Zero82z Interview +++++ HARD DC'er of the Month — July 2009

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Pocatello

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Zero82z Interview +++++ HARD DC'er of the Month — July 2009

Please join me in congratulating Zero82z for being selected as the [H]ard DC’er of the month for July 2009. This is quite an honor when you consider that the [H]orde has over 975 active folders. One thing to note up front is that Zero82z does not fold for our team. He has been helping around the DC sub-forum for quite some time.

Zero82z is currently ranked #3 on Team Takoda
http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/user_list.php?s=&t=41561
and he has 2.6 million points. Team Takoda is ranked #220 in the world. There are only five active folders on Team Takoda.

Here is a link to Zero82z’s folding at EOC:

http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/user_summary.php?s=&u=131720

In June and July of 2009 Zero82z produced about 300,000 points per month. He is ranked #2,391 in the world. Zero82z produces about 10,000 points per day.


Basic Information:

How many F@H points do you have?

About 2.6 million at the moment (going up every day ;))

How about United Devices and WCG points?

None.

How many boxen do you have? Break this number down between borgs and your personal machines.

5 boxen. Three are mine (specs listed in my sig), the other two are borged laptops (although I get practically nothing from them).

When did you start folding? What kind of project or projects did you participate in?

I started folding around the beginning of 2005 if I remember correctly. F@H is the only DC project I've participated in.

When did you start folding for the [H]orde?

I didn't ;).

You don't fold for the [H]orde? Huh? Who do you fold for?

Team Takoda: http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/user_list.php?s=&t=41561

We started out at another forum I visit, and although unfortunately we don't have many active members, the ones that are left are pretty dedicated and we put out a decent amount of points.

What is your average F@H points per month?

I don't really have an average, since it changes often depending on hardware additions, tweaks, any problems I might have with machines going down, etc. Lately it's been about 300 thousand, but this month it should be a bit higher than that, and I hope to add some more hardware to increase my production even more (I'm not sure if/ when that will happen though).

Did you contribute to United Devices? How about WCG? Any other DC projects?

Nope, just F@H.

What operating system do you primarily use?

I use Vista Home Premium for personal use, on my main rig as well as my laptop. I plan on upgrading to Windows 7 some point after it's released at retail. My secondary PC (which is mainly a folding rig) runs Fedora 10 so I can use the Linux CPU client natively, and my laptop is actually running off a notfred's LiveCD at the moment, although the actual installed OS is Vista as I said above.

If you use Linux, how familiar with Linux are you?

I'm not very familiar with Linux; I've just gotten used to it enough to get up and running and to run F@H. I don't really have the time or the desire to learn the ins and outs of it since I like Windows perfectly fine, and I don't really have the option of switching OSes anyway for gaming purposes (although I doubt that I would switch even if that wasn't an issue).

How many boxen do you have running the following clients?
regular client — 2 boxen, 3 clients (one dual-core CPU)
SMP client — 3 boxen, 4 clients (one quad, two duals)
GPU client — 1 boxen (might become 2 in the future if I get a video card to stick in my secondary PC)
PS3 client — none, and there will probably never be any

Have you tried Affinity Changer (AC)? If so, what were your results?

I use Bill2's Process Manager to do the same sort of thing. I mainly use it to set the priority of my GPU client so my VMs don't starve it for CPU power, and for that purpose it's extremely useful since I can't always be there to do it manually when a new unit is started.

Have you tried using Virtual Machines (VM’s)? If so, what were your results? Please explain your VM setup if you have used VM’s.

Yes. I started using VMs a little while after I put my main rig together, once I read about the WinSMP client not taking advantage of quad-core CPUs. To give you an idea of what they've done for me, I currently put out about 10-11k PPD, and about 6k of that is from LinSMP clients that I run from within VMs. I went from about 2000PPD on my Q9550 to about 6000PPD just from using VMs. That's a pretty massive ramp without actually changing any hardware.

Personal Information:

Name: Zack

Location: Montreal area

Occupation: Student, off-and-on video game tester

Hobbies: Folding ;), computers and technology, gaming, reading, science, listening to music, mechanical objects, puzzles.

What is your [H]ard OCP username? What is the meaning or significance of your [H]ardOCP username, if any?

