I would suggest that many here have over reacted on this CUDA thing. Of all the people who gave it a shot probably only 10% are still running and evaluating it. We have had many weekends where we have run out of work or the servers are barely keeping up or not keeping up at all. You can't blame it entirely on CUDA.

And what makes you think the administrators will listen to you? Well, ok, they probably read these forums so you could say they are listening. But have they EVER advised us on their thinking about the direction the project is going or even asked for our opinion? No. Matt makes his daily posting about his day fighting the battle against the aging hardware and that's all we ever hear. NOTHING concerning the operation or management of the project. So again, what makes you think they will respond now?

Monday will come. The project may go down for a short time while they fix the weekend problems and when it comes up all will be back to normal. Well as normal as it can be around here. And we will discover our normal life and return to it for the Monday through Friday routine.

Nuff Said....

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Boinc....Boinc....Boinc....Boinc....

Hi folks,

I really don't understand why you blame CUDA in upcoming "SETI Apocalypsis".

Yes, it was implemented incorrectly. Yes, beta-testing was not done properly and we still have a lot of bugs leading to multiple issues. Yes, nobody provided us with good guidelines, we still have no normal builds of BM and applications. Yes, after dramatical increase of computation speed SETI servers are unable to deal with increased flow of WUs and as a result a lot users sit without work. And so on, and so on. It's project management's fault, but I believe they'll resolve it at last.

But at the same time CUDA gave fantastic increase of efficacy for network computing projects. It increases "productivity" of large part of home PCs in several times. As a result now we can handle SETI in real-time way, we can support more projects at the same time, we have a platform for development of more computing-hungry scientific experiments... That's really great.

And what about "CPU-crunchers", "rigs being out of work", etc... this is really beyond my understanding. We don't earn money. We don't earn ANY benefits from our credits. We are here just to support scientists. So why you are so worried that now you won't be able to receive as many credits as usually and be on top of the ratings? I don't want to think that you are crunching just to receive high RAC/overal rate and to be able to say proudly "I'm the best SETI cruncher, I'm cool, and you guys are nothing with your RAC 150". The same applies to those who don't have CUDA-enabled devices and can't afford them. Your input is still appreciated. Yes, now you give to SETI less comparing to increased productivity "CUDers", but each of us gives as much as he can.

OK, I also have only one PC with just a Dual Core CPU and quite old GPU - should I commit suicide because I never compete those IT guys who can install BOINC at dozens of PCs and produce 5000 RAC even without CUDA (and I believe that with CUDA enabled they give really terrific numbers!). No. I just do what I can and receive some self-honor for participation in SETI and some fun ;)

So let's crunch, and the bugs shouldn't stop us ;)

Maybe a new BOINC project could find the answer? Ovum@home? ... or better Ova@home? Provided we can state the right question and put it into source code.

Back to real life now ...

Happy Christmas and happy Holidays to everyone!
Alex

It happened before when Dualcores were introduced. Suddenly, some individuals had RAC doubled/tripled overnight. You cant stop the progress, no one can.

And there was considerable wailing and gnashing of teeth when people started using apps optimised for improved CPU instruction sets (SSE and later).

And yes, I'm CUDA capable. But I'm not using CUDA at the moment after some tests found that my main box can do more processing via optimised CPU apps.

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Leave them with a smile I always say. ;)

Hmm, I usually use three eggs... and omelette is usually spelled with three e letters. Is there a numerologist in the group who can make sense of that?

                                                                Joe

I'm sure You're right Joe, The spell checker isn't always right, But the Wikipedia can confirm that It can be spelled as Omelette as the Wikipedia says omelet too, So who's to say, Afterall there's color and colour, neither is wrong and both are right, It just depends on where the spelling comes from. But still, I like Eggs and their good for Me.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

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Leave them with a smile I always say. ;)

Hmm, I usually use three eggs... and omelette is usually spelled with three e letters. Is there a numerologist in the group who can make sense of that?

                                                                Joe

your just odd. How about that?

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Hmm, I usually use three eggs... and omelette is usually spelled with three e letters. Is there a numerologist in the group who can make sense of that?

