Posts by mo.v

351) Message boards : Projects : News on Project Outages (Message 17300)
Posted 11 May 2008 by mo.v
Post:
CPDN main project

CPDN upload server phkup is down. Milo says
That server is down because the filesystem containing the cpdn data was corrupted when the admin upgraded the OS. They are now restoring from backups and say it should be back on-line tomorrow.

This will affect the upload of some computers' trickles and zip files. If you can, suspend BOINC network activity while the problem lasts.
352) Message boards : Projects : News on Project Outages (Message 17183)
Posted 4 May 2008 by mo.v
Post:
With regard to CPDN upload server uploadcomlab, Milo says
Uploadcomlab has a new power supply but no new disks, so it's back in service to take some more uploads over the weekend. It will go down again for new disks when the missing part of my order actually turns up (some PCI SATA adapter cards).

Because there are several CPDN upload servers, this uploading problem only affected some CPDN crunchers. If you turned off BOINC network activity because your trickles and zip files couldn't upload, please enable network activity again now.

Milo also says he now expects the SAP server to remain problem-free.
353) Message boards : Promotion : Complete "BOINC Unification" in one website (Message 17100)
Posted 2 May 2008 by mo.v
Post:
Instead of creating a new website, what about adding new pages to the Unofficial Boinc Wiki which anyone can edit. I know that parts of it are outdated and should be deleted if/when they're superseded by pages in the new Boinc Wiki, but I very much hope it won't disappear any time soon. There's already stuff there about projects.

One advantage of the UBW is that there are already many links to it from websites and forums.
354) Message boards : Promotion : Complete "BOINC Unification" in one website (Message 17098)
Posted 2 May 2008 by mo.v
Post:
A lot of Boinc crunchers would like projects to show a security compliance logo. For example, when the BBC project was set up and many thousands of people joined straight after a BBC television programme about climate, there were several forum queries about how safe crunching would be.

But I have a funny feeling that the Boinc people in Berkeley won't feel able to actually guarantee projects' compliance with security measures by awarding a logo. A logo looks like a guarantee.
355) Message boards : Promotion : Complete "BOINC Unification" in one website (Message 17091)
Posted 2 May 2008 by mo.v
Post:
I don't think that when David Anderson says he 'knows' project administrators he necessarily means he's met them face to face.

Perhaps some projects prefer not to be on the 'recommended' list because they have enough crunchers already and don't want a big new influx. It would still be nice to know whether Berkeley considers that these projects have all the security measures in place.
356) Message boards : Promotion : Complete "BOINC Unification" in one website (Message 17087)
Posted 2 May 2008 by mo.v
Post:
David Anderson has said that the only projects that can be included on the 'Boinc-approved' list are those which he knows have all the security precautions in place and where he knows the main administrator.

There are some Boinc projects out there whose administrator's/s' real names and locations are nowhere to be found, at least by searching from their projects' index pages. In some cases I've been unable to determine why a project has been set up or what its tasks attempt to do apart from distributing credits. This has not, of course, deterred thousands of people from attaching and crunching, but could one recommend such projects in an undifferentiated list?

I'm surprised, however, that more apparently very respectable projects haven't been added to the attach wizard.
357) Message boards : The Lounge : Boinc Projects (Message 17073)
Posted 2 May 2008 by mo.v
Post:
Thank you. I hope a lot of projects will make good use of it.
358) Message boards : The Lounge : Boinc Projects (Message 16999)
Posted 1 May 2008 by mo.v
Post:
I think Eric Myers' suggestion of 'Project News' would be the best title for the whole section.

The subscript could be 'Post your project news here'.

Jorden, you might like to start the section with a sticky thread called 'Read Me First' where you could say something like:

This is a section for project members (not just project administrators and moderators) to copy and post their project news and announcements. One thread per project please. Please include, for example, scientific news related to the project, publications, the launch of new types and versions of workunits, events, milestones etc. It will be useful if the first post in each project thread includes links to the project's website, forum and FAQs.

But news of project server outages should be posted here (link to thread in the Lounge).

Project members should continue to use project forums, not this section, to post about project-specific questions and problems.


If anyone thinks that suggested sticky post is incomplete or unsuitable in any way, please suggest edits.
359) Message boards : The Lounge : Boinc Projects (Message 16954)
Posted 29 Apr 2008 by mo.v
Post:
I'm sure we will have to allow time for this forum's moderators/ administrators (Ageless, Kathryn and Rom Walton - hope I'm correct with that short list) to think about the idea. If they think it's a good suggestion they will also have to consider how it should be implemented.

I like the ideas in Eric's last post. My main project, CPDN, already copies its server news/warnings/advice to this forum. This is important because the more crunchers who read these news items, the better. It would also be good to reach a wider audience with other sorts of project news eg scientific publications and events.
360) Message boards : The Lounge : The Speling and Grammaticle Advise thread (Message 16944)
Posted 29 Apr 2008 by mo.v
Post:
I fink aw of vem peopoo is from Portsmouf originerly becoz hear evewy-body awso says 'I *brung* aw my stuff wiv me'. But hear vey says it moow like *bwung*. But if vem twailer peopoo had not moved away from hear vey would've cawed at least one of veir chiwdwen Cam'ron wiv ve new speling.

And aw of ve boinc projeck administraters is awso coding for food. Vere is no shame in vat. Good luck to 'em I say, I wioow cwunch veir workunits wich is like frowing vem chips ow a donut evewy time. Vewy tasty, vey wioow not go hangry wiv cwunchers like us.

