No new WU's here since Aug/9 morning (8am UTC), but Our Lady of the Cache still resists...;) (by the moment...)

Best regards.

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Logan.

BOINC FAQ Service (Ahora, también disponible en Español/Now available in Spanish)

I'm actually sort of surprised that there, seemingly, isn't anyone in an on-call status. Nothing will get someone ready for the "real" world like some on-call for a week, sucking the time out of one's life. : )
(I just came "off-call" about 10 minutes ago.)

i agree with you somebody should be on call to maintain the servers and keep the down time to a minimum.

They try......they really do. But you have to understand that Seti never promised 100% uptime, or anything close to it.
That's why Boinc has the mechanisms built into it to allow you to have a cache of work on your computer to get it through project downtime, and to allow you to have other projects on tap if your favorite project is having some difficulties.
Eric and Matt have often taken care of problems on their own time during weekends, but they cannot be expected to be on tap 24/7....

That may be the case but some of us don't do other projects and the mechanism/algorithm that governs the cache does not seem to work the best. I think its time that thought was given to removing the single points of failure that we seem to be encountering and in the context of that, for instance, why does every machine have to come back to Berkeley to get WUs...

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That may be the case but some of us don't do other projects and the mechanism/algorithm that governs the cache does not seem to work the best.

?
I have my cache set for 4 days, it generally gives me 3.9 or so. Close enough for me.

why does every machine have to come back to Berkeley to get WUs...

That's where they come from. Even with other servers all around the world, they would still have to come from the source to get to those servers.

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Grant
Darwin NT

I just set my "Work Unit Cache" to 10 days (max allowed) so that if this happens again I'll have enough to keep me going. Unfortunately I have not received any work units since last Saturday night, however I was able to upload all of my finished packets yesterday but alas I am dead in the water now.

[quote]That may be the case but some of us don't do other projects and the mechanism/algorithm that governs the cache does not seem to work the best.

?
I have my cache set for 4 days, it generally gives me 3.9 or so. Close enough for me.

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... <º))))><`·.¸¸.·´¯`·...<º))))><..·´¯`·.¸. <º))))><

·´¯`·..¸¸.·´><((((º>¸¸... "Hey, Where's Everyone Going?"

<º))))><`·.¸¸.·´¯`·. To visit:

Our Lady of the Cache

LMAO. I guess her feast day is whenever the servers go down:)

I'm actually sort of surprised that there, seemingly, isn't anyone in an on-call status. Nothing will get someone ready for the "real" world like some on-call for a week, sucking the time out of one's life. : )
(I just came "off-call" about 10 minutes ago.)

i agree with you somebody should be on call to maintain the servers and keep the down time to a minimum.

Then you should donate to the project so they can maybe afford to hire one.

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Dear people of Earth,

We've tried and tried to call, but keep getting a busy signal. Is your receiver off the hook? We were going to send you the secret of interstellar teleportation, but unfortunately, our time is limited and we must move on. We'll try again in a few million years.

Sincerely,
The Galactic Alliance of Intelligent Beings

Then you should donate to the project so they can maybe afford to hire one.

Please don't blame the people who are donating the valuable compute time. Let's not forget who is asking for and receiving the donation of needed cpu time, and who is donating it. Other projects are more considerate and communicative with their donors on those occasions when problems arise. seti@home can afford to be more cavalier since it commands such a high percentage of BOINC hosts. But of course, that is always subject to change.

Sorry to be so critical. But it's the volunteers who are performing the valuable service for the seti@home project and not the other way around as you seem to imply.

I'm actually sort of surprised that there, seemingly, isn't anyone in an on-call status. Nothing will get someone ready for the "real" world like some on-call for a week, sucking the time out of one's life. : )
(I just came "off-call" about 10 minutes ago.)

i agree with you somebody should be on call to maintain the servers and keep the down time to a minimum.

Matt and Eric have both stated that there are measures in place for the servers to report when there's a problem. However, they are computers and must be specifically told what a "problem" is, and if it isn't in the predefined list, it will not call out. That being said, if no one is able to get to it, then the servers just sit there with their problems until someone can make it in.

Its not like Matt and Eric go home for the weekend and turn off their pagers and cell phones and take their land lines off the hook. I happen to know that Eric and some of the other Admins check in frequently over the weekend to see how things are doing, even if they are not in a locality to be able to fix a physical problem if there were one.

