulations and research. The situation can also be a little fragile since it's the employee/employer relationship. I'm glad the project got the past benefit of the machines but it appears it has come to an end.
KingFish
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Thanks for all your contributions. Life goes on and we still love ya!
Sorry to hear it, KF. It's really sad, but the rally will continue, have no fear
/me feels all warm and fuzzy inside
After a start like that the rest of the day really sucked. I am thankful for all the past contributions but all good things must come to an end.
RWB: I don't know what the exact nature of the original complaint was to be honest as I got it second hand from my immediate supervisor (who has generally been supportive of the project although he took my word for it that the program doesn't cause harm or intrude on privacy). The one thing that I did gather was that it was suspected in hard drive failures (wtf?). I did try to explain to him that there would be no way in hell it could associated with hard drive failures but at that point I saw the writing on the wall and it's just simply best to not push a bad position with an employer no matter how unjustified/narrowminded their actions are in these situations.
Sorry to hear it KF. You have been an awesome folder !!
Looks like you'll be buyin the crawfish
Thanks for what you have done.
I agree it is best not to strain a employee/employer relationship.
Thanks again
Scott
But seriously that is so gay, what was he really complaining about?
We had a state skill competition at school today. Something I noticed is that when folding these qmd's & big wu's the system becomes very very sluggish because of the huge bandwith consumption. So I went so far as to just disable the clients until the competition was over and everything was normal again. If a student notices and complains I usually just disable -advmethods and big wu's for that semester. But I really think the culprit this time was the qmd core.
I guess what I'm getting at is that if and when I install to systems outside of my realm that I don't have direct control over ...and especially if I know it's primarily being used by someone else I just set no flags and I don't request the big wu's. That way I never have to worry about getting complaints and I still get 100% cpu even though the wu's are not as desirable. There are just some times when you can't take the chance.
If the wu's are hogs it will cause discomfort with the end user so I've just found over time that it's best not to push it. This may not be the case here KF but it may ...and it may be good advice for someone else who sets up folding on someone elses computer in the future ...with proper permissions of course.
This isn't the first time this has happened and it probably won't be the last ...but if we come up with some sort of concensus about possible solutions we can probably save folders lots of heartache in the future.
I really and truly hate to see things like this happen ...again sorry.
I (try to) come across as a friendly, jocular guy in the forums (which is my true nature anyways), but if I have a dark side it is that I don't suffer fools gladly - at least in extreme cases like this. You can always find new ways to kick your production back up a few notches, but the ignoramus that complained is stuck being who they are - a petty simple-minded fool. It's a pretty harsh but well-deserved lifetime sentence, if you ask me.
Humanity is still worth helping, even if a few ignorant individuals don't deserve it. :shakehead
You did a great job getting things as far as you did and you have every reason to be as proud of yourself as we are of you.
Good luck finding replacements.
floont
"Youth ages, immaturity is outgrown, ignorance can be educated, and drunkenness sobered, but STUPID lasts forever." - Aristophenes ... Athenian Playwright
Jack
I still fold on all of my machines, but needless to say I've lost my competetive spirit when it comes to trying to get as many as machines as possible folding for me. Dealing with the retards just doesn't make it worth it.
Then again... I have been known to install it on people's machines without their knowlege.....
It is a shame it had to end the way it did. As a team-member you are awesome and have done more than your fair share.
Hopefully something will make the ignoramus come to realise what folding is all about and why so many people, world-wide participate.
At least it has not affected your job as that would really have been over the top.
Here's to a better folding future.
Jon & Sally
Is there anybody where you work that we could all email as members of team 93 'thanking them for all their help in the past in fighting these terrible diseases, how their input will be missed, how they have probably saved a few lives by speeding up this important research'. That kind of thing? No pleading, just gratitude?
Sorry for the bad news...maybe send the person a link to the FAH promo video, and to this thread, so they can learn what FAH really does, and how it really does not slow down or negatively affect a system in any way.
Dexter...
Yes prof, it's a shame it had to end this way but I suppose it had to end sometime. It was an uphill battle and one that I didn't think I would succeed in. I timed it right and was polite so I got the permission.
This turn of events has changed my outlook a bit on folding on other peoples'/institutions' computers as it appears that it is the first thing to get blamed for anything that goes wrong with it. The hard drive failure accusation really floored me. We have a meeting today (they are weekly meetings actually) with the IT heads throughout the city and I was told that the topic will be coming up. I'll be polite and thank them for the past contributions while trying to bite my tongue about the blind ignorance that's being perpetuated somehow. Nearly all the clients have been taken off now already. I'll explain to them why the program is benign if it comes up although I don't want to be defensive or argumentative about it.
I never enabled big wu's or anything that would make the performance suffer (which is why the points per processor was dismal) because I didn't want FAH to be blamed in the first place for slowdowns. The only computers I have big wu's enabled is the ones under my direct control in my house and recommend the same for others.
All in all it's just a shame. Oh well life goes on.
Maybe in a year or so when you've got some data to point to you can go to your boss and say "We lost as many hdd's this year with no folding as we did last year with folding" and see if he'll go to bat for you.
Wow... I've seen some performance issues with large WU's also.
As for you predicament. Sorry dude... You've provided the team with a huge boost. We will miss the points, but the energy you provide to the team will not diminish. Stick with us and you'll still be providing hope for our children.
<font color=red size=4>Thank you KingFish...</font>
EDIT: the clock here confuses me, I can't quite tell when you posted this...
If I hear of one of the administrators that have a loved one diagnosed with one of these diseases you can sure bet I'll be there to bring this up.
It's in the nature of those types of people to find something else to pin their own shortcomings on. They'll use the line "It was working fine BEFORE that program was on my computer...what did YOU do? You must have screwed something up."
It's about that time I picture a wall and the same person being trotted out in front of it and no blindfold.