Posts by robsmith

21) Message boards : Questions and problems : No longer crunching (Message 112238)
Posted 4 Jul 2023 by robsmith
Post:
The "aggression" or otherwise of a set of setting depends on the prime use of the computer.

If this is a work computer then most of them are about right as one doesn't want work being interrupted by other things. There are only a couple of settings that need to be reviewed:

Use at most xx% of CPU time, having this set to anything other than 100% can give some tasks problems as they don't like being interrupted frequently (the cycle time is a fraction of a second, and that can make some applications loose track of their data and their progress)

Max memory usage - 2Gb can be rather small these days, but it depends on how much RAM the computer has, I would suggest this figure being no less than 75% of the computer's RAM.

For a 24/7 cruncher the picture changes dramatically, with my opening comment being "Don't use any sort of laptop for 24/7 crunching, they just aren't designed for it".
22) Message boards : Questions and problems : Taska have estimated remaining over 8 years, deadline in the past -- is something wrong? (Message 112216)
Posted 30 Jun 2023 by robsmith
Post:
Add to your list WCG.

That could be your problem, you don't have and account in your name. This might happen if you "joined" via Science United or a similar account manager.
23) Message boards : The Lounge : Grumbles, Glory and All Your Off Topic Discussions (Message 112174)
Posted 27 Jun 2023 by robsmith
Post:
Toasters are brilliant for testing smoke alarms.
I've had far too many evacuations from hotels due to over enthusiastic toasters.....
(Or in the case of one hotel the same toaster three mornings in a row - prevented on day four by having breakfast just a bit earlier, it's great to hear the fire alarm going off while getting into the taxi on the way to work.)
24) Message boards : The Lounge : Grumbles, Glory and All Your Off Topic Discussions (Message 112170)
Posted 27 Jun 2023 by robsmith
Post:
Cough, cough.
If we take air as having a density of 1 (it makes life easier to do the comparison), then Carbon Monoxide has a density of 0.97. Thus Carbon Monoxide is very slightly less dense than air, so will slowly fill a room from the top. This obviously ignores any diffusion and turbulence affects. Thus it is generally better to have Carbon Monoxide sensors just slightly above head height

On the other hand Carbon Dioxide is more dense than air at about 1.5. So a Carbon Dioxide sensor needs to be near floor level.
25) Message boards : The Lounge : Don't know where it should go? Stick it here! (Message 112166)
Posted 27 Jun 2023 by robsmith
Post:
Always add a little bit so you can get a grasp on the lump of wood....
26) Message boards : Projects : Anything and Everything to do with (WCG) World Community Grid (Message 112148)
Posted 26 Jun 2023 by robsmith
Post:
The whole message shows that this outage is NOT down to WCG but to the data centre it uses:

On July 25th, we will experience a system outage due to maintenance of the datacenter where the WCG servers reside. As a result of this outage, all systems will be down, including our website/forums and BOINC. Site director estimates they will need 2 days.
27) Message boards : The Lounge : Grumbles, Glory and All Your Off Topic Discussions (Message 112142)
Posted 26 Jun 2023 by robsmith
Post:
One courier company really missed the point the other day. They sent me a text saying they couldn't give me the time slot for a delivery as they didn't have a mobile or landline number for me. Work that one out.....
28) Message boards : Projects : I'm looking for a project that respects checkpoints. (Message 112106)
Posted 23 Jun 2023 by robsmith
Post:
Yes, but he's he's doing it in the "main" global_prefs file, which can be over-written by applications unlike the over-ride file which takes precedence. Bit of belt and braces.

