Do I hear the sound of a riot?

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Message 1005617 - Posted: 18 Jun 2010, 8:07:42 UTC

No riot.......just a lot of unhappiness from folks who have contributed long and hard for the project and are now being shuttered out.

I being one.

And I can only imagine how many set-and-forget hosts have been trashed that may or may not ever come back to productive crunching.

Forgive me...or not.....for being so vocal about the project I care so deeply about.
"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

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Message 1005621 - Posted: 18 Jun 2010, 8:13:52 UTC - in response to Message 1005615.  

Not resetting that value is an effective way to grind the big crunchers to a halt fast, and the small crunchers to a halt later on.

Not only.
Not resetting that value accumulates a lot of WUs ready to be sent in SETI's disks.
Now: Results ready to send 100,558

FF
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Message 1005622 - Posted: 18 Jun 2010, 8:16:49 UTC

Don't think there will be a riot.
A mass walk-out and picketing of the chief BOINC devs desk maybe. Andy Worth is heading in that direction I will nominate him as the UK representative.
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Message 1005672 - Posted: 18 Jun 2010, 11:54:38 UTC

You are damned right there are unhappy people - me, for one.
These folks implemented serious changes on the server side with NO warning, and no explanation of what they were supposed to do. And the changes don't seem to work at all, and they haven't acknowledged it or rolled back to the last working server side.

I have 2 machines which have gotten only a handful of MB WUs in the past 8 days, with lots of bogus error messages, as many of you have(n't). They are running dry (one went dry 3-4 days ago, except for AP). And in the future are we to be limited to 100 WUs/day for each app, w/o regard to how powerful each machine is? Or what does the "Application Details" mean?

Any sane s/w op has some sort of doc of what changes are for (in writing, not in someone's head). And should publish them for comments, or, at least, so users will know what is going on. And I don't want to hear about how hard the folks at Berkeley work - I know that, and it is irrelevant. YOU DON'T SCREW AROUND WITH A PROJECT LIKE SETI WITHOUT HAVING A BACKUP PLAN - there are too many "customers" here, it's not a private project with a handful of users.

PLEASE, guys, rethink how you are doing this!!!!

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Message 1005675 - Posted: 18 Jun 2010, 12:00:38 UTC - in response to Message 1005622.  

A mass walk-out and picketing of the chief BOINC devs desk maybe.

This problem has nothing to do with BOINC, its only the seti@home project that has the problem.
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Message 1005676 - Posted: 18 Jun 2010, 12:08:42 UTC - in response to Message 1005672.  
Last modified: 18 Jun 2010, 12:09:30 UTC

Yeah, public relations was weak point here almost always :)
IMO currently the biggest bottleneck of project is not bandwidth or server hardware, but staff. There is simple too few peoples from project side now.
IMO the highest priority for SETI project now not to upgrade bandwidth or servers or to implement more advanced search algorithms as freq switching (as stated in future plans). First priority is to get more peoples as staff members. They can be paid ones (actually, it will be much better investment of donations than to buy new hardware no one can really maintain). Or to attract more students to project. Maybe some postdocs...
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Message 1005677 - Posted: 18 Jun 2010, 12:14:52 UTC - in response to Message 1005676.  

It does make it next to impossible to test new apps on this side while they are so understaffed and in the middle of an issue sea on the server side. I have worked jobs where I was doing 5 or 6 peoples jobs at once. Sometimes it is the only solution, but nothing can get done as it should. People are not meant to be stressed out like that. I wish them well, and I hope there is a way for them to get more staff.

Steve
Warning, addicted to SETI crunching!
Crunching as a member of GPU Users Group.
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Message 1005681 - Posted: 18 Jun 2010, 12:22:32 UTC - in response to Message 1005615.  
Last modified: 18 Jun 2010, 12:32:24 UTC

Please, fix this before the rioting gets totally out of hands.



