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Profile Paul D. Buck

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Message 29927 - Posted: 30 Aug 2009, 4:22:19 UTC

Snow Leopard, the latest version of OS-X is out. So I bought a copy, and to give the devil a chance I also got an upgrade copy of MS Vista Ultimate. I then spent the time to upgrade two machines. I had a number of goals in mind, one of which was to increase my contribution to MW again by restarting the use of my ATI card. So, here are my observations of what happened.

First, I would like to note that I have not be about much lately and may not be again depending on my reserves. But, I thought it might be nice to make some observations that may be of use to someone.

Second, I would like to re-thank CP and Crunch3r for their efforts for BOINC and MW with their code submissions. My observations should not be at all taken to mean that I do not appreciate the efforts or recognize the good that comes from these efforts.

The install of Snow Leopard was first and it was flawless. I started about quarter to four and by 5 I was in the migration phase. That took till about 6-6:30 (about 200G of data including 25,103 music files and podcasts) and to this moment I have not found a flaw in the migration. Most of the running applications and internal processes are now all 64-bit versions. The Finder seems to be a little faster though it is too soon to say if it is more stable. I have noted that a couple minor bugs (preview "Zoom to fit" button doesn't). A little to early to say what this version will give me but nothing major has shown up as a problem ...

The install of Vista could not have been more different. First of all I had to re-install a version of XP before I could even start. Worse, because it was an upgrade, I could not manage to get the 64bit version to admit that it could be installed. From both XP and Vista 32 the 64 bit installer refused to start. The computer is capable of running 64 bit Vista, but I can't seem to get the installer to start. The suggestion to boot from the CD also does not work. Oh, well ...

I do have vista 32 bit installed and running. As others have noted it does nag a lot about "are you sure?" And lots of things seem to have been gratuitously moved from where you find them in XP. So, finding how to do some minor things is more annoying. As a contrast SL has not moved anything from where I would have expected to find them (though I have had to make some minor changes to add my prior customizations).

In any case I installed BOINC 6.10.1 and I did install the ATI 8.12 driver and then spent several hours fiddling with settings (again) and still don't have an adequately operating system (yet). I am not going to bore people (yet) with all the settings I have tried. But, I am running only two projects MW and WCG on this system with a Q9300 (4 cores) and a single ATI HD4870.

I set the app_info to run only one task, yet I can have upwards of 20 tasks listed as running, only one of which is actually being processing. I have the cc_config to run 4 ncpus and as I am watching I have one MW task running and two WCG. A couple hours ago I had 4 WCG running and no MW.

Now to the part where 90% are going to work real hard to misunderstand what I am saying ... :)

I suspect that the issue is that though the ATI card is now recognized by BOINC as a co-processor (bugs noted by Crunch3r in the other thread not withstanding) the app_info file actually makes BOINC treat it as a CPU side system.

I know CP said he was going to work on the code and send it off to MW to have it become an "official" application and I do not know where that effort is (as in, how far along it is)... and I suspect until and unless that happens we will continue to see this kind of issue ...

Well, just a quick set of observations, without too many details to bore those that don't like long posts ... :)
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Message 29932 - Posted: 30 Aug 2009, 8:02:55 UTC

You are not meant to upgrade from 32 bit windows to a 64 bit version without a full wipe/reinstall.

You can stop it 'nagging' by turning off User Account Control in Control Panel -> User Accounts.

BOINC displaying 'running' on all GPU tasks is normal even though only {however many you set in config} will be actually running.
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Message 29933 - Posted: 30 Aug 2009, 8:11:41 UTC - in response to Message 29927.  

I set the app_info to run only one task, yet I can have upwards of 20 tasks listed as running, only one of which is actually being processing. I have the cc_config to run 4 ncpus and as I am watching I have one MW task running and two WCG. A couple hours ago I had 4 WCG running and no MW.

Now to the part where 90% are going to work real hard to misunderstand what I am saying ... :)

I suspect that the issue is that though the ATI card is now recognized by BOINC as a co-processor (bugs noted by Crunch3r in the other thread not withstanding) the app_info file actually makes BOINC treat it as a CPU side system.

