Well wouldn't you know, my new computer goes and turns in its first work unit for 142 points and it's the one that pushes me into the top 1,000. With 28,877 points, I'm now sitting at #997 in the [H]orde. Fold on!

URL: [H]ardfolding.com - [H]ome of the [H]orde

Well, day 50 is here and even with the new computer, Menoetius, up and running I might not be able to break into the top 1,000 as planned. I've just got too many of my computers working on large work units worth 600 points (Helios, Epimetheus, Prometheus) while both Pegasus and Atlas crunch 364 pointers. When those units get turned in, I'll get a huge bump up, but only one will be done today (Atlas' 364) and I don't think that'll get me over the hill. Though I am waiting to see what Arion gets fed after he finishes the 56 pointer he's working on at 7:25.

Also, I can't tell when Menoetius will be done folding his first unit worth 142 points, but I just upped the clock speed from 1600 to 2100 MHz, so production should pick up today and hopefully that unit will finish. With the 142 from Menoetius, 364 from Atlas and 56 from Arion, I'll be sitting at 28,649 points and I need around 28,700 points to get to #1,000 (though the few people ahead of me between 1,014 and 1,000 actively folding might not turn in work units while I do, so I might be able to make it, but it'll be really close).

And as I typed this all in, Arion completed his 56 points and got a new unit worth another 56 points which he should finish today, bumping me up to 27,005. That just might do it, but I'm not sure. I'll just be counting on Menoetius turning in his 142 to make it today.

And one last thing...Yay Friday! Just today and then next week left at the bank which is becoming more and more of a nightmare as the days go by.

URL: blakex - User Summary - EXTREME Overclocking Folding @ Home Stats

Tomorrow will be my 50th day folding for the [H]orde and if all goes as planned, I will break into the top 1,000. Also heading to Fry's tonight to get a cheap-o power supply for the new chip I got. I'm also probably going to take the computer out of the case I bought last week and just cannabalize the parts since it's running way too hot at about 61 degrees celsius. But yay! Top 1,000.

URL: [H]ardfolding.com - [H]ome of the [H]orde

Wow. Today I received my package from Newegg and it's not the quick shipping that I'm impressed with - it's the Arctic cooling fan I put in my old computer (now my server). My new computer is now the loudest computer in my room which I built to be very quiet. The Arctic Cooling fan is very quiet and I think the power supply (Antec NeoPower 480) is now the loudest component in there and the Antec is quiet as well. I can't believe how quiet my room is now (except for the TV which is on) and I'm not sure if I'll be able to sleep tonight without the hum I've gone to sleep with for years. Somehow, I'm sure I'll survive.

I did have one little problem with the cooling fan - the motherboard didn't want to recognize it as the cpu fan, but I could see it was working, so I moved it over and plugged it into a chassis fan outlet. I then plugged in my old thermaltake fan to the cpu fan outlet and positioned it over the four hard drives for a little extra air circulation. I'll be fine now as long as the fan on the Arcitc cooling heatsink doesn't fail (which I don't expect it to - though it has happened before according to the comments on Newegg). But if it does fail, the computer will automatically shut down if it gets too hot.

Anyways, it was great to see the package today from Newegg - another nice little early birthday present. The only problem is the processor that I got from Newegg is pretty worthless without a power supply to test it with...probably will visit Frys this weekend and spend a few bucks for a cheap one to power another folding computer.

URL: ARCTIC COOLING Copper Lite (ACCL) Cooling Fan/Heatsink - Retail at Newegg.com

Today is going to be a good day for folding. I've already got 600 points turned in thanks to Prometheus finishing a big work unit (he's now chunking away on another 600 pointer which will take until 9/23). But Helios and Arion are already on pace for turning in 364 pointers and Epimetheus is back up and running and about to turn in a 251 pointer. That gives me 1,579 points for the day which is well above my average and raises my points per day to an all time high since I started 47 days ago to 556.5.

With the 1,579 points today, I'll move up about 35 spots on the [H]orde and be much closer to the top 1,000. My total points will be just over 26,000 and I need about 29,000 to reach the 900's. I also expect to be bringing another computer online later this week as I've got a new processor on the way. I figure the one I've been trying to get working for the past few weeks is dead and I've got two motherboards just sitting around doing nothing right now. Oh yeah, I've got the RAM, video card, and hard drives just sitting around too. So I just need the processor to get it going. I also ordered two new fans which I plan to use on the farm (kinda). One will go on HELIOS which is not part of the farm yet - it's my server sitting right here next to me. It's by far and away the noisiest thing in my room because of the Thermaltake Tornado cooling it now. The new Arctic Cooling heatsink and fan should not only reduce the fan noise considerably, but it should also reduce the temperature of the CPU. The other fan will probably go with the new processor and if it's as quiet as I've been led to believe, I'll probably order three more for the rest of the farm.

And I tried installing F@H on my new laptop, but uninstalled it shortly thereafter because I don't really want to be pushing the AMD Turion64 all day and night which will most likely shorten the life expectancy of the sweet HP laptop (AMD Live Strong.com).

URL: [H]ardOCP Individual Users List - EXTREME Overclocking Folding @ Home Stats

This just makes no sense to me. eBay buying Skype? They couldn't be more different companies and I see no way in which this benefits eBay. The article mentions that buyers and sellers could talk directly, which I guess would work, but they could do that already if they both had Skype or Yahoo or MSN or Google Talk installed. It also says that it could pave the way for live auctions, but seriously, is that worth $2.6bn? For $2.6bn, they could have easily created their own software a la Google Talk for live auctions. It's obvious they're paying the big bucks for the Skype userbase, but what are they going to do with that? Everyone already knows about eBay, so you're not going to be able to advertise to these people on Skype and convince them to shop at eBay - especially since most Skype users are already technologically savvy and already buy stuff on eBay most likely.

To me, it's just a waste of money and I'm curious to see how eBay will profit from Skype. Personally, I think it's a huge mistake as there's so many other directions eBay could move in - but VoIP?

URL: BBC NEWS | Business | eBay to buy Skype in $2.6bn deal