Hello everyone,

I wanted to apologize for the recent server issues. The migration brought unforeseen challenges, particularly with DNS changes. As a newcomer to server management and BOINC projects, I've been on a steep learning curve to transition this project to a new server.

As mentioned in a previous post, and reiterated here, we have set up a temporary DNS entry for milkyway-new that now points to the server. The changes will take some time to become effective (I don't have a specific timeline, but I'm closely monitoring the process). This update will allow for downloading older work units linked to milkyway-new and uploading completed ones.

I'm immensely grateful to all the volunteers who have suggested fixes and assisted others with client-side issues. Your contributions have significantly accelerated problem-solving during this server migration. I can't thank you enough for your support.

To those who have voiced frustrations, I apologize for any shortcomings in my expertise. I recognize the value of the computing time you generously volunteer and understand your desire for acknowledgment of your contributions. I encourage you to continue sharing your concerns, as long as they are respectful. Destructive or derogatory comments don't contribute constructively to our project. We aim to foster a positive environment at MilkyWay@home for everyone passionate about science and distributed computing, free from unnecessary negativity.

One common concern has been the need for better communication. Despite my efforts to preemptively share updates, it appears more is needed. I would like to improve in this area. I'm considering regular updates (weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly) and would appreciate your thoughts on this. Please share your ideas in the comments on how I could improve communication.

On a related note, we are excited to announce that we're currently developing a new version of the n-body code. This upgrade will allow for the fitting of additional parameters, such as orbit parameters, along with other minor improvements. We anticipate implementing these changes in the coming weeks.
Additionally, we are making plans to reintroduce support for Mac users. More details will be provided as soon as we have further information.

Once again, I apologize for the recent issues with MilkyWay@home and am very thankful for your patience.

Best regards,
Kevin

Hello Kevin,

My name is George Generke, Co-Administrator of GPU Users Group, and I would like to thank you for stepping up and trying to resurrect the MilkyWay project. I realize that you have a large learning curve to deal with, but I'm sure that you will get it sorted out eventually.

Also, I would like to add that we in GPU Users Group are not complainers or do we provide unwanted feedback to MilkyWay as you refer to others that have done so. It is unfortunate, but myself and the rest of my teammates are on your side and will do what we can to help if need be.

As for your comment about "the need for better communication", I'll give you my thoughts since you asked.

I think that communication is important and I hope that you can live up to your goals that you are setting. As you work though the challenges of getting things set to right, so to speak, I think at least a little blurb about once per week would be good so that we and other members/crunchers of MilkyWay can see your attempted progress. As it comes about when you make progress towards your goals, I think that you could re-schedule your time to a more lenient time frame of maybe once per month, if for no other reason than to say "all's well".

One thing that so many of us crunchers on MilkyWay were sad to see go was the ending of GPU tasks. Many of us, including those in GPU Users Group, miss that. It did cause many to switch to a different project. Are there any plans in the future of bringing GPU tasks back to life? I think I speak for all those that do and did MilkyWay that we would welcome it back again.

Once again, I would like to give you a warm welcome and say thank you for stepping up and making the progress in learning the ways of BOINC and getting the new server online. THANK YOU!

Best regards,

George Generke

Hello everyone,

One common concern has been the need for better communication. Despite my efforts to preemptively share updates, it appears more is needed. I would like to improve in this area. I'm considering regular updates (weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly) and would appreciate your thoughts on this. Please share your ideas in the comments on how I could improve communication.

Once again, I apologize for the recent issues with MilkyWay@home and am very thankful for your patience.

Best regards,
Kevin

---

George

Hello Kevin,

My name is George Generke, Co-Administrator of GPU Users Group, and I would like to thank you for stepping up and trying to resurrect the MilkyWay project. I realize that you have a large learning curve to deal with, but I'm sure that you will get it sorted out eventually.

Also, I would like to add that we in GPU Users Group are not complainers or do we provide unwanted feedback to MilkyWay as you refer to others that have done so. It is unfortunate, but myself and the rest of my teammates are on your side and will do what we can to help if need be.

As for your comment about "the need for better communication", I'll give you my thoughts since you asked.

I think that communication is important and I hope that you can live up to your goals that you are setting. As you work though the challenges of getting things set to right, so to speak, I think at least a little blurb about once per week would be good so that we and other members/crunchers of MilkyWay can see your attempted progress. As it comes about when you make progress towards your goals, I think that you could re-schedule your time to a more lenient time frame of maybe once per month, if for no other reason than to say "all's well".

One thing that so many of us crunchers on MilkyWay were sad to see go was the ending of GPU tasks. Many of us, including those in GPU Users Group, miss that. It did cause many to switch to a different project. Are there any plans in the future of bringing GPU tasks back to life? I think I speak for all those that do and did MilkyWay that we would welcome it back again.

Once again, I would like to give you a warm welcome and say thank you for stepping up and making the progress in learning the ways of BOINC and getting the new server online. THANK YOU!

Best regards,

George Generke

Hello everyone,

One common concern has been the need for better communication. Despite my efforts to preemptively share updates, it appears more is needed. I would like to improve in this area. I'm considering regular updates (weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly) and would appreciate your thoughts on this. Please share your ideas in the comments on how I could improve communication.

