Pentathlon 2021 Challenge

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi all

It's time again to join in with another Pentathlon, as organised by SETI.Germany.

https://www.seti-germany.de/boinc_pentathlon/

The start date/time is 5th May 2021 at 00:01 UTC and the Challenge will take place over 2 weeks, with 5 different projects selected by the Challenge organisers, which will represent specific "events", such as a Marathon, (that takes 2 weeks) and other events taking place over a day or more.

I've enrolled UBT in the Challenge so all one has to do, to take part, is to crunch on specific projects on specific days. (Details of which will follow).

UPDATE:

This is a link to the overall stats for every team in this Challenge:

https://www.seti-germany.de/boinc_penta ... athlon.php

and here's a link to UBT's specific stats for this Challenge:

https://www.seti-germany.de/boinc_penta ... +Team.html

regards
Tim

[Woodles]

This is the complicated one isn't it, where projects overlap and the best three, one day sprints count?

Could be a challenge, I'm in

Note: Marathon project is SiDock, announced early by Natalia - https://www.sidock.si/sidock/forum_thread.php?id=114

... not that it matters, with a three day deadline you can't start bunkering before May 2nd and Seti Germany were due to announce the marathon project on April 30th. Just gives people a bit longer to hone their setups

[UBT - Timbo]

This is the complicated one isn't it, where projects overlap and the best three, one day sprints count?

Could be a challenge, I'm in

Hi Mark

It's sorta complicated...the Marathon takes place over the entire 14 day Challenge, whilst the other 4 "events" take place within the Challenge period, with some events taking place over a few days and one event (featuring one project) taking place over 5 separate (and non-consecutive) days:

This was how the schedule looked last year:

viewtopic.php?f=98&t=6596

The projects chosen for the 4 shorter events are announced a day or so beforehand.

I'll probably do a few of the events, if I remember to check which project has been picked for each event.

PS: The FB Sprint timetable was purposedly set to ensure it did not clash with the Pentathlon...so the 6th Sprint is from 21st-24th May.

Note: Marathon project is SiDock, announced early by Natalia - https://www.sidock.si/sidock/forum_thread.php?id=114

... not that it matters, with a three day deadline you can't start bunkering before May 2nd and Seti Germany were due to announce the marathon project on April 30th. Just gives people a bit longer to hone their setups

Yes - the choice was announced early by mistake, by Natalia (Nikitina) who is NOT the same Natalia (Makarova) who is a project scientist at ODLK/ODLK1.

Now if they were the SAME person, that would be a bit embarrassing, given the furore over ODLK being chosen for a FB Sprint...!!

And SiDock are moving servers too in the lead up to the Pentathlon, plus their tasks have (currently) 3 day deadlines...so, bunkering would be tricky, IF tasks are even available.

regards
Tim

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi all

For those getting involved with the Pentathlon Challenge this year, here's a list of events:

I'll try and keep the list updated throughout, as and when projects are announced.

Events and dates for Pentathlon - times tweaked so as to not cause confusion about when 00:00 occurs on a certain day:

Marathon: SiDock - 14 days
Start: 05 May 2020 00:01 UTC
End: 18 May 2020 23:59 UTC (aka 1 minute before 19 May 00:00 UTC)

City Run: PrimeGrid - 5 days
Start: 08 May 2020 00:01 UTC
End: 12 May 2020 23:59 UTC

Cross Country: Einstein - 5 days
Start: 11 May 2020 00:01 UTC
End: 15 May 2020 23:59 UTC

Javelin Throw: WCG - Microbiome Immunity Project - 5x 1 day events
#1 Start: 06 May 2020 00:01 UTC
End: 06 May 2020 23:59 UTC

#2 Start: 08 May 2020 00:01 UTC
End: 08 May 2020 23:59 UTC

#3 Start: 10 May 2020 00:01 UTC
End: 10 May 2020 23:59 UTC

#4 Start: 14 May 2020 00:01 UTC
End: 14 May 2020 23:59 UTC

#5 Start: 18 May 2020 00:01 UTC
End: 18 May 2020 23:59 UTC

Sprint: NFS - 3 days
Start: 15 May 2020 00:01 UTC
End: 17 May 2020 23:59 UTC

Update: Here's the link for our overall Team stats on this Challenge:

https://www.seti-germany.de/boinc_penta ... +Team.html

regards
Tim

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi all

Second project announced:

