1) Message boards : News : New forum, and a new contributor. (Message 1982059) Posted 24 Feb 2019 by Mike Bunce Post: Would someone like to proofread that post from Eric?

2) Message boards : Number crunching : Welcome to the 16 year club (Message 1730298) Posted 30 Sep 2015 by Mike Bunce Post: Just reached 10 million after 16 years and 3 months. Woo hoo!

3) Message boards : News : Server Relocation (Message 1352912) Posted 3 Apr 2013 by Mike Bunce Post: I use Qlock to put a Berkeley clock and my local time on the desktop. You can set DST to change on whatever date that country switches over.

4) Message boards : Number crunching : Windows TCP Settings - Follow up - Help with server communication (Message 1351584) Posted 28 Mar 2013 by Mike Bunce Post: Fantastic. Thank you - it's cured all my download problems at a stroke. I have just downladed 4 days of cache in less than 30 mins with no timeouts or stalls. Win XP Pro with 4 cores. Mike Bunce

5) Questions and Answers : Preferences : Two computers on one account (Message 986182) Posted 2 Apr 2010 by Mike Bunce Post: I have just added a second computer. Both are used in different ways, so I have set up separate preferences for each, called "home" and "work". However, when I change the default profile from home to work (or vice-versa), both machines show the same changed profile. How do I designate one computer to be the "home" machine and the other to be the "work" machine? They are physically both at home on the same internet connection.

6) Questions and Answers : GPU applications : Problem with BOINC 6.10.18 and CUDA (Message 968244) Posted 5 Feb 2010 by Mike Bunce Post: Thanks to all; it turned out to be the SETI screen saver, which became active after upgrading the software. Killed that and all is now well.

7) Questions and Answers : GPU applications : Problem with BOINC 6.10.18 and CUDA (Message 968069) Posted 4 Feb 2010 by Mike Bunce Post: I just updated my Phenom quad core XP system to BOINC 6.10.18 and found that the CUDA GPU (Nvidis 9400) was no longer recognised. I then found out that I had to update my GPU drivers, which I have done, and all seemed well. However now every CUDA WU crashes about halfway through, with "Computation error". It usually manifests itself as a hung screen although the CPU is still running and there is HDD I/O. The usual cure is a reboot although I have sometimes managed to jerk it into life with a 3 finger salute. Any ideas please? Also, how can I get the previous version of BOINC back?

8) Message boards : Number crunching : SETI@Netherlands 10 year challenge & Gauntlet! (Message 926573) Posted 16 Aug 2009 by Mike Bunce Post: I would be interested in participating in the "Gauntlet". Just two questions: 1. How do I apply and donate? 2. How to stop possible cheating? I was wondering how I would gain an unfair advantage and I considered "stacking up" dozens of almost-completed WUs (suspended at 99%) in the days leading up to the competition and releasing them when the Gauntlet begins. I am sure there are others who have thought of different cheats, and I publish my thoughts in the hope that such cheats can be prevented to give everyone a level playing field.

9) Questions and Answers : GPU applications : Too much CUDA work! (Message 921799) Posted 27 Jul 2009 by Mike Bunce Post: Thanks for that. It's just the sort of comparative I was looking for. Time for me to upgrade my GPU I think!

10) Questions and Answers : GPU applications : Too much CUDA work! (Message 918529) Posted 16 Jul 2009 by Mike Bunce Post: This post is in two parts: First a question and then my own problem and solution for it. The question: How quickly is an average sized CUDA work unit processed compared with a CPU-processed one? I know that's like asking how long is a piece of string, but I am just looking for ballpark comparisons from people running different GPUs. The reason I ask this is because I have an AMD Phenom 4 core processor that polishes off a work unit per core in about 3-and-a-half hours, but a rather pedestrian GeForce 9400GT that takes 2-and-a-half hours per CUDA unit. From recent posts about bandwidth I get the impression that some GPUs can finish off a CUDA unit in a few minutes! My PC is happily running with all 4 CPU cores crunching SETI 24/7 even when I am computing on it, but I can only use the CUDA when the PC is not in use (ie overnight). My cache of 4 days' CPU work is optimal, but this size of cache results in my getting 50 or 60 CUDA jobs, so I have had to block the download of CUDA to drain the pipeline so to speak. Here is my solution. I stop accepting CUDA in my preferences, then when I need more I set my cache size to 1.5 days and then tick the GPU box. When I get my CUDA quota I untick the GPU box and reset my cache size back to 4 days. This way I can ride out most outages without being in danger of having CUDA units that pass their deadline. I hope this is of use to others with the same problem. Unless you know of a better solution....

11) Questions and Answers : Getting started : Number of Hosts (Message 908443) Posted 17 Jun 2009 by Mike Bunce Post: Thank you for that OzzFan, and especially for pointing out the error in my sig. Much appreciated.

