BOINC is killing you.
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BOINC is killing you.
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Dale Johnson Send message Joined: 21 Feb 03 Posts: 3 Credit: 668,015 RAC: 0 
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I did over 1000 work units for setiathome before BOINC was introduced 3 yrs ago and it pissed me off so much I trashed everything. A pity for seti. Sorry but it has to be simple to use and BOINC is VERY FAR from that. I tried again today thinking it must be improved because I got an email from seti. NOPE, still no instructions for getting a work unit and nothing intuitive. Pissed off again for wasting time with it. I enjoyed helping the seti search but haven't done any for three years. BOINC is a total disaster and has cost seti lost work units in the millions by now would be my guess. Contact me again if you ever get it user friendly like it was before BOINC. I'd like to help. Why did you agree to make it so complex it drives volunteers away. If someone want to contact me and help me get it running (I"ve installed it on my G5) I'll try again but I don't have time to try and figure it out the way it is now. Very disappointing! ID: 437777 ·  |
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Michael Peters Send message Joined: 26 Nov 05 Posts: 3 Credit: 15,580 RAC: 0 
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same here. I had given up when Seti went Boinc because the setup was confusing and whatever I tried didn't work. I got a reminder mail from Seti some days ago and reinstalled Boinc, and tried again. Same thing! On entering the setiathome URL there was an error (see below) - I think years ago when Boinc started, I had exactly the same error. Too bad for Seti. -Michael 16.10.2006 18:20:41||Contacting account manager at http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/ 16.10.2006 18:20:43||Account manager error: HTTP file not found ID: 437826 · |
KB7RZF  Send message Joined: 15 Aug 99 Posts: 9549 Credit: 3,308,926 RAC: 2 
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I don't know much about attaching through an Account Manager, but, if you open BOINC, click on Tools, Click on Attach To project, and enter that same URL, enter your email address and password for your account, and you will be connected. Pretty simple going that way. I have never used an account manager, and have heard people having problems with them. So try that way I described and see if it gets you attached. 
ID: 437842 · |
Aurora Borealis  Send message Joined: 14 Jan 01 Posts: 3075 Credit: 5,631,463 RAC: 0
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I did over 1000 work units for setiathome before BOINC was introduced 3 yrs ago and it pissed me off so much I trashed everything. A pity for seti. Sorry but it has to be simple to use and BOINC is VERY FAR from that. Apparently it is working since you downloaded a WU 16 Oct 2006 14:37:38 UTC Seti has no money for staff to hand hold the users. There is only a few paid staff and student helpers to keep the project alive and running. This is why these forum exist. Users helping other users. As for why they developed Boinc see Why classic SETI@home is closing down and other facts of life Boinc V7.2.42 Win7 i5 3.33G 4GB, GTX470 ID: 437845 · |
Dotsch  Send message Joined: 9 Jun 99 Posts: 2422 Credit: 919,393 RAC: 0
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BOINC is very good documentated and easy to install. Please look into the inoffical BOINC WIKI. Please look here for installation instructions : http://boinc-wiki.ath.cx/index.php?title=Installing_the_BOINC_Client_Software_And_Participating_In_A_BOINC_Powered_Project The attachment to the SETI project is simliar to the windows or Linux one. ID: 437908 · |
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Michael Send message Joined: 24 Apr 03 Posts: 2 Credit: 0 RAC: 0 |
[/quote] BOINC is very good documentated and easy to install. Please look into the inoffical BOINC WIKI. Please look here for installation instructions : http://boinc-wiki.ath.cx/index.php?title=Installing_the_BOINC_Client_Software_And_Participating_In_A_BOINC_Powered_Project The attachment to the SETI project is simliar to the windows or Linux one.[/quote] You are missing the point. The old seti client installed and ran with very little user tweaking or reference to wiki help. I startd running seti@home 6 years ago and it used very few system resources, but BOINC has made it impossible to continue. The reminder email from seti prompted me to try again, but what a time consuming mess BOINC is. ID: 440096 · |
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Dotsch Send message Joined: 9 Jun 99 Posts: 2422 Credit: 919,393 RAC: 0
