I used to run Seti@Home religiously, now they're forcing us into Boinc, and they're never online.

Quote:
Why is SETI@home switching to BOINC?
Several reasons:

* Other distributed computing projects are also using BOINC, and you can share your computer time among projects of your choosing. We strongly encourage you to participate in other projects, since then your computer will do useful work even when SETI@home's servers are down or have no work.

I completed two Boinc work units for Seti@Home, and then they went down. So I joined einstein@home to fill the void, 33 work units later for einstein, and Seti still can't sort itself out. So sorry ET, we're not going to find advanced life elsewhere in the galaxy, if the project designated to finding you, can't even manage the basics of electronics.

And so I leave, it was nice while it lasted. But I'm one of those people who believe a server should be more readily avaliable than it's clients, which, frankly, seti is not.

Bye bye.
Jay

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Hello .... .... Best wishes and happy crunching to every one ......


<A><B>some interesting history ..... from 3 years ago </B>[/url]


<A><B>May 31, 2002:</B>[/url]http://www.planetary.org/html/news/articlearchive/headlines/2002/setiathome_bandwidth.htm[/url]

Learn more about SETI@home's bandwidth problems and their solution:

A Question of Bandwidth

by Amir Alexander

Fascinated as we are by the idea of contacting alien civilizations, we sometimes forget that SETI@home is not just a search for intelligent beings among the stars. It is also a gigantic computer science experiment of unprecedented magnitude taking place here on Earth. With over 3.5 million users worldwide, SETI@home is by far the largest and most powerful computing network ever assembled.

Keeping this gigantic network operating, it turns out, is no easy matter. Every day around 400,000 people from around the world connect to the SETI@home server in Berkeley, California. First-time users sign up, established users send in processed work units and download new ones. Each work unit is around 350 kilobytes in size, and the constant movement back and forth of thousands of units has created something of an information traffic jam on SETI@home's internet connection.

The communications problem can be summed up in one word: "Bandwidth." Because of the enormous amount of web traffic it generates, SETI@home needs a very wide communications band to operate smoothly. And as time goes on, and more and more users join the SETI@home network, the bandwidth requirements only get larger and larger.

Copied from here:

http://www.planetary.org/html/UPDATES/seti/SETI@home/Update_052002.htm

1) Network Load Balancing
2) Redundant Server Arrays
3) Multiple Internet Connections
4) Local Server Mirrors
5) Upload/Distribution/Sign-up on seperate connections

Damn, it's not hard. You just have to really think about it. Plus Seti shot itself in the foot: we've got a ropey connection and server, tell you what, let's introduce Boinc, and run Boinc and classic at the same time. Isn't that a sensible consideration to our bandwidth limitations!! Pffftt.

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> 1) Network Load Balancing
> 2) Redundant Server Arrays
> 3) Multiple Internet Connections
> 4) Local Server Mirrors
> 5) Upload/Distribution/Sign-up on seperate connections
>
> Damn, it's not hard. You just have to really think about it. Plus Seti shot
> itself in the foot: we've got a ropey connection and server, tell you what,
> let's introduce Boinc, and run Boinc and classic at the same time. Isn't that
> a sensible consideration to our bandwidth limitations!! Pffftt.
>
Donate some money so they can buy the hardware you think they need.

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Red Bull Air Racing

Gas price by zip at Seti

<A><B>My post is not directed at any ...... one ...... and I mean direspect or harm to any one ............ so Best wishes _ and _ happy crunching to every one ......</B>[/url]



sorry ___ and I do sincerely apologize ___ I had to do an Edit on my original post # ___ 88944 ___ and the sever when down .... I could'nt get back in time before time .... time run out ...... on Editing


so this post is my ...Edit .. to post # ___ 88944 .. sorry ...
.

So .. Hello .... [/url] _ Earth Flag

S@h _ Berkeley's Staff Friends Club member m2 ©

.


<A><B>oops ...... sorry ... Edit again .........

my first line should read .........

My post is not directed at any ...... one ...... and I mean <B> ___ NO __</B> disrespect or harm to any one ............ so Best wishes _ and _ happy crunching to every one ...... </B>[/url]

Since I have never had any doubt that "life is out there" (Star Trek Generation: 1958 is my birth year). I have embraced SETI@home since I stumbled upon it a few weeks after aquiring my first pc in Dec. of 1999. Apart from wanting to help to further, as best I can, the whole idea of et's; I wanted my pc to be DOING SOMETHING worthwhile when otherwise idle.
But since this BOINC thing has come along, it's been nothing but a series of problems! Coincidence? I dunno, as it's beyond my ken. Try as I might, conspiracy theories and the general principle of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" are both hard to ignore. I mean, basically when my pc is on, and I'm not doing something, SETI is on; and not as a screen saver. I just turn off the monitor, as it runs faster. As to giving money to SETI? Right! Between keeping a pc up to snuff, and food on the table, there ain't much left!

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the problems experienced by seti boinc are to be expected in the early days of a new system...as BYRON LEIGH HATCH indicated in his post...all has not always gone smoothly for the original seti program...these difficulties with seti boinc will lessen with time...i consider it a privilege to be a part of this project during it's "shakedown cruise"...because that's what it is...a shakedown cruise...if scientific knowledge was easy to pursue...we would just skip all of this and beam ourselves directly to the stars...as it is...i'm willing to be patient...and crunch seti work units when i can...when the seti well runs dry...all my resources belong to einstein at home...so my computer is always doing something...just like the dreams i had...so many years ago...when the computers i used were only imaginary...figments of my mind...yet to be invented.

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PROUD TO BE TFFE!

> >
> While SETI may never succeed, the effort is still worthwhile. The knowledge
> gained from any failure only contributes to successes in science in the
> future. The human condition motivates us humans to learn about everything and
> continue despite the overwhelming odds until we humans finally succeed. Many
> of the things we take for granted today , are the direct result of this human
> behavior.
>
> Things like light bulbs, telephones and airplanes are among them. The only
> requirement is that we try. The probability of success is difficult to
> estimate; but if we never search, the chance of success is , zero.
> A human being is a part of a whole, called by us humans as the universe .... a part limited in time and space we humans experiences our selfs , our thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of our consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us humans, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us there-fore ..... our task as humans ..... must be to ........ free ourselves from this .......
> prison ........ by widening our circle of ...... compassion ....... to
> embrace ........ all living creatures and the ...... whole of nature in its
> beauty.
>
> friendly and respectful
> byron ...

Byron,
Thanks for the history. I have been crunching for a while, but never bothered to go back and look up the info myself. I appreciate your Post, and hope others appreciate it equally. I agree with you completely! I can't think of any major undertaking that did not have it's own share of problems along the way. Look at our Space Program. Even though some mistakes have tragic results...we continue to learn.

Very Respectfully,

Rocky

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www.boincsynergy.com

> I used to run Seti@Home religiously, now they're forcing us into Boinc, and
> they're never online.
>
> Bye bye.
> Jay
>

What will we do without you, Jay?
Crunch.
Incidently, Jay, I have about a quarter-million work-units that say SETI's online quite a bit of the time.
Bye Bye, Jay.

Robert

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