Javelin Throw: WCG - Microbiome Immunity Project - 1 day
#1 Start: 06 May 2020 00:01 UTC
End: 06 May 2020 23:59 UTC

regards
Tim

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi all

Two more announcements:

Javelin Throw: WCG - Microbiome Immunity Project - 1 day
#2 Start: 08 May 2020 00:01 UTC
End: 08 May 2020 23:59 UTC

City Run: PrimeGrid - 5 days
Start: 08 May 2020 00:01 UTC
End: 12 May 2020 23:59 UTC

regards
Tim

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi all

And the next project is:

Cross Country: Einstein - 5 days
Start: 11 May 2020 00:01 UTC
End: 15 May 2020 23:59 UTC

regards
Tim

[UBT - Mikee]

Hi

Thanks for the updates. Minor problem with WCG in that they only export stats twice a day so we've been stuck on 8 tasks since this morning!
We're not last but not far off!

https://www.seti-germany.de/boinc_penta ... athlon.php

Mike

[homefarm]

Hi all

Two more announcements:

Javelin Throw: WCG - Microbiome Immunity Project - 1 day
#2 Start: 08 May 2020 00:01 UTC
End: 08 May 2020 23:59 UTC

City Run: PrimeGrid - 5 days
Start: 08 May 2020 00:01 UTC
End: 12 May 2020 23:59 UTC

regards
Tim

HI Tim, I see the Cityrun is more up my street, with PG as the project.
Question: This is a team event, so I don't need to individually register with the Pentathlon ???

I will join in for the 5 days Cityrun, any other considerations please? Presumably any tasks within PG, eg highest scorers?

Thanks Richard

[UBT - Timbo]

HI Tim, I see the Cityrun is more up my street, with PG as the project.
Question: This is a team event, so I don't need to individually register with the Pentathlon ???

I will join in for the 5 days Cityrun, any other considerations please? Presumably any tasks within PG, eg highest scorers?

Thanks Richard

Hi Richard

Yup - this is a Team event and the team has been registered for inclusion in the Pentathlon stats. User registration is NOT required.

So all you need so is to submit ANY PG tasks during the period (and yes you CAN bunker them in advance, as this is not a project-led Challenge - it's been organised by a team - SETI.Germany - so any tasks uploaded AND issued with credit within the event period will count).

PS: It's the same with all the other "events" too, so if anyone wants to bunker any tasks, you can

regards
Tim

[homefarm]

HI Tim, I see the Cityrun is more up my street, with PG as the project.
Question: This is a team event, so I don't need to individually register with the Pentathlon ???

I will join in for the 5 days Cityrun, any other considerations please? Presumably any tasks within PG, eg highest scorers?

Thanks Richard

Hi Richard

Yup - this is a Team event and the team has been registered for inclusion in the Pentathlon stats. User registration is NOT required.

So all you need so is to submit ANY PG tasks during the period (and yes you CAN bunker them in advance, as this is not a project-led Challenge - it's been organised by a team - SETI.Germany - so any tasks uploaded AND issued with credit within the event period will count).

PS: It's the same with all the other "events" too, so if anyone wants to bunker any tasks, you can

regards
Tim

Ta Tim I'll give it a good bash. I'm running all cores on WCG currently.
I will also do the Einstein, after PG.

I believe there will another discipline yet to be announced?

[UBT - Timbo]

Ta Tim I'll give it a good bash. I'm running all cores on WCG currently.
I will also do the Einstein, after PG.

I believe there will another discipline yet to be announced?

Hi Richard

Indeed - 2 more 1 day events involving WCG (though currently no specific dates given) and 1x 3 day event for a currently unknown project and over unknown dates.

(see the this post (viewtopic.php?f=98&t=6814&p=133795#p133778) once I know the dates as and when they are announced ).

regards
Tim

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi all

The 3rd dates for the WCG event has now been announced:

Javelin Throw: WCG - Microbiome Immunity Project - 1 day
#3 Start: 10 May 2020 00:01 UTC
End: 10 May 2020 23:59 UTC

regards
Tim

[homefarm]

HI

RE PG The PPS sieves are running at 548k, presumably as everyone is going for the high scores.

This may result in very abnormally high pending scores for everyone, which in turn may affect the Pentathlon results. It will depend on whether the rules include pending scores or not.

It might even be tactically sound to switch to WW (another high scorer) for some of the time to spread the validation of credits between tasks.

Just a thought.

Richard

Addendum: Sieves tasks in progress running at 628K. I have 23 Million pending so I hope they count. I ran a 3 day bunker on all GPUs.