I know CP said he was going to work on the code and send it off to MW to have it become an "official" application and I do not know where that effort is (as in, how far along it is)... and I suspect until and unless that happens we will continue to see this kind of issue ...

Well, just a quick set of observations, without too many details to bore those that don't like long posts ... :)

Have you added the necessary lines to the app_info.xml that BOINC schedules the ATI app as an GPU application as described here?

Actually it works quite well here (but I'm using a 6.4.7 client compiled by Crunch3r with the changes and not the official 6.10.1) after on adds a few lines to the app_info.xml (otherwise there is no difference to the old behaviour). For the 6.10.1 you should insert the following before the line with the arguments for the app (<cmdline></cmdline>):

<coproc>
<type>ATI</type>
<count>0.5</count> ; <= schedules 2 WUs per GPU to run
</coproc>
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Profile Paul D. Buck

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Message 29936 - Posted: 30 Aug 2009, 9:56:08 UTC

CP,

I have not been following the discussions here (or anywhere else for that matter) due to health ... so I missed the suggestion. I will note that it would be nice if the changes to the zslip downloads were changed to have the new options.

As I posted in another thread I did make changes such as you noted.

Now if I could only get enough work ... :)

Back to the complaint that there is not enough work to go around ... :)

Or I am just not getting more than my share.

Laviuathan,

In that I was doing a wipe install for vista 32, in fact to what was initially an empty disk. I suspect that the issue is that MS decided that you should not be able to do a conversion install to drive up their revenues.

When 7 comes out I will see if it will let me do a conversion install (or not) and if I like 7 I may consider getting a full copy of 7 and use the disks to make the conversion install at that time. It is not a big deal, it was just I wanted to see if the 64 bit version was better or worse than the 32 bit version.

I know I can turn off the nagging, though as others have pointed out then you are back to being very unsafe. In that I don't really use the windows systems for anything other than BOINC it is not going to be a long term big deal. Just like I have not pressing need to upgrade other than to move to 64 bits so I can have access to more memory (on my smallest system I have 4G and on the rest I have 6 ... though the system I actually use to do work has 16G and is a mac ... :)

I know that only the one task (in my case) was running, but it is annoying to see many of the tasks running up the clocks (though it does not matter in the end)... it is the esthetics of the thing. No matter, it looks like with 6.10.1 and the additional options it is working as I would have expected.
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Message 29937 - Posted: 30 Aug 2009, 10:14:44 UTC
Last modified: 30 Aug 2009, 10:15:13 UTC

> just not getting more than my share.

Server probs again, no new work for me either.
Cheers,

PeterV

.
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Profile Paul D. Buck

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Message 29944 - Posted: 30 Aug 2009, 11:28:21 UTC - in response to Message 29937.  

> just not getting more than my share.

Server probs again, no new work for me either.


0 available.

The good news such as it is (at least for me) is that I got about 20K CS from the one day I was getting work. My recollection is that work on weekends is difficult to get at best. Even better if I can keep this working I can have the 3 projects I am focusing on at the moment running and running up scores ...

With luck in two weeks I should have my first Sapphire badge in WCG and a continuation of my growth in GPU Grid and a resumption of MW work... even better in 60 days I may be able to have 4 Sapphire badges and all but three projects at Emerald (and two of those are closed already).

Anyway ... in the morning maybe one of the project guys will fire up the work generator again ...
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Message 29964 - Posted: 30 Aug 2009, 16:07:31 UTC

I fear the real "fun" will begin when the public at large realizes that there is not a direct upgrade path from XP to 7. From a support stand point, it's already been a pain in the ankle, two joints up.
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Profile Martin Chartrand
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Message 29965 - Posted: 30 Aug 2009, 17:07:44 UTC - in response to Message 29964.  

I am still at XP. I am happy I waited. Soon I will have to redo my system and give a shot to 7.

Martin
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Message 29981 - Posted: 30 Aug 2009, 21:10:57 UTC - in response to Message 29964.  

I fear the real "fun" will begin when the public at large realizes that there is not a direct upgrade path from XP to 7. From a support stand point, it's already been a pain in the ankle, two joints up.

