1) Message boards : Number crunching : Semperon or Celeron? (Message 53838) Posted 14 Dec 2004 by Stephen Balch Post: @ Grant, The data displayed in the previous posts was reformatted slightly, but is all there and in the same order the programs presented it. I did add a few comments in parenthese, and a note about Northbridge. Yes, the system was very cheap. I'm a non-traditional (read "old fogie") university student. When my 866MHz Dell GX300 died, thanks to the wonderful AC power provided by the university, I _had_ to have something on which to do my work. The power hit took the memory controller built into the MB. Dell couldn't replace the MB for three or four months (non in stock) and, supposedly, it would cost almost as much as the new box. I didn't, and still don't, have a lot of spare cash to throw around. I'm in a pretty expensive program, Photography Technology. I still need several thousand dollars worth of photographic equipment. The film and photography paper costs alone amount to between $350 and $550 USD per trimester, and the further I go in the program, the more expensive it becomes. In my last trimester, my Capstone course alone will cost between $1500 and $2000 USD for film, processing, and materials. I have a couple of tri's to go before that. I really wanted a new, or used, MAC G4 or G5 Powerbook, 15 TFT screen, as much RAM as I could stuff in it, and a large HD. The G5 PBs weren't out yet, I couldn't afford even a refurb'd G4 PB, or the used stuffed Dual G5 desktop I found, and all of the new software I would need. So, I stayed with a PC, and transferred my existing software to the new machine. I recovered most of my applications, and all of my data and images from the old system. Both systems ran/currently run Win98SE. My main criteria were it had to run Photoshop quickly, have 512MB or more of RAM, be a faster CPU than I had in the Dell, have a reasonably large HD, accept my existing SCSI card and HD, accept my Wacom graphics tablet and my USB2 120 GB external HD, have decent video in the millions-of-colors range, run XP (to which I need to upgrade of Photoshop CS), network with the school system, and cost as little as possible. It cost about $350 USD before taxes. I could afford it, it works, 'nuff said. > > That is one strange system... > And unfortunately a very slow one- but i guess it was *very* cheap? > I'm running SETI II at between 4:50 and 5:30 per WU. It's not a fast machine, but it crunches. I'm still waiting for the computer that will finish what I want it to do 2.43 seconds before I start. (GRIN) I used to try to keep up with current processors and other hardware. The last three or four years I've kind of let that slip. The Phoenix BIOS date (04/02/2004) makes it look like a fairly recent MB. As to "AMS Fast Defrag 2 Professional," I seem to have far fewer memory-related problems than I used to have. More programs than just SETI/BOINC have memory leaks. I used to have to warm boot daily, now I can go for a week or more before something goes haywire. Yep, that's the one. Did you have them downunder? or the IMSAI? We're talking mid80's here. > S-100, a bus with wide compatibilty for all sorts of other addons. > The predecessor the the modern PC. Yes, you, and others, have mentioned, once or twice, about this thing being an "odd system." (GRIN) Wahtever, as long as it works. Grant, I very much appreciate your assistance. @ Quantum, Quantum, I appreciate your assistance, too. I thank both of you for your time, effort, explainations, and the various links to tools you have given me. Cheers, Stephen

2) Message boards : Cafe SETI : Favourite food? (Message 53705) Posted 14 Dec 2004 by Stephen Balch Post: Number 1 - Large hamburger pizza with mushrooms, black olives, and extra cheese Number 2 - Cashew Chicken at my favorite Chinese resturant Number 3 - really good barbequed chicken Number 4 - almost anything but seafood (I'm alergic) Topped off with pumkin pie and ice cream. Tom, I think you are incorrect about food being poisonous. I would be willing to wager thay also drank water. It's the water (H2O, Dihydrogen Monoxide) that's dangerous. Check out these web sites: The Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Group at http://www.dhmo.org/ Ban Dihydrogen Monoxide! at http://www.circus.com/~nodhmo/ and Sign the Petition to Ban Dihydrogen Monoxide at http://members.aol.com/chiasmushf/petition.html > > Food is poisonous. My proof: > > No one who has lived past their first birthday (it would be morally wrong to > experiment on infants), has ever failed to die, and they all have in common > that they have eaten food! There is a clear statistical correlation between > eating food and death, 100%! This is significantly smaller than the > statistical correlation between, say tobacco and cancer, yet that relationship > is well established and treated as proven. > Cheers, Stephen

