I've never really taken any notice of what's going on on my screen when the SETI@Home screensaver comes up, I've just been happy that my PC is doing its bit in its spare moments.

Today however I looked at the information and saw that I'm processing data from Aricebo recorded in April 2008.

Clearly there's a huge backlog, which leads me to my question -

How does the rate of data processing compare to the rate of data aquisition? Are we winning or is the task greater than the sum of its processors?.
Does anyone even know?

Ok that's 3 questions but I think 3 is traditional.

L

I wouldn't assume that there's a backlog based upon what you're crunching now. I've seen Matt Lebofsky state in the past that they don't load "tapes" in chronological order. They're loaded with whatever they happen to have handy, or whatever is grabbed first.

If you look at the server status page you can see the data that is being split. Data from just a few months ago is being processed at the moment along with some older stuff. The older data could be stuff that was unable to be split at the time & with the tweaks they have written it can be pulled off and split now.

Normally we process the data faster then they can split it into work. I think there is a large cache of data that was never split, for various reasons, that they can do now.

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[

Hi There, Welcome to the BIG Time! I am using an AMD X6 1090T since April, with 16 Gig of 1600 speed DDR3 Ram and Evga 210 GPU all on SETI. I love this BIG machine and my RAC has gone crazy! Thanks, Dr. Brown

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Ahh good :) I am really pleased to know that between us we manage to process faster than they can record.

Thanks for the answers :)

Ahh good :) I am really pleased to know that between us we manage to process faster than they can record.

Thanks for the answers :)

And Hi, Lawrence.

It was I that requested you be bounced from the Cafe to the NC.

Hope it served you well.

Meow.

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

Don't they make improvements in the science portion of SAH over time? If so, then is it possible that they reload old data that may give different results under new analysis?

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Don't they make improvements in the science portion of SAH over time? If so, then is it possible that they reload old data that may give different results under new analysis?

Yes, but I don't think any recent developments would justify recrunching everything we have ever done.
It could happen.
With AP however, there were serious problems with noise blanking that made much work unusable until recently. So we might see some 'old' datasets continue to arise.

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

Its good to see we have a little work coming in again!

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I've never really taken any notice of what's going on on my screen when the SETI@Home screensaver comes up, I've just been happy that my PC is doing its bit in its spare moments.

Today however I looked at the information and saw that I'm processing data from Aricebo recorded in April 2008.

Clearly there's a huge backlog, which leads me to my question -

How does the rate of data processing compare to the rate of data aquisition? Are we winning or is the task greater than the sum of its processors?.
Does anyone even know?

Ok that's 3 questions but I think 3 is traditional.

L

SETI Screensaver? My CPU is doing other Projects and my GPU is too busy crunching SETI WU to do things like run a busy screen saver. I just turn things BLACK.

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The BOINC Screen Saver is a pure 'cosmetic' display.
For better performance, it's even better, to turn it off! (specially if you use CUDA or OpenCL).

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Ahh good :) I am really pleased to know that between us we manage to process faster than they can record.

Thanks for the answers :)

And Hi, Lawrence.

It was I that requested you be bounced from the Cafe to the NC.

Hope it served you well.

Meow.

Yes it did. Thank you very much.

And Thanks also Fred. I shall set the screensaver to blank scree. I have a GTX275 so boinc should use it for crunching.

Ahh good :) I am really pleased to know that between us we manage to process faster than they can record.

Thanks for the answers :)

And Hi, Lawrence.

It was I that requested you be bounced from the Cafe to the NC.

Hope it served you well.

Meow.

Yes it did. Thank you very much.

And Thanks also Fred. I shall set the screensaver to blank scree. I have a GTX275 so boinc should use it for crunching.

Yes, I'd second Fred's emotions. These days screensavers are largely superfluous -- just think about what the name implies! They became popular back in the days when all displays were CRTs and a constant display of the same image would lead to the active phosphor areas fading and a negative image being "burnt in" to the screen. The screensaver's rationale was to kick in after some idle time and provide a moving image so that no one area was over-used.