First I heard of this.

If true (and I don't doubt your word) then Apple has another topic for their ads. Though you cannot run Snow Leopard on the G4/G5 Power PC class machines, you can go from Tiger or Leopard to Snow Leopard.

I have not found any "Oh, My Gosh!" items in the upgrade, but it "feels" more solid and it just works... so, I am happy with the change.

The Vista machine is also cranking on, though I truly do not see anything compelling there either. I mean, I can run 6.10.1 on the XP boxes and they are cranking along very well...

Well, when it comes time and I feel the pressure to upgrade I will still be able to migrate the machines one at a time. No need to rush to 7 unless my expirimental upgrade shows me something that is compelling about 7 that I don't know about yet. If I can get to 64 bits and that does show faster processing I may consider a faster changeover, but, again, no rush ... :)
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Message 29986 - Posted: 30 Aug 2009, 22:42:24 UTC - in response to Message 29981.  

You can become very good at moving your files and settings from one computer to another. I have built computers for a lot of family members and that often involves transfer or recovery of their data and settings. I recently transitioned and retired one of my own old computers (not one of my 'primary computers') which had a 5 year old windows install and about 350GB of data accumulated (not much compared to my newer two computers, ~3500). It took a long time not because of the large amount of files (its easy to sort/find all your files with a program like Spacemonger) but because of all the programs installed and configured how I like them. Luckily if you keep your install files for everything you ever install that will reduce the drama associated with reinstalling everything.

It sounds like some people in this thread would've benefited from the Windows 7 beta and RTM releases which were free and would've let you try it. I think now that it is too late to register and IIRC the RTM actually ends soon too. I installed the beta on a server and it was an amazingly smooth and bug-free experience.

I am very impressed with vista on my main machine however I will be tempted to purchase Windows 7 and a bunch of SSD drives for it, once it is released, as it performs even better than vista (and is SSD optimised).


I know I can turn off the nagging, though as others have pointed out then you are back to being very unsafe. In that I don't really use the windows systems for anything other than BOINC it is not going to be a long term big deal. Just like I have not pressing need to upgrade other than to move to 64 bits so I can have access to more memory (on my smallest system I have 4G and on the rest I have 6 ... though the system I actually use to do work has 16G and is a mac ... :)


I feel the need to have a rant which is not specifically directed at anyone in particular.

The supposed risks of turning off UAC are debatable especially in some situations. There is no reason to leave UAC on if:

-It annoys you, and:
-You are experienced with the operation of computers (as I suspect most here are) and, you are careful about the installation of dodgey software, spyware, virus, trojans, etc. (Have another computer to test such software if necessary)
-Your computer is in a home environment with a secure local network (ie no unsecured wifi, or physical access points)
-You use firefox (:P)
-The computer in question is secure in terms of people who could use it. ie. you dont have children or siblings who look at suspicious things or might allow the installation of nasties
-You have all the updates to Windows and software, where reasonable
-You perform regular, and complete backups which are stored securely (ie. not a USB HDD sitting plugged-in ontop of your computer, but instead kept in a safe or at another residence, etc)
-You have a modern and reasonably configurable hardware firewall

Similarly to disabling UAC, I am so confident with the above precautions that I also dont run any (live scanning) antivirus, spyware/adware scanner or software firewall on some of my computers. Your probably thinking "BLASPHEMY!" if your still reading this. But it is easy enough to setup a computer and VNC (if your too lazy to move to that computer :P) it to scan for such things. In fact, if I were to download a suspect file on this computer it only need be cut/paste temporarily to a computer with live-scanning (or saved there in the first place). This is actually easier than starting up the antivirus service and then performing a manual scan (NOD32).

Call me crazy if you want but by following the above I have gotten through (mostly unscathed) about 8 years of computing without any serious issues (like being hacked or having my information stolen) or losing large amounts of data. This pretty good since I have always undertaken relatively risky computer activities in my spare time such as going to LAN parties where virus (and the risk of physical computer damage) are rampant. The only significant issue I have encountered was the recent loss of about 30gb of easily-re-downloadable media which was lost when one my four 500GB drives in raid 0 decided to randomly write inconsistent data during a BSOD which occurred while benchmarking (running vista with such an array and with Advanced Performance mode enabled is pushing the limits of performance-vs-safety) - but in my opinion worth it.