3) Message boards : Cafe SETI : This is All Very Bizarre (Message 53605) Posted 13 Dec 2004 by Stephen Balch Post: @ Cosmic Ray, Well, you are not alone. Many of us are just tired of seeing _so_many_ multiple-screen posts from WorthlessWarthog. He has two or three threads dealing with religion. If he stayed in those threads with his "stuff," perhaps his presence on the project would be more tolerated and not raise as many irate responses, but he puts his rambling, blathering posts in any thread he finds (within the rather loose limits S@h has put on the fora.) Further, the SETI Cafe is a "free fire zone," almost any subject can be discussed here. WorthlessWarthog abuses the freedom of the SETI Cafe with his many cross-posts, and he keeps creating new threads. He has 18 just on the first page of the Cafe listing. He seems to want to publish all his "wonderful" writings in the SETI fora, or at least the SETI Cafe forum. It is a cheap way for him to "publish," and he doesn't have to waste his own disk space with his "stuff." Why use his own when he can use Berkeleys disk space for free? He would probably try in the other fora, too, except that may finally bring down the rath of the SYSADMINs on him. > I do not understand most of what is being shouted about on this message board. > Frankly it seems to me that this message board is mostly divided between > people on one extreme or the other, and so many accusations are flying that I > don't know whose lying or if anyone is even telling the truth. > You are correct, an over zealous Christian is precisely what he is. There are some others here, but they all tend to group together in their little clique. He, and his little coterie, are the kind of Christians that give all Christians a bad name, world wide. They are belligerent, and seem to be too stupid to see their attitudes and behaviors engender bad feelings among others, and just go on and on. He also seems to be a rabid socialist. That does not set well with some. > > The fellow called WordWeaver seems to be an overzealous Christian trying to > spread his idea of what the word of Jesus means and I can't for the life of me > see what it has to do with the search for hypothetical extraterrestrial radio > signals. SETI has nothing to do with religion unless and until a confirmable > signal is found, and even then I doubt it will have immediate repercussions > for religion to all but the most fanatic people. > Oh, you noticed that too? I think many people have. > > Also WordWeaver is not being > a very good Christian, since Christians are supposed to try to be like Jesus, > and Jesus spread an entirely different message for humanity in an entirely > different way, did not waste his time preaching to the already converted or > the unreceptive masses, did not speak so hatefully nor become so angry and > defensive when confronted with ignorance and hatred by others. In the end > WordWeaver will compare to Jesus no better than an eruption of vinegar and > baking soda compares to Mount St. Helen's eruption, a pale and pathetic > immitation having no strong impact on anyone intelligent or compassionate. > Jesus taught a message of love and tolerance for humanity, and without harsh > words forgave even his crucifiers. WordWeaver shows himself to be a > legalistic Christian ignoring the spirit of the message for endless debate > about its precise interpretation (which he will never admit is itself lost > beyond recovery through difficulties in translation and context > interpretation). > WorthlessWarthog claims to be a "professional Christian writer." What he actually is is a "professional Christian". He makes money from being a "Christian" in the same manner Jim and Tammy Fay Baker did and others of their ilk still do. In his case, all the word "professional" means is that he gets paid for doing it, just like any whore. One problem I've always had with "organized religion" is that you can have four churches of four different denominations, one on each corner of an intersection, and each will spend their time pointing at the others saying "You're all going to hell because you don't believe the same way we do!" They can't all be right. I've seen a few chruches of the same denomination split into separate churches just because of, what seems to me, minor differences in some minor area of their beliefs. WorthlessWarthog and his coterie have alienated so many people by now that not many care to have a reasoned discussion with them. A number doubt if he _can_ hold a reasoned discussion. Fanatics can't easily be reasoned with, the "jihadists" in Iraq show that. WorthlessWarthog runs something called the "Armageddon Hotline." I'm not sure exactly what that is. If someone is thinking of going "Armageddon" (read "postal" in the U.S.) on someone else, are they supposed to call the hotline to be talked out of it? Who knows. Who cares! > > Yet most of the people responding negatively to him are themselves showing the > kind of anger and irrationality that no mature athiest, agnostic, skeptic, or > alternative believer would be drawn into. It is a waste of effort and energy > to attack these people, you merely feed into their messianic persecution > complex, and by fighting the issues on their rules (debating the merits of > belief and interpretation, rather than moving beyond it to a higher wisdom and > understanding and clarity of life) you merely drive them deeper into their > mental foxhole, and make them look better in the eyes of fools. For as Murphy > once stated, "Never argue with a fool, people might not know the difference." > Good for you. Or you could stay out of the Cafe, as I mostly do. If you stay away from the fool, you won't be tempted to argue with him. WorthlessWarthog doesn't try spread his drivel outside of the Cafe. > > I for one intend to move beyond these petty issues and try to steer some of > the conversation on this board in a more positive direction. Would anyone > like to join me in this? > BTW, in the image in your profile, which one are you, left, right, or both? And, BTW, my problems with WorthlessWarthog were not from a "religious" thread, but from a "political" thread. Cheers, Stephen

