Just so people don't freak out. Berkeley/Set@home will be going down today, Sunday Jan 3 2010 at or around Noon local time(PST). So I would make sure you have enough snacks and WU's to get you through the outage which may take hours or until tomorrow morning. Be forewarned and prepared for the outage.

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

I guess it depends on how much they have left to do on the power grid. The guys may just shut everything down this afternoon and come back tomorrow to find out for sure when they can restart. Then, as you say, many hours to get everything back up and running and get over the hit on the servers when everyone tries to report and get new work.

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PROUD MEMBER OF Team Starfire World BOINC

I guess it depends on how much they have left to do on the power grid. The guys may just shut everything down this afternoon and come back tomorrow to find out for sure when they can restart. Then, as you say, many hours to get everything back up and running and get over the hit on the servers when everyone tries to report and get new work.

And hopefully they can avoid the validate error snafu this time around.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

I guess it depends on how much they have left to do on the power grid. The guys may just shut everything down this afternoon and come back tomorrow to find out for sure when they can restart. Then, as you say, many hours to get everything back up and running and get over the hit on the servers when everyone tries to report and get new work.

And hopefully they can avoid the validate error snafu this time around.

First, it's hard to call this a snafu when there is no chance of science being lost.

... and for most every alleged snafu, the project has historically gone back and fixed the original issue and granted credit.

We should be a little nicer when we pick our words. What people frequently label as "snafu" or "screw-up" or any of a dozen other pejorative terms nearly always ends up as a minor inconvenience.

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I guess it depends on how much they have left to do on the power grid. The guys may just shut everything down this afternoon and come back tomorrow to find out for sure when they can restart. Then, as you say, many hours to get everything back up and running and get over the hit on the servers when everyone tries to report and get new work.

And hopefully they can avoid the validate error snafu this time around.

First, it's hard to call this a snafu when there is no chance of science being lost.

... and for most every alleged snafu, the project has historically gone back and fixed the original issue and granted credit.

We should be a little nicer when we pick our words. What people frequently label as "snafu" or "screw-up" or any of a dozen other pejorative terms nearly always ends up as a minor inconvenience.

Well....use whatever term you wish to describe it.
It was an unintended problem which did cause much confusion and concern on the boards......
Matt got it fixed rather promptly, and yes, things were corrected and as far as I know, all credits were granted after the fact.

Not meant to be insulting, just hoping that what happened the first time was identified and can be avoided when bringing things back up this time.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

I guess it depends on how much they have left to do on the power grid. The guys may just shut everything down this afternoon and come back tomorrow to find out for sure when they can restart. Then, as you say, many hours to get everything back up and running and get over the hit on the servers when everyone tries to report and get new work.

And hopefully they can avoid the validate error snafu this time around.

First, it's hard to call this a snafu when there is no chance of science being lost.

... and for most every alleged snafu, the project has historically gone back and fixed the original issue and granted credit.

We should be a little nicer when we pick our words. What people frequently label as "snafu" or "screw-up" or any of a dozen other pejorative terms nearly always ends up as a minor inconvenience.

Well....use whatever term you wish to describe it.
It was an unintended problem which did cause much confusion and concern on the boards......
Matt got it fixed rather promptly, and yes, things were corrected and as far as I know, all credits were granted after the fact.

Not meant to be insulting, just hoping that what happened the first time was identified and can be avoided when bringing things back up this time.

We are talking about the written word.

SNAFU is an acronym, it stands for "Situation Normal, All Fouled Up"

You may have the impression that "foul ups" are normal, and I would strongly suggest that it's because the operation at SETI@Home is very transparent, and we see both the issues and the resiliency behind it.

One of the things I do is run mail servers, and most users would be appalled at the amount of work the typical server does delivering mail (especially to some large "free" mail services, which I won't name) -- and the number of times mail has to be retried.

But E-Mail users are happy because they don't see it. SETI@Home would be happier if the BOINC client didn't tell us what it was doing.

... but it wouldn't be nearly as interesting.

Back to the topic: I don't believe the problem was a "foul up" or that foul-ups are routine.

... and nobody comments when everything is running perfectly.

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I guess it depends on how much they have left to do on the power grid. The guys may just shut everything down this afternoon and come back tomorrow to find out for sure when they can restart. Then, as you say, many hours to get everything back up and running and get over the hit on the servers when everyone tries to report and get new work.

And hopefully they can avoid the validate error snafu this time around.

First, it's hard to call this a snafu when there is no chance of science being lost.

... and for most every alleged snafu, the project has historically gone back and fixed the original issue and granted credit.

We should be a little nicer when we pick our words. What people frequently label as "snafu" or "screw-up" or any of a dozen other pejorative terms nearly always ends up as a minor inconvenience.

You may not like the term he used, but I echo Mark's sentiments - and I bet the staff do, too.

