Hanged Frog, look here.

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Just a proposal....

SUN Microsystems has and is still receiving a considerable amount of international advertising for their support of the SETI Project, since ALL Host Systems used are SUN products.
In all due respect the Host Systems that are listed in the Server Status as available, example 'penguin' = Sun D220R (2 x 440MHz Sparc, 2 GB RAM) would appear to be simply overloaded. Which means that the existing problems will continue to reappear as the 'system' comes back online.

It is time for SUN Microsystems to step back up to the plate and replace these existing Hosts with new generation SUN Systems as a showcase to the international community.
Simply provide the latest generation UltraSPARC IV - SUN FIRE E25K High End Servers with 36 processors installed in sufficient quantities, configured as per project requirements to include latest generation storage hardware scaled for life cycle projections such that this "upgrade" will carry the SETI Project into the next 5 Years at a minimum.

This solution would clearly show the 4 Million+ SETI supporters internationally that these new SUN High End Servers can resolve the existing problems in short order through shear computer POWER. It should also resolve the existing back log of 4 million+ un-validated results from SETI CLASSIC such that the overall project will begin to 'operate' in near real time.

I am sure that ALL supporters would be more then happy to see the SUN Logo on every webpage to include a special section on the website for the turnover of the new 'system' as compensation for the support that SUN Microsystems is making to the Berkeley University and the Project. This special recognition should more then compensate SUN for their new sponsorship to the project, especially since the backlog of problems will reduce in numbers rather quickly - again showing the international community that SUN Products are the desired solution to the business users requirements.

Does this proposal take 4+ million requests to SUN for HELP or does Hewlett-Packard (HP) want to jump in with their latest High End product offerings?

Donating cash to the project - wish all of us could afford to do so, but in the absence of donated cash I will continue to dedicate my processor to running SETI BOINC 24/7 until such time as SETI says thank you we are finished with the Project and we would like to introduce you to our new neighbors from the XYZ Galaxy.

well i don't have/want to send money but there is a wildlife refuge that list stuff that they need (tools, caging materials {like steel pipe, sheet steel) if i see something on ebay or DRMO sell I could pick itup... even some one on this board migh have/know here a extra SUN 400Mhz cipset and give/ship it.

It's a nice idea, but they'd also need a chassis to put it in ...

The 220Rs take a maximum of 2x CPUs, which they already have.

The E3500s can take up to 8 CPUs, but the CPU slots double as IO board slots so it depends on what the IO requirements are as to whether they could fit more CPUs/RAM.

I guess another risk with accepting donations of hardware when you are planning to run mission critical apps on it is the level of support, MTBF and history.
I'd be suprised if SETI/Berkeley didn't have some sort of service contract/SLA with Sun for the kit they have supplied.
Once you start mixing that kit with donated hardware what happens when the free stuff fails ?

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Just a proposal....

In all due respect the Host Systems that are listed in the Server Status as available, example 'penguin' = Sun D220R (2 x 440MHz Sparc, 2 GB RAM) would appear to be simply overloaded. Which means that the existing problems will continue to reappear as the 'system' comes back online.

This has been discussed many times over the last few weeks. The guys at Berkeley have said over and over again that the problems we have seen are NOT because of the CPU power available - In fact the problem with the validator backlog was not even o a Sun machine. The issues with the validation queue were down to the file system filling up. An F25k with FCAL storge *might* have been able to cope slightly better, but the issue was with the filesystem not the CPUs.
Adding more horsepower would have temporarily masked the problem rather than fixed it.

It is time for SUN Microsystems to step back up to the plate and replace these existing Hosts with new generation SUN Systems as a showcase to the international community.
Simply provide the latest generation UltraSPARC IV - SUN FIRE E25K High End Servers with 36 processors installed in sufficient quantities, configured as per project requirements to include latest generation storage hardware scaled for life cycle projections such that this "upgrade" will carry the SETI Project into the next 5 Years at a minimum.

These 'weak' UltraSPARC II servers seem to have carried SETI for a lot longer than that. An F25K would be overkill in the extreme.
Also bear in mind:

SunFire F25K, 36x 1.2Ghz USIV CPUs, 144GB RAM, Boot HDDs & Service Contract (standard Medium Config) - $1,721,085.00

Thats pretty hard to justify giving away for a company thats struggled to break even for the last 2 years and has been laying off workers.
"Yes I'm sorry we are having to make you redundant, but look we just donated a 1.7 million dollar server to SETI@Home ..."

This solution would clearly show the 4 Million+ SETI supporters internationally that these new SUN High End Servers can resolve the existing problems in short order through shear computer POWER.

Like I've said above it wouldn't actually solve the problem would it?

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{snip}
Once you start mixing that kit with donated hardware what happens when the free stuff fails ?

You chuck the failed free item in the bin, and replace it with another donated (IE free) bit of kit.

That was why I said 'mission critical' what if another bit of kit isn't donated for 3 weeks ... or 6 months ?

OR...

You flog the free stuff off, and use the money to buy what you want...

But isn't the free stuff broken ?