4) Message boards : Cafe SETI : @ Steven Balch (Message 53604) Posted 13 Dec 2004 by Stephen Balch Post: @ littleBouncer, You're welcome, sir. I put the invitation in the other message because we were already having a discussion there, and it didn't take much room for that small addition to the post. And I agree this is a more appropriate area for that, but I don't come here often. I almost didn't see this message. I don't appreciate the blathering (foolish talk, nonsense, or to speak foolishly) that some people do in the Cafe. Any time you are ready, there is a space on the team waiting for you. On SETI, LHC, and, eventually, Einstein as well. Cheers, Stephen

5) Message boards : Number crunching : Dr H. Paul Shuch , user of the day (Message 53549) Posted 13 Dec 2004 by Stephen Balch Post: Hi Iztok, The first complaint in this area I read was when someone complained about the UOTD having crunched exactly zero (0) credits. Apparently, the UOTD is ramdomly chosed from the accounts, without regard to "Recommend" counts or credits. It's no big deal. You have as much chance as anyone. (GRIN) > > Anyhow, he is doing seti classic, not boinc. > He belongs there. It would be nice to selsect > user of the day from real users. Who do boinc. > Cheers, Stephen

6) Message boards : Number crunching : Semperon or Celeron? (Message 53541) Posted 13 Dec 2004 by Stephen Balch Post: @ Grant, As far as SANDRA Lite goes, I can't seem to get it from the developers site, the Guru3D site requires me to disable my firewall, which I will not do. And the version I got from CNET apparently only runs on NT. I run Win98SE. So, sorry, no listing from SANDRA. Cheers, Stephen

7) Message boards : Number crunching : Semperon or Celeron? (Message 53539) Posted 13 Dec 2004 by Stephen Balch Post: @ Quantum & @ Grant The output from CPU-Z, which includes the MB information, follows: <PRE> CPU-Z version 1.26 CPU Tab Processor: AMD Athlon XP Code Name: Thoroughbred Package: Socket A Technology: 0.13 u Voltage: 1.632 v Specification: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 3100+ Family: 6 Model: 8 Stepping: 0 Ext. Family: 7 Ext. Model: 8 Revision: A0 Instructions: MMX (+), 3DNow! (+), SSE Clocks Core Speed: 1630.4 MHz (varies up to 1658.5) Multiplier: x 12.5 FSB: 130.4 MHZ (varies up to 132.7) Bus Speed: 260.9 MHz (caries up to 265.4) Cache L1 Data: 64 KBytes L1 Code: 64 KBytes Level 2: 256 KBytes CACHE Tab L1 Data Cache L1 Instructions Cache Size: 64 KBytes Size: 64 KBytes Associativity 2-way Associativity 2-way Line Size 64 Bytes Line Size 64 Bytes L2 Cache Location: On Chip Ratio: Full Size: 256 KBytes Frequency: 1630.4 MHz (varies up to 1685.4) Associativity 16-way Bus Width: 64 bits Line Size 64 Bytes Prefetch Logic: Yes MAINBOARD Tab Model: KM266-8235 Chipset: VIA P4M266/KM266 (VT8375) Rev. 0 ---Northbridge Southbridge: VIA VT8235 Sensor: IT 0 BIOS Brand: Phoenix Technologies, LTD Version: 6.00 PG Date: 04/02/2004 Graphic Interface Version: AGIP version 2.0 Transfer Rate: 4x Max. Supported: 4x Aperature Size: 126 MBytes Side Band Addressing: disabled MEMORY Tab General Type: DDR-SDRAM Size: 512 MBytes Bank Interleave: 4-way Timings Frequency: 130.4 MHz (varies to 132.7) FSB:DRAM 1:1 CAS# Latency 2.0 clocks RAS# to CAS# Delay 3 clocks Cycle Time ITras) 6 clocks SPD Tab Memory Slot Selection Slot #1 DDR-SDRAM Module Size: 512 MBytes Correction None Max. Bandwidth: PC2300 (1.42 MHz) Registered: no Manufacturer: 0000000000000000 Buffered: no SPD Timings Table Frequency: 133 MHz 142 MHz CAS# Latency: 2.0 2.5 RAS# to CAS#: 3 3 RAS# Precharge 3 3 TRas# 6 7 Slot #2 Empty </PRE>