Just because the servers have problems, doesn't mean its OK to start attacking those who run it or making demands if you know so little of whats going on.

Then you should donate to the project so they can maybe afford to hire one.

Please don't blame the people who are donating the valuable compute time. Let's not forget who is asking for and receiving the donation of needed cpu time, and who is donating it. Other projects are more considerate and communicative with their donors on those occasions when problems arise. seti@home can afford to be more cavalier since it commands such a high percentage of BOINC hosts. But of course, that is always subject to change.

Sorry to be so critical. But it's the volunteers who are performing the valuable service for the seti@home project and not the other way around as you seem to imply.

It doesn't matter if we are the ones donating our CPU time, that does not give us a right to demand a thing. When you are a volunteer, you simply offer your services to someone or something (usually with the prerequisite of the kindness in your heart). If your services are not needed for some reason or another (in this case, the servers couldn't hand out work), that doesn't give any volunteer the right to demand work, or demand anything really. You'll get work when there's more to be had.

Other projects do not have the unique needs or setup of SETI, and vice versa. Due to the uniqueness of each project, it wouldn't really be fair of anyone here to make demands of similar functionality without having more information about the inner workings and staff. Since we do not, we should not and can not ask or demand for anything more.

I'm actually sort of surprised that there, seemingly, isn't anyone in an on-call status. Nothing will get someone ready for the "real" world like some on-call for a week, sucking the time out of one's life. : )
(I just came "off-call" about 10 minutes ago.)

i agree with you somebody should be on call to maintain the servers and keep the down time to a minimum.

Matt and Eric have both stated that there are measures in place for the servers to report when there's a problem. However, they are computers and must be specifically told what a "problem" is, and if it isn't in the predefined list, it will not call out. That being said, if no one is able to get to it, then the servers just sit there with their problems until someone can make it in.

Its not like Matt and Eric go home for the weekend and turn off their pagers and cell phones and take their land lines off the hook. I happen to know that Eric and some of the other Admins check in frequently over the weekend to see how things are doing, even if they are not in a locality to be able to fix a physical problem if there were one.

Just because the servers have problems, doesn't mean its OK to start attacking those who run it or making demands if you know so little of whats going on.

I agree with what you have said, and would not expect 24/7 support for a project like this. However you last sentence "if you know so little of whats going on" is my point. It is 4 days now since my main machines ran out of work, and I would like some idea of when I can turn them on again. Matt is usually excellent keeping us up to date, however there was no update yesterday when just a few lines explaing the problems would have gone a long way to helping people understand.

Just my opinion

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It's not a matter of demanding. It is a matter of whether or not the project acts like it cares enough to cultivate its volunteer base, and and least offer common courtesy in the form of communication when things go awry. I had already divided my processor time between seti@home and other projects. However, after observing this affair, I've determined to donate all of my compute time to lesser known BOINC projects which need users more than SETI does and are willing to do what it takes to actually compete for it. Just to be clear, this has nothing to do with credits or RAC, about which I care little, except as a rough measure of my own contribution. It's about giving time to the projects that I can feel best about contributing to. By the end of tomorrow, I'll have 4 cores. (Yea!) I'm already supporting ClimatePrediction.net and the FightAids@home and ConquerCancer@home projects of the World Community Grid. Seti was intended to be the 4th. Especially now that it has AstroPulse which is likely to have scientific value beyond the search for ET. However, hydrogen@home is a smaller project which is arguably more useful than SETI, and I believe I will substitute it. Don't read too much into that. But it is analogous to the saying "If you don't take care of your customers... someone else will." Seti's stumble may be other projects' fortune.

Bernie

Matt is on vacation, thus "no tech news." That means that Eric, Jeff, Bob and Jeff are the ones fighting all the issues. Those include getting the validator fixed, figuring out why/what caused the scheduler (there are a couple in there) to go whacko, Still working on the splitters, and fighting the ongoing drive space issues.

I agree with what you have said, and would not expect 24/7 support for a project like this. However you last sentence "if you know so little of whats going on" is my point. It is 4 days now since my main machines ran out of work, and I would like some idea of when I can turn them on again. Matt is usually excellent keeping us up to date, however there was no update yesterday when just a few lines explaing the problems would have gone a long way to helping people understand.

