Question: so what's up with the near time persistency checker (NTPCkr)? If the live web streaming were working last Thursday you would have seen the tail end of my and Jeff's talk where Jeff went into a little details about the current status of things. Basically, we have some screws to tighten here and there, but the general thing is working. We're up against some database throughput issues which we hope to fix sooner than later, plus we are still tweaking the scoring algorithms. We hope to have a public page available soon where you can peer into the progress of things. Until then, here's version 0.0.1 of the NTPCkr FAQ.

It's becoming clearer that we need to adjust the weight of our applications so that we send out more SETI@home/multibeam workunits. We have things effectively set such that Astropulse work gets sent out as soon as it becomes available. This was partly to expedite getting as many Astropulse results back as possible (in the interest of getting that science done) but this is getting less and less possible given our resources and current participant demands. Things on this front may shift in the near future.

We've been near our bandwidth limit for the past day since unclogging the mysql database, providing more data for Astropulse to split, and our active user base going up about 15% over the past couple of weeks. This may account for recent upload/download difficulty. It looks like it's getting better, as least for the moment.

- Matt

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-- BOINC/SETI@home network/web/science/development person
-- "Any idiot can have a good idea. What is hard is to do it." - Jeanne-Claude

My little Celeron has been getting a nice mix of 6.03s and 6.08s with just enough APs to keep things interesting here lately. Sure would be nice if it keeps it up.

Also good to see the replica database finally catching up and staying current. It got tiring trying to explain to the new guys why they weren't seeing any credit for their work. That extra 15% we've picked up must be the ones that have been asking. :)

Have you given any thought to how to keep new people from getting APs for their first work? It seems like we lose a bunch of them when they see the time to completion on those for the first time. I've had a few wingmen that don't even come in to ask, they just disappear. At least those that do visit the site get answers they can live with and stick with it.

I forgot to say thank you. We all know how hard you guys work behind the scenes to keep us going.

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PROUD MEMBER OF Team Starfire World BOINC

The NitPicker FAQ looks good, but its a bit like showing a child your bar of chocolate and saying you can eat some of this chocolate SOON!, just not right now!

Give us a sneak preview Matt, I'm dying to get a taste of the real thing :)

The live web streaming was NOT working last Thursday! We could not see it and its not avalable for download.

John.

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I must confess......
The kitties will be a bit upset if you back off on AP availability...they have barely been able to keep the caches full for the last week or so.

I was under the impression that AP, due to it's longer crunch times, was actually easier on the Seti servers than having a bunch of Cuda monsters pounding on the door for more work constantly....

Now you want to increase the availability of MB at the expense of AP work????

I am sorry.....I do not quite understand.

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"Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once."

I must confess......
The kitties will be a bit upset if you back off on AP availability...they have barely been able to keep the caches full for the last week or so.

I was under the impression that AP, due to it's longer crunch times, was actually easier on the Seti servers than having a bunch of Cuda monsters pounding on the door for more work constantly....

Now you want to increase the availability of MB at the expense of AP work????

I am sorry.....I do not quite understand.

Mark, have you looked at the server status page recently?

There are 130 'tapes' listed there: Astropulse has 'done' 128 of them, so they're just sitting there, waiting to be split for MB.

That's something like six terabytes of raw data, being kept online simply because the AP and MB split/issue rates are out of balance.

Although raw storage hasn't been such a problem for the project since the Overland Storage donation, that contribution was 'only' ten terabytes: using over half of that just to keep the kitties supplied with their particular flavour of kibble seems just a touch excessive!

Seriously, wouldn't it be better for the project as a whole if both types of work were consistently available, and split at roughly the same speed?

My little Celeron has been getting a nice mix of 6.03s and 6.08s with just enough APs to keep things interesting here lately. Sure would be nice if it keeps it up.

I did suggest to Eric (and I believe Richard H has as well) that all the VLAR work units get sent only as 6.03 (ie in response to a CPU request only). Not only does it give the cpu's some work, it also provides a work around for the amount of time they take a gpu to process.

Unfortunately all my cpus regularly have to resort to other projects to keep themselves busy.

Thanks guys for all the hard work.

