Posts by Webmaster Yoda

1) Message boards : Number crunching : post milkyway_windows_intelx86 problems here (Message 8891) Posted 23 Jan 2009 by Webmaster Yoda Post: I haven't noticed any problems with this application except for its lack of speed. I have an Intel E4300 running at stock 1.8GHz with 64bit Linux doing work in approx. 25 minutes (with a properly optimised app). Compare that with an overclocked E4300 (2.4GHz) running 32 bit WinXP with the standard app taking around an hour per work unit. At stock speeds (both 1.8GHz) that would be 25 minutes vs. 80 minutes. Far from optimized if you ask me...
2) Message boards : Number crunching : Draining My Q's (Message 5391) Posted 9 Oct 2008 by Webmaster Yoda Post: Apples and oranges as far as I'm concerned. But if we have to compare it to SETI, they have a direct link to their source code, easy to find, so anybody can download it and (provided they know how), work their magic on it. Plus there are sites (and links to sites) that provide optimised applications. So, getting back to Milkyway, you say "The project has allowed 3rd party apps". Where are the links for the source code and faster third party apps for Milkyway? As for validity, yes, I read it the other way around and no, I don't know the answer to that.
3) Message boards : Number crunching : Draining My Q's (Message 5389) Posted 9 Oct 2008 by Webmaster Yoda Post: As for your stated reason (rankings), to each their own I suppose...but as I've pointed out elsewhere, they could achieve the same high RAC by having hundreds of very fast machines, but with them all hidden... I could complain how I don't think it's "fair" that you have 5 active relatively fast machines while I simply don't have money to buy a newer machine. Where does one draw the line on "fairness"? I only mention rankings to highlight how insignificant previously significant contributions have become, compared to those machines running the optimised apps. I didn't say anything about fairness. Put it this way... A week ago, Milkyway handed out approx. 3 million credits a day (per BoincStats). Yesterday, the top two crunchers got nearly that much between them and at least one of those two is using third party apps. So even if everyone else disappeared, the project would still be getting about the same amount of work done. Hence "the project doesn't appear to need me any more." Yes, I agree with your comment about validity of results.
4) Message boards : Number crunching : Draining My Q's (Message 5387) Posted 9 Oct 2008 by Webmaster Yoda Post: I've come to the same conclusion. With a few contributors running an optimised app, the project doesn't appear to need me any more. I was going to hang around until I reached the next big milestone, but it's become pointless. My computers worked hard to get into the top 10, only to be knocked out in a matter of days by one of the optimisers (possibly two of them by the looks of things today). P.S. I am not looking to attack the project admins, nor do I agree with the actions taken by those who have discovered the flaws in the applications' source code. I just feel it's fruitless to continue while my efforts are being overshadowed by people running third party applications.
5) Message boards : Number crunching : Milestones (Message 5344) Posted 7 Oct 2008 by Webmaster Yoda Post: It is not our intention, that everyone now tries to get his own app. What you can and should do is to exert some pressure on the project. Either by supporting us and asking the staff for a substantial improvement of the official app, or just by voting with your feet. I think you've made your point and staff are aware of it per the news on the home page. Anyway, getting off topic, I'll leave it there and will probably leave this project too once I get to 4 million, the hard way
6) Message boards : Number crunching : Milestones (Message 5340) Posted 7 Oct 2008 by Webmaster Yoda Post: So, for the time being, we are going the Shock and Awe route. Meanwhile those of us who have got to the top 10 via the official, scenic route, are dropping out of it as you steam past us. If only I had the source code and knew how to compile it...
7) Message boards : Application Code Discussion : Possible Bug in stPbxConvolved (Message 5334) Posted 7 Oct 2008 by Webmaster Yoda Post: Frankly speaking, considering the code quality, I am surprised there are not more users with an optimized application around. You should hurry with the new version! Yeah, I'd like yours - I can't match the output of your Athlon X2 with more than a dozen cores of mine using the standard app... Glad to see you're not in a team, as it would really upset the balance of team statistics.
8) Message boards : Number crunching : No new WU (Message 3918) Posted 24 Jun 2008 by Webmaster Yoda Post: It happens yet again ! The assimilator is still generating work, are you guys all having trouble getting WUs? Yessir. Similar messages as shown below (got 0 new tasks). Validator is having trouble keeping up/catching up as well.
9) Message boards : Number crunching : Thanks a whole lot! :( (Message 3895) Posted 20 Jun 2008 by Webmaster Yoda Post: I had at least 250 sitting in pending at the time of the clean-up but only got credit for maybe 5 of them since my total only went up a little. Ah well, that's life at alpha projects. Just hope things improve.