Just my opinion

Regards

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Please consider a Donation to the Seti Project.

It's not a matter of demanding. It is a matter of whether or not the project acts like it cares enough to cultivate its volunteer base, and and least offer common courtesy in the form of communication when things go awry. I had already divided my processor time between seti@home and other projects. However, after observing this affair, I've determined to donate all of my compute time to lesser known BOINC projects which need users more than SETI does and are willing to do what it takes to actually compete for it. Just to be clear, this has nothing to do with credits or RAC, about which I care little, except as a rough measure of my own contribution. It's about giving time to the projects that I can feel best about contributing to. By the end of tomorrow, I'll have 4 cores. (Yea!) I'm already supporting ClimatePrediction.net and the FightAids@home and ConquerCancer@home projects of the World Community Grid. Seti was intended to be the 4th. Especially now that it has AstroPulse which is likely to have scientific value beyond the search for ET. However, hydrogen@home is a smaller project which is arguably more useful than SETI, and I believe I will substitute it. Don't read too much into that. But it is analogous to the saying "If you don't take care of your customers... someone else will." Seti's stumble may be other projects' fortune.

Any recommendations on other projects to go to? I have an 8 core Mac Pro just sitting here doing nothing 99% of it's time other than when I'm not surfing and it needs something to do. My iMac got two work units yesterday and then nothing more.

Any recommendations on other projects to go to?

That depends upon your interests and where you personally would like to make a difference. Here is a good place to get an idea what's available, what they do, and how many or few hosts are contributing to each project:

http://boinc.netsoft-online.com/e107_plugins/boinc/bp_summary.php

I'm taking both function and perceived need into consideration when making my choices. I've already mentioned the first three projects I have chosen. IntelligenceRealm is another one that looks interesting. They are doing artificial intelligence work and have only about 2,800 active hosts... compared to SETI's 340,000.

Whatever you decide upon, I hope you find it enjoyable and satisfying.

-Steve Bergman

Bernie

Matt is on vacation, thus "no tech news." That means that Eric, Jeff, Bob and Jeff are the ones fighting all the issues. Those include getting the validator fixed, figuring out why/what caused the scheduler (there are a couple in there) to go whacko, Still working on the splitters, and fighting the ongoing drive space issues.

Regards

Now I, and I suspect a lot of others, didn't know that Matt was away. That little bit of information has helped me understand the situation better. I just would like to be a little better informed.

Bernie

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Any recommendations on other projects to go to? I have an 8 core Mac Pro just sitting here doing nothing 99% of it's time other than when I'm not surfing and it needs something to do. My iMac got two work units yesterday and then nothing more.

If you go Here, to Boincstats, you can look down the left hand pane to see a list of almost all the projects. I personally like Rosetta as a backup, it's almost always up and does work that I think is valuable. Orbit is also going to be a good project, but it's more a beta project now than ready for release, and it's hard to get any work right now, though supposedly later in the month there will be some more.

-Dave

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Any recommendations on other projects to go to? I have an 8 core Mac Pro just sitting here doing nothing 99% of it's time other than when I'm not surfing and it needs something to do. My iMac got two work units yesterday and then nothing more.

If you go Here, to Boincstats, you can look down the left hand pane to see a list of almost all the projects. I personally like Rosetta as a backup, it's almost always up and does work that I think is valuable. Orbit is also going to be a good project, but it's more a beta project now than ready for release, and it's hard to get any work right now, though supposedly later in the month there will be some more.

-Dave

I haven't been attached to Orbits since their last big pile of WU's and my P4 3.2 Ghz lappy is still working through it's second WU from there. (Received Jun 25th.) 800+ hours per WU from the Linear 10y batch, so just expect to be in it for the long haul if you pick that one as a backup project. :-)

I would remind people that Eric mentioned at the beginning of the last Fundraising Drive---that if enough funds were raised, then they could bring in an overnight/weekend person. The recent outages are a PRIME example of where this could've helped.

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Aug 11, 2008

The upload server has been fixed. Once the system clears the backlog of results waiting to be uploaded, validated, and assimilated,

disk space will clear up and this will allow new work to be generated.

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