First, I have been crunching on SETI@Home since May of 1999. Other than some time off when I dropped out over frustration with the new BOINC client when it was first introduced, this has been a pretty steady contribution. I have seen performance increase from a very few workunits per week to several dozen per week with the new i750 system I setup at the first of the year. I have always believed that “we are not alone.”

I watched the Great Debate with some interest, and must say I now side with Geoff Marcy. It is not that “we are alone,” but rather a case that our current technology does not allow us to detect the signs of “ET.” As a result of this, I am having increasing doubts that what we are currently doing with SETI@Home is likely to produce positive results in the near term. And, unfortunately, this feeling also appears to have infected the current administrators of SETI@Home! They too have, “lost the fire in their bellies” to continue this search. And apparently, the administrators and I are not the only ones to have given up hope. The middle of June, I had two workunits that had been pending since early March. Two wingmen in a row had timed out or canceled these units. Then, thanks to the typical weekend outage, these units just disappeared from the the pending workunit list. They were listed as pending prior to the outage, then disappeared from the radar once SETI came back on line. I have no idea whether or not they have ever been processed.

Thus, with the announced 3 day shutdown, plus the recently typical unscheduled shutdown every weekend, we have two days a week to get workunits. This is not enough! For example, going into the last 3-day server shutdown, I had a total of 2 workunits, comprising a few minutes over 3 hours of processing time, and this despite having my BOINC manager setup for an additional 7 days of work! This, I consider unacceptable, particularly when Server Status indicated there was over 100,000 units available! So, rather than continue to be frustrated over this lack of support, I am giving serious consideration to “pulling the plug” on SETI. Perhaps, when I see signs that the administrators of SETI@Home have rekindled the “fire in their bellies,” I will return. But for now, I believe I will exit and devote my time and efforts in other directions. This will also have the added benefit of reducing the competition for the few crumbs of workunits the administrators apparently deem sufficient.

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I made that decision 4 years ago. I just got a new computer and SETI went into a long outage. I decided that I was crunching SETI for fun and I needed a second project to take care of times when I couldn't get work. I also decided my second project should be something worth while and after looking at the list I decided on World Community Grid. I am set up for a 100%/100% split on the work. If SETI is unable to provide work, I have a fall back project. You have the option of doing a 10%/90% split and you would still be a primary SETI cruncher but your system wouldn't sit idle.

Even the people at SETI have suggested you take on a second project if you wish to keep your system busy. You will not be deserting the cause, you will just be ensuring you are contributing all you have.

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First and foremost we need everyone crunching that wants to. You probably should have asked for help as to why your cache did not fill. It should have done so.

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

"I have no idea whether or not they have ever been processed."

We are certainly not alone with this!
Very frustrating these abduktions are, indeed.

Matti K.
Finland

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First and foremost we need everyone crunching that wants to. You probably should have asked for help as to why your cache did not fill. It should have done so.

I know why my cache didn't fill...A couple perfectly spaced -12's....just enough to ensure I stay in high priority mode. Hang in there, hopefully they will FIX this...

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

Well SETI is back up. Service Status reports over 800,000 workunits available. I have 0 SETI workunits, but SETI lies to me and says "Project has no tasks available" I have plenty of work on other BOINC projects! I have complained about this before, to now avail! So it's GOODBYE SETI for me!

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Well SETI is back up. Service Status reports over 800,000 workunits available. I have 0 SETI workunits, but SETI lies to me and says "Project has no tasks available" I have plenty of work on other BOINC projects! I have complained about this before, to now avail! So it's GOODBYE SETI for me!

Geez, Brent....
The servers are just coming back up after a 3 day outage, and thousands upon thousands of WU's need to be reported as thousands of hosts start to request new work.
Let it ride awhile.

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

lets also not forget that the servers are being overloaded with incoming results which are going to restrict the amount of outgoing WU's. Give the servers a good 8 hours and you should start to see things smoothing out a bit

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

Well SETI is back up. Service Status reports over 800,000 workunits available. I have 0 SETI workunits, but SETI lies to me and says "Project has no tasks available" I have plenty of work on other BOINC projects! I have complained about this before, to now avail! So it's GOODBYE SETI for me!

... I'm too tired. Somebody else please tell him about feeder queue and maxed out bandwidth.

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Carola
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I'm multilingual - I can misunderstand people in several languages!

I wouldn't worry about it.

I suspect a new generation will evolve in and see all this as perfectly normal?

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Well SETI is back up. Service Status reports over 800,000 workunits available. I have 0 SETI workunits, but SETI lies to me and says "Project has no tasks available" I have plenty of work on other BOINC projects! I have complained about this before, to now avail! So it's GOODBYE SETI for me!

... I'm too tired. Somebody else please tell him about feeder queue and maxed out bandwidth.
____________
Carola

Will do.


Are you aware that the feeder process that feeds the download server has a 5-6 second cycle time, and only holds 100 WUs in each cycle? That's a mix of AP, MB, and various types of CUDA WUs, not 100 of each. So even with several hundreds of thousands of "Results ready to send", if yours is the 5th or later request to hit the server in that 6-second cycle, you may become up empty, and have to try again after the feeder refills. And your BOINC manager WILL keep trying until it gets its fill.

This soon after a major outage, patience is not just a virtue, it is a requirement.

Both my G4s were dry last night. I have uploaded 4 completed tasks, and gotten only one new task so far. I'm off to work shortly, when I come home tonight I expect to see 4-6 tasks in each queue.

Donald
Infernal Optimist / Submariner, retired