Once again, I apologize for the recent issues with MilkyWay@home and am very thankful for your patience.

Best regards,
Kevin

My thought is a thread that does not allow replies, ie an Admin posting thread only, where you can post the goings on as well as any problems, upgrades, fixes etc but not have them get lost in the 1000 replies. I think a weekly posting would be enough unless like right now there are some problems and it would be helpful to post more often as it evolves into it's final solution. You can always post in the regular Forums as well and follow them as the posts about your post get posted. Boinc Projects tend to have people who know alot about Boinc and then alot of 'newbies' with the people in between that often just looking for 'why did it stop working when it was 2 days ago' people.

Hello Kevin,

My name is George Generke, Co-Administrator of GPU Users Group, and I would like to thank you for stepping up and trying to resurrect the MilkyWay project. I realize that you have a large learning curve to deal with, but I'm sure that you will get it sorted out eventually.

Also, I would like to add that we in GPU Users Group are not complainers or do we provide unwanted feedback to MilkyWay as you refer to others that have done so. It is unfortunate, but myself and the rest of my teammates are on your side and will do what we can to help if need be.

As for your comment about "the need for better communication", I'll give you my thoughts since you asked.

I think that communication is important and I hope that you can live up to your goals that you are setting. As you work though the challenges of getting things set to right, so to speak, I think at least a little blurb about once per week would be good so that we and other members/crunchers of MilkyWay can see your attempted progress. As it comes about when you make progress towards your goals, I think that you could re-schedule your time to a more lenient time frame of maybe once per month, if for no other reason than to say "all's well".

One thing that so many of us crunchers on MilkyWay were sad to see go was the ending of GPU tasks. Many of us, including those in GPU Users Group, miss that. It did cause many to switch to a different project. Are there any plans in the future of bringing GPU tasks back to life? I think I speak for all those that do and did MilkyWay that we would welcome it back again.

Once again, I would like to give you a warm welcome and say thank you for stepping up and making the progress in learning the ways of BOINC and getting the new server online. THANK YOU!

Best regards,

George Generke

Hello everyone,

One common concern has been the need for better communication. Despite my efforts to preemptively share updates, it appears more is needed. I would like to improve in this area. I'm considering regular updates (weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly) and would appreciate your thoughts on this. Please share your ideas in the comments on how I could improve communication.

Once again, I apologize for the recent issues with MilkyWay@home and am very thankful for your patience.

Best regards,
Kevin

My thought is a thread that does not allow replies, ie an Admin posting thread only, where you can post the goings on as well as any problems, upgrades, fixes etc but not have them get lost in the 1000 replies. I think a weekly posting would be enough unless like right now there are some problems and it would be helpful to post more often as it evolves into it's final solution. You can always post in the regular Forums as well and follow them as the posts about your post get posted. Boinc Projects tend to have people who know alot about Boinc and then alot of 'newbies' with the people in between that often just looking for 'why did it stop working when it was 2 days ago' people.

As a long time BOINC user...I've seen the headaches that go with transitions and loss of people.
I have been so busy in real life I haven't had the time to notice you transitioned until I got a new URL notice.
Now I understand why my tasks page is so goofed up with error messages. Everything moved.

I am with mikey. Create an admin only page for your announcements and then a new thread for discussion. That way we can see your announcements in the clear.

Keep up the good work!

With the change of servers, there is a lot missing.
I am not seeing any credits showing up, when I go look at my tasks, they are all pending validation. If I click on the work unit, the system says it can not find the work unit.

When will this be fixed?

With the change of servers, there is a lot missing.
I am not seeing any credits showing up, when I go look at my tasks, they are all pending validation. If I click on the work unit, the system says it can not find the work unit.

When will this be fixed?

In your case never because those tasks are gpu tasks and they are no longer available at MilkyWay, ONLY cpu tasks are available at MilkyWay now,. Actually not long after you finished those tasks and probably why you never got a wingman they said in the thread where they stopped sending them out that they were no longer needed and that they had enough data to write the paper that was the whole point of the gpu tasks. Now George found a thread a few days ago sayig that they MAY bring them back again in the future, along with hopefully an app for Mac pc's but there is NO timeline at all.

The reason you have no credits is because you have just now started running the cpu tasks that will provide those credits.

With the change of servers, there is a lot missing.
I am not seeing any credits showing up, when I go look at my tasks, they are all pending validation. If I click on the work unit, the system says it can not find the work unit.

When will this be fixed?

In your case never because those tasks are gpu tasks and they are no longer available at MilkyWay, ONLY cpu tasks are available at MilkyWay now,. Actually not long after you finished those tasks and probably why you never got a wingman they said in the thread where they stopped sending them out that they were no longer needed and that they had enough data to write the paper that was the whole point of the gpu tasks. Now George found a thread a few days ago sayig that they MAY bring them back again in the future, along with hopefully an app for Mac pc's but there is NO timeline at all.

The reason you have no credits is because you have just now started running the cpu tasks that will provide those credits.

