Posts by Cheng Fan Soon

41) Questions and Answers : Unix/Linux : Wanted to try install Solaris 10 on Pentium 4 machine (Message 1162800)
Posted 16 Oct 2011 by Profile Cheng Fan Soon
Post:
Installed the Solaris 11 Express on a laptop last week.
and manage to install Boinc+setiathome also.

but than found that there is no way to turn-off the LCD display while it is crunching wu.
42) Questions and Answers : Unix/Linux : boinc_client on Solaris 10 pentium 4 machine (Message 1161837)
Posted 13 Oct 2011 by Profile Cheng Fan Soon
Post:
My boinc (on Solaris 10) so far crunched 3 setiathome-enhanced wu and one astropulse wu.

All 3 setiathome.enhanced wu produced error but the astropulse's result is ok.
Seem like i will need to re-iinstall the whole Solaris 10 and the boinc again.
It is on a P-IV machine that i am not using it for anything. So ok to play with it a bit.
43) Questions and Answers : Unix/Linux : Wanted to try install Solaris 10 on Pentium 4 machine (Message 1161229)
Posted 11 Oct 2011 by Profile Cheng Fan Soon
Post:
Why don't you try Solaris Express? It is a preview of Solaris 11 and it is free (at least for now).
Tullio

Thanks.....
i will try Solaris Express later.
44) Questions and Answers : Unix/Linux : Wanted to try install Solaris 10 on Pentium 4 machine (Message 1161142)
Posted 11 Oct 2011 by Profile Cheng Fan Soon
Post:
So far i have tried install Solaris into 5 PCs (2 laptops + 3 desktop)
only succeed install on one desktop with Solaris

Unsuccess list:
2 Laptops - graphics card not supported
1 desktop - LAN card not supported
1 desktop - 64bits CPU not supported.
45) Questions and Answers : Unix/Linux : boinc_client on Solaris 10 pentium 4 machine (Message 1160856)
Posted 10 Oct 2011 by Profile Cheng Fan Soon
Post:
my boinc downloaded an astropulse work unit and start running,
but after few hours it say: "Task ap_26jn1lab_.... exited with zero status but no 'finished' file."

Is it because i need to chown first?
so I stop boinc and key in a command:
(in /opt)
chown root:sys ./boinc/projects/setiathome.berkeley.edu/*
and than run ./boinc again. (i am running in terminal under root)
and so it restart the task.

am i doing the right thing?




46) Questions and Answers : Unix/Linux : boinc_client on Solaris 10 pentium 4 machine (Message 1160223)
Posted 8 Oct 2011 by Profile Cheng Fan Soon
Post:
I have downloaded both setiathome enhanced and astropulse application
and extract the files to /opt/boinc/projects/setiathome.berkeley.edu/
and i also edit the app_info.xml to match the setiathome(version number)
and astropulse(veriosn_number) to the files.

than i run
./boinc_client -update_prefs http://setiathome.berkeley.edu

the respond i got is this (last two lines):
Suspending computation - time of day
Suspending network activity - time of day
47) Questions and Answers : Unix/Linux : boinc_client on Solaris 10 pentium 4 machine (Message 1159784)
Posted 7 Oct 2011 by Profile Cheng Fan Soon
Post:
I downloaded Boinc client binary from Lars website and run:

./boinc_client -attach_project http://setiathome.berkeley.edu "account key"

There is a line say: "This project doesn't support computers of type i686-pc-solaris"
Is my boinc running correctly?