I got this name when I registered for a Hotmail account back in 2001 or so. I wanted the name Zero (after a character from the Megaman series, if you must know ;)), but it was taken, and this was one of the suggested alternatives so I took it.

Want to link to a picture of yourself?

Don't have one, but here's a picture of my cat instead (he's much better-looking ;)):

spa0251.jpg



On to the interview:

Congratulations on being chosen the [H]ard DC'er for the month. How does it feel to be chosen by your peers for such a prestigious award?

It feels pretty weird considering I don't even fold for the HardOCP team, but at the same time it feels really good to know that I'm appreciated for my other efforts around here, and that the other members thought highly enough of me that they believed I deserved the award despite that fact.

Why do you think you were chosen?

I'm quite active on this forum, and I try to help out as much as possible to get people set up with F@H, as well as to encourage people to join the effort and get as much as possible out of their hardware. I do what I can to contribute as much as possible to the cause because I really believe in it, and I think that's why people thought I deserved to win.

Why do you participate in Distributed Computing?

For the cure. Not much else to say than that.

Why do you DC for Team Takoda?

It's the team that I got started with, and it's from another forum that I've been active on for a very long time. I fold for my team partially out of loyalty, and partially because I want to keep it going.

If DC’ing could find a cure for just one disease tomorrow, which one would it be and why?

Cancer. I've lost a lot of relatives to it, as have many of my own close friends, not to mention millions of other people over the world. A cure for cancer would probably save more lives than any other treatment F@H may develop (at least at this point in time; obviously anything can happen in the future).

What would you like the [H]orde to know about you that might surprise them?

I don't think there's anything particularly surprising about me.

Where do you see your DC’ing activities in the next year or two?

I have no idea. I will say that I don't think I'll be going in any direction other than up ;).

Are you involved in any other special DC activities?

Not that I'm aware of.

Have you been successful borging? If so, what kind of borging worked for you? (For example, friends, family, and/or work?)

As I mentioned above, I have two borged laptops. They belong to a friend of mine. I just briefly explained the project to him and he agreed to run it for me. I don't get very much production out of them, but every little bit helps, I suppose. By and large though, borging isn't worth it considering the production of the uniprocessor client that most borgs would be running compared to the SMP and GPU clients that most serious folders rely on.


<<< End of Part One >>>

 
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<<< start of Part Two >>>

Where do you see the [H]ard DC sub-forum in the near future? Long term?

I've only been really active in this subforum for under a year, so I don't think I really have enough experience to make any predictions. I hope it stays essentially the same as it is now though, which is to say that it's a great place for DCers to get advice about setting up different clients and projects, as well as for discussion about DC-related things, and some friendly competition once in a while :).

Any ideas on improving the [H]ard DC sub-forum, or suggestions or improvements for our Team?

To be honest, one thing that is really lacking for the [H]orde is support from the parent site. Although Steve has done a great job of putting out news announcements to recruit new people, the fact is that this sub-forum has gotten basically zero recognition from anywhere else. Compared to Bit-tech.net, which is another hardware site that I read regularly, there's a very noticeable contrast. They periodically run articles about different aspects of F@H on the front page (including one that was discussed in a thread here, as well as another a few days ago which dealt with setting up a folding farm). They also include Folding@Home performance segments in their video card reviews, which is a VERY BIG DEAL.

And of course, the big elephant in the room is EVGA, who promote their F@H team very aggressively. The e-mail newsletter they send out periodically often includes a bit about their folding team, and they have also done many hardware giveaways to give people an incentive to join up. Other sites have also run competitions which offer either money or hardware as prizes. Now, I'm not saying that Kyle should go out and buy some PC parts to give away to people who fold, but some kind of incentive could really help draw people to the team. And even if people don't win anything, the existence of a competition might draw their attention to the team and get them to participate anyway.

If there is one thing I would really like to see here, it is some inclusion of F@H and other DC projects into main-site HardOCP articles. Test out folding performance when GPU reviews are written, and do the same thing for CPU reviews. And it would be nice to see some F@H-specific and DC-specific articles being posted up, that could discuss setting up different clients, ways of getting maximum points per day, general information about the F@H project and its goals, and other DC-related content along those lines. And if there isn't anyone on the HardOCP staff who is equipped to write those kinds of articles, there are plenty of people in the DC subforum who'd be willing to contribute. I'd be eager to help out if it meant some high-profile coverage for DC projects.