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi Richard

Thanks to your PG contribution, the team has shot up from 24th to 18th place...(in the overall team rankings)...

This may result in very abnormally high pending scores for everyone, which in turn may affect the Pentathlon results. It will depend on whether the rules include pending scores or not.

I'm not sure if "pending" credits are actually included in team credits - as far as I know, the Pentathlon stats only count the team credit totals on which to base their league tables - so hopefully they are not counted until the pendings are validated then they should count as "extra" credits to add to those already counted.

I've just uploaded a WCG bunker so that might help a little...and I'll be crunching some PG tasks for the next 2-3 days and then I'll switch to Einstein, so that event earns some credits.

regards
Tim

[Woodles]

Asteroids has ran out of work so I'll move any GPUs without a cache onto Primegrid for a while, can't let Richard have all the fun

[adrianxw]

I found out about the pentathlon from a note SiDock posted a couple of days before the start. I tried to register our team, but registration had closed, so I could not. I did see the team here had entered, and figured, as I am English, that I could crunch here for a bit to help. I would need some help as to how I could achieve this though. Unfortunately it took such a long time to get myself "approved" in order to ask my questions, the event had been running for days and my 4GHz i7's are happily munching SiDock amongst other things, without being able to contribute.

[UBT - Timbo]

I found out about the pentathlon from a note SiDock posted a couple of days before the start. I tried to register our team, but registration had closed, so I could not. I did see the team here had entered, and figured, as I am English, that I could crunch here for a bit to help.

Hi Adrian - and welcome to the forum

Thanks for the message - I'm glad you've been able to login now (since I approved your account earlier today - I'm sorry it took a couple of days, but I've had some email issues so didn't see your email until this morning - I actually see lots of forum membership requests so I tend to leave it for a couple of days, esp if the person is "new" to BOINC, as then I can check if your account is actually "real").

Regarding the Pentathlon - UBT "involves itself" in many of these types of Challenges, so you should always check on this forum first to see if we (as a team) have joined a specific Challenge - we almost always do.

I would need some help as to how I could acheive this though. Unfortunately it took such a long time to get myself "approved" in order to ask my questions, the event had been running for days and my 4GHz i7's are happily munching SiDock amongst other things, without being able to contribute.

The SiDock event is over 14 days, so all you need to do is to use BOINC Manager to utilise as many CPU cores as you want, so that you can crunch some tasks and they will be added to the team total on this project, as long as you have actually joined UBT on the SiDock website.

I looked here and cannot see any stats for your forum username on our SiDock team - unless you are using a different name for BOINC?

https://classic.boincstats.com/en/stats ... t/0/0/56/0.

I've looked here too:

https://www.sidock.si/sidock/team_membe ... t&offset=0

and cannot see your username?

So, I looked here:

https://classic.boincstats.com/en/stats ... /#adrianxw

So, any SiDock credits you have been crunching, WOULD have been included in the UBT total, BUT only IF you were joined to UBT in the first place - and that's irrespective of whether you had joined the forum.

In fact all your recent SiDock credits, have been credited to the BOINC@Denmark team - though sadly, as you found out, BOINC@Denmark seem NOT to be involved with the Pentathlon:

https://classic.boincstats.com/en/stats ... t/0/0/41/0

If you want to switch teams on SiDock project, (even if just temporarily) then just go here:

https://www.sidock.si/sidock/team_display.php?teamid=56


re: Tips

Please feel free to ask any questions about setting up BOINC Manager with regards to any of the projects - we're here to help

regards
Tim

[UBT - Timbo]

Asteroids has ran out of work so I'll move any GPUs without a cache onto Primegrid for a while, can't let Richard have all the fun

Hi Mark

Excellent

Hopefully, your additional firepower will have a nice impact too

regards
Tim

[homefarm]

Asteroids has ran out of work so I'll move any GPUs without a cache onto Primegrid for a while, can't let Richard have all the fun

HI Mark

My pendings are 25 mill and seem to be growing; so I decided to move 1 fast GPU onto WW. It's lower credit as I'm running 3 x PPS concurrently on each GPU (seems to be my optimum in credit/second) but it will slow the pendings.

I have a feeling pendings do not qualify unless they hold the scores until all pendings are validated on each sub-project.

I was aiming for 100 mill raw credit over 5 days. Not sure where to find out re the pendings?

Good luck Richard

PS I just emailed DeleteNull on PG messages, as I think he may know the exact scheme of things.