Fank you vewy much fow ve link Jowd'n it was vewy intewesting to wead.
361) Message boards : The Lounge : Analogy of Distributed Computing (Message 16846)
Posted 25 Apr 2008 by mo.v
Post:
Hi Jordan

It might be like that if progress in science happened at a steady rate, but it doesn't always. In some fields the researchers keep plodding on, analysing data and so on, and sometimes may find big things, other times small things, and sometimes nothing at all. Or they may spend time replicating experiments and either finding the same thing again, or sometimes invalidating earlier work. And occasionally someone hits on a new concept that rapidly changes the very way people think. I'm thinking of the chaos theory developed by Edward Lorenz who died recently.

In a few cases your approach might discourage people from crunching. Say 5000 people use their 5000 computers to crunch 5000 climate models that on average take 4 months running 24/7 to complete. A group of scientists uses the ensemble to produce a publication of 5000 words. Each cruncher might think they had contributed one word. A person whose slow computer battled with the data, crashed it several times, restored it, then completed it after 7 months might not be very pleased to think that 'their' word could turn out to be 'the' or 'a'.

But if they learn something about the climate and numerical modelling while running the task, read the abstract of the publication and perhaps see the research or the topic referred to in newspaper articles or on television, they'll realise that it's important and probably be glad they had the opportunity to participate.

Participating is of course usually more fun if it's easy for beginners, so we need to do whatever we can to ensure that it is.
362) Message boards : The Lounge : Boinc Projects (Message 16811)
Posted 24 Apr 2008 by mo.v
Post:
It probably wouldn't be a good idea to set up a projects section in such a way as to encourage posting about problems pertaining specifically to projects. Project forums are always the best place for that.

But it could be useful to have a forum section with dedicated threads for news and anouncements from each project, ie one thread per project. The threads of projects whose members took the trouble to keep them up-to-date with news items and comments would stay near the top of the thread list. There could of course also be threads for cross-project topics.

Or were you thinking of a different sort of format?
363) Message boards : Projects : News on Project Outages (Message 16764)
Posted 21 Apr 2008 by mo.v
Post:
Server update

SAP

The SAP server is running again but is under great pressure and may or may not allow trickle and zip file uploads, and may or may not provide HADAM seasonal models for CPDN members who have selected this model option in their CPDN preferences.

At some point this week the SAP server will be shut down for a system upgrade. When this will be Milo cannot say because it is entirely up to the IT person in AOPP (a different Oxford department). He was planning to do it last Friday...

Until the SAP server is back to normal, SAP members may want to suspend their models and crunch something else. CPDN members unable to get a SAP model could consider selecting a different type of model.

CPDN

* There's a big job running on the database server. It has been running since Saturday morning. This is to do with urgent firefighting that relates to processing data for physicists. This may cause slow response times on the CPDN-BOINC website and forum and slow access to CPDN project web pages (eg those showing model details).

* One of the CPDN upload servers, uploadcomlab, is down. Milo shut it down to check what disks are in it (ready for an upgrade) and when he re-connected it one of the power supplies blew. It will return when Milo can order some new disks and also a power supply. So this upload server problem could last for several days.

This means that some CPDN members will not be able to upload trickle and zip files. If you encounter this problem, please consider suspending network activity (BOINC manager Activity menu) to avoid repeated failed upload attempts and multiple BOINC messages. We realise that this may be impossible for multi-project crunchers.

You can check CPDN server status here.

Many thanks to all members for your patience, cooperation and good humour.
364) Message boards : Projects : News on Project Outages (Message 16694)
Posted 17 Apr 2008 by mo.v
Post:
CPDN servers

Upload server climateapps3 is again up and running, accepting trickles and zip files.

SAP HADAM models will not be available for CPDN crunchers until the SAP server is fixed (see the above post).
365) Message boards : Projects : News on Project Outages (Message 16693)
Posted 17 Apr 2008 by mo.v
Post:
SAP server

This server is, to quote Milo, in 'a bit of a mess' and needs to have its operating system reinstalled (not by one of CPDN's programmers). Milo says that if this is done later today as planned, the SAP server should be up and running again tomorrow.

SAP members still crunching models may have final zip files waiting in their Transfers window to be uploaded. After the first upload attempt is made, these zip files can safely stay in the Transfers window for up to two weeks. Then they time out. At the moment no-one's SAP zip files should be in danger of timing out.
366) Message boards : Projects : News on Project Outages (Message 16692)
Posted 16 Apr 2008 by mo.v
Post:
CPDN upload server climateapps3 is down, which means that some computers won't be able to upload trickles and zip files. At the moment we don't know what has caused the problem.

If you encounter this problem, the best idea is to suspend BOINC network activity in the BOINC manager Activity menu. Multi-project crunchers who can't suspend network activity may prefer to suspend their climate models before they reach the next trickle of zip file creation point until the server problem is resolved. (If you do this, set CPDN to No New Tasks first to avoid getting extra unwanted models.)

CPDN server status page

367) Message boards : Projects : News on Project Outages (Message 16655)
Posted 14 Apr 2008 by mo.v
Post:
CPDN model availability

Although the CPDN server status page shows that plenty of seasonal attribution HADAM models are available, these HADAM models in fact come from the Seasonal Attribution Project server which is still down for maintenance. Members who want a HADAM model will have to wait two or three days to get one, or can select a different type in the CPDN preferences of their account.
368) Message boards : Projects : News on Project Outages (Message 16596)
Posted 11 Apr 2008 by mo.v
Post:
The SAP server is again down for maintenance.
369) Message boards : Projects : News on Project Outages (Message 16552)
Posted 9 Apr 2008 by mo.v
Post:
The SAP server is now fully functional again.
370) Message boards : Projects : News on Project Outages (Message 16545)
Posted 9 Apr 2008 by mo.v
Post:
The SAP server is down. Tolu is working on it.


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