                                                                Joe

You're a Ramist by heart. Now do explain how the beings from Rama did everything in threes, but the Clarke trilogy on them consists of 4 books. ;-)

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You cant stop the progress, no one can.

The way this is put makes me think of Orwell, Huxley and the like. Keep in mind: Progress is only what some people define as progress. There must be a right to disagree.

Hmm, I usually use three eggs... and omelette is usually spelled with three e letters. Is there a numerologist in the group who can make sense of that?

                                                                Joe

You're a Ramist by heart. Now do explain how the beings from Rama did everything in threes, but the Clarke trilogy on them consists of 4 books. ;-)

Simple, The 3rd book was too big, So they split It in two. Loved that series.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Hmm, I usually use three eggs... and omelette is usually spelled with three e letters. Is there a numerologist in the group who can make sense of that?

                                                                Joe

You're a Ramist by heart. Now do explain how the beings from Rama did everything in threes, but the Clarke trilogy on them consists of 4 books. ;-)

Simple, The 3rd book was too big, So they split It in two. Loved that series.

What about the kitties favourite trilogy H2G2, the fourth part is called "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish"

And what makes you think the administrators will listen to you? Well, ok, they probably read these forums so you could say they are listening. But have they EVER advised us on their thinking about the direction the project is going or even asked for our opinion?

I think it's fairly obvious that they are reading the forums.

If the positions were reversed, if I was one of the folks running the project, I would not post my "thoughts" in public.

Why? There are just too many of us, and many of us who are also active in the forums love to second-guess and offer advice. Based solely on the numbers, there is probably at least one person who would advocate each possible position on any given topic from Linux file systems to load balancing to the best number of servers to handle the load.

There are too many opinions.

But the bigger reason is the "Chicken Little" effect. For every flaw there is a tremendous demand for an instant reaction, lest the sky actually fall and the project end.

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If the positions were reversed, if I was one of the folks running the project, I would not post my "thoughts" in public.

Agreed. If the project managers included all of us into the decision making process the project would fall into kaos and nothing would get done.

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Boinc....Boinc....Boinc....Boinc....

If the positions were reversed, if I was one of the folks running the project, I would not post my "thoughts" in public.

Agreed. If the project managers included all of us into the decision making process the project would fall into Kaos and nothing would get done.

Yep, Hmm, Kaos isn't here, I guess We have enough Control agents then. ;)

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

If the positions were reversed, if I was one of the folks running the project, I would not post my "thoughts" in public.

Agreed. If the project managers included all of us into the decision making process the project would fall into caos and nothing would get done.

Indeed there are too many opinions! No decision is possible if you try to consider and include everything possible.

Isaac Asimov based various stories on that effect for the demise of robots and then leading into his Foundation Series. Quite an epic. Perhaps too much of an epic to translate into films. (Then again, how many films are there in the Star Trek series?!)


The Berkeley team are better using what they are familiar with and learning only whatever new becomes essential to know. Otherwise, they would spend all their time reworking PhDs in general Computer Science rather than just keeping the project moving. (OK... Perhaps allow a little time for some geekie fun stuff!)

Do we want the existing stuff optimised or are we looking for new stuff?

Matt did warn us that there was going to be a lot of fun! Suspiciously for Christmas... I likely will join in as 6.4.5 stabilises and a linux version appears.


All good cooking!

Happy crunchin',
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

If you are doing Einstein@home then this is bad news.
Einstein@Home
NVIDA CUDA technology will soon be powering the third most widely used BOINC project, Einstein@Home, which uses distributing computing to search for spinning neutron stars (also called pulsars) using data from gravitational wave detectors.

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Old enough to know better(but)still young enough not to care

If you are doing Einstein@home then this is bad news.
Einstein@Home
NVIDA CUDA technology will soon be powering the third most widely used BOINC project, Einstein@Home, which uses distributing computing to search for spinning neutron stars (also called pulsars) using data from gravitational wave detectors.

This is not necessarily bad news, but it may bring some problem to crunchers, like me, that don't have a NVIDIA card and cannot use CUDA. But Einstein@home is widening its objectives. See the following excerpt from its home page:

The Einstein@Home project is starting limited public testing of a new pulsar search, which uses PALFA radio data from the Arecibo radio telescope.

So we shall be crunching on.
Tullio

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