PPS Wolfgang says "Pentathlon only counts validated results" So we need to think tactically (ummmm)

[Woodles]

Asteroids has ran out of work so I'll move any GPUs without a cache onto Primegrid for a while, can't let Richard have all the fun

Hi Mark

Excellent

Hopefully, your additional firepower will have a nice impact too

regards
Tim

Don't expect too much, most are still on Asteroids and I'm running with a reduced 'fleet' at the moment anyway.

[Woodles]

Asteroids has ran out of work so I'll move any GPUs without a cache onto Primegrid for a while, can't let Richard have all the fun

HI Mark

My pendings are 25 mill and seem to be growing; so I decided to move 1 fast GPU onto WW. It's lower credit as I'm running 3 x PPS concurrently on each GPU (seems to be my optimum in credit/second) but it will slow the pendings.

I have a feeling pendings do not qualify unless they hold the scores until all pendings are validated on each sub-project.

I was aiming for 100 mill raw credit over 5 days. Not sure where to find out re the pendings?

Good luck Richard

PS I just emailed DeleteNull on PG messages, as I think he may know the exact scheme of things.

PPS Wolfgang says "Pentathlon only counts validated results" So we need to think tactically (ummmm)

Since I only joined in today and my pendings are already 1.2 million, mine are growing too Bunkers being built by others?

I haven't tried more than one task per GPU, I can see experimentation is called for tomorrow.

[homefarm]

Hi All

As PG PPS pendings still building far too quickly, I have moved over to WW on GPUs, and put Mega on the CPUs. (WCG second throw completed)

Further to that I will transfer to Einstein when it starts, which will let any PG pendings trickle thru and get validated and add to the total score whilst building on Einstein. Hopefully a cunning plan!

All good fun.

[adrianxw]

I believe I have acheived the result I was looking for.

[UBT - Timbo]

I believe I have acheived the result I was looking for.

Excellent.

And thanks for joining UBT on the SiDock project.

If you need any other help/advice then feel free to ask.

regards
Tim

[homefarm]

https://www.seti-germany.de/forum/conte ... new-in-May

https://www.seti-germany.de/forum/conte ... scratching

[adrianxw]

Since joining the challenge, both my machines have been running SiDock almost exclusively, ie. 16 threads, however, the total shown on the Seti Germany list still shows 15.

[Woodles]

Since joining the challenge, both my machines have been running SiDock almost exclusively, ie. 16 threads, however, the total shown on the Seti Germany list still shows 15.

Hi Adrian,

Do you mean this list? - https://www.seti-germany.de/boinc_penta ... athlon.php?

I believe the '15' there is the points scored for 21st place.

If you look at the bottom here - https://www.seti-germany.de/boinc_penta ... +Team.html you'll see that we need another 263,270 points more than Crunching@EVGA to move up to the '18' points for 20th place.

Since they're producing 88,330 credits a day compared to our 27,487 credits a day, that's not going to happen

[homefarm]

Hi all,

I've bunkered 1400 Einstein GPU tasks for tonight/tomorrow, but Einstein can be painfully slow in processing thru to validation; hopefully we''ll get some benefit.

I abandoned PG as I still have 25 mill pendings with PPS + WW.

The Javelin has already been allocated to our third best 175K, so I moved away until next Javelin.

The Pentathlon is an interesting set of challanges, pity we have few of us taking part. C'est la vie!

BFN

Richard

[UBT - Timbo]

Since joining the challenge, both my machines have been running SiDock almost exclusively, ie. 16 threads, however, the total shown on the Seti Germany list still shows 15.

Hi Adrian

One of the issues with participating in Pentathlon events is that some days "events" overlap between different projects.

For instance, SIDock (which is a project with CPU-based tasks) is running over 14 consecutive days and during this time, other CPU-based tasks for other projects are also running...such as WCG, which has run on 2 specific days (6th and 8th May) and will be active tomorrow (10th) and on 2 other future dates too. So, for at least 5 of the 14 days, WCG might take away some of our capabilities on SiDock project.

Also, each UBT member can decide to either focus on one specific event (such as SiDock) or they can try each of the events and then they will have to micro-manage BOINC Manager in order to only crunch selected projects on certain days.

For CPU tasks, this then limits how many tasks can be crunched for each of these events.

Another factor is that, at present we only have 30 members who've joined the SiDock project, and of these, only yourself and 13 others have completed any SiDock tasks in the last week.

https://classic.boincstats.com/en/stats ... st/10/0/56

So, it is a tough Challenge for us to compete with some of the bigger teams, who have more active members.

regards
Tim

[adrianxw]

15 or so of the units I've crunched in the last couple of days are sitting in the pending state at the moment, they get credited quite quickly though.