Even if you sold it as soon as it arrived you are going to need a significant amount of cash to buy a data centre class server with support and warranty.
We aren't talking aout white box PCs here ... (mission critical remember)

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well i am sorry, i thought i was a donator to the seti project for years.

oh no, shame on me, i am just a user.

I'm willing to donate some money to this project as I did for BURP, but I don't have a credit card.
Janus had opened a PayPal Account for BURP donations and this is a very handy way for me (or every other person without a credit card) to spend money internationally.

Will Berkeley have a PayPal account in the next future?

Andy

After you get a PayPal account you can get a PayPal Debit Card. The debit card is a Master Card, so you can use it as a Master Card Credit Card to pay your donatins. Than SETI gets the money through Master Charge from your Paypal Acount.

If you have a web site you can add affiliate links to earn money, earnings from these could be used to donate to SETI. I only get enoughf to cover tha web housing and some additions to the web site, but ther are getting bigger the last few Mo's. may have some left over this year to donate.
Ray

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Pizza@Home Rays Place Rays place Forums

These 'weak' UltraSPARC II servers seem to have carried SETI for a lot longer than that. An F25K would be overkill in the extreme.
Also bear in mind:

SunFire F25K, 36x 1.2Ghz USIV CPUs, 144GB RAM, Boot HDDs & Service Contract (standard Medium Config) - $1,721,085.00

Thats pretty hard to justify giving away for a company thats struggled to break even for the last 2 years and has been laying off workers.
"Yes I'm sorry we are having to make you redundant, but look we just donated a 1.7 million dollar server to SETI@Home ..."

Like I've said above it wouldn't actually solve the problem would it?

@ SunGrid_LLG_ORT
Dues SUN have an array of Drives that woudl solve the problems with the disk? A faster switching unit and faster drives matched to the switch. On another list someone wanted to collect money to get better equipement. Would thas be the correct area? If it is woudl you be able to let us know what it would cost so they would know what they are gettng them selves into.

Ray

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Pizza@Home Rays Place Rays place Forums

@ SunGrid_LLG_ORT
Dues SUN have an array of Drives that woudl solve the problems with the disk? A faster switching unit and faster drives matched to the switch. On another list someone wanted to collect money to get better equipement. Would thas be the correct area? If it is woudl you be able to let us know what it would cost so they would know what they are gettng them selves into.

Ray

Giving you a price list/spec sheet is no problem, but without knowing the specifics of the problem throwing money at it in the hope raw horsepower will fix it might not be the best solution ...
Initially Berkeley said it was a filesystem problem with huge directories full of many small files. Now that the antique deleters have done their thing I'm sure I've read somewhere that the next stage of the process is taking longer than expected due to bandwidth/IO problems.

I'm not sure if that's a problem with the storage attach (slow SCSI maybe ?), an NFS issue/bug (has been suggested) or just not having enough available processing/IO power on the server they have assigned to the task.

Sun do many flavours of storage array and I'm sure there is something on the price list that might improve the situation, but whether it would actually fix the problem or even if it would be the best way to spend any money that is available to fix it is another issue entirely ...

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There is now a "tax deductible donations" link in "Your account".... >:-) (-:

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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

Here we can see the total donation and the number of donator month by month.

If there is a way to donate by bank (or pay pal) I will be happy to do the donation.

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GHz
BOINC.Italy

Here we can see the total donation and the number of donator month by month.

Pretty much proves the guy who said he'd donated $25,000 was lying...

.oO(I wonder when the will appear on my posts and profile??)

They say "the following year"... does that mean from January 1st 2006, for those of us who has donated this year? I don't know... :)
And will we get another star for each year we donate something? :D

[quote]

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GHz
BOINC.Italy

Hi, Ray - I just plagiarized some of your text below for our donation site. I hope that's okay.

After you get a PayPal account you can get a PayPal Debit Card. The debit card is a Master Card, so you can use it as a Master Card Credit Card to pay your donatins. Than SETI gets the money through Master Charge from your Paypal Acount.

...

Ray

- Matt

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-- BOINC/SETI@home network/web/science/development person
-- "Any idiot can have a good idea. What is hard is to do it." - Jeanne-Claude

Cool idea

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Click below for our Team Website

[quote][quote]There is now a "tax deductible donations" link in "Your account".... >:-) (-::-| |-:

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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

Here we can see the total donation and the number of donator month by month.

If there is a way to donate by bank (or pay pal) I will be happy to do the donation.

Ok, I find that there is something wrong with that history. Many of us donated in July of this year and it [the history] shows 0 donations. I also made a donation late last year that shows 0 for the whole year. What's up with that? >:-/ \\-:

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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

[quote]I made a donation on July 19th and I don't have a star. Maybe it's for the most recent and future donations.... >:-| |-:

[quote]:-( )-:

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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

Isn't EVERYONE that crunches seti WU's donating to the project?

For those in the US, the government (our tax dollars) are also being sent directly to UCB by way of NSF grants.

Would seti classic have crunched 2 billion WUs if people didn't dontate resources (time on their own computers)?


This "green star" thing IMHO, is a bad thing.

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