These days LCD screens are almost ubiquitous and I've only heard one claim of a panel being affected by burn-in. So, no real need for a screensaver and, unlike the complicated high-voltage and thermionics of a CRT, an LCD's backlight is easily turned off (especially if it's LED backlighting!) so blanking is really the way to go, and power-saving the rationale.

Also, you shouldn't underestimate the computing power required to run an animated screensaver, power which could better go to a) number-crunching or b) reduction of electricity usage. Two anecdotes: Many years ago I used to log in over Ethernet to a new VAXStation we had acquired. I'd often find that my response slowed down after a while. Using the VMS equivalent of "top" I found out that a certain process was using all the CPU -- the screensaver was kicking in when the console user was absent for a while. Solved by changing to a blank screen rather than animation. Secondly, I shared an office with a Grid manager a while back, and he had his Linux workstation set to run the standard screensaver, which switches to a different variation periodically. Certain of the modes (IIRC "pipes" was one) actually used so much computing power that his CPU's fan would suddenly ramp up to full speed! I had to go over and move his mouse to bring back the display and kill the screensaver, just so I could hear myself think.

"These days screensavers are largely superfluous -- just think about what the name implies! "

Don't discount screen savers completely! My 4+ yo LG LCD monitor started "white screening" last week. I had it powering down after 20 minutes. In the morn when I powered it up, nothing but white. Completely.

Early on a reboot would correct it, then it became power off/on multiple times to get it working.

Now I have a screen saver enabled to keep the display doing something, just so it doesn't forget what it is.

Look up "lcd white screen" in a search engine. It seems to be a wide spread LCD thing. I'd never heard about this problem before either.

HTH

Lt

Why would you even have your screen on? virtually all screens can be powered down after a time. I have disabled screen saver as it just eats up cycles that provide no benefit. Even if the screen is off the screensaver is still doing those calculations.

I just leave Seti running all the time. The task is sufficiently background that I never notice it.

Why would you even have your screen on?

The monitor is on and displaying something all the time to keep it from going completely white again. Short interruptions in the display, like during a reboot, don't have an impact yet.

Each time a white-out does happen, it becomes more and more difficult to force the monitor back to normal operation.

I'm going to replace it sooner than later...

Lt

Why would you even have your screen on?

The monitor is on and displaying something all the time to keep it from going completely white again. Short interruptions in the display, like during a reboot, don't have an impact yet.

Each time a white-out does happen, it becomes more and more difficult to force the monitor back to normal operation.

I'm going to replace it sooner than later...

Lt

Most of the bits I read about the problem indicate a bad cable or connection.
Which would make sense, as your problem seems to be progressively worsening.
Might try removing and reseating your cable from card to monitor, or I had read a couple of cases where the internal cable to the connector had come loose.

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

Might try removing and reseating your cable from card to monitor, or I had read a couple of cases where the internal cable to the connector had come loose.

I did replace the original DVI cable with vga when I connected it to a laptop as an external. It was easier to switch between displays on the laptop than constantly reboot the main pc (and less downtime for BOINC/SETI). I also switched video cards - just to be sure.

If I try to open the monitor to look for a loose cable inside, then it's almost guaranteed I'm going to need a new monitor! I'd better purchase a replacement first! :)

I am mulling the idea over...but so far, just leaving it on is working ok.

It is "ancient" in pc years...

Lt

hint: if you need a new TV as well, they have some really nice 40" 3D televisions out with HDMI input...

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Janice

hint: if you need a new TV as well, they have some really nice 40" 3D televisions out with HDMI input...

And some of them are a realy nice price too, not.
Been looking for a new monitor of late, a nice 16x9 wide screen job,
so that the crazy long work unit names they use on rosetta will fit on the screen :¬)