Posts by Coleslaw

21) Message boards : Questions and problems : Silent operation issue. (Message 83692) Posted 8 Dec 2017 by Coleslaw Post: The last generation of CPU's where it made sense to run DC projects due to power concerns was the Pentium 4. After that, processors got significantly more efficient when they hybernated or went into sleep mode. So, it used to be an easy "sell" because most places didn't see an increase in power draw. Nowadays, they can see a large bump. Especially if they have a large number of systems. The problem with security is that someone from the IT staff will have to continuously monitor BOINC and the projects chosen to guarantee that something bad doesn't happen because of it. There is no real world benefit for them to do this. They really do have better things to do. I have seen BOINC/projects run flawless on some systems and terrible on others. I've ran it on a large variety of hardware and software configurations. I've seen it work differently on clean installs on the same machines. There is a lot more to it that the IT staff will have to deal with. They will also have to dig in and learn BOINC and the projects chosen in depth to know how to tweak it properly and to maintain it as things change. Additional security audits will have to conducted on a yearly basis. If these Macs are 10+ years old, do you happen to know if they are running on Intel CPU's or still PowerPC's? If Power PC's, then you will find them to have very few projects still supporting them.
22) Message boards : Questions and problems : Silent operation issue. (Message 83590) Posted 5 Dec 2017 by Coleslaw Post: So you obviously don'y run those crazy risks... oh, but I see from your sig that you do. And, yes, I was a professional software engineer for almost 40 years, but worked on embedded systems in the public transport arena, from railway signalling, platform and bus ticket automats etc., to shipping arenas where I programmed VDR systems for container ships etc., BOINC was not available for the hardware platforms I programmed, they tended not to have operating systems for example. On my own systems and systems that I was given permission to run on yes. But that does not mean there isn't a risk nor does that mean it is not a security concern. I also do not recommend the advice many BOINC users give out to exclude the data directory in anti-virus programs neither. False positive or not, you have to put your faith on the side of caution. I work in the banking industry in IT. I can assure you if we installed BOINC on any of our devices, we would get hammered by our auditors and 3rd party auditors for security concerns. Richard, my point that ports needed to be open was to show that there is IT related security concerns in the first place. Those 2 ports may be the most commonly open for internet usage, but does not mean they are safe by any means. Security needs to be considered for the traffic passing through. However, adrianxw, have you tried just disabling the BOINC notifications balloon within the client? Then you wouldn't get those popups but you could still leave the BOINC Manager running as normal. (Though I do not recommend doing that.) I agree with Richard that the better route would be to run the client but not the manager. EDIT: Windows - in BOINC 7.6.29 from advanced view click options then click other options. You should have the option to change the notice reminder interval to never. This is also where you would go to tell the BOINC Manager to start or not at login.
23) Message boards : Questions and problems : Silent operation issue. (Message 83582) Posted 5 Dec 2017 by Coleslaw Post: Do you work in IT? BOINC requires certain ports to be open in a firewall that allows potential intrusion attempts. BOINC by its nature downloads executables from a 3rd part site that you have bestowed faith in to not deliver you malicious content. Even with executables that are trusted, it can still cause a system to become unstable. How about privacy? Applications could be coded to essentially keylog or just collect traffic data. Someone would have to constantly monitor the applications being ran within BOINC to make sure someone at the project hasn't become malicious. Or perhaps they have become compromised themselves. I think when someone discusses security issues with BOINC, it is pretty much assumed IT related security issues. It only takes one rogue system to bring the entire network down. What do you think the library IT or "officials" would say if a BOINC project started encrypting their HDD's and then later held them ransom? You may trust BOINC projects. But it only takes one person to ruin it all. Anyone in IT should be aware of the potential problems something like this could bring up.
24) Message boards : Questions and problems : Silent operation issue. (Message 83580) Posted 5 Dec 2017 by Coleslaw Post: I certainly hope that you understand that BOINC on their systems really is a "security issue".
25) Message boards : Questions and problems : Can BOINC run on my old iMac G3? (Message 82948) Posted 14 Nov 2017 by Coleslaw Post: The reason I didn't put a link to the new thread is that the forum software had changed since the initial post. The new software has a much smaller allowance of characters/lines to it. So, if I tried to edit the first post it would not save without deleting most of it out which I try not to do. I didn't want to add it in a following post as people may not bother reading past the first one.