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You are missing the point. The old seti client installed and ran with very little user tweaking or reference to wiki help. I startd running seti@home 6 years ago and it used very few system resources, but BOINC has made it impossible to continue. The reminder email from seti prompted me to try again, but what a time consuming mess BOINC is. The old Classic has a lot of bugs and problems. The new BOINC based SETI has a lot of improvements. Also BOINC has a lot of improvements and parameters which could be configured. Sorry, but I am very happy with BOINC. I crunch a lot of different project, could now easy setup a work cache (whithout writing a shell skript), configure the screensaver like I like it. At the beginning, there is a little bit learning for the new system needed - what was the cause for a boinc wiki - but laster it is easy to setup as Classic, too. ID: 440118 · |
 Pooh Bear 27  Send message Joined: 14 Jul 03 Posts: 3224 Credit: 4,603,826 RAC: 0
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There are reasons for the move. First off, SETI Classic got a grant in the early days, that was supposed to last 2 years. That lasted over 6 years. There was no money left, and no one wanted to put money into the project, so effectively it was dead. New developement on the software could no longer happen, because no one would get paid. The software was old, there was no validating routines, machines were dying, etc. A grant came through to build a client that allowed more than one DC project to run. BOINC was created. BOINC needed a testbed, so some money got thrown from that grant to produce a program that can run with BOINC, and the new version of SETI was created. Classic closed, and it is gone. There is no way to bring it back the way it was. Many of those machines were retired, the data archived, and it's day has come. SETI is still not getting money (except through some private donations of people like me). It may die in the future. BOINC will continue because each of the projects that use BOINC help keep it going. So, all you are wishing on is a dead horse. It was already on it's way out the door. Nothing could have revived it.  My movie https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/502242 ID: 440123 · |
mikey  Send message Joined: 17 Dec 99 Posts: 4215 Credit: 3,474,603 RAC: 0
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You are missing the point. The old seti client installed and ran with very little user tweaking or reference to wiki help. I startd running seti@home 6 years ago and it used very few system resources, but BOINC has made it impossible to continue. The reminder email from seti prompted me to try again, but what a time consuming mess BOINC is. Actually Michael I think you are missing the point...not to be obtuse or anything but Seti is about the Science! The old program, Classic as it is called, got to the point that some of the material returned from users was not Scientifically usable. That meant that the project could not continue as it was. It had to be changed, that along with the reasons stated by others is why we have what we have today. Here is the link to helping you get Boinc up and running again http://boinc-wiki.ath.cx/index.php?title=Installing_the_BOINC_Client_Software_And_Participating_In_A_BOINC_Powered_Project 
ID: 440153 · |
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Miles Send message Joined: 17 Jun 99 Posts: 1 Credit: 19 RAC: 0
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I agree completely with the comments and responses made by Dale Johnson and Michael Peters. I also began supporting seti@home over 7 years ago, and completed well over 1,000 work units before the switchover to BOINC. My experience was virtually identical to Dale's. I'm willing to take Mikey's word for it that BOINC is superior in terms of result validation, the science, and so on, but that's not the point. We all wanted to continue supporting seti@home, but the difficulties that BOINC raises for an average user in installation, administration, security issues, and the adverse effect it sometimes has upon the normal functioning of your computer make it a non-starter for most people. BOINC needs to be a lot more user-friendly, if these projects are ever going to get back the support of many users who tried installing BOINC a year ago, had a very bad experience with it, uninstalled it, and said oh, well...at least I got to help out for a while. ID: 441654 · |
OzzFan     Send message Joined: 9 Apr 02 Posts: 15691 Credit: 84,761,841 RAC: 28
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I'm willing to take Mikey's word for it that BOINC is superior in terms of result validation, the science, and so on, but that's not the point. We all wanted to continue supporting seti@home, but the difficulties that BOINC raises for an average user in installation, administration, security issues, and the adverse effect it sometimes has upon the normal functioning of your computer make it a non-starter for most people. BOINC needs to be a lot more user-friendly, if these projects are ever going to get back the support of many users who tried installing BOINC a year ago, had a very bad experience with it, uninstalled it, and said oh, well...at least I got to help out for a while. And they are working very hard to make BOINC easier to use. In the meantime, they need people to help support BOINC by running it or making suggestions on how to improve it. If BOINC dies, all 35+ projects, including SETI@Home die along with it. ID: 441698 · |