But what can a poor boy do
'cept to crunch for the SETI Man?
'cause in sleepy London town
there's just no place for a street fighting man.

Appologies to Jaeger/Richards

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Message 1005689 - Posted: 18 Jun 2010, 12:47:09 UTC - in response to Message 1005675.  

A mass walk-out and picketing of the chief BOINC devs desk maybe.

This problem has nothing to do with BOINC, its only the seti@home project that has the problem.

Its changes introduced badly by BOINC that are causing the Seti problems. If the BOINC devs hadn't tried to do too much in one step we probably would not be in this mess.
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Message 1005691 - Posted: 18 Jun 2010, 12:56:57 UTC - in response to Message 1005675.  

A mass walk-out and picketing of the chief BOINC devs desk maybe.

This problem has nothing to do with BOINC, its only the seti@home project that has the problem.

That's because Seti is the poster child for Boinc changes.........they are all rolled out here before they get to other projects.

You didn't know that??????
"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

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Message 1005704 - Posted: 18 Jun 2010, 13:53:04 UTC - in response to Message 1005691.  
Last modified: 18 Jun 2010, 13:53:56 UTC

A mass walk-out and picketing of the chief BOINC devs desk maybe.

This problem has nothing to do with BOINC, its only the seti@home project that has the problem.

That's because Seti is the poster child for Boinc changes.........they are all rolled out here before they get to other projects.

You didn't know that??????

If it was a BOINC problem then why arn't the other projects having the same problems with it to?

So as it stands I'll just stick by my original statement that the problem is totally in the Seti@home project.
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Message 1005706 - Posted: 18 Jun 2010, 13:58:46 UTC - in response to Message 1005704.  

A mass walk-out and picketing of the chief BOINC devs desk maybe.

This problem has nothing to do with BOINC, its only the seti@home project that has the problem.

That's because Seti is the poster child for Boinc changes.........they are all rolled out here before they get to other projects.

You didn't know that??????

If it was a BOINC problem then why arn't the other projects having the same problems with it to?

So as it stands I'll just stick by my original statement that the problem is totally in the Seti@home project.

Read my last post......Boinc is not rolled out to all projects at once....thank God. It is 'tested' here first. And God save us.

I have to stand back now and let the kitties sort it.

But, I'll give one bit of apology to those who try to make it work.
'I know it's not easy, kinda like herding cats.......'

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

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Message 1005724 - Posted: 18 Jun 2010, 14:22:25 UTC

Um.. isn't that what beta should be for?

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Message 1005725 - Posted: 18 Jun 2010, 14:23:02 UTC - in response to Message 1005704.  

A mass walk-out and picketing of the chief BOINC devs desk maybe.

This problem has nothing to do with BOINC, its only the seti@home project that has the problem.

That's because Seti is the poster child for Boinc changes.........they are all rolled out here before they get to other projects.

You didn't know that??????

If it was a BOINC problem then why arn't the other projects having the same problems with it to?

So as it stands I'll just stick by my original statement that the problem is totally in the Seti@home project.

The Chief Developer Dr D Anderson of BOINC is also the Head person of Seti http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/sah_about.php.
His desk is in the same office, so guess where he tries out all his new idea's.
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/sah_photos.php?album=classic_12_15_2005 last three pictures.
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Message 1005744 - Posted: 18 Jun 2010, 15:08:25 UTC - in response to Message 1005725.  

Folks. The whole point of anyproject@home was to donate spare cyles of idle cpu's for research to use as THEY see fit. NEVER was it intended to be a "we supply a 24hr environment for the masses to be entertained."

Yes there are problems, always has been and always will be. Its a fact of life. Were I "in charge" I would figure out the throughput the backend could handle and limit available work to that. WOuld people be miffed and move on? Yes. Would Science be better served because I had more time to analyze returned results instead of firefighting every day? Yes.

