Posts by Nigel Garvey

21) Message boards : BOINC Manager : Recent modifications to Boinc Mgr look - not liking it [have included suggestions] (Message 38298) Posted 9 Jun 2011 by Nigel Garvey Post: All right now, most of what you request is for every detail to be user configurable. I see that beastman has now answered on his own account; but it seems clear that most of what he was actually requesting was a reversal of the ugly and unhelpful cosmetic changes in BOINC Manager 6.12.26, by which, like nearly everyone else who's posted on the subject, he's appalled. (Like me, he appears to have joined these fora specifically to express this.) His suggestion of configurablity was a constructive attempt to compromise with those who presumably think the changes are a cool idea. Applications which have highly customizable appearances often have a large paid staff of programmers, or are such that the UI is the major part of the application. Please do know that BOINC is being developed and programmed by 3 developers only, 2 of which are full-time programmers, one a part-timer. The bulk of their efforts must be directed to making sure that BOINC handles the computational tasks correctly and efficiently, does not interfere with other uses of the volunteers' computers, has support for developing technologies such as GPU computing, etc. The BOINC Manager is a tool for controlling and monitoring the computation. There is just no time to deal with cosmetic niceties. Sorry. Many people who were keen enough to update immediately to 6.12.26 have announced in these fora that they've reverted, or intend to revert, to what they were using before. (Only Windows users, as far as I know, have boincmgr.exe files they can keep.) Given the amount of resistance to the new BOINC Manager, there seems little point in developing BOINC any further until this resistance is addressed. And given that the meagre development team had time to make the unpopular cosmetic changes in the first place, few disgruntled users will have any sympathy for the idea that they can't be undone because there's no time to make the GUI fully user-configurable.
22) Message boards : BOINC Manager : Recent modifications to Boinc Mgr look - not liking it [have included suggestions] (Message 38297) Posted 9 Jun 2011 by Nigel Garvey Post: I understood x86 to refer to a particular Intel architecture, which is quite different from PowerPC architecture. I expect what's happening here is that the Intel and PowerPC running codes are sharing message resources. [trac]changeset:23674[/trac] shows "MGR: Fix About dialog to show (PowerPC) instead of (x86) when appropriate." (I did forward it to the developer. ;-)) Ah. A missing #elif! :)
23) Message boards : BOINC Manager : Recent modifications to Boinc Mgr look - not liking it [have included suggestions] (Message 38248) Posted 7 Jun 2011 by Nigel Garvey Post: and have found a very minor mistake in the "About BOINC Manager" display. It gives the version as "6.12.26 (x86)", whereas of course my G5 is running the Mac "universal" application's PowerPC code. The distinction (x86) and (x64) are for the 32bit and 64bit versions of BOINC. I suppose the 'universal' PowerPC version is 32bit? I understood x86 to refer to a particular Intel architecture, which is quite different from PowerPC architecture. I expect what's happening here is that the Intel and PowerPC running codes are sharing message resources.
24) Message boards : BOINC Manager : Recent modifications to Boinc Mgr look - not liking it [have included suggestions] (Message 38247) Posted 7 Jun 2011 by Nigel Garvey Post: I got that information from the developer for the Mac, plus the whole email conversation between the developers about it. I doubt it wasn't in the 6.10.58 version on the Mac, as the source code that BOINC is compiled from for Windows, Linux and the Macintosh is the same source code between all platforms. So if one has stripes, all have stripes. I didn't say there were no stripes in 6.10.58. I said there were no darker lines along their borders — ie. between the grey and the white. That also seems to be what beastman said about them in his eloquent posts.
25) Message boards : BOINC Manager : Recent modifications to Boinc Mgr look - not liking it [have included suggestions] (Message 38237) Posted 7 Jun 2011 by Nigel Garvey Post: Ageless wrote: The light-gray "rules" (lines) and light-gray "stripes" have been there since 6.10.40. The developers did this because the alternating white and gray "stripes" did not show up well on all monitors. It was implemented in March 2010, and thus far no one has made a complaint about it. The light-grey "rules" (darker-grey borders to the light-grey stripes, more pronounced than in your graphic in Message 38192) do not appear in any of the "recommended" Mac versions before 6.12.26. Their ugly appearance is what I complained of in the News thread last month. By the way, I've just temporarily reinstalled 6.12.26 on my G5 to see if this and the other changes are as bad as I remembered (they are) and have found a very minor mistake in the "About BOINC Manager" display. It gives the version as "6.12.26 (x86)", whereas of course my G5 is running the Mac "universal" application's PowerPC code.
26) Message boards : Questions and problems : What exactly does this mean??? (Message 38070) Posted 31 May 2011 by Nigel Garvey Post: I did work this out empirically a few months ago, but I've forgotten some of the details since sorting out my preferred settings. As Ageless pointed out, there's a BOINC "overview" screensaver (which tells you to what projects you're attached, the progress of the currently processing task(s), how many points you've got, etc.) and screensavers for many of the projects. Computers with more than one processor can process more than one project task at a time. My own settings (as show in Mac OS X) are: Blank screen saver after: 4 minutes Run overview screensaver for: 0 minutes (=never) Run project screensavers for: 4 minutes Switch between project screensavers every: 1 minutes The effect is: The BOINC overview screensaver isn't shown at all, although some BOINC messages are shown in the absence of running project screensavers. The screensavers for the currently processing tasks are run in sequence for a total of four minutes, switching between them every minute. My machines can process two tasks at a time, so it's task 1 -> task 2 -> task 1 -> task 2 -> stop. At the end of four minutes, the sequence stops running and the screen goes blank. If one of the projects doesn't have a screensaver, the sequence is monopolised by the one which does. If neither have one, then the BOINC fill-in stuff (but not the overview) is shown. Hope this helps a bit.
27) Message boards : News : BOINC 6.12.26 released to public (Message 37854) Posted 18 May 2011 by Nigel Garvey Post: The "Messages" tab has gone! There's now a "Notices" tab which only shows a message saying there are no notices. The columns in the "Tasks" tab have been reordered. The previously subtle shaded lines across each page are now outlined and horrible to behold. The claimed improvements are only relevant to the Windows and Linux platforms. This release appears to be both pointless and a backward step for Mac users. Fortunately, reinstalling 6.10.58 proved possible and successful on my G5. By the way, I had to create a site account in order to post this. It says on the account creation page: NOTE: If you use the BOINC Manager, don't use this form. Just run BOINC, select Add Project, and enter an email address and password. "Add Project" only exists in BOINC Manager's Simple View. In Advanced View, to which my client's always set, it's called "Attach to project or account manager…". Even though I guessed the latter was what was meant, it proved impossible to create an account here by this means. The note on the account creation page needs to be either removed or corrected. NG

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