26) Message boards : Questions and problems : Is it cheaper to run Boinc in the cloud? (Message 82716) Posted 6 Nov 2017 by Coleslaw Post: I think the cost of your electricity is the biggest part of this question. Some people have cheap electricity. Some do not. If you get yours cheaper than what it costs for cloud computing...well...the math is there. The second big portion to this is whether you are supporting a GPU capable project. GPU's can do a lot more work than CPU's in most cases. So, it is typically (but not always) more efficient to go with GPU's rather than purchasing CPU processing from the cloud. If the cloud is offering you GPU processing cheaply, then go back to the cost of electricity comparison. Upgrading hardware is tricky. Just because a chip has less power draw doesn't mean it is financially smart to jump on the latest greatest. Especially if you are using hardware that is 5 or more generations old. The resale value of your chips isn't going to be that much compared to the cost of the latest tech. Therefore a 7w TDP is not going to save you very much $$ at all. It would take several years to even come close to justifying the purchase. I agree you would get better extensions such as the AVX2 support. But that also drives up the power consumption a great deal and not necessarily in a more efficient kind of way. It will finish work units quicker when supported, but so will over clocking the CPU. Again, more electric cost to do that. Financially, it may benefit you to downclock your system in efforts to find what is most efficient. That way you can maximize you money and resources. Yes you would process less work over a given time frame, but you would be paying less for each completed work unit as well...
27) Message boards : Questions and problems : Can BOINC run on my old iMac G3? (Message 82423) Posted 30 Oct 2017 by Coleslaw Post: Yavanius, I may not keep that list up to date without the help of others pointing things out when they change. It becomes too much to keep up with over time as so many projects are constantly in flux. So, feel free to give me a poke when you notice something out of date.
28) Message boards : Questions and problems : Can BOINC run on my old iMac G3? (Message 82263) Posted 26 Oct 2017 by Coleslaw Post: noderaser, has anyone pointed out to Einstein about this? They still have it listed in their applications list.
29) Message boards : Questions and problems : Can BOINC run on my old iMac G3? (Message 82262) Posted 26 Oct 2017 by Coleslaw Post: It appears there are still PowerPC crunchers on SETI. :) I looked at LHC@home, one of the senior projects, and it appears no PowerPC. I also checked Rosetta and nothing there either. Did a little quick digging though and I found this old post: https://hardforum.com/threads/all-inclusive-dc-project-list.1801908/ It might at least give you an idea of where to look and see if they have PowerPC support still. You might have luck with some of the senior math projects. I don't really follow them, so maybe somebody else can provide suggestions? ~Yav Yavanius, I actually made that post. And you may want to link to the v.2 of it here: https://hardforum.com/threads/all-inclusive-dc-project-list-v-2.1895029/
30) Message boards : Questions and problems : Can BOINC run on my old iMac G3? (Message 82210) Posted 24 Oct 2017 by Coleslaw Post: You might even try running YoYo@home. http://www.rechenkraft.net/yoyo/
31) Message boards : Questions and problems : OS for dell 2950 server? (Message 81945) Posted 11 Oct 2017 by Coleslaw Post: Windows typically gives a 30 day evaluation period without a key installed. After that it will nag you about not being genuine. However, a few VM's I run still crunch just fine without the activation. Both Win7 and 10 chugging along that way. May be a good way to test what runs best on your server and lets you track down drivers that are supported before making a purchase... Since those (IIRC) are only dual socket servers, retail OS's should still sinstall. Drivers for the expansions is the key here. So, not sure if they will work out of the box or if you are limited to their selection here: http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/poweredge-2950/drivers
32) Message boards : Teams : What are all of these teams, and where do I find a legitimate team? (Message 81592) Posted 26 Sep 2017 by Coleslaw Post: You appear to be suffering from a case of a spammed project. It would be better to address the complication of searching for a team with the admin at that project preferably either direct or from within their forums. If you are seeking out a team, you can typically go to the "Cafe" section at most projects where it is typically allowed for teams to advertise or solicit others. Not all teams will post but you will find some in there. I will extend the offer for you to join in on the team I am a part of. We are active at most of the projects. You can find our forums here: https://hardforum.com/forums/distributed-computing.32/ or also visit our new and still in progress DC site at www.hard-dc.com
33) Message boards : GPUs : Changed video cards now tasks report missing GPU (Message 80389) Posted 21 Aug 2017 by Coleslaw Post: You need to abort the tasks using ATI or AMD. Those are not going to run on your nVidia card. Abort them and just let BOINC request new work. Sometimes when you switch cards you have to go as far as resetting the project. However, you seem to be pulling CUDA capable work which ONLY works on nVidia cards.
34) Message boards : Projects : Re-establishing Quake-Catcher Network (QCN) Elsewhere (Message 80204) Posted 15 Aug 2017 by Coleslaw Post: Carl, one of my teammates was just commenting on possibly having a project idea to learn more about the BOINC server side. I pointed him to this thread in case he was interested. His thread in our team forums was here: https://hardforum.com/threads/new-boinc-project-the-making-of.1941359/
35) Message boards : Projects : Which BOINC projects use the most memory? (Message 80201) Posted 15 Aug 2017 by Coleslaw Post: Now that the Lattice Project is closed, the highest demanding projects are typically those that run virtualbox applications. However, as SekeRob stated, look at WUProp's home page and click on Results. You can filter the projects in many ways and see what memory usage is being reported for various platforms. https://wuprop.boinc-af.org/results.py
36) Message boards : Questions and problems : Will resume BOINC in the winter (Message 80200) Posted 15 Aug 2017 by Coleslaw Post: A lot of users do contribute significantly more during the winter and shut down quite a bit during the summer months. Especially those that use GPU's in their boxes as the heat gets significantly hotter running those.