Starting BOINC client version 6.12.26 for i686-pc-solaris
[---] log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
[---] Libraries: libcurl/7.18.0 OpenSSL/0.9.8p zlib/1.2.3
[---] Data directory: /opt/boinc
[---] Processor: 1 i86pc pentium_pro+mmx
[---] Processor features:
[---] OS: SunOS: 5.10
[---] Memory: 767.06 MB physical, 517.71 MB virtual
[---] Disk: 9.45 GB total, 5.05 GB free
[---] Local time is UTC +8 hours
[---] No usable GPUs found
[http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/] URL http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/; Computer ID not assigned yet; re source share 100
[---] No general preferences found - using BOINC defaults
[---] Preferences:
[---] max memory usage when active: 383.53MB
[---] max memory usage when idle: 690.36MB
[---] max disk usage: 4.72GB
[---] don't use GPU while active
[---] suspend work if non-BOINC CPU load exceeds 25 %
[---] (to change preferences, visit the web site of an attached project, or select Preferences in th e Manager)
[---] Not using a proxy
Initialization completed
[---] Running CPU benchmarks
[---] Suspending computation - CPU benchmarks in progress
[---] Benchmark results:
[---] Number of CPUs: 1
[---] 893 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
[---] 3362 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU
[http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/] Master file download succeeded
[http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/] Sending scheduler request: Project initialization.
[http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/] Requesting new tasks for CPU
[SETI@home] Scheduler request completed: got 0 new tasks
[SETI@home] This project doesn't support computers of type i686-pc-solaris
[SETI@home] New computer location: home
[SETI@home] Started download of arecibo_181.png
[SETI@home] Started download of sah_40.png
[SETI@home] Finished download of sah_40.png
[SETI@home] Started download of sah_banner_290.png
[SETI@home] Finished download of sah_banner_290.png
[SETI@home] Started download of sah_ss_290.png
[---] Suspending computation - CPU is busy
[SETI@home] Finished download of arecibo_181.png
[---] Resuming computation
[SETI@home] Finished download of sah_ss_290.png
[---] Suspending computation - CPU is busy
[---] Resuming computation
48) Questions and Answers : Unix/Linux : Wanted to try install Solaris 10 on Pentium 4 machine (Message 1158803)
Posted 4 Oct 2011 by Profile Cheng Fan Soon
Post:
finally found the answer
use a download manager
Gwget, MultiGet or SKDownloader
49) Questions and Answers : Unix/Linux : Wanted to try install Solaris 10 on Pentium 4 machine (Message 1158213)
Posted 2 Oct 2011 by Profile Cheng Fan Soon
Post:
Wanted to try install Solaris 10 and than run Seti@home on it.

So I tried to direct download the iso file (3GB) from Solaris website but
after downloaded about 680MB, an error message appear and it can't finish the download.
Click the link again, but the download process re-start from 0 Byte so I just cancel the download.

Anyone can teach how can I download the iso file? (about 3GB)
Seem like Solaris website does not provide torrent download.

Note: I was using Fedora 15 to download the file.



50) Questions and Answers : Getting started : Power consumption (Message 1157917)
Posted 1 Oct 2011 by Profile Cheng Fan Soon
Post:
How much total power do 7 PCs use?

I am going to run Seti@home on 7 PCs.

1 Laptop (Centrino Duo)
4 Pentium IV
2 Pentium III

Anyone can give an estimate?

(at the moment running on 5 PCs - 4 Pentium IV and 1 laptop)
51) Message boards : Science (non-SETI) : Fusion combine geothermal power. (new idea?) (Message 1155082)
Posted 23 Sep 2011 by Profile Cheng Fan Soon
Post:
(Note: this is just an imagination)
After many-many continuous small blast (tiny blast actually compare to the fission+fusion one)
than stop the blast.
Then after this use geothermal power plant method to generate electricity. The stored energy underground will be able to run the geothermal power plant for several months (I guess)

After several months when the underground energy depleted than repeat the blast again.

