Hi folks,
as you can see I´m a cruncher for quite a time now. However some years ago, when BOINC came up - I decided not to crunch anymore.
The main reasons: I didn´t like the handling of the client too much, and more important:
The workunits in the beginning were quite big, and as I just have narrowband connection in my flat, this made me crazy.

Now in my home (where my parents live) I just installed SETI@home again, to see how it is working, and actually noticed the WUs have a size of 350K again. Great..this will make me crunching again.

Unfortunately I didn´t really perceived the development in the last years. So my question: What exactly is the Beta-Test for, and what about the data I send back. Are they treated as rubbish and just for debugging purposes, or am I still contributing to science on a direct way, when I let my computer crunch the WUs with S@H Enhanced 5.17?

I couldn´t find the answer with the search option. So in case this already has been answered, I apologize for the thread - but please give a link to the discussion then.

Thanks in advance!
Jens

Hi folks,
as you can see I´m a cruncher for quite a time now. However some years ago, when BOINC came up - I decided not to crunch anymore.
The main reasons: I didn´t like the handling of the client too much, and more important:
The workunits in the beginning were quite big, and as I just have narrowband connection in my flat, this made me crazy.
Now in my home (where my parents live) I just installed SETI@home again, to see how it is working, and actually noticed the WUs have a size of 350K again. Great..this will make me crunching again.
Unfortunately I didn´t really perceived the development in the last years. So my question: What exactly is the Beta-Test for, and what about the data I send back. Are they treated as rubbish and just for debugging purposes, or am I still contributing to science on a direct way, when I let my computer crunch the WUs with S@H Enhanced 5.17?
I couldn´t find the answer with the search option. So in case this already has been answered, I apologize for the thread - but please give a link to the discussion then. Thanks in advance! Jens

First Welcome back!!!!!
Second the Enhanced Units are not the same thing as the Beta units. Everyone is now crunching with the Enhanced version of the software. It looks more intensely, than any previous version, at the data.
The Beta units can be gotten here: http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/beta/ but you will have to sign up and create an account there to do it. I do not think the credits are combined between the main Seti and the Beta test units. I have an account on both and they are accumulating seperately.

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Welcome.

Actually, the WU have always been 360K from the beginning of Seti@Home. Perhaps the 10 Meg for Boinc or the 1.5 Meg of the science application put you off.

Beta testing is a separate project were the Seti applications are tested before being release on Seti for public consumption. Until recently the enhanced application was being tested there. Once the result were fairly stable they were being put in the master data base.

Currently Beta has been crunching data that is being created from recording of the new multibeam receiver array. Since new software is required at the Seti end to create the WU, Beta is making sure there are no bugs before Seti main starts crunching this new data. I don't think these results are going into the database yet, as there are still problems being worked out.

There is also the very early signs that we may get to test an application for Astropulse soon. This will be a project that will probably run concurrent with Seti, but this is not very clear yet.

The credits gained in Beta are separate from Seti proper. You don't do Beta for credits since you never know what your going to get if any during the testing.

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Boinc V7.2.42
Win7 i5 3.33G 4GB, GTX470

First of all - thanks for your fast answers. This answered my questions!

Actually, the WU have always been 360K from the beginning of Seti@Home. Perhaps the 10 Meg for Boinc or the 1.5 Meg of the science application put you off.

Has this *always* been the case, or were there some exceptions in the beginning? I mean, I downloaded BOINC back in 2003 (or 2004?) and also installed it - and I also recognized what is the setiathomeclient, and what is the WU.

Or is it possible, that these were the Astropulse-WUs, that were crunched, when there was no S@H-work available?
As far as I remembered Astropulse already had some time running. Just looked for a screenshot on Google and remembered the graphics...

Best regards

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Best regards
Jens

First of all - thanks for your fast answers. This answered my questions!

Actually, the WU have always been 360K from the beginning of Seti@Home. Perhaps the 10 Meg for Boinc or the 1.5 Meg of the science application put you off.

Has this *always* been the case, or were there some exceptions in the beginning? I mean, I downloaded BOINC back in 2003 (or 2004?) and also installed it - and I also recognized what is the setiathomeclient, and what is the WU.

Or is it possible, that these were the Astropulse-WUs, that were crunched, when there was no S@H-work available?
As far as I remembered Astropulse already had some time running. Just looked for a screenshot on Google and remembered the graphics...

Best regards

There were some AP units handed out at one time, and there are going to be more comming up. (probably lots of them as that appears to be hitting Beta now).

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BOINC WIKI