Yes you are all right, they have started this way to early.

Well not necessarily, if you start bunkering a week before the event chances are a lot of WU's may not valid straight away as they have not been completed by the wingman.

Now if you start three weeks before, the chances are that nearly all the WU's will validate straight away is higher. Logic really, if annoying for others.

However the unintended consequence of this is it also helps others as all their pending tasks validate at the same time as well

No I have not started bunkering, I may do a couple of machines on the day but that is all.

I try and look at the positive side of things, so I think the event could be good publicity. Hopefully some of the people who come for the wow event stay afterwards. It will definitely get a bunch of data processed too. It is also a good stress test for the system.
Are there negatives, of course, but us regulars can clean up the mess afterwards.

The wow event should also run a fundraising campaign for Seti too. Everyone chip in a small amount, and together all the donations could help the machines for the following year's event. Could also be nice to have a food and drink fund for the extra tech support needed during the event.

-[ snip ]-
Are there negatives, of course, but us regulars can clean up the mess afterwards.

-[ snip ]-

Hi Unix,

Why would it be left up to "us regulars" to clean up any mess? Or was that a hypothetical statement? ;)

Have a great day! :)

Siran

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CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath

Full disclosure: I'm in the event too - it is fun. And I'll pull a couple of tricks - release maybe 24 hours of completed work just after the event starts, and increase production by pausing other projects for the duration. But no more than that.

Any 'mess' will be cleaned up automatically over time, by the BOINC system. No action needed by us.

Any 'mess' will be cleaned up automatically over time, by the BOINC system. No action needed by us.

Let me clarify. Last year I noticed a bunch of resends (this is from the nice people who abort the WUs they didn't finish in time), and a bunch of timeouts (people who just left the project without ending gracefully).

The BOINC system will handle the resends and timeouts just fine and we won't have to actively do anything different, just gripe about the "mess" left behind as we run the aborted and abandoned WUs over the following month.

Any 'mess' will be cleaned up automatically over time, by the BOINC system. No action needed by us.

Let me clarify. Last year I noticed a bunch of resends (this is from the nice people who abort the WUs they didn't finish in time), and a bunch of timeouts (people who just left the project without ending gracefully).

The BOINC system will handle the resends and timeouts just fine and we won't have to actively do anything different, just gripe about the "mess" left behind as we run the aborted and abandoned WUs over the following month.

Hi Unix,

Ah, I see says the blind man. :) I had no idea that that kind of stuff happened during this event. Thanks! :)

Have a great day! :)

Siran

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CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath

The WOW event is just a bit of fun, it has leader-boards, so yes there is competition and no I do't expect to be able to compete with someone running 2080 Ti's on Linux with the special app.

However I will do my best and try and beat my total for last year, and fly the flag for my team, and my country.

And yes there are people who only crunch to compete, but if they leave WU's un-crunched and abandoned , then we will crunch them later.

We actually need more events like this as we are currently only processing 1% of the Breakthrough Listen Data.

Lets try and keep positive.

The WOW event is just a bit of fun, it has leader-boards, so yes there is competition and no I do't expect to be able to compete with someone running 2080 Ti's on Linux with the special app.

However I will do my best and try and beat my total for last year, and fly the flag for my team, and my country.

And yes there are people who only crunch to compete, but if they leave WU's un-crunched and abandoned , then we will crunch them later.

We actually need more events like this as we are currently only processing 1% of the Breakthrough Listen Data.

Lets try and keep positive.

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Again I was unaware just how desperate people can be, I joined this to find stuff not to be part of a compition ( I don't have 100 PC's)... Settle down and enjoy why we are here :)

. . I don't think Wiggo is upset that lots of people take part but that SOME people get carried away and make it potentially a major disruption to the ongoing function of the project. And he is right about that, but I don't see that their behaviour, which I cannot change, should stop me or anyone else taking part in a bit of fun just to compare how things are going, the state of the art of crunching.

. . It's about a sense of community as I see it. But it does bother Wiggo and several others.

Stephen

:( stepping off soap box now. :)

Yes you are all right, they have started this way to early.

Well not necessarily, if you start bunkering a week before the event chances are a lot of WU's may not valid straight away as they have not been completed by the wingman.
Now if you start three weeks before, the chances are that nearly all the WU's will validate straight away is higher. Logic really, if annoying for others.
However the unintended consequence of this is it also helps others as all their pending tasks validate at the same time as well
No I have not started bunkering, I may do a couple of machines on the day but that is all.