12) Questions and Answers : Getting started : Number of Hosts (Message 907987) Posted 15 Jun 2009 by Mike Bunce Post: Apologies if this in the wrong forum. My stats show that I have four hosts. That is true in part - I have HAD four computers running SETI since I started 10 years ago (well, five actually). The problem is, I have only ever had one PC at a time. Of the hosts shown, one is a laptop that died three years ago, the other is a 2-core Intel that died in February and the other two are in fact the same machine, my latest AMD Quad core Phenom (I had a problem with the preinstalled Windows and re-installed my old preferred version on it and now it shows as two different machines). How can I compare my stats with other "single PC" users (or remove the irrelevant hosts), or will they eventually disappear from the list due to inactivity?

13) Questions and Answers : GPU applications : How to stop CUDA while watching TV on my PC? (Message 902127) Posted 31 May 2009 by Mike Bunce Post: Thanks for that. Actually I still want SETI to run on the 4 CPUs (and the TV card can happily handle that), as it would be a shame to waste 4 half-hours of computing time while I watch the TV news! For me, CUDA is a bonus on top of CPU power. Maybe the programmers will write some code to differentiate what should be processed by CPU and GPU. For now, that's just a minor item on my wish list. I shall just have to watch TV on the plasma while I compute lol!

14) Questions and Answers : GPU applications : How to stop CUDA while watching TV on my PC? (Message 901846) Posted 30 May 2009 by Mike Bunce Post: When processing work units during idle time, I can obviously stop CUDA execution on mouse or keyboard activity. Now for the problem: I have a TV card on my PC. I often watch TV for half an hour or so at a time. This card is clever enough to stop the screensaver while it is running, so that my viewing is not disturbed. However, every 3 minutes the picture slows down and pixellates when the CUDA cuts in. I DO NOT want to increase the CUDA delay, neither do I want to manually stop CUDA while I watch TV (that's not an easy one-step process). My question is this: Can some clever programmer produce some code that recognises when another program has suppressed the screensaver and temporarily kill the active CUDA? Otherwise I have to sit and jiggle the mouse every few minutes. I reiterate that I need CUDA to cut in sfter a few minutes of inactivity since I am on and off the machine frequently every day and every second of CUDA counts (except for the odd half hour when I am watching TV).

15) Questions and Answers : Windows : AP units behaving oddly as they end (Message 881474) Posted 2 Apr 2009 by Mike Bunce Post: Since crunching only AP units following the Thumper issues, I notice that as my AP units near completion, at around 99.9% finished, they add an extra half hour to the finish time and revert to (say) 99.64% complete, before finishing in the following half hour. Example: 99.984 Time 001:30 99.992 Time 000:40 99.994 Time 000:07 THEN! 99.641 Time 034:30 I have sat up and stayed awake to witness this three times (how sad is that?) Does anyone know what's going on? It's a quad core Phenom (with CUDA turned off); 4GB RAM with 3 GB visible to XP. How does SETI calculate the running time of a work unit?

16) Questions and Answers : Windows : Only getting AP units! (Message 873862) Posted 8 Mar 2009 by Mike Bunce Post: Thank you for the link. I had been looking at COMPUTER preferences. All is now well.

17) Questions and Answers : Windows : Only getting AP units! (Message 873741) Posted 8 Mar 2009 by Mike Bunce Post: All three units started again from zero (twice) so I gunned them. The current AP units are fine.

18) Questions and Answers : Windows : Only getting AP units! (Message 873534) Posted 7 Mar 2009 by Mike Bunce Post: I have recently replaced my 2 core P4 machine with a quad core AMD and a CUDA enabled GeForce 9400 graphics card. On first installing SETI it downloaded a few MB units which it devoured in about half an hour apiece. Since then it is only giving me AP units. Apart from the fact that these take over a week to process, the CUDA capability is not being used. Also, because of teething troubles with my new PC I have had a couple of crashes that caused three of the AP units to exit with no finished state and hence restart twice. I have aborted these three units only to receive three more APs. I don't mind the odd AP unit but I seem to be being singled out for them. Can I alter my preferences anywhere?

19) Questions and Answers : Windows : Rewinding system clock! Problems with SETI (Message 864172) Posted 10 Feb 2009 by Mike Bunce Post: Following a system crash I had to reinstall Windows XP. This caused me to lose data in a sunrise/moonset database on my PC. To recover the data I had to "rewind" the PC's clock and calendar back a couple of months. I then reset the time and date to now, but all new SETI work units are showing up as "Priority work unit". The message log identifies that the system clock was rewound. How or when will this problem resolve itself?

20) Questions and Answers : Wish list : Tiny work units (Message 770546) Posted 19 Jun 2008 by Mike Bunce Post: I asked a question recently (now resolved) about work units approaching their "sell by" date. I now understand how BOINC prioritises the W/Us, but I noticed that all the "close-dated" W/Us are only about 1 1/2 hours long instead of the usual 4 1/2 hours on my machine. This cannot be a coincidence. I wonder if these are W/Us that have some sort of anomaly and are sent out again to be re-processed. Any thoughts anyone?

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