[Woodles]

15 or so of the units I've crunched in the last couple of days are sitting in the pending state at the moment, they get credited quite quickly though.

Ah, in that case Tims answer is the correct one. Each task needs to be validated by someone else and they're not as enthusiastic as normal.

[homefarm]

https://www.seti-germany.de/forum/conte ... -in-threes

[UBT - Timbo]

15 or so of the units I've crunched in the last couple of days are sitting in the pending state at the moment, they get credited quite quickly though.

Hi Adrian

It is quite possible that some members are actually bunkering tasks - that is downloading a lot of tasks (from one or more projects) and then going offline (from the internet) and then uploading tasks at specific times, to maximise the credits earned on specific days.

So, one could crunch for both WCG and SiDock and then only allow internet access on days when WCG credits "count" towards a teams overall total (as one could upload SiDock tasks at ANY time, between the start and ending dates of the event).

Some of your SiDOck tasks might be pending, waiting until your "wingman" uploads their completed task (that is the same task as one of your pendings).

But, IIRC, SiDock tasks have 3 day deadlines, so you cannot bunker them for long and you can only download on any one host, the equivalent number of tasks, compared to the number of CPU cores that the machine has (so an 8-core PC can only download a maximum of 16 tasks - unless you tweak the app settings to confuse the project as to how many actual CPU cores your PC has !).

regards
Tim

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi all

Another announcement:

Javelin Throw: WCG - Microbiome Immunity Project - 1 day
#4 Start: 14 May 2020 00:01 UTC
End: 14 May 2020 23:59 UTC

That means that the #5 Start for WCG will be either on the 15th, 16th, 17th or 18th.

And the 3 day Sprint event will start on any of: 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th or 16th at the latest (as it will last 3 days ).

The PrimeGrid (City Run) ends on 12th and the Einstein (Cross Country) ends on 15th. Both feature GPU tasks...so, the Sprint could be a GPU project starting on the 16th...or not?

I doubt the Sprint would be a CPU-based project as SiDock and WCG are both CPU based... And having potentially 3 CPU events running concurrently?

regards
Tim

[homefarm]

Ever get that sinking feeling?

We are slowly moving down, now 20th.

Not sure if or how we can improve excepting new contributions?
Some of the teams appear to have massive departmental resources, as against our grouping of individuals. All we can do is our best and try to enjoy it.

Still as Churchill said, keep bu**ering on!

BFN

[adrianxw]

I've enabled new tasks for Einstein as well, I don't have a firebreather of a GPU, but I guess it all helps.

[homefarm]

I've enabled new tasks for Einstein as well, I don't have a firebreather of a GPU, but I guess it all helps.

HI,

Thanks, everything helps, kitchen sink etc etc

We all scrape around for the extra core.

BTW welcome!

Richard
PS Einstein server showing zero tasks for GPU at present
PPS 2 hours later and Einstein struggling, still zero GPU tasks. I'm running Primegrid and Einstein both enabled to receive tasks; hopefully we're scoring credits.

[UBT - Timbo]

I've enabled new tasks for Einstein as well, I don't have a firebreather of a GPU, but I guess it all helps.

Hi Adrian

Excellent stuff - welcome to UBTs Einstein team.

Just be aware that Einstein tasks are in short supply, due to this event...so maybe you could also allow PrimeGrid tasks as well, as they will also count up until tomorrow night (when the City Run event stops).

HI,

Thanks, everything helps, kitchen sink etc etc

We all scrape around for the extra core.

BTW welcome!

Richard
PS Einstein server showing zero tasks for GPU at present
PPS 2 hours later and Einstein struggling, still zero GPU tasks. I'm running Primegrid and Einstein both enabled to receive tasks; hopefully we're scoring credits.

Hi Richard

Indeed - we can only do what we can, to improve our position, although historically, the Pentathlon has not been a Challenge that many UBT members have wanted to participate in...and I really cannot explain that, although it does require some degree of "hands on" on specific dates to maximise one's efforts.

I, too, have allowed both Einstein and PrimeGrid to grab new work, for the time being, and once the City Run event closes (tomorrow night) hopefully by then the 5th project will have been announced, and if it's a GPU project then I'll just bunker tasks and hope we can have a late run to the end.

regards
Tim

[adrianxw]

I don't have primegrid on my systems. I guess I don't know why I would want to find really large prime numbers, what benefit is there. I may well be wrong and there are valid reasons for doing that, but if so, nobody has tried to correct my apparent ignorance.

