Comments on: Farewell to Folding

By: Lee Whitehouse

Lee Whitehouse — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 00:48:00 +0000

Personally I was really gutted when I received the system update and then attempted to go and checkout life with playstation. I wanted to hear that familiar moonlight theme and see all the glowing users across the globe, I wanted to be able to read global news and view weather in the lush environment. Now all I have to reminisce is a few youtube videos out there which show the interface. But browsing late at night and seeing a dull little glow somewhere across the globe in the remotest of locations used to fill me with a sense of community. Nice article :).

By: LohPhat

LohPhat — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 09:11:25 +0000

Why is Sony preventing me to use my hardware to do things — I the customer — wish to do with my own property?

How does F@H affect their revenue? Why terminate a useful, optional tool?

If YouTube and Hulu et al are available as free apps, why not just make F@H an optional app?

Another reason to just get a cheaper BlueRay player and abandon Sony products. It’s clear that the customer can’t be trusted to make their own decisions about what they do with equipment they payed for.

After the Linux block, do you think anyone was surprised the Vita flopped.

Keep alienating your customers Sony and they will find other products to use.

By: StillAlive

StillAlive — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 06:24:58 +0000

I’ve noticed that the application is still running on my PS3. Have there been any updates? Most websites I’ve searched don’t seem to recognize the significance of dropping this project from the only console to support any form of distributed computing.

By: Live-n-Laugh

Live-n-Laugh — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 15:35:28 +0000

Like so many things in life, we often don’t fully appreciate something until we are faced with losing it. Regrettably, I didn’t fold proteins as frequently as I could or should have.

By some digital oddity, the Life with Playstation icon was still on my XMB after the update. I clicked and it opened. So I am adding all that I can until the cosmos realizes it’s error and takes it away.

Thank you, SealWyf, for introducing me to Folding. If Sony were to offer it in the Store, I surely would purchase this bit of gaming goodness.

By: RadPig

RadPig — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 18:54:31 +0000

it would have been more efficient to use computers designed for the job.

By: A Fold To Remember.

A Fold To Remember. — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 04:00:55 +0000

[…] “Farewell to Folding“, Homestation Magazine, October 23, 2012 Tags: folding, folding at home, folding@home, […]

By: Dr_Do-Little

Dr_Do-Little — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 16:15:49 +0000

What I read, dont remember where. Was something like, “v4.30 on november 1st”. So I was a little disapointed to be prompted for v4.30 this morning… Well as you said, wait and see…

By: SealWyf_

SealWyf_ — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 13:47:33 +0000

My understanding was that the Life With Playstation program will be terminated before the end of the month, but the 4.30 update prevents new PS3’s from receiving it. But we shall have to wait and see what actually happens.

By: Dr_Do-Little

Dr_Do-Little — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 09:55:45 +0000

I just downloaded v4.30 this morning and life/folding@home are still there… for now!

By: JarOfApples

JarOfApples — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 03:16:16 +0000

Woah I was not aware of this feature. I would have defiantly contributed some of my time to it.
Ha I love the achievement idea! Cured Alzheimer’s trophy
Awesome article! This site is great! Had to join.

By: Dr_Do-Little

Dr_Do-Little — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 19:58:13 +0000

Another really sad decision. But again the decision itself is not what upset me the most. The absence of any comment from Sony is worst.
There is surely a “good” reason behind it. Could be technical or others. It’s in the little things that we see someone (or a company) true nature, and right now the little things are piling up.
Someone will probably tell me that Sony have all the legal right to do what they want with my machine. I also have the right to be upset about it.

By: BONZO

BONZO — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 19:06:31 +0000

I would buy a distributed computing client. Particularly if it benefited Astronomy or Medicine. I have them on my computer and on my smart device, I was using folding on the PS3 and it is sad to see it go, but I still run in on my pc.

By: SealWyf_

SealWyf_ — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 16:08:53 +0000

Here's another example of gamers doing science: Crowdsourcing science: how gamers are changing scientific discovery We need more of this, not less.

By: Godzprototype

Godzprototype — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 15:24:43 +0000

I heard somewhere about gamers solving realworld problems doing something like Folding@home. Making things that could seriously contribute to life and presenting it like a game is a really good idea imo.

I am sorry to hear that Folding@home is gone. It did contribute something worth while.

I really do think it would be interesting to see a game that presented gamers with a particular R/L problem. With all parameters and varibles, to see how the problem is solved. It would be interesting and possibly awesome!

By: KLCgame

KLCgame — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 15:11:08 +0000

This is a complete shame,I enjoyed the life with PlayStation app. I mostly used it for news and weather but I did dip my toe in the folding at home sub-app. Life with PlayStation was under appreciated and again all I can say is its a shame.

By: ted2112

ted2112 — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 13:49:07 +0000

I think it’s a sad day that folding home is gone. It was something that made the PS3 really special and more than the sum of it’s parts. I remember seeing my PS3 working on folding home for the first time and thinking, what an amazing world we live in.

By: Outwest

Outwest — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 13:22:38 +0000

Trophies for science. I like it! It certainly has more appeal than the digital certificates that Vijay Pande signed and clearly more of an achievement than getting married in Skyrim.

By: SealWyf_

SealWyf_ — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 10:07:01 +0000

Thanks, Krazy. I’m still feeling moderately devastated over this. Amazing to put so much emotional investment into an optional science project. And I can only imagine how the researchers in California are feeling, having a major source of computation ripped away from them.

The PS3 is such a nice little computation engine. They’ve been chained together by the Pentagon to build budget supercomputers. And they were awesome for distributed computing. I really wish this program could have been expanded to include other projects. Those “Electric Sheep” images are gorgeous!

By: KrazyFace

KrazyFace — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 07:55:18 +0000

Really good ideas at the end there Seal, and an enjoyable read. I used the folding program now and then in the beginning. But I know how much data is needed to make even small hops of progress in protein folding, it takes millions and millions of scenarios just to get a clue! But that’s why this project was such a good one, it really put a dent in the research. Sure, you can say “Pfft! PC’s can do that anyway” but the point here is that it was a new innovation for a games console When the PS3 first came out it was a truly remarkable machine. I’m convinced that it was Folding@home that gave it the “It Only Does Everything” slogan; it played games, movies, music, stored photos, ran Linux, played old-gen discs, told you the weather, streamed TV, kept you fit (lol) etc etc and yes, cured cancer!

But slowly, these features are being stripped away bit by bit. So many gamers out there whingeing that “we just want it to play gaaaames”. Sad really, that it has to go this way. I’m not sure if cost-cutting is the real reason for this features removal, but whatever the reason, it’s a true shame that our research into these diseases that afflict or kill so many of us will be hampered.

Maybe the PS4’s slogan could be “It Only Plays Games… Coz When We Innovate You Spoiled Gamers Complain”