Posts by Nigel Garvey

1) Message boards : News : Separation Validator Updates/Brief Server Outage(s) (Message 70982) Posted 20 Jul 2021 by Nigel Garvey Post: I have two validation errors showing at the moment. Both are a waste of a couple of hours of a healthy machine's CPU time. It seems to be macOS vs. Windows and Linux rather than CPU vs. GPU.
2) Message boards : News : New Runs 11/21 (Message 66807) Posted 22 Nov 2017 by Nigel Garvey Post: not working anymore for me on OSX10.4 Tiger Machine Name: PowerBook G4 15" Machine Model: PowerBook3,5 CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (3.2) This project hasn't had any tasks for PPC Macs since about June last year.
3) Message boards : News : Mac OS X Support For Separation (Message 66418) Posted 9 May 2017 by Nigel Garvey Post: Hi Jake. I got the new Mac OS app this morning with eight tasks: four of de_modfit_19_3s_146_bundle5_ModfitConstraintsWithDisk_â€¦ and two each of de_modfit_fast_Sim19_3s_146_bundle5_ModfitConstraintsWithDisk_UpdatedCredit_â€¦ and de_modfit_fast_Sim19_3s_146_bundle5_ModfitConstraintsWithDisk_FixedParams_â€¦. So far the â€¦fast_Simâ€¦ tasks are completing and validating. The others are bombing out within a second of starting.
4) Message boards : News : New Version of MW@home for Mac (1.37) (Message 64754) Posted 26 Jun 2016 by Nigel Garvey Post: Thanks, Jake. I've not received the new version yet as I've been away for a couple of days, but Jean-Pierre and paris seem very pleased. I'm looking forward to trying it out for myself when my BOINC client gets round to MW@H again.
5) Message boards : News : Running Modfit on MilkyWay@home (Message 64708) Posted 21 Jun 2016 by Nigel Garvey Post: I wrote: My Intel Mac is receiving the new tasks even though my MilkyWay@Home preferences are set not to be sent Modified Fit or N-body tasks under any circumstances. The three results which have been reported so far have received inconclusive validations. One of the reasons I originally set my preferences against these tasks â€” apart from their higher-than-acceptable tendency at the time not to get validated â€” was the miserly credit awarded when they were validated. It's too early to say anything about current validation rates, but a couple of the above-mentioned tasks have now validated and the miserliness is even more extreme than I remembered! The old MW@H tasks took around 4,800 seconds of CPU time on my Intel Mac and earned 106.88 points apiece. These new ones are taking nearly twice as long and earning only a quarter of the credit. While I don't support BOINC projects for the credit, this does feel a bit like the proverbial slap round the face with a wet kipper.
6) Message boards : News : Running Modfit on MilkyWay@home (Message 64702) Posted 21 Jun 2016 by Nigel Garvey Post: My PPC Mac is now being refused tasks and the PPC app's no longer mentioned on the site's Applications page. My Intel Mac is receiving the new tasks even though my MilkyWay@Home preferences are set not to be sent Modified Fit or N-body tasks under any circumstances. The three results which have been reported so far have received inconclusive validations. My Tasks page shows that my PPC Mac was also sent one of the new tasks yesterday but errored out on it immediately. A Linux machine had previously errored out on the same task and another received a validate error.