Some benefits to not running live-scanning or software firewalls:

-Significant performance gains especially while gaming and loading of the OS
-Reduced risk of hard drive failure thanks to reduced read/write operations due to having no live scanning taking place (eg, NOD32, per day, reads up to 25GB per day during normal operation on my computers if it is enabled). Despite this I have still had my fair share of drive failures so do not assume I have just been lucky. I am fully aware of the sensitive nature of hard drives - I throw out SCSI drives (related to my other hobbies) at a rate of at least one per week.
-No nagging prompts, eg from UAC - or worse - software firewalls: "windows service #325235 has requested an outbound connection to 192...." etc messages. The usefulness of software firewalls in the first place is debatable since most users cannot interpret if the prompts are due to normal computer operation or a malicious activity.
-No problems with network connectivity, sharing files, or with programs accessing the internet


In regards to 64-bit and memory: I run 64-bit Vista and 4GB of DDR3 RAM at 1600MHz. Once you tweak vista 64's registry to disable its ridiculous driver checking schemes and turn off UAC it becomes a great experience. People who claim vista is slow should reconsider their specifications or at least give Windows 7 a try if they've since been led to assume that all new Windows software is slow.

Unfortunately, although I would like to double my ram to 8GB, due to a arbitrary hardware incompatibility and stability problem; my motherboard does not support a full compliment of 4 DIMMs of the specific memory I use.

I also note that your 'work' system has 16GB of RAM. This leads me to assume that the rest of this conversation could be slightly biased against Windows, since I assume you are some kind of artist/editor/designer and thus are inherently drawn to MACs since they have rightfully claimed that niche part of the market.


I need breakfast.(/End rant)[/list]
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Message 29991 - Posted: 30 Aug 2009, 23:47:07 UTC

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2238
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Profile Paul D. Buck

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Message 29997 - Posted: 31 Aug 2009, 0:18:53 UTC - in response to Message 29986.  

I also note that your 'work' system has 16GB of RAM. This leads me to assume that the rest of this conversation could be slightly biased against Windows, since I assume you are some kind of artist/editor/designer and thus are inherently drawn to MACs since they have rightfully claimed that niche part of the market.


I was an engineer. Now I am a disabled ... :)

I got my first mac because I was a little tired of the endless windows problems (I started with 2.11 and I still have 95, Me, 98, and others) and liked my dual G5 so much that I got the intel based Mac Pro with dual Xeons and at the moment it is my primary workstation.

The only reason I am biased against windows is that it has earned my ire, were it as stable as OS-X I would still be using it as my primary tool. Maybe Windows Vista or 7 is that holy grail, though I doubt it. It seems to me that Vista *IS* slower in response than XP Pro to many events.
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Message 29999 - Posted: 31 Aug 2009, 0:21:08 UTC - in response to Message 29991.  

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2238


In summary, turn off everything that is supposed to make Vista, um, er, Vista ...

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Message 30022 - Posted: 31 Aug 2009, 14:33:56 UTC - in response to Message 29999.  
Last modified: 31 Aug 2009, 14:44:27 UTC

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2238


In summary, turn off everything that is supposed to make Vista, um, er, Vista ...




lol yes, turn off UAC, animate windows when min/max, superfetch in services, install servicepack 2 and turn off system restore is what i do right off the bat.

i see no reason to go back to xp, hated 98, xp was great in its day but starting to look dated compared to vista and max os.

just my two cents
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Message 30027 - Posted: 31 Aug 2009, 15:07:26 UTC - in response to Message 30022.  

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2238


In summary, turn off everything that is supposed to make Vista, um, er, Vista ...




lol yes, turn off UAC, animate windows when min/max, superfetch in services, install servicepack 2 and turn off system restore is what i do right off the bat.

i see no reason to go back to xp, hated 98, xp was great in its day but starting to look dated compared to vista and max os.

just my two cents

grayhoose, can you elaborate that a little, more (eg, how to superfetch in services). I'm stuck with a Vista host that I'd like to, errr, get working if possible. One of the tips I got was to restore the desktop to Classic Themes. Anything else?



