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Xilikon Interview +++++ HARD DC'er of the Month September 2008
Please join me in congratulating Xilikon for being selected as the [H]ard DCer of the month for September of 2008. This is the second time that he has been chosen for this award. Even more so when you consider that the [H]orde has over 1,400 active folders. He last won this award in May of 2007.
Xilikon is currently ranked #6 on our team, and he has 12.8 million points. In August and September of 2008 he produced over 1.5 million points per month. October of 2008 produced another one million points. He currently produces about twenty thousand points per day. He is ranked #64 in the world.
stats link: http://www.hardfolding.com/fh_stats/index.php?pz=5&id=7959
Link to first interview from May 2007: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1228236
Basic Information:
How many F@H points do you have?
I'm now over 12,800,000 points.
How about United Devices and WCG points?
I have never participated in UD. It got closed just when I became active with F@H. As for WCG, I have about 22,000 points from some P3 borgs which is now retired for a long time. I'm looking to participate in the future.
How many boxen do you have? Break this number down between borgs and your personal machines.
Right now, I have 3 boxens at home, 4 at work and a few scattered around friends and family.
What is your average F@H points per month?
My PPD is screwed right now due to some hardware/ farm changes but soon, I expect to do about 800k - 1M per month as my goal.
How about WCG points per month?
Zero for now...
What operating system do you primarily use?
My primary OS is Vista x64 with XP filling the rest.
If you use Linux, how familiar with Linux are you?
I'm very well versed in Linux for having setup lots of VMWare instances and for writing installation guides. I'm not an expert though, and I still need some guidance from experts about certain parts.
How many boxen do you have running the following clients?
regular client : Lost the count, maybe around 6 to 10
SMP client : 9 SMP clients (Win and Linux)
GPU client : 3 NVIDIA clients
Have you tried Affinity Changer (AC)? If so, what were your results?
Yes, with very poor results. I prefer playing with affinities manually or use a better software like Process Lasso, Seesaw pro or Bill2 Process Manager. This is important as I have 2 to 3 clients within a single boxen.
Have you tried using Virtual Machines (VMs)? If so, what were your results? Please explain your VM setup if you have used VMs.
I have extensive experience with VMWare and I have run 10 instances at one point in the past. Right now, I have 4 instances. I use VMWare 1.0.x and each instance is running Xubuntu 8.04 with Samba enabled for monitoring. Each Q6600 box has two instances.
Personal Information:
Name: Stephane Renaud
Location: Quebec, Canada
Occupation: Senior IT Technician
Hobbies: Folding (duh) and watercooling.
What is your [H]ard OCP username? What is the meaning or significance of your [H]ardOCP username, if any?
My username is Xilikon and I got that from my Unreal Tournament days when I wanted an original one. Right now, it's still unique and I wish it stay that way.
Want to link to a picture of yourself? I dont think you did last time, did you?
Last time, I didn't. Since then, I posted one in the Show your mug thread.
On to the interview:
What is going on here? You are a two-time winner of this prestigious award! Wow! Congratulations! How does it feel to be chosen by your peers for such a prestigious award twice?
I'm really flattered to be the winner of the award twice. This feat is only beat by King_N who won three times, but he deserves it a lot. This shows that the [H]orde have a lot of appreciation for my contribution to the team and to the F@H world.
Why do you think you were chosen?
I'm being chosen because I made a big contribution to Stanford by writing the official installation guides which now reside on http://folding.stanford.edu/English/Guide as well as the new [H]orde guides sticky. I also think that my direct connection to Vijay Pande helped a lot about trying to fix some bad things. It still do wonder today when I made Vijay pull the 5801 WU which failed a lot when the FCF mods failed to do when they sent messages to the team.
I also think that I'm great at promoting team spirit and at helping everyone no matter what background or team affiliation. I want to continue in the same path and maybe I'm the winner of the yearly award or another monthly award. (Life always give a lot of positive karma for those who make positive contributions).
What has happened in your life since your last DCer interview?
Well, I had built a big farm which made me into the top 5 in the Points Per Day department for a very long time. Recently, for financial considerations and lots of frustration toward Stanford, I downsized the farm to the strictest needs.
How is your home farm progressing in your new home?