Although nothing was lost by way of science or credits, it certainly cost some staff time: whatever happened (upload storage unit failed to mount from the validator server, I guess) required them to go back and kick something a second time after they thought they'd brought the system fully up again, and the following day they had to write, test and run a query to reset the validation status and give the affected WUs a second try. In the meantime, they couldn't send out any new work, which made the final recovery even more arduous than it would have been if everything had started cleanly when the power came back.

I don't know if delaying the weekly backup from Tuesday to Wednesday was in the original plan, but it's possible that was part of the colateral, too. Overall, far better to catch it at source, rather than have to sweep up the pieces afterwards.

this is a unique opportunity to have two massive hangovers in less than one week and you guys are arguing!!!

pour a tall one and relax!!!

and Mark put some catnip out for the kitties :~/

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this is a unique opportunity to have two massive hangovers in less than one week and you guys are arguing!!!

pour a tall one and relax!!!

and Mark put some catnip out for the kitties :~/

LOL....done pouring for this week here.

The kitties will get some extra attention during the outage.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

this is a unique opportunity to have two massive hangovers in less than one week and you guys are arguing!!!

pour a tall one and relax!!!

and Mark put some catnip out for the kitties :~/

Next time I go to Georgia I will have to pop in on you and have you make me one of those tall drinks.

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Official Abuser of Boinc Buttons...
And no good credit hound!

Georgia?

naaaahhhh...
the old north state...
the one that is freezing my patootie off!

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Georgia?

naaaahhhh...
the old north state...
the one that is freezing my patootie off!

I was talking about renting a car and seeing a bit of the East Coast, i usually fly in and out. Want to go Gem Hunting...

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Official Abuser of Boinc Buttons...
And no good credit hound!

gem hunting in georgia?
naaahhhh
you want to go to hiddenite, nc...
which isn't too far from phud's bar and grill

i was digging into a side of a mountain once and this kid not fifty feet of me
had a clink sound come off his trowel....
pulled a raw blue sapphire the size of a bag of sugar...
it had to have numerous cuttable stones...
rubies and emeralds are found too...

georgia nahhhhh.

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I guess it depends on how much they have left to do on the power grid. The guys may just shut everything down this afternoon and come back tomorrow to find out for sure when they can restart. Then, as you say, many hours to get everything back up and running and get over the hit on the servers when everyone tries to report and get new work.

And hopefully they can avoid the validate error snafu this time around.

First, it's hard to call this a snafu when there is no chance of science being lost.

... and for most every alleged snafu, the project has historically gone back and fixed the original issue and granted credit.

We should be a little nicer when we pick our words. What people frequently label as "snafu" or "screw-up" or any of a dozen other pejorative terms nearly always ends up as a minor inconvenience.

You may not like the term he used, but I echo Mark's sentiments - and I bet the staff do, too.

Although nothing was lost by way of science or credits, it certainly cost some staff time: whatever happened (upload storage unit failed to mount from the validator server, I guess) required them to go back and kick something a second time after they thought they'd brought the system fully up again, and the following day they had to write, test and run a query to reset the validation status and give the affected WUs a second try. In the meantime, they couldn't send out any new work, which made the final recovery even more arduous than it would have been if everything had started cleanly when the power came back.

I don't know if delaying the weekly backup from Tuesday to Wednesday was in the original plan, but it's possible that was part of the colateral, too. Overall, far better to catch it at source, rather than have to sweep up the pieces afterwards.

I'm sorry you missed my point.

The idea that if we just had better servers and better people we'd be better off seems to be too much of a consistent theme here in the forums. While better servers would be nice, I don't think the staff deserves the criticism.

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gem hunting in georgia?
naaahhhh
you want to go to hiddenite, nc...
which isn't too far from phud's bar and grill

i was digging into a side of a mountain once and this kid not fifty feet of me
had a clink sound come off his trowel....
pulled a raw blue sapphire the size of a bag of sugar...
it had to have numerous cuttable stones...
rubies and emeralds are found too...

georgia nahhhhh.

Yea we were thinking more like Hiddenite and Phud's Bar and Grill, maybe this spring...

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Official Abuser of Boinc Buttons...
And no good credit hound!

better people?
better than who?
what exactly are you trying to say?
i'm not good enough?


i should've stopped drinking last week....

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"Yea we were thinking more like Hiddenite and Phud's Bar and Grill, maybe this spring..."

oh well
i better start cleaning up...
get those bottles of old speckled hen thrown away...
try to hide the part of the ranch i'm working on in secret.

gee i might have to work.

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You need to go to Herkimer NY.

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SETI@home classic workunits 4,019
SETI@home classic CPU time 34,348 hours

You need to go to Herkimer NY.

I believe that is also on the list.

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Official Abuser of Boinc Buttons...
And no good credit hound!

I'm sorry you missed my point.....

And I'm sorry you missed mine.

I made no criticism of either the servers or the staff. Both perform admirably under the circumstances.

I merely observed - and it was just that, a factual observation - that there had been a problem during last week's "great awakening". And given two parallel universes, one where a problem happens, the other where it doesn't, I think we would all prefer to find ourselves in the glitch-free channel. No more than that.