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BOINC blog

...The solution would be for AP loving people, to disable AP in their preferences for a while. ...
Sten-Arne

They don't have to disable AP or enable MB, just allow other work if there is no AP and put the MB part into app_info(if they using opp. app.). That way they will only ask AP, get it if there is any in the queue, and in the "worst case" they get MB. And no need for manual switching all the time.

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I'm in the "Wanting More AP" camp....

I would suggest that the balance over the last month has been to give out AP to anyone requesting work, wether they want it, or can even process it in time.

I like AP because it pays better, and the PCs that I have selected to run it...well they can do it.

A bit of priority to the folks that WANT AP and give the MB to the folks running standard seti, probably keep more folks happy?

Ian

As in the few AP tasks I have there are several _6's, I do think, even though I agree we should be doing both applications, that the time has come for AP to be user selected only.
Sending out 7 copies at 8 MByte each cannot be helping with the bandwidth or database problems, and being user selected only should almost eliminate this problem.
It should also help balance the AP/MB splitting as all computers are capable of processing MB tasks but some are marginal at processing AP tasks within the deadline.

As in the few AP tasks I have there are several _6's, I do think, even though I agree we should be doing both applications, that the time has come for AP to be user selected only.
Sending out 7 copies at 8 MByte each cannot be helping with the bandwidth or database problems, and being user selected only should almost eliminate this problem.
It should also help balance the AP/MB splitting as all computers are capable of processing MB tasks but some are marginal at processing AP tasks within the deadline.

I'll second that.

I on the other hand am unable to process AP because it takes a special application on Apple products. When will a standard application become available so I can join the fun? ;)

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As in the few AP tasks I have there are several _6's, I do think, even though I agree we should be doing both applications, that the time has come for AP to be user selected only.
Sending out 7 copies at 8 MByte each cannot be helping with the bandwidth or database problems, and being user selected only should almost eliminate this problem.
It should also help balance the AP/MB splitting as all computers are capable of processing MB tasks but some are marginal at processing AP tasks within the deadline.

I second that also.

I just completed a _8 AP task. It was rattling around the world since February.

Perhaps we do not need to go as strict as 'user-selected only', but some form of 'go/no-go for AP' based on host system power would be helpful. This would be SETI server based, not BOINC based. If that is not possible, 'user-selected only' makes sense.

Bob

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Opinion stated as fact? Who, me?

User selected makes sense to me. I'm seeing way too many new people with zero credit/ zero RAC timing out with nothing but APs on their machines. I think it would be better to send only MBs to the new people until they get the hang of this game and then let them ask about or just try out the APs when they find them.

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PROUD MEMBER OF Team Starfire World BOINC

I agree with Perry on this. when i ran AP on my old P4 to many times i got slow wingmen or they just aborted. It was bad enough to crunch for 8 days then wait for 2 more months to get it validated.
i remember my first AP i aborted it to. Then i started reading the forums and learned what was up.

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Old James

As in the few AP tasks I have there are several _6's, I do think, even though I agree we should be doing both applications, that the time has come for AP to be user selected only.

I second that also.

I just completed a _8 AP task. It was rattling around the world since February.

I third, fourth and fifth that. My rule of thumb for a new, modern, multi-core machine is that it takes three months of steadily doing APs before they begin to validate as fast as they are produced.

It can't possibly be in the best interests of the project for so many newbies to be aborting APs. I suspect many of them never return.

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Classic 82353 WU / 400979 h

You can uncheck both "AP's" in the "Preferences" section. Be sure to also uncheck the "If no work for selected applications is available, accept work from other applications?" section also.

I would call this "User selectable".

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That is user selectable but in this case we are talking about a new cruncher that receives APs for the first WUs they get from the project. The time to completion is usually way over-estimated and on seeing that the new guy runs for the hills leaving the work behind to time out.

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PROUD MEMBER OF Team Starfire World BOINC

You can uncheck both "AP's" in the "Preferences" section. Be sure to also uncheck the "If no work for selected applications is available, accept work from other applications?" section also.

I would call this "User selectable".

– but both are checked by default, so AP is enabled for a new user. (and probably the first thing they get!) What is being suggested, here, is that they be un-checked by default, so that a new user only gets multi-beam, until he/she "discovers" AP.

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Hello, from Albany, CA!...

I understand now.

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... In other matters, the "client connection stats" page is broken...

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Hello, from Albany, CA!...