Ah..thanks Mikey. I have been to busy to follow the news. I thought it was just Nbody that got killed a long time ago, not this GPU stuff. Oh well.

With the change of servers, there is a lot missing.
I am not seeing any credits showing up, when I go look at my tasks, they are all pending validation. If I click on the work unit, the system says it can not find the work unit.

When will this be fixed?

In your case never because those tasks are gpu tasks and they are no longer available at MilkyWay, ONLY cpu tasks are available at MilkyWay now,. Actually not long after you finished those tasks and probably why you never got a wingman they said in the thread where they stopped sending them out that they were no longer needed and that they had enough data to write the paper that was the whole point of the gpu tasks. Now George found a thread a few days ago sayig that they MAY bring them back again in the future, along with hopefully an app for Mac pc's but there is NO timeline at all.

The reason you have no credits is because you have just now started running the cpu tasks that will provide those credits.

Ah..thanks Mikey. I have been to busy to follow the news. I thought it was just Nbody that got killed a long time ago, not this GPU stuff. Oh well.

No problem we can't follow everything these days!!

Hello everyone,

Thank you for the responses. Now that classes are out, I can put more time into implementing some of the changes you have requested.
Namely:
- admin only update thread (not easily done and I will have to change the code in order to make this work unless someone knows of an easy way to do this)
- getting rid of the PHP warnings that are coming up in the WU pages (I will be able to do this after I make sure the warnings are not affecting anything)
- getting Mac support
- adding the special user badge for those that had it before

As for GPU support, there were some talks about users maybe looking into getting that supported again. The current code is outdated and not any faster than the CPU code.
Supporting this code on our end is not really possible at the moment so there are no plans as of now to get GPU support for N-body.

A new version of the N-body code is in the process of being tested. We hope to be able to release this new code early next year after testing is concluded.

Let me know if there are any other changes or improvements I could make with the project.

Thank you,
Kevin

Kevin,

A quick thought regarding "Admin only" threads -- if there's a facility that lets Admins lock threads you could create a thread with an initial message then pin it and lock it. When you need to add to it, unlock, post your next message and lock it again. This would, of course, need testing in case a locked thread can't be unlocked again :-)

If someone manages to post to the thread anyway, just delete what they post (possibly after copying it to a more appropriate place?) The first message would, as suggested elsewhere, include information on where to discuss the topic of that message, so such action seems fair :-)

Cheers - Al.

Kevin,

A quick thought regarding "Admin only" threads -- if there's a facility that lets Admins lock threads you could create a thread with an initial message then pin it and lock it. When you need to add to it, unlock, post your next message and lock it again. This would, of course, need testing in case a locked thread can't be unlocked again :-)

If someone manages to post to the thread anyway, just delete what they post (possibly after copying it to a more appropriate place?) The first message would, as suggested elsewhere, include information on where to discuss the topic of that message, so such action seems fair :-)

Cheers - Al.

That's a good idea. I'll give that a try.
Thank you for the suggestion.

Getting the homepage or for that matter any page to load is a long process.
Homepage takes around 15 seconds to load and this page was not much better.

It would also be nice if you could clear out all the dead GPU tasks from our acccounts.
I am flooded with Validation pending (22) [all GPU] · Validation inconclusive (50) ·[all GPU] Valid (190) [11 are the new CPU tasks, the rest are GPU from a long time ago]· Invalid (83) [all GPU] · Error (225) [all GPU]

Getting the homepage or for that matter any page to load is a long process.
Homepage takes around 15 seconds to load and this page was not much better.

It would also be nice if you could clear out all the dead GPU tasks from our acccounts.
I am flooded with Validation pending (22) [all GPU] · Validation inconclusive (50) ·[all GPU] Valid (190) [11 are the new CPU tasks, the rest are GPU from a long time ago]· Invalid (83) [all GPU] · Error (225) [all GPU]

Removing the never to be Validated or completed GPU Tasks and associated errors would clean up Volunteer task information and while the data space recovered is not large the continuing daily back ups of this information would be eliminated.

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In October of 1969 I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic;
There was no expiration date.

I would like to ask about the numbers on the Server Status page...up in the right corner of the page it says this:

Computing status
Work
Tasks ready to send 1432459
Tasks in progress 101521

BUT in the bottom left corner of the page it says this:

Tasks by application
Application Unsent In progress
Milkyway@home N-Body Simulation 1001 45056

WHY is there over a million task difference in the number of task ready to send? And an over 50k difference in the tasks in progress?

Why aren't the two sets of numbers drawing from the same data so they are the same? I'm guessing some are still reporting the long gone now gpu tasks but WHY?

I'm 99,9% sure that those are Separation tasks, that got stuck in the pipline, because of how they "finished" it. Also the pretty constant number of workunits waiting for validation, always around 460, is mainly showing Separation WUs I guess.

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I'm 99,9% sure that those are Separation tasks, that got stuck in the pipline, because of how they "finished" it. Also the pretty constant number of workunits waiting for validation, always around 460, is mainly showing Separation WUs I guess.

That makes sense, thanks!!

Thank you!