I strongly urge all classic SETI users who are frustrated behond belief with the new Boinc seti program to sign on to this petition to tar and feather the Boinc programmers. Once we have enough names and addresses we can locate a participant who lives near the Berkley campus and provide him/ her with the money to purchase the tar and feathers and initiate this plan.

If nothing else this petition should serve as a wake up call to the Boinc programming staff.

All concerned SETI users please sign on below!

Thank you!

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And I petition that we tar and feather you...

So what exactly is the problem you have with BOINC. If you let us know, we can probably help you.

And I petition that we tar and feather you...

So what exactly is the problem you have with BOINC. If you let us know, we can probably help you.

I concur.

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My movie https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/502242

Tar and feather of this poster ignores the fact that there is much unhappiness people who want to help, have been helping, and are now very frustrated with software that does not communicate well with end users. Software that installs not well or easily.

How many of the 5000 messages in Windows are specifically addressing this frustration? Based upon my perusals a large portion of them. How many thousands of seti helpers won't make the transition due to this frustration.

The poster's disgruntlement is VERY understandable. Do the programmers bother to read these questions? It isn't apparent they do, since the complaints stay the same and the installation process and the installation guide don't get better.

The only reason these users persevere is their desire to be of assistance. They should be commended for going thru the agonies of trying to work with BOINC, not cursed for voicing valid concerns and frustrations.

If nothing else, a caveat in the beginning of the installation process that tells a new user to wait 30 minutes after they think it is installed becuase it is very slow to get cranked up. A little "go fast" code would also be appropriate. That is code that is kind of eye candy to let pople know something is going on or give then a visual cue that somethingis occuring and tpo please wait. And no the system messages don't cut it because they are not understandable to most users.

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Calm down and read the WIKI and all will be revealed....


Hmmm not slow on my 4 boxes and how hard is it to use a programs windoze installer, what is it, 4 or 5 clicks and boom installed, real hard.....

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Semper Eadem
So long Paul, it has been a hell of a ride.

Park your ego's, fire up the computers, Science YES, Credits No.

The only reason these users persevere is their desire to be of assistance. They should be commended for going thru the agonies of trying to work with BOINC, not cursed for voicing valid concerns and frustrations.

What agonies? As a test, I had my 10 year old nephew install BOINC to see just how difficult it was. With no help from me, he was doing work in minutes...

If nothing else, a caveat in the beginning of the installation process that tells a new user to wait 30 minutes after they think it is installed becuase it is very slow to get cranked up. A little "go fast" code would also be appropriate. That is code that is kind of eye candy to let pople know something is going on or give then a visual cue that somethingis occuring and tpo please wait. And no the system messages don't cut it because they are not understandable to most users.

Slow to get cranked up? Are you talking about the time it takes to run the benchmarks?

Hi,

....They should be commended for going thru the agonies of trying to work with BOINC, not cursed for voicing valid concerns and frustrations.

What agonies? As a test, I had my 10 year old nephew install BOINC to see just how difficult it was. With no help from me, he was doing work in minutes...

Which proves precisely nothing - other than that your nephew is computer literate. You only need to browse through these forums to see the same installation problems cropping up time and time again.

Just because we have no problems (or know how to solve them when we do have them) doesn't mean that your "average joe" won't get completely derailed by even the simplest of problems thanks to the somewhat cryptic error messages and/or rough edges of the UI.

Remember, not everyone will come here for help. Many potential users will just give up unless they are particularly motivated to participate.

....A little "go fast" code would also be appropriate. That is code that is kind of eye candy to let pople know something is going on or give then a visual cue that somethingis occuring and tpo please wait. And no the system messages don't cut it because they are not understandable to most users.

Slow to get cranked up? Are you talking about the time it takes to run the benchmarks?

I assume he's talking about the "new" scheduler (which urgently needs some SERIOUS debugging).

Since it's introduction I've noticed, along with many other people, that when you upgrade to a newer version BOINC will just sit there idle for a long time - sometimes several hours - before requesting any work at all.

And let's not mention the way in which projects get "ignored" for days at a time when you're running multiple projects....the usual "fix" being "wait for a few days until the LTDs sort themselves out". Well I've got news, they DON'T sort themselves out....I've been waiting for three weeks, have reset projects, and this abortion of a scheduler insists on downloading only ProteinPredictor work, with one or two SETI/Einstein WUs per week. :-(


The OP has a valid point, he's just not making it the right way!


TTFN - Pete.

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Which proves precisely nothing - other than that your nephew is computer literate. You only need to browse through these forums to see the same installation problems cropping up time and time again.

Just because we have no problems (or know how to solve them when we do have them) doesn't mean that your "average joe" won't get completely derailed by even the simplest of problems thanks to the somewhat cryptic error messages and/or rough edges of the UI.