7) Message boards : News : N-Body 1.36 (Message 59754) Posted 30 Aug 2013 by Nigel Garvey Post: If you could post the work units that are failing I could look at them and try to run them on my machines to see if I can see why it was failing. Thanks for the quick response! OK. Here are the N-Body tasks which are still on my Tasks page as I write: http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/results.php?userid=156736&offset=0&show_names=0&state=0&appid=7 1 validated, 1 inconclusive, 3 errors. All MT. I run CPU apps only, the machine has a 2-core processor, and my BOINC setting is to use 100% of them. NG
8) Message boards : News : N-Body 1.36 (Message 59748) Posted 29 Aug 2013 by Nigel Garvey Post: The majority of the MT tasks my 2-core Intel CPU Mac receives bomb out at the 100% mark (I think). Most of those which survive get an inconclusive validation when reported, but are validated eventually. No problems at all with the non-MT app, but then it's not had any tasks lately! NG
9) Message boards : Number crunching : Separation 0.82, Mac OS X PowerPC: results consistently not validated (Message 50684) Posted 14 Aug 2011 by Nigel Garvey Post: I reported back in June that the new Separation app for Mac OS X PowerPC appeared to be flaky, since few of my results with versions 0.80 or 0.82 had validated. I was assured that my "inconclusive" results probably had validated later; but there were no points increases to bear this out and I eventually suspended the project. I was tempted to give it another go during the recent double-points episode and did in fact pick up another couple of thousand points while that lasted. But since then, I've seen all but one of my MWH results marked "inconclusive" and eventually disappear from my Tasks page with no further increase in points. (According to Free-DC, my MWH score last changed on 4th August: 160 points. Before that, nothing since 26th July.) Consistently invalidated results are obviously a waste of computer time and electricity and I've now suspended MWH again. I had no problems with MWH before the 0.80 app appeared and the results for the other three BOINC projects on the same machine are usually fine. So the likelihood is there's an issue with the app itself or with the validation process. NG
10) Message boards : News : Any remaining major credit or application problems? (Message 49540) Posted 24 Jun 2011 by Nigel Garvey Post: Three of the six tasks I recall completing with it (my "Application details" page says I've had seven) â€” including the two most recent â€” have received "inconclusive" validations and have earned no points at all. Those should have validate later, when the wingman was ready, unless yours were indeed invalid. That's always little difficult to see as they are purged here usually within 1 or 2 minutes. Thanks, Link and Matt, for your replies. I was being fooled by the purge and the lack of visible wingmen into thinking that "inconclusive" was the end of the matter here. I occasionally get "inconclusive" results with other projects, but there they mean something less neutral than "waiting for wingman" and the tasks always remain on the tasks pages until they're either validated or not. It's good to know too that the various numbers of points are associated with particular kinds of task â€” which I hadn't appreciated before â€” and that my having encountered the lower scorers at the same time as the application changed was entirely coincidental. I just hope my wingmen can hold off until Monday or Tuesday or whenever. ;)
11) Message boards : News : Any remaining major credit or application problems? (Message 49528) Posted 24 Jun 2011 by Nigel Garvey Post: Are there any other significant problems in credit or with the applications? If not, I think we'll have the double credit days next monday and tuesday, as things have finally been running smoothly. Separation 0.82 for Mac OS X PowerPC seems a bit flaky. Three of the six tasks I recall completing with it (my "Application details" page says I've had seven) â€” including the two most recent â€” have received "inconclusive" validations and have earned no points at all. The others have been given only 214, 214, and 160 points respectively. Each has used between 14.5 and 19.5 hours of processor time on my 2.0 GHz G5. (Mac OS 10.4.11, BOINC 6.10.58.) For comparison, the version which was current when I attached to this project in April took around 25 hours 40 minutes to complete tasks, but they all validated (albeit "Application details" notes only 4 consecutive valid tasks) and earned two hundred and sixty-something points a piece. It's difficult to get excited about two days of double credit with the current app. ;)
12) Message boards : News : Separation updated to 0.82 (Message 49390) Posted 17 Jun 2011 by Nigel Garvey Post: I wrote: PowerPC, Mac OS 10.4.11, BOINC 6.10.58. Same for 0.82 as for 0.80. Completed in about 14.5 hours, inconclusive validation, Stderr output shows several iterations of the "Error loading Lua scriptâ€¦" message. A 0.82 task reported this morning has validated OK, although with the same error messages. NG
13) Message boards : News : Separation updated to 0.82 (Message 49348) Posted 15 Jun 2011 by Nigel Garvey Post: PowerPC, Mac OS 10.4.11, BOINC 6.10.58. Same for 0.82 as for 0.80. Completed in about 14.5 hours, inconclusive validation, Stderr output shows several iterations of the "Error loading Lua scriptâ€¦" message.
14) Message boards : News : Separation updated to 0.80 (Message 49292) Posted 14 Jun 2011 by Nigel Garvey Post: The PowerPC Mac OS build of 0.80 appeared to be perfectly happy running in Mac OS 10.4.11 and BOINC 6.10.58, completing a work unit previously flunked by two Windows 7 machines running ati14 apps. However, the task's been given an inconclusive validation. Stderr output shows several iterations of the "Error loading Lua scriptâ€¦" message reported by others above. The intial completion time estimate was about 8.5 hours, but it actually finished in exactly 14 hours 38 minutes. The older app typically took about 25 hours 40 minutes. I now have a 0.82 task waiting to start which also had an initial time estimate of 8.5 hours until the 0.80 task completed, but has now changed its estimate to exactly 14 hours 38 minutes too!