From the latest TEchnical News post:
I know most of you who read these updates know this already, but it bears repeating: nobody working directly on SETI@home (all 5 of us) works full time, and we all have enough other things going on that make it impossible for us to be "on call" in case of outage/emergencies.


It is what it is folks. And if thats not good enough then maybe it IS time to move on.
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Message 1005766 - Posted: 18 Jun 2010, 16:14:20 UTC - in response to Message 1005744.  

Folks. The whole point of anyproject@home was to donate spare cyles of idle cpu's for research to use as THEY see fit. NEVER was it intended to be a "we supply a 24hr environment for the masses to be entertained."

Yes there are problems, always has been and always will be. Its a fact of life. Were I "in charge" I would figure out the throughput the backend could handle and limit available work to that. WOuld people be miffed and move on? Yes. Would Science be better served because I had more time to analyze returned results instead of firefighting every day? Yes.

From the latest TEchnical News post:
I know most of you who read these updates know this already, but it bears repeating: nobody working directly on SETI@home (all 5 of us) works full time, and we all have enough other things going on that make it impossible for us to be "on call" in case of outage/emergencies.


It is what it is folks. And if thats not good enough then maybe it IS time to move on.


I have the highest respect for those doing the system administration. I have done that type of work, I understand what they are facing. I understand the inherent dismissal of the "local users"(Lusers).. and I doubt it can be done any other way. I understand things go wrong, and the panic mode that follows.
I understand the "well that is what it was supposed to do.. but we did not expect this other part of it". I understand the frustration from insufficient hardware/software/resources. I understand any or all of them could walk out in
disgust and turn the switch off as quickly as any power user with much more dramatic results. And if they read all this.. they must be very tempted.

But As far as the users being here to "donate spare cyles of idle cpu's for research to use as THEY see fit" .. Not quite.

We are here to help accomplish a common goal. People donate time effort
electrical power wear and tear and often hobble together machines just to further these goals. As well as hours to try to get a bit extra. People donate money. People offer insight. And volunteer to beta test something new
we did not sign up for can be agravating. Each number cruncher may only
be a small part of the seti@home project.. but collectively they are a vital
part of it.

This is a very strange form of "entertainment". And I find that a very dismissive and patronizing term. We are here to help do a job. Many are irritated because they are being blocked from contributing as much as they have ready to give. Some like to see the pretty numbers go up. Some want bragging rights. But all of us.. Admins/developers/lusers want a bit of basic respect.
Everyone here has donated to this project. EVERY ONE.

That is why we get cranky when things do not go right. Because we have all invested in it.

Upgrades are always needed, mishaps always happen. Fixes are never instant.
But with a bit of planning, problems can be minimized. "Great ideas" can be
beta tested(I am sure there are tons of volunteers for that. I TRY not to beta
test any more).

And no, I am no where near pulling the plug. But I do respect those that are.
And a "fine then just go" attitude is NOT productive.



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Message 1005783 - Posted: 18 Jun 2010, 16:57:19 UTC - in response to Message 1005774.  

I dont have a problem with a 100 WU limit/core. I can only do about 50 medium sized WU a day on my fast quad. I do realize that this is going to hinder the GPU crunchers but it may be necessary to allow for smaller crunchers to actually continue getting work. We need to remember this project wasnt originally about who had the most computers. I did start getting competitive as people bought faster computers then when they got cheap people bought more and more... then they small user gets behind


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Message 1005785 - Posted: 18 Jun 2010, 17:01:26 UTC - in response to Message 1005783.  

I dont have a problem with a 100 WU limit/core.


The new system is even better than that. I'm up to 120 WU per day the last time I looked, although I'm only geting 4 or 5. The big crunchers will get their workload back in a few days, as long as they don't error out. If they consistantly have errors, maybe they shouldn't get lots of WUs. As Pasi said, our problems are small. Go fishin' for a few days.

