Turns out one of the inputs to our data recorder got messed up. I don't have the details, but this only happened recently - we haven't yet gotten the raw data from Arecibo to split into workunits, etc. And the problem will be fixed soon if not already. The key now is to add some smarts to our scripts to avoid splitting the particular beam on that particular day or so. I guess this is a feature we've been meaning to add, and now we have a reason.

I've been messing a lot with gprof the past couple of days trying to find the subroutines causing the greatest slowdowns in our final analysis code. This actually wasn't getting me very far - I just now had to resort to some fprintf's with microsecond-level timestamps. No big news - we're database i/o constrained but now I have some numbers. We're brainstorming ideas about how to keep only the stuff we need in memory (as opposed to whole tables or indexes). Also I've been getting back to work cleaning up the NTPCkr pages for ultimate public consumption (and ultimately public assistance in helping us find and score detections). Slow, steady progress.

Otherwise all systems are go - bulking up the data pipeline before the weekend, queues are draining, etc. The mysql replica seems to be chugging along just fine. We'll see how it goes through the weekend before we call that project done.

- 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

Thanks for the update Matt,

Claggy

Thanks for all your efforts to keep us up to date, Matt.

However, I have a question that was stated before by someone else, but which most likely disappeared into the bit-bucket. What happened to the pending credits?
I notice the number of them is only getting lower, so my assumption is that you keep the recent pending credits stacked away in some cubbyhole hidden from the public (us, your faithful assistents out there in the cold). Could you give us an idea about the reasons why you keep them hidden and whether they will come back online again? Thanks for your response on this! Cheers, Nick

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Thanks for all your efforts to keep us up to date, Matt.

However, I have a question that was stated before by someone else, but which most likely disappeared into the bit-bucket. What happened to the pending credits?
I notice the number of them is only getting lower, so my assumption is that you keep the recent pending credits stacked away in some cubbyhole hidden from the public (us, your faithful assistents out there in the cold). Could you give us an idea about the reasons why you keep them hidden and whether they will come back online again? Thanks for your response on this! Cheers, Nick

That's actually a change implemented by the BOINC developers, not Matt. See this post in Number Crunching for details.

Hi Matt,

Thanks for the regular updates.

Can you ask Eric to liase with Pappa regarding the next upgrades needed. I'm thinking hard disks are probably the next thing to tackle, but you may have something else needing more urgent attention.

Cheers,
MarkJ

Thanks for all your efforts to keep us up to date, Matt.

However, I have a question that was stated before by someone else, but which most likely disappeared into the bit-bucket. What happened to the pending credits?
I notice the number of them is only getting lower, so my assumption is that you keep the recent pending credits stacked away in some cubbyhole hidden from the public (us, your faithful assistents out there in the cold). Could you give us an idea about the reasons why you keep them hidden and whether they will come back online again? Thanks for your response on this! Cheers, Nick

That's actually a change implemented by the BOINC developers, not Matt. See this post in Number Crunching for details.

Thanks Richard, I am aware that Matt doesn't know the answers to all questions, but I supposed he knows a lot of them ;)

I did check the thread you pointed out, but that doesn't really give the answer either, does it? It merely states the same question in different words and putting it in the context of the new credit system. A proper explanation is not given by anyone. Well, that's the way it is, obviously.

In any case, visiting the thread also introduced me to the fact of this new credit system being implemented, of which I was not aware. This probably is my own fault, as I am not following this particular forum on a regular basis.

Still, with all repect to the people involved, a little more effort by the Seti lab or Berkeley to communicate these important things to us, would not do any harm, would it? Instead of digging through the long and winding threads on a forum and per chance come upon things that were changed. I know, I know: too few people and too low budgets.

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Thanks Richard, I am aware that Matt doesn't know the answers to all questions, but I supposed he knows a lot of them ;)

Actually, I think Matt himself has said that he isn't necessarily aware of all the things that change in BOINC - that's a different project from SETI@home, even if they do live on the same campus. My post was at least as much intended to let him know the source of the problem you'd raised, as it was to give you the answer directly. Might save Matt a bit of time searching and asking questions, too!

And also, I wasn't referring either of you to the thread in general, but a particular post by Joe Segur which contains the precise technical answer: changeset [trac]changeset:23118[/trac].

Mmm, the SSL is two buildings... and even if the BOINC people were in the same room as SETI, Matt is probably so busy keeping S@H running that he doesn't/can't keep up with the BOINC details.

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.

Hello, from Albany, CA!...

Mmm, the SSL is two buildings... and even if the BOINC people were in the same room as SETI, Matt is probably so busy keeping S@H running that he doesn't/can't keep up with the BOINC details.

Honestly, Dave's desk is literally right next to mine (albeit we're not facing each other), but (a) our schedules are not in sync so we're only both here a small fraction of the time and (b) we tend to be lost in whatever we're working on to discuss. And if we do discuss anything it's either (a) server related, (b) music related, or (c) hiking related. I kind of don't want to know about BOINC. I try to treat it like an object in the programming sense - keeping all the private stuff SETI@home shouldn't have to care about private. Otherwise I'd be responsible for that stuff too. I got plenty to worry about. Well of course I still end up knowing a lot about BOINC but I may not be up to speed on latest problems/features/advancements/plans so I'd rather just not say anything lest I confuse people.

- 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

When you said the project will be done, is this why I am only getting a few work units on one of my computers?

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Patrick M. O'Rourke

When you said the project will be done, is this why I am only getting a few work units on one of my computers?

Post your question in Number Crunching and somebody may be able to help you figure out what your difficulty is.

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"Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once."

from the "Client Connection Stats" page:

last updated: October 21 2010 19:25:01

[irony]
Something appears to be broken…
[/irony]

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.

Hello, from Albany, CA!...

Pending Credits: So it is just me? My number of pending credits has been slipping steadily away since March 8. Back then I had 25 thousand and now it is down to 811!
At first I thought with the new SETI processors and all those folks at home with new computers the pending back log was being processed faster. I take it that is not the case?

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Pending Credits: So it is just me? My number of pending credits has been slipping steadily away since March 8. Back then I had 25 thousand and now it is down to 811!
At first I thought with the new SETI processors and all those folks at home with new computers the pending back log was being processed faster. I take it that is not the case?

Nope...
The pending credits page is no longer being supported by Boinc.
What you see there will dwindle as the WUs are returned by other crunchers and are retired.
Pending credits are no longer being added.

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"Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once."

Pending Credits: So it is just me? My number of pending credits has been slipping steadily away since March 8. Back then I had 25 thousand and now it is down to 811!
At first I thought with the new SETI processors and all those folks at home with new computers the pending back log was being processed faster. I take it that is not the case?

Nope...
The pending credits page is no longer being supported by Boinc.
What you see there will dwindle as the WUs are returned by other crunchers and are retired.
Pending credits are no longer being added.

Kind of.

If you go to your all tasks page, you will find a link for pending tasks. That link does work. Unfortunately it doesn't give a total.

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