Posts by Graham Middleton

1) Message boards : Technical News : More Shuffling (Jul 19 2012) (Message 1262332)
Posted 305 days ago by

Many thanks for the update, Matt. Also it is really great to see paddym in use & doing such a great job.

Well done all.

2) Message boards : Number crunching : Upgrading SETI@Home: Current Hardware Fundraising Projects (Message 1221164)
Posted 394 days ago by

Graham Middleton

Speedbump finished off the monitor fundraiser! This will make the SETI boys happy.

Thanks again everyone!

OMG....way ta go, speedbump.

+1

3) Message boards : Number crunching : A Modest Suggestion for Tasks Button (Message 1217512)
Posted 403 days ago by

Graham Middleton

These all seem like good ideas, however my comment would be that all this would put a lot of additional load on the "Data-driven Web Pages" and database servers, I would suggest that these already have a lot to do at the moment.

An alternative might be to offer a "download tasks list as CSV" option; then the sorting / statistical analysis and summary can be done at will by the users' PCs, or BOINCstats, or other, external system to the main S@H servers.

Just my 2p'worth

4) Message boards : Technical News : Playschool (Apr 03 2012) (Message 1213856)
Posted 412 days ago by

Graham Middleton

Many, many thanks for the update Matt, and for all the hard work.

It is Soooooo good to see them both powered up.

WOW I'm moved again.

5) Message boards : Number crunching : Panic Mode On (72) Server problems? (Message 1211841)
Posted 416 days ago by

Graham Middleton

Stable? You can't HANDLE stable.......LOL.

No - the horses get in the way, make piles, and are a bit too heavy to just lift out of the way! ;-)

6) Message boards : Technical News : According to the Spiral (Mar 22 2012) (Message 1210449)
Posted 420 days ago by

Graham Middleton

Umm, at some point are you going to add Georgem to the list of computers on the "Server Status" page?

I agree it isn't on the Hosts list, but I for one would rather that the Matt and the other guys at Seti@Home concentrated on getting the problems they have fixed, and the JBOD array and PaddyM up & running, before they worry about the cosmetics of the ancillary information on the Status page. Simple priorities.

7) Message boards : Technical News : According to the Spiral (Mar 22 2012) (Message 1209008)
Posted 424 days ago by

Graham Middleton

Matt,

Many, many thanks for all the work you're doing and for the update.

I am very proud.

8) Message boards : Number crunching : GoergeM is up... (Message 1209000)
Posted 424 days ago by

Graham Middleton

I'm very proud.

9) Message boards : Number crunching : Panic Mode On (72) Server problems? (Message 1208436)
Posted 425 days ago by

Graham Middleton

But since you talked about Murphy, you threw him out of anything predictable and into "surprise us with whatever is least advantageous" mode.

Now you've mentioned that, Murphy is back in the process......

10) Message boards : Number crunching : Building A Better SETI@Home: Hardware Donations (Message 1205566)
Posted 433 days ago by

Graham Middleton

We'll be building SETI a few new workstations once we can nail down specifics.

Being a GPUUG donation the workstations should be outfitted with decent GPU crunchers. :)

You may jest, but it's actually a very good point. AFAIK, they don't even have in-house hardware suitable for developing - or even testing - GPU apps. Even if they haven't got the spare manpower hours to develop CUDA, OpenCL, or any other flavour of coprocessor apps, they need to be able to test/verify contributed code, and to reproduce reported problems.

I'm quite serious actually. Mandatory GPU should be a condition for getting the donations. The trademark of the GPUUG if you will. A funny and nice gesture at the same time. And if they actually have a use for them in their work other than crunching, that's great.

Obviously I'm not in a position to make the rules, but that's my suggestion to the GPUUG.

Except, of course where the GPUUG project is to supply a server, where it would be inappropriate to expect that system to provide crunch resource for the S@H work as well as the database, networking or other task it is expected to do.

In my experience, trying to get a database server to also to crunching-type work leads to considerable issues with tuning and server set-up such that it tends to do neither task well.

Let us supply the servers that S@H need, not a system that has hardware that cannot be sensibly used.

Of course, if we are supplying a workstation for a project staff member to use for their day-to-day work, then a GPU would make sense, and if it can be used for S@H crunch as well, then all the better.

Just my 2 pennyworth.

11) Message boards : Technical News : Humanizing the Distance (Mar 08 2012) (Message 1204089)
Posted 437 days ago by

Graham Middleton

Matt,

I second those thanks.

I'm so glad to see the servers unboxed again, and I really am looking forward to seeing the difference they can make to the project.

This means a lot to me.

12) Message boards : Number crunching : Panic Mode On (69) Server problems? (Message 1201474)
Posted 445 days ago by

Graham Middleton

Not today, but next week. From the front page:

Monday Morning Outage
The entire lab is undergoing some electrical power tests on the morning of Monday, March 5th. All SETI web sites and servers will be unreachable for 2 hours (from 8am to 10am, Pacific Time).

ohhhhh ! good to know

Indeed good to know, but also something to beware of. Every time there are power tests in the Data Centers of my employers, There seem to be 2 constants:-

1. The testing causes further power issues that continue for some time after the scheduled duration, and have a wider effect than planned.

And

2) A number of the systems (notably those that the business can least do without) fail to reboot after the power work, caused by failed disks (the one remaining of a mirror pair fails to restart), power supplies (N out of N + 1 power supplies may be enough to keep the server running, but won't be enough or will be wrongly configured to enable the system to boot) or a database server has been wrongly set to auto-boot on power-up, to it tries to open a database when some, but not all the required disks are available, resulting in corruption, and the need for a full restore of the database from backups [and they are always usable and correct, aren't they???!!!???]. Or even some combination of these issues.

In other words, Murphy's Law always applies.

Of course this isn't from personal experience! :-D

13) Message boards : Number crunching : ~ The new Astropulse/NTPCKR and Download servers are on their way! ~ (Message 1201152)
Posted 446 days ago by

Graham Middleton

I don't know what to say, Thank you so much Phil for your time building them and to everyone for letting me name them.

I am rather emotional at the moment.

14) Message boards : Cafe SETI : Puns O Fun 18 (Message 1195261)
Posted 461 days ago by

Graham Middleton

She is very afraid of getting DENgivitus.

Angela going into Eric's lair would sudDENly cause a gnashing of teeth.

And I might gnash them so hard they would need to be replaced with DENtures...

DEN your bark would be worse than your byte!

15) Message boards : Cafe SETI : Seti´s own word link #24 (Message 1195252)
Posted 461 days ago by

Graham Middleton

for~

16) Message boards : Number crunching : Building A Better SETI@Home: Hardware Donations (Message 1193157)
Posted 465 days ago by

Graham Middleton

Hi All,

My Father passed on about three years ago, and sadly my Mother passed away on January 9th this year.

As sole beneficiary, I would am making a donation in both their names. This will be going to the GPUUG fundraisers.

If there are no objections, I very much would like to name the servers after them. GeorgeM and PaddyM would be my names of choice.

17) Message boards : News : Another way to support SETI@home (Message 1152852)
Posted 612 days ago by

Graham Middleton

And another