8) Message boards : Number crunching : Semperon or Celeron? (Message 53538) Posted 13 Dec 2004 by Stephen Balch Post: @ Quantum, Because you proveided me with convenient links to the software tools to determin what I actually have, I've downloaded, installed, and run both of the programs. Thank you for the links. I have text files containing the results of running both programs. In the interests of completeness, I will post both of the text files. I hesitate to tell you, Quantum, while I may have a Sempron but both of the programs say you are mistaken about the model number, please see below: > Stephen, you have a Sempron - core T-Bred, and 256 KB L2 Cache - you > mentioned 512 KB before.And it is not 3100+ but it is 2400+ > The output from Central Brain Identifier: <PRE> PROCESSOR Tab General Information Vendor Name: AuthenticAMD Central Processor: AMD AthlonXP Processor Platform: Socket A (462-pin OPGA package) Family: 6 Model: 8 Stepping: 0 Clock SPeed: 1658.43 MHz P-Rating: 1988+ Host Bus Clock: 132.67 MHz FSB Speed: 265.35 MHz Clock Ratio: 12.5 Voltage: 1.646 V L1 Data Cache: 64 KB L1 Cache: 128 MB L1 Instruction Cache: 64 KB L2 Cache: 256 KB Extended Information CPU String: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 3100+ OPN Number: Not determined Processor Core: Thoroughbred Version: 0.4 Generation: 7 Model: 8 Stepping: 0 Processor Technology: 0.13 micron Revison: A0 Announce Date: Not determined MMX Technology: Yes MMX Extensions: Yes 3DNow! Technology: Yes 3DNow! Extensions: Yes SSE Instructions: Yes SSE2 Instructions: No PowerNow! Technology: T-sensor CACHE Tab Level 1 Cache I-Cache Size: 64 KB Associativity: 2-way Line Size: 64 Bytes Number of Lines: 1024 Lines per Way: 512 Cache Check: Disabled D-Cache Size: 64 KB Associativity: 2-way Cache Line Size: 64 Bytes Number of Lines: 1024 Lines per Way: 512 Cache Check: Disabled Level 2 Cache Type: Set-Associative Cache Memory Architecture: Exculsive Cache Size: 256 KB Associativity: 16-way Cache Line Size: 64 Bytes Number of Lines: 4096 Lines per Way: 256 Victim Buffer Size: 512 Bytes Entries: 8 Cacheable Memory: 480 MB L2 Bus Interface: 64 bit Bandwidth: 12.36 GB/s MOBILITY Tab Power Management Features Thermal Trip: No Segment: Desktop Thermal Monitoring: No Thermal Design: 59.30 W Software T-Control: No Thermal Power; 54.35 W (varies up to 55.07 W) Temperature Sensor: Yes Current Temperature: 201 Deg C Core Voltage/Core Frequency Dynamic Control: No Current: 1.646 V Dynamic Control: No Current: 1658.42 MHz (varies) Thermal Power Control C2 Recon. Latency: 1.270 us Default C1 Divisor: 8 Default C2 Divisor: 8 HALT State: Disabled Current C1 Divisor: 8 Current C2 Divisor: 8 STPGNT State: Disabled L1 Cache Checking Machine Check Architecture: Yes Machine Check Exception: Yes Machine Check Capabilities: Enabled on Enable L1 Data and Instruction Caches Checking off Disable L1 Data and Instruction Caches Checking Processor Name Modification Programmable: Yes Current CPU String: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 3100+ New CPU String: Up to 48 characters DRAM Timing Control CAS Latency: 2T Active to Command: 2T Precharge Row Time: 2T Row Cycle Time: Active to Precharge: 5T Row Refresh Cycle: Write Recovery Time: Write to Read Time: </PRE>

