Folding@Home

No, I'm not talking about your laundry. ;)

Folding@Home is a distributed computing project run by Stanford University to research the process of protein folding. More specifically, they are studying the phenomenon of proteins that do not fold correctly, and the role they play in such diseases as Alzheimer's, ALS, Huntington's and Parkinson's disease, and many forms of cancer. The project began over seven years ago, with the beta version of the software released in 2000.

The Folding@Home project utilizes a concept known as distributed computing, where the complex calculations required to simulate the folding process are broken down into chunks of smaller, more manageable calculations (called Work Units) that are then sent to the client software running on a home user's computer (or PS3). The client software runs in the background, using "spare" CPU cycles. Once the client software finishes the folding simulation of the individual Work Unit it was assigned, the results are uploaded to Stanford's servers where Work Unit results from users all over the world are re-assembled for further analysis. The hundreds of thousands of home computers running the client software provide enough computing power to "simulate problems thousands to millions of times more challenging than previously achieved", according to the Folding@Home website.

The online gaming group I belong to has joined the folding effort, and all are welcome to join our team. Yes, even YOU! You don't need to be a gamer, but if you are, we even welcome rival clans. ;)

So what do you need to do to join the folding effort?
- Go to http://folding.stanford.edu and download the client software. Client software is available for PC, Mac, and even PlayStation 3!
- Install the software, select a username, and join Team [760] by adding team number 70586 in the config window.
- Let it run in the background. That's it - you're folding!

Once you've finished your first Work Unit, your folding stats will appear on the Stanford website, and the Team [760] Stats Page.

As a fun added bonus for Team [760] members, I've personally put together a much more comprehensive stat tracking system: Team [760] Folding@Home Advanced Stats. We realize it's not a competition amongst ourselves or other teams -- these stats are just for fun, and serve to document our progress and help visualize our contribution to the project as a whole.

Even if you don't join Team [760], I hope you'll consider joining the Folding@Home project. It's a worthwhile cause.

Decline of a Neighborhood

When we moved into our house on the southeast side of Des Moines five years ago, we were fairly pleased with the neighborhood we had chosen. It's located at the edge of a development that was constructed in the mid-90's (ours built in '94), so the homes are all relatively modern and in decent condition. The immediately adjacent neighborhood to the west is slightly older (probably mid-80's), with the homes continuing to get older as you move farther west. Extending to the east are generally newer homes, with the most recently constructed houses popping up all around Easter Lake, which is about 5 minutes from our house. We knew that the SE side, in general, was not the nicest part of the metro area, but it provided a lot more buying power, getting us a much nicer home than we could get for a similarly priced house in the western suburbs. Basically, you have to drive through some "not so nice" neighborhoods to get to ours, and when we purchased that was OK. Unfortunately, things have changed over the years.

The most significant change has been the fact that we are now parents. Having the well-being of a young child at the forefront of your daily concerns makes you sensitive to things in your surroundings that you probably could care less about when you qualify as just a couple of D.I.N.K.'s (Double Income, No Kids). Anyone with children will know exactly what I'm talking about. Things that might seem trivial to someone without any children can often times be very important to a parent. Unfortunately, there have been more than just trivial events (even by D.I.N.K. standards) leading to the decline of our neighborhood.

In general, the SE side of the Des Moines metro could be considered a bit of a rough neighborhood -- really the entire east side. Yes, there are nicer spots interspersed among the bad areas, like our neighborhood for example, but it's generally not a highly revered part of the metro. We knew that going in, realizing that we would most likely move on after 5-7 years, so no big deal, right? Well, it wasn't at the time we purchased, and continued to not be a problem up until about two years ago when the crime associated with the bad areas around us started creeping closer and closer to our neighborhood.

It seems like there is a shooting/stabbing/robbery/hit-and-run/recently discovered dead body on the east side about every other week. Seriously. If it's not one of those things, it's another. Here are just a few examples that stick out in my mind:

- A few nights ago a 15 year-old was killed in a hit-and-run near South Ridge Mall (about 5-10 minutes south of our house).
- There have been at least three robberies of various businesses on SE 14th over the last several months -- at least one of which ended up in a high speed chase. SE 14th is the nearest major north-south thorough-fair to our house, about 5 blocks away.
- Last year, a man was arrested for sexually assaulting a young child (under the age of 10) in a van parked at the Fareway 2 blocks from our house.
- A few months ago a house on our street was broken into. I'm not sure what, if anything, was stolen. No one was home at the time.
- And most recently, there have been a rash of mailbox bashings on our street. Saturday evening/Sunday morning marked the third time it has happened this summer. This last go-around was the first time our mailbox was hit. Luckily, the damage was only superficial. There were somewhere between 5 and 10 other mailboxes on our street that weren't so lucky.