. . Hi Bernie,

. . While you are right about them wanting that massive surge of brownie points right at the start, the event runs for a fortnight so those first tasks will validate before the event is over in any case. But the only part I do love is the irony you mentioned, while they are creating this surging start for themselves they are creating a similar but smaller surge for their wingmen who share the tasks that are all suddenly validating at the same time, so in the long run it is partly self-defeating. That amuses me :)

. . So maybe a days work held off from reporting until after the event starts but that is not enough for some, so they pull some chicanery to circumvent the projects workload protecting systems. But it will happen no matter what I do so why get bent out of shape over it :(

Stephen

:)

I try and look at the positive side of things, so I think the event could be good publicity. Hopefully some of the people who come for the wow event stay afterwards. It will definitely get a bunch of data processed too. It is also a good stress test for the system.
Are there negatives, of course, but us regulars can clean up the mess afterwards.
The wow event should also run a fundraising campaign for Seti too. Everyone chip in a small amount, and together all the donations could help the machines for the following year's event. Could also be nice to have a food and drink fund for the extra tech support needed during the event.

. . I am not sure that there is much exposure outside of the SETI community itself, but perhaps there is. But it certainly is a massive stress test for the servers, with a bit of luck the new improved Bruno will be in service before then and will take the load in its stride. And yes there are the long term regulars to clean up the mess and the poor guys at SETI HQ trying to plug the leaks as it goes on. But it would be good if it was also a fund raiser, maybe they could raise the cash for the improved servers. Maybe the winner could put in $200, 2nd $100 and 3rd $50, then everyone else could put in $5. It is gets 1,000 starters it might buy part of the server ... :)

Stephen

:)

-[ snip ]-
Are there negatives, of course, but us regulars can clean up the mess afterwards.
-[ snip ]-

Hi Unix,
Why would it be left up to "us regulars" to clean up any mess? Or was that a hypothetical statement? ;)
Have a great day! :)
Siran

. . Because some individuals taking part fire up everything they can get their hands on for the challenge event and as soon as it is over they decommission them again, leaving masses of undone allocated work to sit in limbo for months until it gets resent to the long term regulars who will crunch it when it comes.

Stephen

:)

Any 'mess' will be cleaned up automatically over time, by the BOINC system. No action needed by us.

. . I think they are referring to the long term stayers getting to 'clean up' the resends of all the WUs that get left in limbo, months down the track, or suffer through the interminable wait for their completed work to be validated by that same process of resends.

Stephen

:)

. . Because some individuals taking part fire up everything they can get their hands on for the challenge event and as soon as it is over they decommission them again, leaving masses of undone allocated work to sit in limbo for months until it gets resent to the long term regulars who will crunch it when it comes.

I'm sure that most of the contest participants DON'T just pull the plug on temp contest machines. They are all good Setizens and finish off all the caches after the end of the contest. I certainly do for the two temp contest machines I put into service at the start of the contest.

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association)

with a bit of luck the new improved Bruno will be in service before then and will take the load in its stride.

Here's a picture of the server currently known as muarae2, on the operating table last Friday. The black block in the bottom right corner is a newly installed 2 TB SSD (4 x 512 GB in M3 format on a single PCIe card), for upload purposes.


It didn't work - the instructions didn't say it needed supplementary power, because there were no instructions. Eric had to find them online later.

But it's getting closer.

. . Because some individuals taking part fire up everything they can get their hands on for the challenge event and as soon as it is over they decommission them again, leaving masses of undone allocated work to sit in limbo for months until it gets resent to the long term regulars who will crunch it when it comes.

I'm sure that most of the contest participants DON'T just pull the plug on temp contest machines. They are all good Setizens and finish off all the caches after the end of the contest. I certainly do for the two temp contest machines I put into service at the start of the contest.

. . Hi Keith,

. . I am sure there are others as conscientious as yourself, but sadly not everyone is :(

Stephen

:(

with a bit of luck the new improved Bruno will be in service before then and will take the load in its stride.

Here's a picture of the server currently known as muarae2, on the operating table last Friday. The black block in the bottom right corner is a newly installed 2 TB SSD (4 x 512 GB in M3 format on a single PCIe card), for upload purposes.
It didn't work - the instructions didn't say it needed supplementary power, because there were no instructions. Eric had to find them online later.
But it's getting closer.

. . Thanks for the update and the photo Richard, that is reassuring to know. With over 3 weeks to go it has a good chance of being in service by then ...

Stephen

:)

Thanks for the update and picture, Richard. It is nice to know what is going on in the server room.

Maybe the winner could put in $200, 2nd $100 and 3rd $50, then everyone else could put in $5. It is gets 1,000 starters it might buy part of the server ... :)

Stephen

:)

Many, many, many times we have volunteered to donate money to the project for hardware if they would tell us what they need. Mr. Kevvy is extremely generous in his support financially to this project.

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