9) Message boards : Number crunching : Semperon or Celeron? (Message 53521) Posted 13 Dec 2004 by Stephen Balch Post: @ Grant (SSSF), Thanks for the information, Grant. I'm still confused. Yes, it is an Athlon XP. I haven't done an extensive search on SETI, but,as far as I know, I may be the only one with an Athlon XP 3100+. I've mentioned the processor in several threads where the topic was CPUs, and, while others have mentioned 3000+ and 3200+, nobody has mentioned 3100+. When the machine boots it flashes a message on the screen that I haven't been able to read completely, yet, but it seems to display the string "Athlon XP 31000+". I think it's refering to the CPU. Yes, it does appear to have three zeros before the plus sign. When I get the chance, I'll photograph it so I'll be able to read it. I'll try to find the software you mentioned and run it to see what it says about the MB and CPU. I'm currently using a memory defragmenter called "AMS Fast Defrag 2 Professional". In addition to the memory defrag function, it has a processor display function which shows the CPU and the detected CPU features. It shows: Main Procesror" Athlon XP Model 8 (T-Bred) Processor Speed: 1658MHz The detected features and functions shows L1 Cache 128KB, L2 Cache 256KB, 3DNow (3DNow!) and 3DNow Extensions (3DNow!Ext), Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE), Fast save and restore (FXSR), MMX Technology, 36-bit Page Size Extension (PSE-36), Page Attrib Table (PAT), Conditional Move Inst (CMOV), Machine Check Architecture (MCA), Global Paging Extension (PGE), Machine Type Range Registers (MTRR), SYSENTER SYSEXIT (SEP), On-chip APIC Hardwar, CMPXCHG8 Instruction (CX8), Machine Check Etension (MCE), Physical Address Extension (PAE), Model Specific Registers (MSR), Time Stamp Counter (TSC), Page Size Extension (PSE), Debugging Extension (DE), Virtual Mode Extension (VME), Floating Point Unit (FPU) Now, some of this I understand, but, basically, I'm a software type. I write IBM 360/370 Assembly Language (among other languages), so I understand the cache sizes, Machine Check, FPU, registers, and some other bits. I understand 3DNow and SSE are desirable features to have, although I haven't done any research to find out about them. At one time, years ago, I was an electronic tech, so I have some knowledge about hardware. My first computer was a MITS Altair 8800b (an S-100 bus machine, pre-IBM PC and pre-Apple II) which I built from a kit. You toggled the boot program in using sewitches on the front panel, then loaded the (very pre-DOS, even-pre CPM) OS from audio cassette. It had a whopping 4K (Yes, that's kilobytes) of RAM. Audio tape was THE (and the only) storage medium at the time. You wrote programs in either 8080 Assembly language or in BASIC. Cheers, Stephen

10) Message boards : Number crunching : Boinc@hellas still going strong! (Message 53485) Posted 13 Dec 2004 by Stephen Balch Post: Are you guys saying Timon is a Meerkat, and Timmy is a weasel? (BIG GRIN) Cheers, Stephen

11) Message boards : Number crunching : Semperon or Celeron? (Message 53482) Posted 13 Dec 2004 by Stephen Balch Post: Maybe one of you gentleman can assist me. When my Dell 866MHz PIII died recently, I bought a non-branded computer with an AMD Athlon XP 3100+, L2 Cache is 512KB, running at 1.7 GHz, 512MB RAM. It's on a PCChips K7 motherboard (M825G), apparently with a Socket A 462-pin processor socket, and in a generic case. I could not find any information specifically on the AMD Athlon XP 3100+ on the AMD site but in one of the threads in the fora on the AMD site, I think I saw a reference to this processor as a Sempron. Somewhere else I found something that said this is apparently a 'Barton' core (0.13 micron). I'm just curious, anyone know what this thing really is, and what the specifications are? I works okay for me right now, even when I'm using Photoshop to edit images, it still finds plenty of time to run the BOINC projects. It seems to currently be averaging 4:50 to 5:30 hours:minutes per SETI WU. Cheers, Stephen