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Message 1005825 - Posted: 18 Jun 2010, 18:49:47 UTC - in response to Message 1005766.  
Last modified: 18 Jun 2010, 19:20:23 UTC

double post
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Message 1005826 - Posted: 18 Jun 2010, 18:50:32 UTC - in response to Message 1005766.  
Last modified: 18 Jun 2010, 19:11:43 UTC

Folks. The whole point of anyproject@home was to donate spare cyles of idle cpu's for research to use as THEY see fit. NEVER was it intended to be a "we supply a 24hr environment for the masses to be entertained."

Yes there are problems, always has been and always will be. Its a fact of life. Were I "in charge" I would figure out the throughput the backend could handle and limit available work to that. WOuld people be miffed and move on? Yes. Would Science be better served because I had more time to analyze returned results instead of firefighting every day? Yes.

From the latest TEchnical News post:
I know most of you who read these updates know this already, but it bears repeating: nobody working directly on SETI@home (all 5 of us) works full time, and we all have enough other things going on that make it impossible for us to be "on call" in case of outage/emergencies.


It is what it is folks. And if thats not good enough then maybe it IS time to move on.


I have the highest respect for those doing the system administration. I have done that type of work, I understand what they are facing. I understand the inherent dismissal of the "local users"(Lusers).. and I doubt it can be done any other way. I understand things go wrong, and the panic mode that follows.
I understand the "well that is what it was supposed to do.. but we did not expect this other part of it". I understand the frustration from insufficient hardware/software/resources. I understand any or all of them could walk out in
disgust and turn the switch off as quickly as any power user with much more dramatic results. And if they read all this.. they must be very tempted.

But As far as the users being here to "donate spare cyles of idle cpu's for research to use as THEY see fit" .. Not quite.

We are here to help accomplish a common goal. People donate time effort
electrical power wear and tear and often hobble together machines just to further these goals. As well as hours to try to get a bit extra. People donate money. People offer insight. And volunteer to beta test something new
we did not sign up for can be agravating. Each number cruncher may only
be a small part of the seti@home project.. but collectively they are a vital
part of it.

This is a very strange form of "entertainment". And I find that a very dismissive and patronizing term. We are here to help do a job. Many are irritated because they are being blocked from contributing as much as they have ready to give. Some like to see the pretty numbers go up. Some want bragging rights. But all of us.. Admins/developers/lusers want a bit of basic respect.
Everyone here has donated to this project. EVERY ONE.

That is why we get cranky when things do not go right. Because we have all invested in it.

Upgrades are always needed, mishaps always happen. Fixes are never instant.
But with a bit of planning, problems can be minimized. "Great ideas" can be
beta tested(I am sure there are tons of volunteers for that. I TRY not to beta
test any more).

And no, I am no where near pulling the plug. But I do respect those that are.
And a "fine then just go" attitude is NOT productive.


You miss my point. If you go back to day one, of the million plus users that have come thru the door, you can count the people complaining abut the lack of work on your fingers and toes. This was supposed to be corpate sonsered and last for 2 years when it started and we are WAY past that. http://web.archive.org/web/20000302032125/setiathome.berkeley.edu/project.html.

You can only get so much milk from a cow. When you exceed that limit, you get another cow or drink water/soda. As an investment, I'm more annoyed of the waste of resources feeding a minority of people trying to have the biggest baddest RAC producer and have things like NTPCKR pushed aside.

And it IS entertainment for some in the same aspect of playing video games. Some people are in it for beating the top score on the machine, not the playing of the game.

The point I was trying to make is that the current back end can safely handle X amout of work. After 30 yrs in large scale IT center work, You limit it work to 90 percent of the capacity of the machines and life gets very very quiet in a server room. Push it at 200 percent and you have a very long weekend. I don't think it unreasonable for the folks at SETI to say "This is all the work we can handle." and let the chips fall where they might.

From the Tech news quote above, This is people with a passion, not a 24/7 commercial enterprise.

This is about people on both sides interested in the science, not ANYBODY dedicating their life to it
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