We are all forgetting that the value set by global_prefs is a minimum time period between an application doing a checkpoint, not an absolute value. If the application is in a critical point in its calculation a checkpoint may be skipped or extended.
29) Message boards : Projects : I'm looking for a project that respects checkpoints. (Message 112090)
Posted 21 Jun 2023 by robsmith
Post:
You might find setting your checkpoint interval in global_prefs_override.xml will work better that using that set in global_prefs.xml , the latter can be written/over written by projects, while the former is under your control.
30) Message boards : Questions and problems : Denis & SiDock projects are down? (Message 112069)
Posted 16 Jun 2023 by robsmith
Post:
Pleased to say that SiDock is uploading, reporting and downloading tasks.
31) Message boards : Questions and problems : Denis & SiDock projects are down? (Message 112068)
Posted 16 Jun 2023 by robsmith
Post:
Denis appears to be back to good health with tasks uploading and reporting in the last few minutes.
I'll know more about SiDock in about an hour when a task completes, but the its home page is loading OK here.
32) Message boards : Questions and problems : What is the most cost-efficient form of compute to buy? (Message 112054)
Posted 11 Jun 2023 by robsmith
Post:
Don't get too hung up on cost per core because there are a lot more things that have to be taken into consideration - here's a few more things that come into play:
RAM - the more cores the more RAM you will need - somewhere between 1Gb and 4Gb per core;
SSD vs. HDD - you will need something (at least one)
GPUs - depending on the projects you are going to run a reasonable GPU can easily out perform a high core count
Then there's electricity - generally the bigger the core count, the more RAM and the more GPUs the more the computer will use
Then, if you live on a metered internet connection can become a consideration.

Then the mix of projects you run cuts in......
33) Message boards : Questions and problems : Remove a project to update (remove button is gray, no managers) (Message 112002)
Posted 3 Jun 2023 by robsmith
Post:
It is nearly twenty years since SETI@Home stopped using the "classic" way of working and started to use the BOINC environment, so welcome to the brave new world of BOINC.....
34) Message boards : Questions and problems : Remove a project to update (remove button is gray, no managers) (Message 112001)
Posted 3 Jun 2023 by robsmith
Post:
I assume you are seeing this message in the messages tab or window, which presents an abbreviated message - if you go the the advanced view, then tools/event log you get a new window, and be able to see the whole of the message - there wil be a lot of messages , but the one you are looking for is normally highlighted in red and looks something like:
03/06/2023 16:28:31 | World Community Grid | This project seems to have changed its URL.  When convenient, remove the project, then add http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/


As stated previously this is an invalid message and can be safely ignored.
35) Message boards : Questions and problems : Old SETI participant/ no BOINC account? (Message 111999)
Posted 3 Jun 2023 by robsmith
Post:
Further, since SETI@Home has essentially stopped (although the forums are still working), registering new accounts has been turned off. When SETI was active it was possible to link one "classic" account to one "SETI under BOINC" account. Sadly, this means you will not be able to link to your old "classic" account to a new account, and thus won't be able to easily see the fruits of your labours.
36) Message boards : Questions and problems : Remove a project to update (remove button is gray, no managers) (Message 111997)
Posted 3 Jun 2023 by robsmith
Post:
If this message is coming from World Community Grid then no action is required as it's a known invalid error message. There is no news when this will be resolved.
37) Message boards : Projects : Anything and Everything to do with (WCG) World Community Grid (Message 111823)
Posted 16 May 2023 by robsmith
Post:
I get the same - Dave's obviously grabbed them all ;-)
38) Message boards : Teams : creating team (Message 111787)
Posted 12 May 2023 by robsmith
Post:
Generally teams are connected to a particular project, but here's a link to the wiki page for creating and running a team:
https://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Teams
39) Message boards : Questions and problems : "Use at most N % CPU time" does not seem to have any effect (Message 111764)
Posted 9 May 2023 by robsmith
Post:
"Run always" affects duration of running, as set by your time preferences. It is possible to set a daily schedule say (09:00 to 12:00), but if you set "run always" this schedule will not operate.

It does not affect the "use X% of the CPUs" or "run for X% of the time" options - these say HOW BOINC should use your computer, not WHEN BOINC should use it.
40) Message boards : Projects : World Community Grid needs help. can they get any here? (Message 111696)
Posted 1 May 2023 by robsmith
Post:
A couple of weeks ago WCG did make an announcement that the stats pages would be out of synch for some time as they were having to rebuild a lot of users & computers stats data from scratch.


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