Boinc is obviously not ready for release.
Perhaps all users should revert to the classic version, and let the beta testers work on the obvious shortcommings.
Seti@home has enjoyed world wide support for over 5 years now, but I can not immagine any new comers staying around if they sign up then cant get work units for days.

Many comments about lack of work units have been answerd by saying "read the comment on the home page"

I suggest the comment on the home page should tell the truth, and say "We have problems with our servers which have lasted for several days. We have been trying to fix the problem without success, and recomend that no one download this application until we post a comment indicating we are finally ready."

I downloaded the boinc client but I am continuing to run s@h classic as well, until I trust this boinc works..

The server side is not the only, or even the most important problem. A program that resets it's preferences when the computer is rebooted. A program which redials without your consent and you can't turn it off?! Who was the beta testers???? Seriously, I will not be continuing to use this program if these glaring problems are not fixed. Which is a huge shame as Boinc could be a used for very worthwhile projects, such as biological analysis etc.

Grant.

> The server side is not the only, or even the most important problem. A program
> that resets it's preferences when the computer is rebooted. A program which
> redials without your consent and you can't turn it off?! Who was the beta
> testers???? Seriously, I will not be continuing to use this program if these
> glaring problems are not fixed. Which is a huge shame as Boinc could be a used
> for very worthwhile projects, such as biological analysis etc.
>
> Grant.
>

preferences cant be reset because they are stored on the internet... You can right click the icon and select "suspend" and of course you can turn it off!!

> Who was the beta testers????

You want to know the funny thing about beta testing? We can find and report problems, but only the developers can fix them.

Don't blame us for the problems still hanging around. We also weren't the ones who made the decision to release it.

What is a huge shame, is that you don't realize that BOINC is being used for worthwhile projects such as biological analysis, etc... Feel free to give Predictor a look-see.

It would be helpful if the main page had an update. It is now July 2nd, and the last message was posted on June 30th.

Also, until BOINC has its bugs worked out, the link to the SETI BOINC project should be removed from SETI's main page. There is no reason to link to a project that doesn't work.

> Don't blame us for the problems still hanging around. We also weren't the ones
> who made the decision to release it.
>
> What is a huge shame, is that you don't realize that BOINC is being
> used for worthwhile projects such as biological analysis, etc... Feel free to
> give Predictor a look-see.

I believe during the Beta test phase a lot of improvements has been done, at least during the period I saw 5 or 6 different software versions.
What is happening here is, my opinion, something completely different: here we are faced against hardware problems at Berkeley, there are definitely problems concerning servers, problems concerning speed in the forums. This has nothing to do with software.
Al by al, I still believe Boinc has come to certain maturity, not that it is perfect, not that it is indeed user-friendly. Still there are some improvements that can be done.
I honestly hope people at Berkeley have and the necessary time as well as money to resolve the actual hardware problems.


Greetings from Belgium.

> > Don't blame us for the problems still hanging around. We also weren't the
> ones
> > who made the decision to release it.
> >
> > What is a huge shame, is that you don't realize that BOINC is
> being
> > used for worthwhile projects such as biological analysis, etc... Feel
> free to
> > give Predictor a look-see.
>
> I believe during the Beta test phase a lot of improvements has been
> done, at least during the period I saw 5 or 6 different software versions.
> What is happening here is, my opinion, something completely different: here we
> are faced against hardware problems at Berkeley, there are definitely
> problems concerning servers, problems concerning speed in the forums. This has
> nothing to do with software.
> Al by al, I still believe Boinc has come to certain maturity, not that it is
> perfect, not that it is indeed user-friendly. Still there are some
> improvements that can be done.
> I honestly hope people at Berkeley have and the necessary time as well as
> money to resolve the actual hardware problems.
>
Some of the slowdowns are probably caused by software inefficiencies that were not going to show until they were stress tested. Paul D. Buck has done an analysis of the SQL and why it might be slow.

snip

> What is a huge shame, is that you don't realize that BOINC is being
> used for worthwhile projects such as biological analysis, etc... Feel free to
> give Predictor a look-see.
>

FINE,
but I dont care about boinc's ability to handle biological analysis. I want to crunch seti work units.

Why bother with boinc if it can handle other work, but not seti work.
The seti crunchers never asked for it (and yet Berkley developed it).

Looks like a classic case of the tail wagging the dog!!

Or is it an attempt to get us crunching other work so that seti can simply disappear? I hope not.
When seti classic goes, boinc better be working right, else I , and I am sure many other loyal seti users, will be uninstalling!!

At the moment I am still unimpressed!!! you can shove boinc up you biological analysis-hole!!

Regarding the beta testers, I am sorry if my initial post looked like I was having a dig at them. This is certainly not the case at all. I have utmost respect for those who are testing the software. I simply feel the testing phase is not over yet. Boinc is not ready to be released to the general public. If it was, there would not be hundereds of posts from disgruntled people.

> > Don't blame us for the problems still hanging around. We also weren't the
> ones
> > who made the decision to release it.
> >
> > What is a huge shame, is that you don't realize that BOINC is
> being
> > used for worthwhile projects such as biological analysis, etc... Feel
> free to
> > give Predictor a look-see.
>
> I believe during the Beta test phase a lot of improvements has been
> done, at least during the period I saw 5 or 6 different software versions.
> What is happening here is, my opinion, something completely different: here we
> are faced against hardware problems at Berkeley, there are definitely
> problems concerning servers, problems concerning speed in the forums. This has
> nothing to do with software.
> Al by al, I still believe Boinc has come to certain maturity, not that it is
> perfect, not that it is indeed user-friendly. Still there are some
> improvements that can be done.
> I honestly hope people at Berkeley have and the necessary time as well as
> money to resolve the actual hardware problems.
>
>
> Greetings from Belgium.
>

It's not only the hardware, remember that uploading results is impossible if you're behind a proxy that requires authentication

> preferences cant be reset because they are stored on the internet... You can
> right click the icon and select "suspend" and of course you can turn it off!!
>
>

Perhaps this will clear my point up. My preferences disapear when I disconect from the 'net. Not having a permenat connection makes having prefs on the net stupid. Yes I could turn off network access, but usually Boinc dials out at startup, making it a fun race to see if i get to the modem before it does. (NOT!). So instead I have disabled it at startup, to avoid this problem. It is a simple problem. Allow users control of the product they are using.
It is a sign of poor (or immature)programming when users have to tweak the programs settings with something other than the program itself.

Grant

> It's not only the hardware, remember that uploading results is impossible if
> you're behind a proxy that requires authentication

Yes, that's right.
In the Beta test group apparently all of us were using broadband. Therefore, this problem was not discovered.
I know this is not an excuse, but it is the explanation.

Hope this issue can be resolved ASAP.

Greetings from Belgium.

> It is a sign of poor (or immature)programming when users have to tweak the
> programs settings with something other than the program itself.

We were some 18.000 users in the Beta test group.
Personally I do not remember this problem came up.
As explained, very probably all of us were users of broadband.

Did you put this problem in the wish list? If not, I would encourage you to do it. The points there are for sure read by the DEV team.

Hey, this system is running very well for a beta. And if all users revert back to the classic, the seti team can't see where the bottlenecks are.
I will compute with boinc, 'cause there are running the WU's faster as on the classic client!!! Here I need max. 2h38m for a single WU!