10) Message boards : Number crunching : No new WU (Message 3829) Posted 18 Jun 2008 by Webmaster Yoda Post: Judging by what's sitting in pending (!!!) I must have had 256 in the last 6 hours or so. May sound like a lot but it's only 9 per core. So there has been some work, but no credit yet.
11) Message boards : Number crunching : Validation anyone (Message 3826) Posted 18 Jun 2008 by Webmaster Yoda Post: Seems to me your server does not want to multi-task... I don't know what the problem is - whether the server is under-powered or poorly configured but it sure is annoying that when there is work again, everything is now going into pending because the validator isn't doing its job. I don't think it's a matter of backlog either since not a single result I have returned in the last few hours has been validated and stats sites (like Free-DC) show hardly any credit issued on this project in the last update.
12) Message boards : Number crunching : Best completion times (Message 3821) Posted 18 Jun 2008 by Webmaster Yoda Post: Xeon X3350 @ 3.6 GHz, DDR2/1066 at 900MHz (4-4-4-12). 64bit Ubuntu Hardy Down to 129-130 seconds now. Doesn't beat the 7.7 seconds on the X5365 mentioned in the previous post but I think that one is probably mis-reporting the CPU time.
13) Message boards : Number crunching : No new WU (Message 3712) Posted 10 Jun 2008 by Webmaster Yoda Post: Well exams are over. But it's summer break. And I don't know about Travis, but I have a full time job that occupies me 9 hours a day, so i have trouble checking. I have notified Travis about the problem and I hope it's all fixed soon. Perhaps it's worthy of a front page announcement like "The project is on holidays until (date). Please come back after the break"
14) Message boards : Number crunching : Best completion times (Message 3669) Posted 6 Jun 2008 by Webmaster Yoda Post: Xeon X3350 @ 3.5ghz, DDR2/800@436MHz Ubuntu 8.04 64 bit, BOINC 5.10.45, approx. 142 seconds Hope to get some DDR2/1066 soon to push it a little harder!
15) Message boards : Number crunching : No Work (Message 3663) Posted 5 Jun 2008 by Webmaster Yoda Post: The database crashed the other night, and it's extremely overloaded. I've been running a purge so it's going to be a bit slow until thats done (4 days and counting deleting WUs from the database). Would the purge finish quicker if you took the project down for a few hours? I can't speak for everyone else, but I'd rather have the project not available for a few hours, after which it runs smoothly, then it not issuing work one minute, not validating the next, and so on in a vicious circle
16) Message boards : Number crunching : Best completion times (Message 3656) Posted 4 Jun 2008 by Webmaster Yoda Post: I'm more than likely going to switch my AMD's to Linux, too. But, my Q6600 is already on Linux and is running slower than my AMD's on Windows. That doesn't make sense. Do you have a 64bit BOINC Client installed on it? It's not overheating (and thus throttling)? The CPU does tend to get hotter when running in 64bit mode.
17) Message boards : Number crunching : Validation anyone (Message 3628) Posted 1 Jun 2008 by Webmaster Yoda Post: Some would be nice ;-) pretty please It looks like the validator is working again, but struggling to catch up. My pending list has grown from 1,200 to nearly 2,000 in the last hour or two, but I have seen some movement in total credit.
18) Message boards : Number crunching : No Work (Message 3625) Posted 1 Jun 2008 by Webmaster Yoda Post: yep the assimalator is not assimilating! Looks like it is now as there's work coming through, but is the validator validating? Seems every WU is going into pending at the moment (and staying there). I've got over 1,200 results waiting to be validated (and growing by the minute)
19) Message boards : Number crunching : Problem with new W/Us (Message 3607) Posted 30 May 2008 by Webmaster Yoda Post: Am still getting the odd one or two here (just aborted one less than a minute ago) so it doesn't look like whatever Travis has done to try and get rid of them is working 100%. FWIW, they are all re-issues - perhaps there's a way (at the server end) to stop these from being re-issued? At this rate the problem will not go away for quite some time, especially if the work units end up going to unattended/unmonitored Linux hosts. EDIT: had to abort two more (freshly downloaded) within minutes of posting
20) Message boards : Number crunching : Best completion times (Message 3596) Posted 30 May 2008 by Webmaster Yoda Post: iMac G3/333MHz tray loader, OSX 10.3, 4805 sec. C Hmm, I thought I'd be able to top (or bottom) that with my 300MHz Celeron (Covington, no L2 cache) with Ubuntu Hardy (command line). No luck - it took 3,982.77 seconds. Might have to try the kids' 166MHz Pentium MMX... Nah!

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