12) Message boards : Number crunching : Bug - no work done, granted credit. (Message 53470) Posted 13 Dec 2004 by Stephen Balch Post: @Thentil, There _may_ also still be a display problem that could show the result, on the "Work Unit" page, as has processed for zero seconds. Check the actual work unit record and see what is recorded there. The processing time is calculated to six decimal places, the diplay pages only show it to two decimal places. I don't know how/if they round for the display, but I suspect they truncate at two decimal places rather than round. If I'm worng, someone please correct me. > The following workunits show something interesting. One of the 3 successfull > results in each has had 0 seconds of work and 0 credit requested. ... Cheers, Stephen

13) Message boards : Number crunching : FIVE 'success' results & still pending..? (Message 53455) Posted 13 Dec 2004 by Stephen Balch Post: @Benher, I would think that a design error. If the validator attempts to find a result and cannot, for whatever reason, shouldn't it flag the record containing the status information (or code) displayed on the "Work Unit" page with a "Lost Record" status? It might also save processing time if the validator, or other processes, could interrogate the status of a result record by other than reading the table for the record, but I don't know how the tables are set up, or the time impact this may have. I have no idea how adding a new status to the system would percolate through the rest of the system, but I would suggest this is a change to be serously considered. Even if/when the current server problems are eliminated, or at least reduced considerably, there is always the chance of similar problems occurring again in the future if there is a hardware or database failure like those occurring in the fairly recent past. At the least, setting a "Lost Record" status in the "Work Unit" page data would greatly reduce the complaints I read about "old" results still having a "pending" status. Please pass this suggestion on as appropriate. Cheers, Stephen > My suspicion is that the earlier WU results from the original submitters may > have been eaten by one of the various server problems...when the validater > goes to try and compare results it finds 1 or 2 recent returned results but > the older one(s), the file is missing, and out it goes again. > > No recent file server problems, so when 3 newer arrive on server maybe they > get compared. > > Just a guess really. >

14) Message boards : Number crunching : News From Rom! 12/10/04 (Message 52952) Posted 11 Dec 2004 by Stephen Balch Post: Okay, so I can't spell "opportunity." (GRIN) In my defence, I'm still having problems with my new glasses and it was written in the very early morning, local time. @Lena Stensgaard, Thank you for your kind response. I can really only speak for myself, but it's nice to know others can appreciate what I write. You certainly don't ever have to agree with me, just respect my right to speak my opinion. I don't think you have that much of a problem with English. I've read a number of your posts. You do pretty well, I've seen much worse from those who claim English as a native language. (GRIN) I really don't feel you need to shut down your SETI/BOINC because of the problems others are having, however. We both have only one machine running BOINC and its projects. If we are not experiencing any problems, or creating problems for others by not returning results, then we should keep crunching. We will live through these problems, just as we have lived through other problems with both the BOINC software and the SETI software (and others). "Hang in there,baby!" (Image of a kitten hanging from a limb by its front claws.) I like the BOINC projects because I can make friends, or at least acquaintances, all over the world. I already have several friends in Europe from my killifish hobby and photography interests, but I can always use more. (BIG GRIN) @Bill Zahrt, You may not perceive this as a problem, however, other users do. Read some of the other threads. Some users have results pending from July, many othes have results pending from more recent times. It is frustrating to some users, that they are seeing results with two, or three, or in come cases four or more completed results that are still sitting there in "pending" status. Personally, I will get credits for the work I have done when I get the credits, not before. For what it's worth, I only receive about 55% of the credit (AMD processor, Win98SE) I claim for SETI results; no big deal, I'm not complaining. I am somewhat miffed by the delays caused by people who seem to dump WU's on a regular basis. There is one user, who shall be user-id-less in this message, who collected nine-hundred (900) WU's on a single day on a single host. There is suppposed to be a limit of 50 WU's per day per host. I suspect this was done by multiple resets and the associated dumping of WU's. That would seem to indicate some 850 WU's were just dumped, and some 850 users who will have to wait more than an additional two weeks for their credit. It's still a day or two before these WU's expire. To the best of my knowledge, I have no WU's in that 850, so it really doesn't affect me. This user has downloaded a total of some 1525 WU's downloaded on 4 days in early December, so yes, this is a problem for some. And there does seem to be a problem with "pending" results that have two, apparently valid, results returned, but with download or computation errors on the other WU's that have been sent out, yet the WU has not been resent so we can't even hope to see a quorum on them in the foreseeable future. I do have some of these, but not nearly as many as some other users have reported. I want to return valid results to the projects, and I don't want to delay credits for some of the others who seem to live for their credits. I can see both sides of the issue here. I am not overly concerned with the order in which the results are returned, either. However, if SETI takes the trouble to create the WU's and send them out, we users should take the trouble to process and return the results for the WU's we receive, not just dump WU's in that "great bit bucket in the sky", as it were. I'm waiting for LHC to come back online, and Einstein to open up public account creation, or at least to get an invitation from them to join (I signed up for the e-mail list as soon as I found the project, months ago.) Not to disparage SETI, for which I will always have a desire to perform work, but I'm waiting for the "real" science projects to get up and running. I have always had an interest in physics, astronomy, and cosmology. I have always found them fascinating. That's the direction in which I started, but circumstances have taken me in another direction. Still, I want to contribute what little I can to human knowledge. I hope to make some some small difference. I'm not a "groundhog," I'm one who believes man's future is "out there," not stuck on this "mud-ball." @H P (Mr. Linux) New, Thank you for your kind words, and see my response to Lena, above. I know it's a very, very long shot, and I don't know in what city you live, but you wouldn't happen to know Henri De Bruyn from Schoten (?) would you? And, greetings from near Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S.A. (GRIN) (Lat: 35.62995 N, Lon: 95.95624 W) Cheers, Stephen