[UBT - Timbo]

I don't have primegrid on my systems. I guess I don't know why I would want to find really large prime numbers, what benefit is there. I may well be wrong and there are valid reasons for doing that, but if so, nobody has tried to correct my apparent ignorance.

Hi Adrian

No worries - it was just an idea.

As far as PrimeGrid goes, as a maths based project, find Prime numbers is quite beneficial to the cryptography industry and being able to encrypt devices and communications systems is always going to be an important factor to ensure security systems remain "secure", especially as CPUs are getting ever more powerful, which means cracking passwords (and hacking systems) has been getting easier.

So secure systems need to improve and become more unhackable and finding Prime Numbers is a part of that.

regards
Tim

[homefarm]

RE EINSTEIN

The server supply appears to be coping better than earlier, although a trifle volatile.

I had a couple of white-outs, no tasks running - so I now have 1 day stored and 1 day additional stored to iron out the dips in supply.

As I run only a single instance of "BOINC" on my PCs, this also drags in an extra supply of PG tasks. However if running LLR2 tasks that do not require full wingman validation tasks, it works out well as all tasks will be valid (excepting any errors of course). I am running PPS Sieve and MEGA.

[UBT - Timbo]

The PrimeGrid (City Run) ends on 12th and the Einstein (Cross Country) ends on 15th. Both feature GPU tasks...so, the Sprint could be a GPU project starting on the 16th...or not?

I doubt the Sprint would be a CPU-based project as SiDock and WCG are both CPU based... And having potentially 3 CPU events running concurrently?

regards
Tim

Hi all

So, what do *I* know?

The final project has now been announced:

Sprint: NFS - 3 days
Start: 15 May 2020 00:01 UTC
End: 17 May 2020 23:59 UTC

and YES, it uses CPU's...

So, the last few days will be:

SiDock, running continuously until the 18th at midnight
WCG, running all day on the 14th, plus one other day (TBA)
NFS running from 15th-17th inclusive

GPU's now running only on Einstein until 15th at midnight

regards
Tim

[adrianxw]

The nfs project for the final pentathlon stage is a little choosy when issuing work. It prefers to send jobs to accounts that have been running the project rather than accounts that just start up. If you want plenty, you probably want to start crunching them early. I have crunched it earlier, and re-enabled it yesterday evening, but I'm not being flooded with work units.

[homefarm]

HI
The 4th Javelin throw is already beating the previous third best score, and there's another throw to come.

Therefore it might be better to bunker up on NFS, which will also speed up flow rate of tasks, as Adrian has noted above.

I have also increased ncpus to improve allocation of NFS tasks ( and it helps considerably)
However after loading a bunkerful, amend the <ncpus>100</ncpus> back to the correct amount of cores for the PC. If not BOINC tries to run too many tasks, and will overload cpus, or run out of memory.

<cc_config>
<options>
<use_all_gpus>1</use_all_gpus>
<allow_multiple_clients>1</allow_multiple_clients>
<report_results_immediately>1</report_results_immediately>
<allow_remote_gui_rpc>1</allow_remote_gui_rpc>
<max_file_xfers_per_project>20</max_file_xfers_per_project>
<max_file_xfers>20</max_file_xfers>

<ncpus>100</ncpus>
</options>
</cc_config>

[UBT - Timbo]

HI
The 4th Javelin throw is already beating the previous third best score, and there's another throw to come.

Hi Richard

Some of that might be due to the WCG bunker I dropped just after 1am this morning...

Therefore it might be better to bunker up on NFS, which will also speed up flow rate of tasks, as Adrian has noted above.

I have also increased ncpus to improve allocation of NFS tasks ( and it helps considerably)
However after loading a bunkerful, amend the <ncpus>100</ncpus> back to the correct amount of cores for the PC. If not BOINC tries to run too many tasks, and will overload cpus, or run out of memory.

<cc_config>
<options>
<use_all_gpus>1</use_all_gpus>
<allow_multiple_clients>1</allow_multiple_clients>
<report_results_immediately>1</report_results_immediately>
<allow_remote_gui_rpc>1</allow_remote_gui_rpc>
<max_file_xfers_per_project>20</max_file_xfers_per_project>
<max_file_xfers>20</max_file_xfers>

<ncpus>100</ncpus>
</options>
</cc_config>

Good tips - I've already started to accrue some NFS tasks, as my WCG caches are crunched and uploaded (as I have enough WCG tasks to get me through today).

