I first joined seti in 2009 and the task I joined was the "looking for ET" from the Arecibo observatory in PR.........
I left Seti after my computer pooped the bed and I had to replace it.
Now that I have rejoined Seti......it seems that things have gotten much more complicated. I do not have any degrees in anything....I was a fire alarm designer for commercial buildings and I am a ham radio operator......call sign KC2IFR.
It looks like I joined something that is way over my head.
As of now....my task is Milkyway. But I have no idea what my computer is doing!!!!
I think because of my ignorance I should stop this.........

Thanks for your time....

Bill

Bill are you asking for help? announcing you are in over your head?

you certainly know enough to download and install BOINC and clearly you are able to attach to several projects without any problems.

I(we) like to make sure everyone is comfortable running Seti or even Milkyway if its your choice. Everyone one of us had to learn about the way this works. Some are just newer to it than others. Heck I still make mistakes after all these years.

Just ask us what you need.

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

I don't know what's so much more complicated now than in 2009. Not much has changed. Download BOINC. Join a project or three. Let it run.

If I may ask, what's confusing to you? Maybe we can help.

Hi folks......thanks for the reply's. I have a few questions. Is there a site that explains all the options when setting up the software......item by item. As I said my chosen task is milkyway but I have no idea what my computer is doing.
Is there any task that is more important than others? I see Arecibo is no longer listed.
I have more questions but I will start with these......

Thanks for your time,

Bill

Is there a site that explains all the options when setting up the software......item by item.

The official online help page is located at http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/User_manual. If you have any questions about specific settings, feel free to ask.

As I said my chosen task is milkyway but I have no idea what my computer is doing.

Milkyway is a different project from SETI@Home. If you join multiple projects, you will have different types of workunits for each project.

[Edit] A brief synopsis of what is going on:

1) You join a project after installing BOINC.

2) BOINC then contacts that project, telling the servers what type of platform you're running and requests the appropriate science applications if there are any supported. E.g. Windows XP 32bit or Windows 7 64bit or Linux 64bit, etc.

3) Once the appropriate science applications and supporting software is downloaded, BOINC begins to ask for "tasks" (a.k.a. "workunits"). (Technically, BOINC can start asking for tasks before the science apps have finished downloading, so these tasks have to wait for the science apps to finish before they can be worked on.)

4) After the tasks start downloading, the science application starts analyzing the data in the task and storing the results in a separate file to be uploaded when the task is complete (or in the case of ClimatePrediction, trickle updates can occur).

What type of processing completely depends on the project you've joined and their stated goals. You'll have to check with each project to find out what they are processing and how. Typically this should be done before you join a project.

Note that BOINC handles all task scheduling, fetching, returning results, and project resource management. Most of these can be controlled by the end user in their online preferences in their accounts at the respective project's website.

Is there any task that is more important than others?

How do you define "important"?

Generally speaking, all tasks are equally important unless you give them specific weight, such as preferring one project's tasks over another's.

I see Arecibo is no longer listed.

Arecibo is where SETI@Home records its data, as does Einstein@Home and Milkyway@Home probably does too.

I have more questions but I will start with these......

Fire 'em off if you have them. :-)

I noticed that your MIlkyway totals aren't appearing with your seti. THis usually means you've set it up with different account data. If you sign up for projects be sure to use the same login/password so your data can cross over to each project

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

I noticed that your MIlkyway totals aren't appearing with your seti.

That's because no computer is attached to SETI ;-)

Gruß,
Gundolf

I attached my computer to seti@home........I hope this was correct....

Bill

I should have said: no computer is attached to the account you are posting from.

Perhaps you have (inadvertantly) created a new account when reactivating the computer. Look for BOINC manager messages about SETI@home after a reboot.

Gruß,
Gundolf
[edit]Of course it was correct to attach to SETI@home. You can attach to as many projects as you want. I only thought you had attached your computer to another SETI@home account, but that was not the case.[/edit]

ok.....will do

Can u guys see if I am connected correctly??????

Bill

if you receive work we'll be able to see it. and we can now see that you have 1 workunit onboard.

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

Another cliche.......My original user name was KC2IFR........now that I logged into seti........my screensaver lists me as user KC2IFR and then it lists me as my name Bill Russell with no credits.........what am I doing wrong??????

Bill

Hi again guys.........I think I will delete the software.......I really want to participate in the program but my stupidity evidently shows and I dont want to be a pest.......

Thanks for all your help.....

Bill

Hi again guys.........I think I will delete the software.......I really want to participate in the program but my stupidity evidently shows and I dont want to be a pest.......

Thanks for all your help.....

Bill

Volunteers monitor this board to provide assistance. You're not being a pest asking legitimate questions. We're willing to help, if you're willing to learn.

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Boinc V7.2.42
Win7 i5 3.33G 4GB, GTX470

Hi again guys.........I think I will delete the software.......I really want to participate in the program but my stupidity evidently shows and I dont want to be a pest.......

Thanks for all your help.....

Bill

Actually, the pests are the ones that ask why they can't get work when:
1) The front page tells us all why.
2) There is a thread in one of the news forums telling us why.
3) There are more than 50 threads in this forum telling us all why.

Unique questions are not a problem. Even the ones that we repeat a few times a year are not a problem.

You appear to have the software working. Figuring out exactly what each project is doing is a rather unique set of questions.

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BOINC WIKI

Bill,
I see you have drawn an Astropulse workunit. Before you ask you should know that it will take quite a bit longer than the other multibeam work. It is probably showing many, many hours of "to completion" time but for now you can ignore that. It will fall rapidly as you do the work. It takes awhile for BOINC to learn your computer. BOINC takes about ten workunits before it gets your times about right. With your rig, I would guesstimate about 10 to 12 hours for that AP unit to complete. You will also see that the work you are doing on your GPU will be a lot faster than what you are doing on your CPUs. This is also normal.

Hope you stick around, it is really fun once you get into it.

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PROUD MEMBER OF Team Starfire World BOINC