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Message 30039 - Posted: 31 Aug 2009, 17:36:58 UTC - in response to Message 30027.  

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2238


In summary, turn off everything that is supposed to make Vista, um, er, Vista ...




lol yes, turn off UAC, animate windows when min/max, superfetch in services, install servicepack 2 and turn off system restore is what i do right off the bat.

i see no reason to go back to xp, hated 98, xp was great in its day but starting to look dated compared to vista and max os.

just my two cents

grayhoose, can you elaborate that a little, more (eg, how to superfetch in services). I'm stuck with a Vista host that I'd like to, errr, get working if possible. One of the tips I got was to restore the desktop to Classic Themes. Anything else?




You could always install linux :D

Personally, I love my macs, and can't imagine what it would take for me to go back to windows.
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Message 30048 - Posted: 31 Aug 2009, 20:17:56 UTC - in response to Message 30027.  

@Ice, sorry if i wasn't clear, its disable superfetch - per "PCSTATS"

"The Vista Superfetch feature is an interesting one. In theory, your

Vista PC will 'learn' your typical activities in terms of file and

application access, then preconfigure the most commonly used apps in its

memory on startup, making them much faster to access. In practice, this

works very well on computers with 2GB or more of memory, but leads to a

lot of disk thrashing and sluggishness on systems below the magic 2GB

line. If you are not happy with the startup speed of your Vista machine,

why not try disabling the Superfetch feature?"

To stop and disable Vista Superfetch:

Go to the 'start' menu and type 'services' in the search bar. Hit Enter.

In the services window, scroll down until you reach the 'superfetch'

service. Right click and choose 'properties.'

Change the 'startup type' dropdown box to 'disabled' and click the 'stop'

button to stop the service.

Hit 'OK'."

and to take the load off of the vid card i go start, right click computer

click properties, click advance sys settings on the left, in the

performance box click settings and uncheck:

animate windows when min/max
fade or slide menus
fade or slide tooltips
fade out menu items
both show shadows
show translucent selection rec
show contents while dragging
slide open combo boxes
smooth edges
smooth-scroll list

if thats not enough uncheck enable transparent glass

or just do windows vista basic. (I dont like classic)

i know this is a long winded post but unchecking animate windows will

seem to give the fastest apparent speed increase, the other stuff is eye

candy you wont notice

p.s. i dont claim to be a pc god....just an advanced nOOb

p.p.s. anything else please let me know

Mark
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Message 30053 - Posted: 31 Aug 2009, 21:44:34 UTC - in response to Message 30039.  

You could always install linux :D

Personally, I love my macs, and can't imagine what it would take for me to go back to windows.

Well, I changed from Linux to Windows because I could not get the ATI card to work under Linux... don't bother telling me it is easy ... it wasn't...

If it works for you, cool, did not work for me. If it was not the driver not compiling, or working after it compiled, it was the inability to copy files where they needed to go and get permissions right ... and I don't recall what else...

As cruddy as windows is for working, I only run BOINC on it and that works well enough and I can get things to work most of the time (right now I can't seem to get MW work though; of course that may be due to the bugs Crunch3r mentioned)...

Well, I will reattach to Collatz, at least I was getting work ... :)

Last point, I use a mac for my real work ...
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Message 30056 - Posted: 31 Aug 2009, 22:48:13 UTC - in response to Message 30039.  

You could always install linux :D

Personally, I love my macs, and can't imagine what it would take for me to go back to windows.

Maybe one day I'll take the plunge with linux, but the prospect of the learning curve is giving me a headache already :p


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Message 30057 - Posted: 31 Aug 2009, 22:50:11 UTC - in response to Message 30048.  

p.s. i dont claim to be a pc god....just an advanced nOOb

You don't have to be a god to give out some useful advice. I'm trying out your tweeks, and so far they look pretty useful. Thanks for that Mark.


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