So, I can start crunching NFS once all my WCG tasks have completed and I'll then suspend WCG as soon as the NFS event starts...though it'll mean I won't have any NFS tasks in my bunker

regards
Tim

[homefarm]

HI Tim,

We ain't gonna win any prizes here, but we will have the satisfaction of improving over last year! Onwards and up wards.

Oh, and Einstein is humming along on all GPUs, at 3 tasks per GPU.

https://www.seti-germany.de/forum/conte ... ase-begins

[UBT - Timbo]

So, the last few days will be:

SiDock, running continuously until the 18th at midnight
WCG, running all day on the 14th, plus one other day (TBA)
NFS running from 15th-17th inclusive

GPU's now running only on Einstein until 15th at midnight

Hi all

The 5th and final date for the WCG event has now been announced:

Javelin Throw: WCG - Microbiome Immunity Project - 1 day
#5 Start: 18 May 2020 00:01 UTC
End: 18 May 2020 23:59 UTC

regards
Tim

[adrianxw]

I just checked my Einstein results, I have over 150 work units "waiting for validation" - I don't know if these get accepted by the pentathlon.

[UBT - Timbo]

I just checked my Einstein results, I have over 150 work units "waiting for validation" - I don't know if these get accepted by the pentathlon.

Hi Adrian

Sadly, if they had not been credited within the event window, then they will not count towards the final team credit total for the Penthlon (though they will count towards your own overall personal total and the overall team total).

It is a shame, but when popular projects are chosen for Sprints, some people are not aware of Challenges and hence they might not have any regard for completing tasks quickly.

And if the project specifies a long deadline, then the situation gets worse, as many tasks can be queued in peoples caches and are not crunched until near the deadline, which doesn't help people like yourself, who are waiting for their wingmen to upload their tasks and both then get credit.

regards
Tim

[homefarm]

Hi

I think with NFS falling over there's no point in continuing with the Pentathlon. I managed to get a load of Einsteins uploaded but many were pending at close of play.

I'm not a fan of SiDock, so it's only Javelin on Tuesday.

Oh well we tried, but everybody must be frustrated with the failure rate of projects. They are not staffed nor made to stand up to the level of punishment handed out to them in challenges. They are often small voluntary spare time "jobs", so we can't moan about things too much, I'm sure most do their best efforts. Without them all we wouldn't have any projects!!

I'm taking a break from BOINC for a while, so....

Take Care

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi Richard

I've just got a cache of WCG tasks plus a few remaining Collatz and PG GPU tasks left over, all with deadlines of 18th or later...so I'm going offline and will then upload my bunkers sometime early on Tuseday, so potentially we'll get a boost from that...

Shame about NFS...one hopes that they don't have a big issue/fault and they can be back sometime soon.

regards
Tim

[adrianxw]

The nfs@home site is unobtainable at the moment, I've not been able to get a reply to my request for info from them. Perhaps the pentathlon broke it!!! I've got a few MicroBiome units bunkered for the closing act. I hope I've adjusted my team setting for wcg, I just went to check and can't find the setting!

>>> I'm not a fan of SiDock

Why is that? For me, it has been trouble free, perhaps I am missing something.

[UBT - Timbo]

The nfs@home site is unobtainable at the moment, I've not been able to get a reply to my request for info from them. Perhaps the pentathlon broke it!!! I've got a few MicroBiome units bunkered for the closing act. I hope I've adjusted my team setting for wcg, I just went to check and can't find the setting!

Hi Adrian

You don't appear to be a member of UBT on WCG project, according to this:

https://classic.boincstats.com/en/stats ... /14/0/6429

Or in this listing:

https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/team ... 9TGC4G1RP1

but clicking on the above should enable you to join UBT.

regards
Tim

[adrianxw]

>>> You don't appear....

I thought I had managed to change from my team to yours for the pentathlon. I have just gone through the hoops again. I, again, think I have done it.

adrianxw 05/16/2021 -:---:--:--:-- 0 0

Off topic: NFS seems to be live again, I've just uploaded a dozen units without hassle.

[adrianxw]

NFS is off the air again. Unable to upload completed work. I think it may have been a questionable choice of project for the pentathlon based on its performance in the last few days.

[adrianxw]

So, all over. Not a great result, but hey. I've not done this before. Before doing it again, I need to write a BOINC Manager manager. A program to switch projects around at midnight so I don't need to sneak out of the bedroom without waking my girl. I've set my projects back to my own team now, glad to have helped.