Normally, I wouldn't get too concerned about my mailbox getting bashed. And compared to the other items in my above list, some damaged mailboxes seems pretty trivial. Yes, it's annoying, aggravating, and an inconvenience -- especially when it happens repeatedly, but under normal circumstances I'd just chock it up to some bored, rowdy teenagers. That's what it appeared to be all the times leading up to the most recent. However, this last round was accompanied by, what I can only assume to be, gang symbols spray painted on the side of my neighbors boat which he had parked in his driveway. I have no idea what it meant or what gang it may or may not have been representing, but it concerns me greatly. That's just too damn close.

I feel as if it's only a matter of time before something more significant than a smashed mailbox will happen to my family, and I don't really feel like waiting around to find out what it might be. It's time to get the hell outta dodge...

Backyard Fun

My 15 minutes of fame

Well, not really...but it'll have to do.

Here's a link to a local television news spot about the last project I designed for my former employer.

http://www.kdsm.com/players/news/top_story/video.shtml
(Click on the video for "Asian Gardens..." in the video list)

The video will probably only be available for a day or two before getting cycled out of rotation.

Here's what it will look like when all the landscaping is finished (click for larger image):

The upper "pagoda" portion of the structure was hand made in China, and assembled here in the US by the Chinese craftsmen who made it. The solid marble railings and statue figures were also hand made in China.

A few other photos:


Here's what it looked like before the pagoda was installed:

I wish they would just finish the damn thing already. I designed it in 2005!

Happy 4th of July

Budding Percussionist

RAWK!!!

How I spent my Sunday

7:30 AM: Awakened by my wife screaming from downstairs -- "Chad, wake up! Wake up!"
A few seconds later: I wake up and run downstairs to where my wife's voice is coming from.
Another few seconds later: I get to the basement and immediately notice a wet, spongey sensation on my bare feet.
Another few seconds later: Many profanities are spoken in a loud, angry tone as I shut off the water to our house, and the burst water pipe slowly stops spouting water all over my (formally) nice, finished basement. A few electronic items are move up off the floor - including my computer.
9:00 AM: The plumber arrives at our house and locates a faulty plastic T connector going to our water filtration system.
10:00 AM: Many calls and phone messages to our insurance agent go unanswered. We later find out he was on the golf course all day.
10:30 AM: I begin moving stuff out of the basement and in to our living room, garage, etc.
2:30 PM: The contractor arrives at our house to begin cleanup.
5:00 PM: The contractor finishes ripping out all of the carpet pad, and leaves behind 4 industrial size carpet fans and a de-humidifier which will be running non-stop for the next 3 days.
5:30 PM: I take a shower and curse repeatedly.
7:30 PM: I setup my computer in the living room. It doesn't appear to have suffered any water damage.
12:30 AM (technically, Monday): We still haven't heard from our insurance agent.

What a great, relaxing way to spend my Sunday -- especially after a long two-week business trip to Denver where I worked 60 hours each week.

Update:
We finally got in touch with our insurance agent. The kicker of the whole deal is that we go to church with him, and I even play in the church contemporary band with his wife. We called his office and left a message, and even called his house only to find out he was on the lynx. We spoke with his wife for a while, but she isn't in the biz, so couldn't help much. When my wife called his office this morning (yes, we had to call him even after all the messages we left), he basically passed the buck to his wife, and said she should have given us his cell phone number. Whatever. We're not impressed.

The upside is that our insurance company has said they will cover the losses, minus our deductible of course. Unfortunately, since the piping was to our water filtration system, they are saying that they won't cover the cost to fix it since it's not "essential." That cost is peanuts compared to the cleanup cost, but still it's a little disappointing.

Another possible upside is that we may even end up getting our deductible back. The day before all this happened, we had our local cable co. send an internet technician to our house to fix some problems we were having with our service. The primary junction where the cable enters the house is in the same closet where the water filtration equipment that broke is located. I was standing there when the tech was in the closet fixing the cable, and saw him set his very large flashlight on top of the filtration equipment. Was it a coincidence that later that night/early the next morning there was a broken connection almost exactly where he set his flashlight? I think not. We have been told that our insurance company may go after the cable co. for damages, and in turn, we may get our deductible back, which would be fantastic. We'll see...