As I said above, I downsized a lot so right now, I just have 3 boxen but it's all packed with lots of power, enough for 25k-30k ppd just from home. At work, I also lost a fair amount of borgs and kept the minimum to avoid risking my seat and my stats after what happened to Party2go9820. I will always keep the door open for a future expansion of the farm but that depends on my financial situation and the future of F@H and WCG.
What would you like the [H]orde to know about you that might surprise them?
I'm thinking of joining OCAU since I have pity for them for losing AssM@N...
j/k
I guess there is not much stuff which would surprise them.
Where do you see your DCing activities in the next year or two?
PPD stability is my trademark since the last time I won the award and I will stay that way for as long as there is no cure being found. I also love the community so expect me to stay around.
Where do you see the [H]ard DC sub-forum in the near future? Long term?
I'm seeing more and more involvement with WCG, which is a good thing to stop being dependant on a single project which gave us lots of grievance. Having some variety will make the overall medical research much better.
Are you involved in any other special DC activities?
Beside maintaining guides, helping new [H]orde members and jesting around, I'm pretty involved right now so I don't think so. It's already a full-time hobby as is.
Tell us about your activities at the official folding forums? Can you provide a link to their main page?
Sure, the official Folding Community Forum (http://foldingforum.org/) is a place where the F@H staff (The Pande Group as we call them) can discuss with users and testers about the project support and changes. It's also a place to check for servers and projects status if there is a problem.
I'm around the FCF forum as the ears and eyes for the [H]orde, acting as a sort of a liaison agent. I bring the latest news from the Pande Group and help the [H]orde members who have issues with the FCF.
Any ideas on improving the [H]ard DC sub-forum, or suggestions or improvements for our Team?
The team is already great as is so what we should look is to improve small things and to expand our participation to WCG so we have an alternative choice. If everyone contributes a bit to the team, this will prove to everyone that we are the #1 team in the world.
What challenges have you faced in your F@H efforts?
The biggest challenge is to deal with the issues with F@H like server issues, unjustified points decreases, bad units and cores being pushed to the public too soon without consideration of beta testers feedback.
Are you married, single, etc?
Right now, I'm single.
Does your significant other, assuming you have one, support your F@H activities?
My former girlfriend respects me on my hobby as I'm the one holding the money of the house. Right now, being single is a great thing because I won't have to justify to anyone.
How much do you spend on F@H? If you consider equipment, electricity, and other activities that support F@H... how much of your life has DCing consumed?
Since the beginning of 2008, I have spent probably around $4,000 to $5,000 but since then I sold a part of the farm to pay off my debts.
Do you have friends, family, or neighbors that know about your F@H activities? What do they think?
I do have people who know about my activities and most of them are either not interested or not skilled enough to run them. The most I can do is borg their computer and that's all.
When was the last time that you lied, and was it a good one?
Well, I rarely lie except to sneak new farm parts off my girlfriend (my ex-gf now). Lying is good if it helps with "D."
What do you have hiding underneath your bed?
Dust bunnies.
What is the heaviest piece of furniture in your home?
That would be my couch. It's a bitch to move it to my condo.
Do you think that your folding activities might improve your chances with the opposite sex?
If the opposite sex is interested in computers, it might help. Otherwise, it's a hindrance.
Do you game? If so, how long and what types do you prefer? Consoles or PC?
I have gamed for a long time, since the Nintendo days. I love RPG, especially Final Fantasy series. I play equally on both console and PC depending on the current game. Right now, I'm getting thru Final Fantasy XII on the PS2 since there is no great game on the PC yet (I'm waiting for HL2:EP3 to get released).
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Well, not much beside telling a big Thank You to the [H]orde for the support in great days or bad days. It's truly an inspiration to have the team work hard to stay #1 no matter what.
Did I forget to ask you anything?
Maybe, about ghost folding??
Sorry... that is a secret, and we cannot discuss it here!!!
On behalf of the [H]ard [H]orde, I thank you as well for your contributions to this team and I thank you for your time to talk about it. Keep on folding! Fold on For The Win! For the [H]orde!
Congratulations once again for being chosen as the [H]ard DCer of the month.
Thank you for taking the time to do a interview with me. It's a pleasure to receive the award and to be celebrated by the [H]orde.
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