I have a small cluster that runs work for a dozen different BOINC projects. After I saw the notice about the lack of SETI work units, marked SETI to not get new work and aborted all the SETI work units that were waiting to start. This let my system run other projects while we wait. I normally keep 5 days of work in my queues, to there were a fair number of SETI work units that should have been sent back out for others to work on if their systems didn't have a backup project configured.

Why? I don't get it. To me, this is like saying "my local grocery store is out of eggs, so I will throw out all the ones I already have at home."

More like putting your spare eggs in a basket by your gate, with a sign saying 'help yourself'.

Okay, better analogy, but the point remains the same.

Better one would be smoke them if you've got them.

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Just an idea:

Can you abort all the tasks for clients that have not connected within a week? there are 500k SETI waiting to timeout...

in general, lower time limits, say a week or 2 may be a good idea - I don't see a reason for more than that, since internet connection is not that rare resource anymore.

Just an idea:

Can you abort all the tasks for clients that have not connected within a week? there are 500k SETI waiting to timeout...

in general, lower time limits, say a week or 2 may be a good idea - I don't see a reason for more than that, since internet connection is not that rare resource anymore.

The problem with that, is the Database is possibly unable to recognise the processed files

Just my thoughts

Cheers

Just an idea:

Can you abort all the tasks for clients that have not connected within a week? there are 500k SETI waiting to timeout...

in general, lower time limits, say a week or 2 may be a good idea - I don't see a reason for more than that, since internet connection is not that rare resource anymore.

The deadlines are nominally set so a processor with a 40 MWips Whetstone benchmark should be able to finish in time if it is crunching 24/7. That allows some of the systems which started doing S@H work in 1999 to remain productive. It also allows an Android device which would take a dozen days to do a task if it were crunching 24/7 to be used if it gets at least 6 hours a day of actual crunching time while it's on the charger and the battery charge state is high enough. Note that neither of those scenarios would make the BOINC client automatically contact the project each week.

Granted, many of the 500K plus "in progress" are probably on hosts which have died or the user has decided not to do the work. It might make sense for the project to run a script so the Transitioners would send out another task for each. That would temporarily provide some work for those who feel a need. But of course it really makes no difference to the project if a result for a WU can be assimilated after 4 hours, 4 days, or 4 weeks.

                                                                  Joe

internet connection is not that rare resource anymore.

...says somebody living in a city in a major developed nation. :)

Sure, it might not be a rare resource for you - but there are still plenty of people (even in quite civilised nations) that don't have regular access to the internet.

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Hi mab,
Too true, in the UK there are plenty of rural communities that struggle to get even a 1Mbit connection, and that's with a 20:1 contention ratio:-(

I'm lucky to be in a city, so I have fibre to the cab and co-ax from the cab to house..

Where you are the distances are a lot longer I guess and I know some folks in Oz are on Satelite links that are patchy at best, non existant for a lot of the time.

For large parts of Africa & Asia even dialup is a rare thing.

Regards,

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Cliff,
Been there, Done that, Still no damm T shirt!

The time it takes to process a work unit and the speed of internet connection are of course 2 very different things.

My desktop is running XP Pro and is about 8 years old, but it still crunches work units in between 3-8 hours, depending on their size. I have it set to connect in a short time slot daily and keep 10 days work on there, so in the event I can't connect for a few days, it's still crunching away.

However, I imagine there are a good number of users who have downloaded units and which haven't been completed in time and who haven't connected for a while, so we can assume those units will never be completed.

It would be handy to re-distribute some of those so we can go on crunching a bit further.

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It would be handy to re-distribute some of those so we can go on crunching a bit further.

They will get redistributed as soon as they timeout which is what a large majority of the resends that I'm getting are. ;-)

Cheers.