Precedence Bulk (Dec 10 2009)

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Profile Matt Lebofsky
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Message 953685 - Posted: 10 Dec 2009, 21:33:23 UTC

So the first round of donation pleas are being sent. Sending out mass-mails is an art and a science, none of which I claim to be good at. I'm sure lots of these mails are being spam blocked or whatever, but we can only do so much to given our resources to get the word out. One good piece of news is that paypal donations may actually be a possibility in the very near future. Imagine that.

I've said it before, but it's worth repeating: I appreciate all the efforts and contributions (in all forms) of our wonderful volunteer user base. I know we're already getting your valuable computer time, so the monetary donations you may decide to give us are in addition to your current level of generosity.

Anyway.. back to work. What was I working on? Oh yes. Data pipeline stuff. What else... So we did end up abandoning that strangely resource-hungry science database index building task. We're now just dumping the whole table fragment to an ascii file, dropping the fragment, and rebuilding from scratch via that file. That may end up being a lot faster after all.

An ATI version of the client is currently in beta test. I have no idea about anything beyond that, but it seemed worthy of at least mentioning it here.

- Matt

-- BOINC/SETI@home network/web/science/development person
-- "Any idiot can have a good idea. What is hard is to do it." - Jeanne-Claude
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Profile Jord
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Message 953702 - Posted: 10 Dec 2009, 22:53:04 UTC - in response to Message 953685.  

Can you tell how big the database is these days, Matt? The Informix database at that. It was asked a couple of weeks ago in one of the lower forums. People wanted the ability to download it or browse through it.

ATI app? Oh no! /me changes all GPU preferences to No. ;-)


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Profile Neil Blaikie
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Message 953709 - Posted: 10 Dec 2009, 23:19:08 UTC
Last modified: 10 Dec 2009, 23:22:58 UTC

*** CORRECTION ***OOOPS I did a quick search and didn't pay attention to the fact it was you that answered that question.

In response to that question, see this thread http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=56306&nowrap=true#951600
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Message 953714 - Posted: 10 Dec 2009, 23:38:09 UTC

Matt got the e-mail but only the headers nothing of the message got to me. It did not end up in the spam filter.
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Message 953719 - Posted: 10 Dec 2009, 23:42:40 UTC - in response to Message 953685.  



An ATI version of the client is currently in beta test. I have no idea about anything beyond that, but it seemed worthy of at least mentioning it here.

- Matt


I will be willing to bet that I recognize the app that is there as I was alpha testing it on Lunatics.


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Message 953771 - Posted: 11 Dec 2009, 3:33:23 UTC

Happy Holidays, Matt
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Message 953851 - Posted: 11 Dec 2009, 10:57:43 UTC

Is actually everyone getting the email with the words "You've been identified as one of our most active volunteers"? Well, I got one and all my job done this year fot seti was worth about 130,000 Cr... that's what some others do in a day. Not that I don't like to be one of the most active ones or something, but it made me curious if there is a limit?
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Message 953854 - Posted: 11 Dec 2009, 11:38:29 UTC - in response to Message 953851.  

I believe so received mine a few minutes ago

Michael
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Message 953855 - Posted: 11 Dec 2009, 11:57:38 UTC - in response to Message 953851.  
Last modified: 11 Dec 2009, 12:04:41 UTC

Is actually everyone getting the email with the words "You've been identified as one of our most active volunteers"? Well, I got one and all my job done this year fot seti was worth about 130,000 Cr... that's what some others do in a day. Not that I don't like to be one of the most active ones or something, but it made me curious if there is a limit?

I'm guessing it's sent to all active accounts. My Seti RAC is in the neighborhood of 15-20. Got mine yesterday. It doesn't appear to be personalize in any way other than the salutation, unlike the WCG newsletters for example, which contain specific sub-project number breakdown.

Boinc V7.2.42
Win7 i5 3.33G 4GB, GTX470
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Message 953877 - Posted: 11 Dec 2009, 15:23:39 UTC - in response to Message 953855.  

I'm guessing it's sent to all active accounts. My Seti RAC is in the neighborhood of 15-20. Got mine yesterday. It doesn't appear to be personalize in any way other than the salutation, unlike the WCG newsletters for example, which contain specific sub-project number breakdown.


