Forum Decorum (May 21 2007)

.....bruno had some problem with a fiber/channel/RAID thingy (I'm an astronomer, not a computer guy) over the weekend.....

Criticisms and debate over the management of this project are healthy, in my opinion, and I don't want to discourage it, except to say that personal slights and misrepresentations of opinions as "facts" are not really welcome.

Thank you for the update, Kevin. IMO, the lack of updates is part of the mounting frustration problem with a lot of folks, including me. Even though you are a scientist and not a "computer guy", you posting information such as this helps the project as a whole in that we crunching donators see that at least someone is on the job trying to get things running again. And with you posting up the info, it keeps the computer guys from having to take time away from fixing the problem to post info up here for us to read. I know that a lot of insinuations were posted in other threads and some of the posts went way too far, but they did insinuate a valid point. I am pretty new to the Seti project, having started about a year ago. But from what I gather, this Thumper croaking thing is the biggest problem Seti has had in years and it took a while to get Thumper II installed and running. And from what I have read here it sounds like some new server code broke a lot more stuff right around the time that Thumper went belly up too, which is making recovery much harder. But to me at least, it seems that you guys have a kind of "so what" attitude about the servers going wonky during the weekend (and this being the first weekend with Thumper II online too) and with Matt taking vacation with all that's happening too. Of course, Matt just might not have been able to reschedule his vacation due to timing or finances and I can understand that, but it seems to me that you guys kind of dropped the ball on support of the servers this last weekend. In normal times this probably wouldn't be an issue but you all are trying to get the project back up and running after a very protracted and hectic series of calamities and someone with the knowhow should have been on call to look into problems through this last weekend. And I would suggest that for the next few weekends it would be a good idea to have someone close by to look into problems too. The sooner you guys can sort out the problems you are running into and the longer that you can keep uploads and downloads coming and going, the sooner the project will get on a more even keel and then everyone can kick back and relax and watch football or racing or do whatever they want on the weekend.

Just a little warning

I see a lot of "waiting to run" in my memory
and a lot of task in the process tab of task manager.

Some are "low priority" as usual but some (stopped)
are in "normal" and "real time" priority.

In a dual core I have 6 task open,
two running at "min" and others stopped
but "normal" or "Real time".
In the same host 14 task are "waiting to run" in the boinc task window and other 2 are running.

It's the first time I see this but
I have read some similar in the forum in
past days.

Bze,
Frany
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From my point-of-view, you guys do a great job.

You got ambushed by a serie of problems/difficulties these last days, but life is life. I'm a volunter from the begining, so it's not some delays that will make me go away. Some are pretty upset, but they only see their little credits. They have no idea all the work you do. Take them with a grain of salt.

And you can take more time on the week-end for your self!
____________

Could someone take a minute to update the status board?

This is less of a technical update than a request for some patience and understanding. Matt should be back from his short vacation tomorrow and he'll be able to give a much better explanation of what's been going on behind the scenes here than I possibly could.

From what I've been able to gather (mainly eavesdropping on Eric's phone conversations next door), bruno had some problem with a fiber/channel/RAID thingy (I'm an astronomer, not a computer guy) over the weekend. Also thumper had to be rebooted this morning. Eric and Jeff are on top of everything, and I'm sure at our group meeting we'll have a thorough post-mortem on this mess (assuming the mess is overwith by then). So take a deep breath, and sit tight. Or better yet go for a walk. You could use the exercise.

Criticisms and debate over the management of this project are healthy, in my opinion, and I don't want to discourage it, except to say that personal slights and misrepresentations of opinions as "facts" are not really welcome. Are we short-staffed? Maybe. Are we lacking in technical know-how? Doubtful. Do we think volunteers should know what's going on? Absolutely. Can we live up to everyone's expectations? Apparently not. But I don't think SUN and others (individuals or companies) would be supporting us the way they are, if they thought we were doing a bad job.

I must apologize for my impatience. You guys are doing good cheers!
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Hi, there are few criticisms of you guys that I have seen. You're all doing a sterling job and have, from what I've seen, the support, trust and utmost respect of the vast majority of the crunchers. Keep up the excellent work and thanks for keeping us all informed as to whats up, down or thingy.
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I think everyone should just kind of mellow out. Compared to Old Seti, the current problems are relatively minor. To all the hard working staff and volunteers, thank you.

Just a little warning

I see a lot of "waiting to run" in my memory
and a lot of task in the process tab of task manager.

Some are "low priority" as usual but some (stopped)
are in "normal" and "real time" priority.

In a dual core I have 6 task open,
two running at "min" and others stopped
but "normal" or "Real time".
In the same host 14 task are "waiting to run" in the boinc task window and other 2 are running.

It's the first time I see this but
I have read some similar in the forum in
past days.

Bze,
Frany

Criticisms and debate over the management of this project are healthy...

Thank You Kevin . . . Sincerely


____________
BOINC Wiki . . .

Science Status Page . . .

But to me at least, it seems that you guys have a kind of "so what" attitude about the servers going wonky during the weekend (and this being the first weekend with Thumper II online too) and with Matt taking vacation with all that's happening too. Of course, Matt just might not have been able to reschedule his vacation due to timing or finances and I can understand that, but it seems to me that you guys kind of dropped the ball on support of the servers this last weekend.

We should review what SETI asks for, and what SETI promises:

SETI asks for "idle CPU cycles" -- it was designed to harness the computing power that was sitting on desktops in homes and businesses when the user was on the phone, or otherwise doing some light task.

SETI (and BOINC) are designed to harvest something that would otherwise go to waste.

SETI promises that sometimes they'll have work.

BOINC is designed so you can crunch for more than one project, and so that when one project runs dry, your computer will have work from the other projects.