Imagine you have two area A and B. You just have to switch between A an B.
When geothermal power plant is running on stored energy on area A, the blast process is on area B.
When energy A depleted and energy B increased than make a switch, and
now geothermal power plant running on stored energy on area B and the blast process on area A.
52) Message boards : Science (non-SETI) : Fusion combine geothermal power. (new idea?) (Message 1154425)
Posted 21 Sep 2011 by Profile Cheng Fan Soon
Post:
Well, the NIF is using Laser to ignite tiny deuterium and tritium pellet (miniature size H-bomb equal to about 11kg TNT).

https://lasers.llnl.gov/newsroom/project_status/2011/june.php

It is analogy to petrol internal combustion engine.
In petrol engine, mixture of petrol and air ignite a small explosion inside cylinder and that pushes the piston.
And this small explosion is repeated at rate of many time per second and that provide lots of power to move the car.

In Laser fusion, they need to ignite the tiny deuterium and tritium pellet at rate of about 10 pellet per second.
And the heat (energy) release will heat up the chamber wall, than the heat can be use to produce steam to run turbine to generate electricity.

My view is: If the ignition of the pellet can be done underground than the size of the pellet can be bigger (can be easily variable from say 100kg t0 10,000kg TNT) without the need of a strong big chamber and the rate of ignition can be lower (maybe one per few hours).
But how to channel the laser beam into underground? Maybe by using fibre optics? (Science fiction?)

The Sedan test at 194 meters (636 ft) underground is of course too shallow compare to geothermal well which can be as deep as 3000 meters.
53) Questions and Answers : Unix/Linux : Just installed Boinc on my FreeBSD machine (Message 1153763)
Posted 19 Sep 2011 by Profile Cheng Fan Soon
Post:
yeah, so I went into folder
/usr/ports/astro/boinc-setiathome-enhanced and
make install clean

It successfully installed setiathome-enhanced
and when I start boinc, the programme successfully downloaded 4 tasks.
So i guess, my freeBSD machine is now installed with both astropulse and
setiathome-enhanced.
54) Questions and Answers : Unix/Linux : Just installed Boinc on my FreeBSD machine (Message 1153629)
Posted 18 Sep 2011 by Profile Cheng Fan Soon
Post:
Just installed FreeBSD on my another machine.
This time i went into /usr/ports/astro/boinc-astropulse
and
make install clean

It successfully installed boinc-astropulse
but when i start the programme, i got messages
"Your app_info.xml file doesn't have a usable version of SETI@home Enhanced."

and

"Sending scheduler request: To fetch work. Requesting 129600 seconds of work, reporting 0 completed tasks
Scheduler request completed: got 0 new tasks
Message from server: No tasks sent."

should I go into the folder
/usr/ports/astro/boinc-setiathome-enhanced and
make install clean ?



55) Message boards : Science (non-SETI) : Fusion combine geothermal power. (new idea?) (Message 1153527)
Posted 18 Sep 2011 by Profile Cheng Fan Soon
Post:
Drilling deep is very expensive and that increase the cost of the electricity production.

As stated in wikipedia
"Geothermal power requires no fuel (except for pumps), and is therefore immune to fuel cost fluctuations, but capital costs are significant. Drilling accounts for over half the costs, and exploration of deep resources entails significant risks. A typical well doublet (extraction and injection wells) in Nevada can support 4.5 megawatts (MW) and costs about $10 million to drill, with a 20% failure rate."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_power_plant#Economics

The reason to explode fusion devices underground to heat-up the rock is so that you don't need to drill too deep and thus reduce the capital cost and thus reduce the cost of electricity production. (assume we have the pure fusion device and if it works)
56) Message boards : Science (non-SETI) : Fusion combine geothermal power. (new idea?) (Message 1152657)
Posted 16 Sep 2011 by Profile Cheng Fan Soon
Post:
If you explode a fusion device underground. (pure fusion device without the fission part)
The heat (energy) released will heat up the surrounding rock a bit.
After a while you explode a 2nd device and it will heat-up the rock future.
If you repeat the process...will it able to heat-up the underground rock to (say) 300-500 degree Celcius?

And than you can use the underground rock's heat to produce steam and generate electricity just like a geothermal power plant.