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Bill Send message Joined: 12 Feb 03 Posts: 1 Credit: 0 RAC: 0
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I agree, BOINC is difficult to use and set up. I have tried on several occasions but have never been able to accomplish it. I'm not stupid but surely must be missing something somewhere. SETI must be able to come up with something easier to use than BOINC. ID: 444454 · |
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Dotsch Send message Joined: 9 Jun 99 Posts: 2422 Credit: 919,393 RAC: 0
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I agree, BOINC is difficult to use and set up. I have tried on several occasions but have never been able to accomplish it. I'm not stupid but surely must be missing something somewhere. SETI must be able to come up with something easier to use than BOINC. There this a good install howto in the BOINC wiki which describes the installation very easy and detailed : http://boinc-wiki.ath.cx/index.php?title=Installing_the_BOINC_Client_Software_And_Participating_In_A_BOINC_Powered_Project ID: 444481 · |
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OzzFan Send message Joined: 9 Apr 02 Posts: 15691 Credit: 84,761,841 RAC: 28
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I agree, BOINC is difficult to use and set up. I have tried on several occasions but have never been able to accomplish it. I'm not stupid but surely must be missing something somewhere. SETI must be able to come up with something easier to use than BOINC. There should be no harm in asking us, right? It's not a matter of "stupid" or "not stupid", but simply getting used to what you are seeing/using. I'm sure if we helped you understand it better, you'd find that BOINC is very unobtrusive and once you have it installed, you won't even notice it's running. All you have to do is ask and explain your problem. ID: 444593 · |
paperdragon  Send message Joined: 27 Aug 99 Posts: 174 Credit: 1,452,115 RAC: 0
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If you are really having trouble, and would like something a bit easy, you might look into www.gridrepublic.org. This account manager was setup to simply the use of BOINC. If you would prefer an account manager that is more user changeable there is bam.boincstats.com. But this requires you do some setup on BOINC to get it to work.  You need a second life? Seconlife.com ID: 444637 · |
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Mark S Send message Joined: 9 Mar 02 Posts: 4 Credit: 674,127 RAC: 0
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Just a note on this....Yes seti has a problem....It is not serious though...when you hook up to it as a project it will come back to you as a failed attempt, but if you check your projects list it does add it and start running it. There is a problem with that failed return to you but it seems not to hinder it from working. Just makes you think it failed when it did load. ID: 457361 · |
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OzzFan Send message Joined: 9 Apr 02 Posts: 15691 Credit: 84,761,841 RAC: 28
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Just a note on this....Yes seti has a problem....It is not serious though...when you hook up to it as a project it will come back to you as a failed attempt, but if you check your projects list it does add it and start running it. There is a problem with that failed return to you but it seems not to hinder it from working. Just makes you think it failed when it did load. You are absolutely right about this Mark. This is a legit bug, and the developers are aware of it, and have even fixed it already in the next release (I'm using the new beta release and it doesn't give that error). ID: 457418 · |
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Ian Send message Joined: 21 May 99 Posts: 1 Credit: 387,069 RAC: 0 
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ID: 457483 · |
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mikey Send message Joined: 17 Dec 99 Posts: 4215 Credit: 3,474,603 RAC: 0
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Error #403 is a server side error, aka Berkeley in this case. When they fix their end our ends will automatically start working again. Be patient.
ID: 457912 · |
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michael Send message Joined: 12 Dec 06 Posts: 3 Credit: 984 RAC: 0
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I just downloaded the program today and had no problem installing/running it.... glad i can help in the search... although i would REALLY like to know how you plan on talking to the aliens... 20 light years away means 40 years to say hello, and hear hello back... ID: 481288 · |
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