Basically, the way it looks now is that the [H] folding team is a niche side-project of a few forum members. The extent of official team involvement is basically just the existence of the sub-forum itself, as well as the [H] DCer of the month and the year titles, which at the end of the day are really just competitions within the team itself (and we don't need to convince the people who are already folding to fold). What the team really needs is more official support.

What challenges have you faced in your F@H efforts?

The biggest challenge I've faced is weak hardware that wasn't capable of much production. Up until I built this PC last fall, I was only capable of putting out a few thousand points per month, and after nearly four years of folding, I still had less than 300 thousand points to my name. That was mainly caused by finances, and although I don't have massive amounts of cash to spend, I'm definitely in a better position now.

Aside from that, the most problems I've had have simply been from playing around with different clients, different configurations, and different tweaks to get the most out of my hardware. I've done a lot of tweaking over the years, and I'm probably still not done with my current hardware, since it's pretty much a never-ending process. Not that I mind of course; it's all just part of the fun ;).

Are you married, single, etc?

Single.

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 DC’ing consumed?

I couldn't even begin to estimate that; not necessarily because it's a large number, but because I've been at this for a long time and I can't even remember all the different purchases I've made. Also, there have been instances where I was already planning to buy hardware and my final decision was influenced by F@H, and I can't really quantify that as an expense specifically for any one thing. I've definitely invested a lot of time and effort into the project over the years, but it's been largely a labour of love. I do enjoy the process of tweaking and playing around with different hardware to get the best folding performance, and the fact that I'm contributing to science at the same time makes it even better.

Do you have friends, family, or neighbors that know about your F@H activities? What do they think?

There's the aforementioned friend with the borgs. A few family members are also aware, but none of them really understand the nature of the project and I was never able to convince them of anything.

When was the last time that you lied, and was it a good one?

Drawing a blank right now, but I'm sure it was a good one :D.

What do you have hiding underneath your bed?

Dust bunnies, cat fur, and the floor.

What is the heaviest piece of furniture in your home?

Not sure.

Do you think that your folding activities might improve your chances with the opposite sex?

Doubtful.

Do you game? If so, how long and what types do you prefer? Consoles or PC?

I game, and I have been a gamer probably since I was about 5 or 6. I'm pretty much exclusively a PC gamer, although I do enjoy a lot of older console games (NES/SNES/Genesis era). I own an Xbox 360, although I got it for free (probably wouldn't have bought one otherwise). I also have access to a Wii that belongs to my younger brother. As for genres, I like many kinds of games. My top ones are probably FPS, RTS, and RPG games, but I play a bit of everything (mostly).

What is your idea of the perfect vacation? Where, when, and how long? What would you do?

Never really thought about it. I'm not really a big vacation guy, although I've gone on my fair share of trips around the world and enjoyed myself. I don't really have a specific wish list though.

If you could have dinner with two or three people from history, living or dead, who would you choose and why?

Tough choice. I don't know who exactly I'd pick, but it would probably include some of these names: Albert Einstein, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Neil Armstrong, Gene Roddenberry, Nikola Tesla, and Ernest Rutherford. That's all I've got at the moment, although I'm sure there are many more names. I'm a very science-oriented person, so a lot of the people I admire are very significant in that sense.

Did I forget to ask you anything? Is there anything else you would like to add?

I'll let you know when I decide to write my autobiography ;).

Congratulations once again for being chosen as the [H]ard DC’er of the month.

Thanks :).


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I asked Zero82z about his job as a game tester. "Is this job as fun as it sounds? Do they pay you to play games?"

Here is his reply:

It's definitely not as fun as it sounds, or even really fun at all. It's still a job, and the point isn't to have fun or to play games, it's to see how they're broken. It's not the worst job in the world though, but I definitely don't plan on doing this forever.
Click to expand...
 
Congrats Zero82z.
Though you don't fold for team 33, at least you are folding. :)

[H]ardOCP was one of the first tech sites I visited years ago, so it was only natural I show my loyalty to Kyle and company when chosing a team. ;)
 
Sorry for my belated reply but let me congratulate you again for your award.

I'll add this interview in the [H]orde Hall of Fame post.
 
I completely, missed the interview.

A big congratulations on winning the award and great interview. :cool: :)
 
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