If they could tie a work unit to a particular candidate pulse in the NitPkr, then you could put those candidate signals in the email. What a way to reward a year's worth of results. Maybe they could do that for next year's email.
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Message 954075 - Posted: 12 Dec 2009, 2:23:44 UTC

I received the email and it appears to be a plain text attachment, rather than plain text in the body of the message. I think plain text in the body is best, if I had a preference.
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Grant (SSSF)
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Message 954137 - Posted: 12 Dec 2009, 8:31:34 UTC - in response to Message 954075.  

I received the email and it appears to be a plain text attachment, rather than plain text in the body of the message. I think plain text in the body is best, if I had a preference.


It's html.
How it appears depends on your email programme & how i'ts configured.
For me, it was an attachment as well as in the message body.
Grant
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Message 954146 - Posted: 12 Dec 2009, 9:51:22 UTC - in response to Message 953855.  

Aurora Borealis wrote
... It doesn't appear to be personalize in any way other than the salutation ...


The version I received didn't have a personalised salutation in the body of the email, it just says "Dear SETI@home volunteer,
I'm Dan Werthimer, the Chief Scientist of the SETI@home project.
You've been identified as one of our most active volunteers,"

Seti@home knows my name and where I live, but I am happy to get a generic non-personalised email rather than have Seti@Home waste resources on something more complicated.

However I was actually a little offended by the (presumably unthinking ?) assumption in the email that everyone who donates computer time and or money is a resident/taxpayer of the USA.

It said "your gift is tax-deductible" - I assume that is true for those paying US tax, but I don't think it is true everywhere else in the world.
as an example http://www.ird.govt.nz/donee-organisations/

It would have been easy to substitute "may be" for "is", or specify "for US taxpayers" or whatever the appropriate correct wording actually applies.


Martin.

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Message 954244 - Posted: 12 Dec 2009, 18:33:22 UTC

Well, I received my "request for cash" yesterday. It worked - perhaps a mellow feeling after a few glasses of wine was a plus also : )

Payment sent last night - can't wait to see that green star against my name.

A small donation just before Christmas, to something we all believe is worthwhile seems reasonable.

Tom
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rob smith Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
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Message 954397 - Posted: 13 Dec 2009, 13:11:51 UTC

As the stamp said "Philately will get you everywhere...."
Bob Smith
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Message 954410 - Posted: 13 Dec 2009, 14:20:10 UTC

According to BOINCstats only 17 % of the users are active at all; from that point of view everyone who has RAC>0 is one of the most active volunteers. :)

Maybe everyone with RAC has received that mail?
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Cruncher-American Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor

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Message 954412 - Posted: 13 Dec 2009, 14:41:23 UTC

Geez - I must be prescient. I actually donated 5 days prior to this post - guess my thiotimoline diet is working!!!
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Message 954413 - Posted: 13 Dec 2009, 14:46:09 UTC

I have donated once, more than a year ago, and will probably do so again. But I must say a superficially personal letter puts me off, however worthy the cause is. Partly beacause of that my donation will not be immediately forthcoming...
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Message 956828 - Posted: 17 Dec 2009, 1:17:30 UTC - in response to Message 954146.  

Aurora Borealis wrote
... It doesn't appear to be personalize in any way other than the salutation ...


The version I received didn't have a personalised salutation in the body of the email, it just says "Dear SETI@home volunteer,
I'm Dan Werthimer, the Chief Scientist of the SETI@home project.
You've been identified as one of our most active volunteers,"
[snip]
However I was actually a little offended by the (presumably unthinking ?) assumption in the email that everyone who donates computer time and or money is a resident/taxpayer of the USA.
[snip]


I note that I have received a second email from seti requesting a donation, six days after the previous one, both sent to the same email address.
This time most of it was worded differently, and this supposedly came form a different person.
"Dear SETI@home volunteer:
I'm David P. Anderson, Director of SETI@home.
As an active SETI@home volunteer ... "

UNFORTUNATELY he perpetuates the same mistake I complained about last week, again incorrectly saying that my donation would be tax deductible.

I guess that means that David Anderson doesn't read this board, and no informed him of the mistake in the email that was sent out under Dan Werthimer's name last week.

Martin.

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Profile Bill Walker
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Message 956845 - Posted: 17 Dec 2009, 2:53:26 UTC - in response to Message 956828.  

I guess that means that David Anderson doesn't read this board, and no informed him of the mistake in the email that was sent out under Dan Werthimer's name last week.

Martin.


So I guess this means that busy people with real jobs don't read the forums.

Just joking (sort of).

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Message boards : Technical News : Precedence Bulk (Dec 10 2009)


 
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