37) Message boards : News : NSF funds new model for BOINC (Message 78911) Posted 11 Jun 2017 by Coleslaw Post: Doesn't using a BOINC account manager eliminate the need to setup accounts on each project? I have not used one. So I could be certainly be mistaken. I was under the impression a user would create an account, log into the account manager, and then select projects to run. It eliminates them from manually creating each account in the traditional way. It does NOT eliminate having to create an account at each project. It just simplifies the creation process for you. So a rogue project still gathers the logins in theory and can actually see them if set up to do so. No protection to the volunteer at all. It also does not create your profiles for you. BOINC has many security flaws that shouldn't be taken lightly.
38) Message boards : News : NSF funds new model for BOINC (Message 78888) Posted 10 Jun 2017 by Coleslaw Post: I'm getting the feeling that this is just Charity Engine 2.0 that removes the potential lottery portion and possibly retains the ability to remain on teams. I think David really misses the real reasons virtualbox projects aren't popular and how much further their road to getting it appealing really is. NONE of the Virtualbox projects run smooth for general DC users. I've ran pretty much all of them in depth. Every system has to be tweaked and monitored a great more deal than non Virtualbox projects. Yes, I know there are a few users out there that brag about how their rigs were simple to set up and run solid trying to champion those projects. They are an extreme minority. Though it may reduce the project scientists' overhead, it drastically increases the users. Most DC'ers will not tolerate all that they are being asked to do in order to get it to work. The system overhead, the wasted resources running the VM, the wasted man power of each user trying to get each rig compatible, is a much greater waste than the scientists compiling a few applications and testing. Again, my opinion. I do applaud David for taking a step for "dumbing down" the process of project selection. I have heard a lot of people express why they don't move to BOINC. Simplicity vs. complexity. By giving more options requires a lot more learning to do what should be pretty simple. Someone shouldn't have to spend hours to get it right. It should be as simple as install it and go for most users. WCG has had threads that bring up this topic. Users get bewildered because they have to set up an account with each project, then attach it to BOINC, choose their science selections, and it is all done in multiple places. Why can't it all be done from the application? Well we BOINC'ers understand it is because WCG doesn't code the application. They would get better responses and retention with their own client. That is my opinion to be clear. The BOINC client is wonderful for control freaks. But for new users it is daunting. Everyone wants the most out of their system, but they don't really want that much leg work to get to it. Since BOINC supports and infinite number of different needs projects, it really isn't for the novice. But there needs to be a novice option. Set and forget. I've supported almost every BOINC project that comes up. I don't always care about the science but have other reasons for supporting it. Many of times it is for learning. I will agree that most projects only write a published paper(s) at best. To many, this isn't really an achievement as most of us are smart enough to know that most papers go nowhere in real world practicality and is just a way to get grant/funding money. WCG is one of the few projects to ever tie their results to real world usage. I also applaud David for making it easier (theoretically) for small research groups to get access if this goes anywhere. Yes there are BOINC projects out there that claim to be set up to house multiple researches and to try and appeal to other researchers to user their platform. I've not seen many of them actually onboard any after launching other than WCG. But even WCG requires the research groups to guarantee enough work to make it worth their efforts to onboard it. Hopefully, David's vision makes it also a simple injection method with control measures for the users as I would want to know what I'm crunching. This will also help address the issue some have with requiring users to create multiple accounts using the same user name and password. Now they could have just one to connect with and be done. One concern now is whether a rogue project springs up simply for gathering email address password combos. Data breaches have been going on for years to do this as most users recycle the same login info across almost every site they use. By having an account manager controlling the login process and eliminating the need for each individually privately controlled server to manage them would be a positive thing in my eyes.
39) Message boards : Questions and problems : Specific hardware vs. specific Project question, better ask here or "there"? (Message 75085) Posted 3 Jan 2017 by Coleslaw Post: Each project has an applications page that should identify if they support the CPU architecture and OS. However, when it comes to supporting their apps and getting them working it is typically best to ask in their forums. If it is just a question of installing the BOINC software, then it would make sense to ask here until you actually get to running the project apps.
40) Message boards : Questions and problems : BOINC crashes Windows 10 (Message 75033) Posted 30 Dec 2016 by Coleslaw Post: My team hasn't posted results with BOINC, but there were several that had issues with Folding@Home. You can read about it here: https://hardforum.com/threads/nvidia-375-drivers.1918384/ Try version 376.48 which is a hotfix here: https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4288 otherwise try downgrading to a 373 version.

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