15) Message boards : Number crunching : News From Rom! 12/10/04 (Message 52786) Posted 11 Dec 2004 by Stephen Balch Post: @Drweaser, Thanks for responding to the thread. I am not blaming anyone, just trying to point out a problem with some users/computers. It is of concern that some users download many WU's, but never send the results back. This delays the arrival of completed science results, and credit for results processed by other users, well past the expected deadline. Unfortunatly, this seems to be a common problem. Mostly, it seems to be the result of people resetting their projects as a "cure-all" solution for any problem they experience, and that they do so without regard to the problems it creats for others. Yet, there are other reasons for some problems. We just recently pointed out a problem which, Rom has told us, was caused by file-access permissions on some machines, notably on groups of machines with OS's that use file permissions that are set differently for the installer and the user. In those situations, possibly similar to yours, the installer had permission to create/write a file, but the logged-in user did not have permission to write to the file and multiple instance of the machine were created in BOINC. In that case, another school, the user (Mikey2345) is kindly removing the software from all those problem machines until a newer version that will properly handle the problem can be deployed by the BOINC evelopment team. > > Actually I have approximately 75 machines that should be live (but in reality, > only about 55 are active enough during the day - this is a high school). > However, thanks for reminding me I needed to clean up the host list! If you > had looked at my production and RAC you would know all this..... > I don't want to prevent anyone from running BOINC and as many of the projects as they can, on as many machines as they can. Preventing people from running the projects is not, and never has been, my intent. Pointing out possible problems to the BOINC and project development teams is what I am trying to do. BOINC and SETI have been running pretty well for a while, but there are still some small, annoying problems with the projects. @Mikey2345, I haven't had the opportuinty yet to thank you for taking the time, effort and steps necessary to prevent further problems with your machines. Please, as soom as the version that corrects the file permissions problem comes out, install it and start running the projects again. I want to see you back cranking out those results. (GRIN) Cheers, Stephen