Actually, my nephew is absolutely the "average joe". Most likely even below average. He knows how to turn on and off the computer, how to start some games, and navigate around the internet a bit. Just the barest of basics as far as computer knowledge goes. I would be willing to bet that anyone who has previously set up Seti classic has more advanced computer skills than he has...

I assume he's talking about the "new" scheduler (which urgently needs some SERIOUS debugging).

Since it's introduction I've noticed, along with many other people, that when you upgrade to a newer version BOINC will just sit there idle for a long time - sometimes several hours - before requesting any work at all.

I haven't seen this. Are you running a multi-processor system?

And let's not mention the way in which projects get "ignored" for days at a time when you're running multiple projects....the usual "fix" being "wait for a few days until the LTDs sort themselves out". Well I've got news, they DON'T sort themselves out....I've been waiting for three weeks, have reset projects, and this abortion of a scheduler insists on downloading only ProteinPredictor work, with one or two SETI/Einstein WUs per week. :-(

If you're resetting projects, your screwing with the long term debt.

How big is your cache? The scheduler doesn't work very well with large caches. Most likely, your system is in panic mode when it's running S@H or E@H, which means it's running these projects continuously instead of swithing per your preference. This means Predictor needs to make up the time it lost while those projects were in Earliest Deadline First mode.

I simply do not understand these rantings. I started crunching with SETI Classic in May 1999. I faithfully upgraded whenever one was available. There were tough times until the system matured. Anyone that thinks it went flawlessly needs to be committed to their local insane asylum.

When BOINC was released to the public I immediately converted. I have three machines running the latest client and have had precious few problems with the software. Have the backend servers been flaky?...YES!...but it was also this way in the early days with Classic.

Everyone needs to take a deep breath and calm down. These growing pains are inevitable. Total confusion form the seething masses that have come over to BOINC is normal. This too shall pass!

As for this "tar and feather" thing, I find it extremely disrespectful and counterproductive. Didn't your mother not teach you to keep your mouth shut if you couldn't say something nice?

In the end, if you are having problems with the software, there are thousands of nice folks out there that are eager to help. Stop running off at the mouth and tell us what is wrong so we may help you.

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I have been involed with the roll out of many systems. The BOINC/SETI software engineers and project management need to realize there are a lot of frustrated people out here - just look at the number of messages - 7934 so far. We are the people that are supporting SETI and we want the software to work.

It would be great if you can get some of the problems categorized and understandable work arounds or fixes sent out to us. You have our email address.

The fact is that I have not been able to get BOINC to work either. I've installed and uninstalled and I've tried looking for help here. I submitted 2 questions with less that useful responses. It is very difficult to even find out if my questions have been responded to. I have been a supporter of SETI and have 6750 WU's in Classic. Please help us out!

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I have been involed with the roll out of many systems. The BOINC/SETI software engineers and project management need to realize there are a lot of frustrated people out here - just look at the number of messages - 7934 so far. We are the people that are supporting SETI and we want the software to work.

It would be great if you can get some of the problems categorized and understandable work arounds or fixes sent out to us. You have our email address.

The fact is that I have not been able to get BOINC to work either. I've installed and uninstalled and I've tried looking for help here. I submitted 2 questions with less that useful responses. It is very difficult to even find out if my questions have been responded to. I have been a supporter of SETI and have 6750 WU's in Classic. Please help us out!

I agree that this forum is very difficult, and it's easy to lose questions (or answers).

The BOINC software itself is very easy to install and use. But if someone does run into a problem, it is difficult to get help through this forum. Even the classic S@H forum was easier to use.

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I have been involed with the roll out of many systems. The BOINC/SETI software engineers and project management need to realize there are a lot of frustrated people out here - just look at the number of messages - 7934 so far. We are the people that are supporting SETI and we want the software to work.

It would be great if you can get some of the problems categorized and understandable work arounds or fixes sent out to us. You have our email address.

The fact is that I have not been able to get BOINC to work either. I've installed and uninstalled and I've tried looking for help here. I submitted 2 questions with less that useful responses. It is very difficult to even find out if my questions have been responded to. I have been a supporter of SETI and have 6750 WU's in Classic. Please help us out!

Here are the two posts you made asking for help:

1) http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=16987

"I'm not getting credit for the work units even though I'm registered in BOINC. I don't use BOINC because I haven't been able to get to woork on my machine. How do I fix this?"

A link was provided for the "step by step by step Guide for Getting started in BOINC". If you read it you should have been able to get started.


2) http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=16657

"I have had nothing but problems with installing and using BOINC. I uninstalled it and will continue to use the classic version."

One of the replys to this post gave directions for attaching to the project.


I don't think it is fair for you to say you did not get usefull responses. Both responses gave you directions for attaching to the project, one directly one indirectly. I don't understand why you find it very difficult to find out if your questions have been responded to, it is not that hard.