Normal Geothermal power plant need to drill a very deep well (at least 4KM)
perhaps the fusion-geothermal method does not need to drill a very deep well?

Will this method work? or is it just a science fiction?

Fusion power -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_power
Geothermal energy -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_power_plant
57) Message boards : Science (non-SETI) : Does the universe as an expiring date? (Message 1150353)
Posted 9 Sep 2011 by Profile Cheng Fan Soon
Post:
There have been three main theories on the Universe origin
(1) Steady State
(2) Big Bang
(3) Cyclic or oscillating
There are also many theories upon its ultimate fate, bang, crunch, freeze, rip, bounce ...
Universe fate

Although some astrophysicist said that the Universe is going to end in a big rip (the expending of universe is accelerating and will never stop)
source-> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_an_expanding_universe

I would like to believe the universe is a cyclic Universe
Although at this moment our Universe is expending in accelerate speed.
But it will reach a state that
(1) All star will gradually burn out of fuel, some become white dwarf. The more massive star will become black holes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_evolution#Stellar_remnants
(2) Black holes gradually increase in mass and their gravity also gradually increase until it reach a point that the gravity is able to stop the expansion of the Universe and the Universe will start to contract. (Steven Hawking first predicted that black holes convert energy into matter.)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/aprilholladay/2006-10-30-mass-energy-eyes_x.htm
(3) Another big bag will happen when the Universe is contracted to a single point (at the singularity) and a new Universe will be born.

Some people might argue that the cyclic model of Universe againts the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
My view is: When come to black hole, most physics law fail.
Think of this: The star and gasses surounding the black hole has lower energy density compare to the area inside the black hole. But still, we see matter and energy flowing from the lower energy density area (Star and gasses surrounding black hole) into the extreme high energy density area (inside the black hole). Doesn't this seem like the reverse of the Second Law of Thermodynamics?
58) Questions and Answers : Unix/Linux : Just installed Boinc on my FreeBSD machine (Message 1147821)
Posted 1 Sep 2011 by Profile Cheng Fan Soon
Post:
I got this message in the [message] tab
Your app_info.xml file doesn't have a usable version of Astropulse v505.

so, i downloaded boinc-astropulse-5.06_2 from
http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/ports.cgi?query=astropulse&stype=all&sektion=all
and then
make install clean

but un-success....

my system is freeBSD 8.2 with gnome
59) Questions and Answers : Unix/Linux : can't connect to localhost (Message 1147356)
Posted 31 Aug 2011 by Profile Cheng Fan Soon
Post:
I was facing the same problem before (freeBSD 8.2 with gnome),
but after add following line to the /etc/rc.conf
boinc_enable="YES"
and re-start FreeBSD
everything work perfectly well

to start boinc (graphical window)

cd /var/db/boinc
boinc_gui

More detail installation guide
http://people.freebsd.org/~pav/boinc.html

60) Message boards : Science (non-SETI) : A thought about the Galaxy and Universe (Message 1146896)
Posted 29 Aug 2011 by Profile Cheng Fan Soon
Post:
It is the fact that about 4 million tonnes of matter (mass) are converted to energy every second in the Sun.
That means our Sun is decreasing in mass (of matter) at rate of 4 million tonnes per second.

A Galaxy (example Milky Way) have about 100 billions star, So there must be huge amount of mass (matter) converted to energy every second.
That means the galaxy is decreasing in mass (of matter).

So if you consider only the matter part of mass M.
Momentum of a galaxy is M*V where V is the linear velocity of the galaxy.

If M decrease than V must increase because momentum of any moving body in space is constant.

Maybe this explain why the speed of galaxy is accelerating?

photon is not matter, photon has 0 diameter.
while Diameter of an electron d = 5.635880578916 x 10^-15 m
and diameter of an proton is about 2 x 10^-14.

light can be bent by gravity not because light has weight but it is because massive object causing curvature of space.


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