16) Message boards : Number crunching : Boinc@hellas still going strong! (Message 52746) Posted 11 Dec 2004 by Stephen Balch Post: But that's not the really interesting part... with all those WU's, and the oldest sent date of 29 Nov 2004 (received date being 1 Dec 2004), I find it interesting that host 392869 was "Created 8 Dec 2004 12:48:31 UTC". The computer received and returned results well over a week before it was created. Now that's FAST, I gotta get several of those computers, number #1, here I come! Seems we may have a violation of the maximum download amounts here, too, unless host 392869 has been reset many, many times, on several days. Boinc@hellas has nine-hundred (900) WU's downloaded (18 times the 50 WU per day maximum) at various times on 2 Dec 2004 (due various times on 16 Dec 2004). He also seems to have something like four-hundred-thirteen (413) WU's downloaded at various times on 3 Dec 2004 (due various times on 17 Dec 2004), eighty-eight (88) WU's downloaded at various times on 6 Dec 2004 (due at various times on 20 Dec 2004), one-hundred and four (124) WU's downloaded at various times on 7 Dec 2004 (due various times on 21 Dec 2004), for that same host, host 392869. No wonder the rest of us can't get credits for the work we have done. I suspect the best part (most?, all?) of some 1525 WU's will not be returned on time, therefore delaying results to other users by yet another two weeks. I doubt any single-CPU computer, especially not a GenuineIntel 731MHz Pentium, will do 900 Results a day. Cheers, Stephen

17) Message boards : Number crunching : 3 success result pending? (Message 52688) Posted 10 Dec 2004 by Stephen Balch Post: @Renato, I didn't really think you were criticizing. My avatar is Richard Feynman, Physicist, 1965 Nobel Laureate in Physics, originator of the "Feynman Diagram," Teacher, safe-cracker, student, drummer, the one who brought forth the evidence of what was really responsible for the Challenger disaster (the o-ring seal, and the NASA bureaucracy), and many other things. My Hero. > > Something completely different: When I saw the first time your picture > (avatar) something inside me said to me:" You know this (excuse me) guy, > but...I don't know whn , where , who..??" > Since you aren't a member of a SETI team, I invite you to join the "Richard Feynman" team ( http://setiweb.ssl.berkeley.edu/team_display.php?teamid=113745 ). The team also exists on LHC@home, Pirates@home, and, eventually, will exist on Einstein@home. You're welcome to join any or all of these teams. Cheers, Stephen

18) Message boards : Cafe SETI : testing vivitar only (Message 52679) Posted 10 Dec 2004 by Stephen Balch Post: Hello, George, from another former Airman (Vietnam War era, the crapped on generation). Some of us do know history. Some of us had brothers who served in the U.S. Army Air Corp in WWII, as you may well have. > > Not many remember those berlin airlift days, I surely appreciate your comment, > thank you. > And with me! (BIG GRIN) > > A vet of the Berlin Airlift has definitely earned several points of slack > > with me. > > Give you a little slack? I only hope I (I'm only 58), and the current generation, can keep up with you guys! > > > You have to give us old people a little slack ha > > Vivitar still makes lenses and strobes (flash units). My first lens was a Vivitar Series I, 80-210mm zoom (Konica mount), one of the best non-prime lenses you coud get at the time. Cheers, Stephen

19) Message boards : Number crunching : 3 success result pending? (Message 52662) Posted 10 Dec 2004 by Stephen Balch Post: @littleBouncer, You're welcome, sir. It's been a long time since I had a class in German, but I can catch some of what is said/written. > > > > @Stephen > > > THX for reply and translation. :-) > Yes, but they do work to solve the problems. I've been a programmer (for almost 30 years). It's not easy to catch all of the bugs, especially with software on systems as diverse as ours. Even major mainframe OS's have a substantial number of critical bugs, some that are never fixed. Look at the list of APARs and PTFs for IBMs OS/MVS/ESA (the last mainframe OS on which I was a Systems Programmer) for example. > It seems seti as a serious problem ; and at this time I had troubbles with the > connection with my provider too. > Not to be too critical, and while Murphy can get pretty low, that probably should be "Murphy's law." (GRIN) > Murphy's low .-( *sad* > > Cheers, Stephen

20) Message boards : Number crunching : Hey, What Happened to My Results? (Message 52481) Posted 9 Dec 2004 by Stephen Balch Post: Readability is a function of contrast. The higher the contrast, the better the readability. Some web sites are almost unreadable because of the lack of contrast. It's like they never try to look at their own site to see how it actually looks. I don't have any problems with the "new result" color, but perhaps a darker green would be better. I like the color coding, but obviously they haven't set it up to show color coding on the older results (see B-Roy's referenced results). Hummm... just as I was posting this, I lost connectivity to SETI@home. I can reach other sites, so it's not me, or my network connection. The connection is back now. If this is double posted, it's not my fault! Cheers, Stephen

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