[Woodles]

Thanks for your help Adrian, good to have you aboard even temporarily.

Boinc Tasks has rules where you can set a host/project to stop/start at any particular time. Might be worth a look?

Or set up multiple Boinc instances to run at different times?

[UBT - Timbo]

So, all over. Not a great result, but hey. I've not done this before. Before doing it again, I need to write a BOINC Manager manager.

Hi Adrian

Many thanks for your assistance and forum comments, even if, in the end, we didn't exactly do as well on this Challenge as we have on others.

A program to switch projects around at midnight so I don't need to sneak out of the bedroom without waking my girl. I've set my projects back to my own team now, glad to have helped.

One thing you can try, if you have a large screen mobile or a tablet - download the AnyDesk app and install AnyDesk on your PC's. It's a remote control access program, that is free for personal use.

https://anydesk.com/en

That way you can access your PCs remotely, and you can tweak BOINC Manager, without getting out of bed.

Just be careful of the timezone you are in...I used this program on Monday night, to "switch network access" back on, for my 2 hosts, so I could upload my bunker of WCG tasks...'cept I did it an hour too early, and a load of tasks were validated BEFORE midnight UTC

Good luck on your team. And feel free to pop in and say "hello" when you have some spare time and you can see how we're doing?

regards and stay safe
Tim

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi all

The Pentathlon is now over for another year and, sadly, UBT didn't quite cut the mustard this time around...

Stats wise we finished:

Marathon (SiDock) - started in 23rd place and ended in 21st place - contribution: 619,312 credits

Javelin Thrown (WCG) - started in 24th and ended in 20th - contribution: 1,790,130 credits

City Run (PrimeGrid) - started in 14th and ended in 16th - contribution: 97,306,897 credits

Cross Country (Einstein) - started in 19th and finished in 15th - contribution: 34,808,575 credits

Sprint (NFS) = started in 19th and ended in 22nd - contribution: 483,232 credits

Overall: Started in 23rd place and ended in 22nd place.

So, big thank you to all who contributed to the teams efforts, including Richard, Mark, Mikee, Chris C and our "on loan" member Adrian .

I would like to think we could do better next year.....but I've said this in previous years about the Pentathlon, and, it seems that we are just not able to compete significantly, on this Challenge...

regards
Tim

[adrianxw]

I am feeling the need for a BOINC Manager manager. Something that will adjust settings at certain times. Rules are not really the answer though. I can add a rule "somewhere" that says "at midnight, stop running A and start running B". What I want is "at midnight, look at A, if I suspend it, will it have enough time left to complete when I restart it, if so, suspend it and start B". Similar questions concerning work already downloaded for A, and, "do I have any work from B that I could start". There are numerous simple questions that you would not think twice about, but to automate the action, they have to be considered.

Is the format of the pentathlon always the same? A 2 week marathon and four "events" of various lengths, start and end points etc. I should possibly ask Seti.Germany, but I expect they will not want to be constrained in future events, preferring to keep things as flexible as possibe, that is what I would want.

My team, (BOINC@Denmark), is really in a state of limbo now. We had a website, with a forum, and several general and personalised stats pages which I wrote the software for, but the guy who hosted the site, a fellow member of the team, one day, disappeared off the planet taking everything with him. Without the forum, participating in events like this would be impossible to manage.

[UBT - Timbo]

I am feeling the need for a BOINC Manager manager. Something that will adjust settings at certain times. Rules are not really the answer though. I can add a rule "somewhere" that says "at midnight, stop running A and start running B". What I want is "at midnight, look at A, if I suspend it, will it have enough time left to complete when I restart it, if so, suspend it and start B". Similar questions concerning work already downloaded for A, and, "do I have any work from B that I could start". There are numerous simple questions that you would not think twice about, but to automate the action, they have to be considered.

HI Adrian

I totally agree with you that BOINC Manager should be more customisable...BUT, although the source code is now available (so you could create your own version) I very much doubt that the current developers will do anything along the lines you are thinking.

For instance, I've "spoken" to a dev on Discord about wanting an "congfig editor" built into BM, so that specific project tweaks can be edited "on the fly"...but although it was noted, he didn't promise anything.

https://discord.gg/je9fQjSZ

Is the format of the pentathlon always the same? A 2 week marathon and four "events" of various lengths, start and end points etc. I should possibly ask Seti.Germany, but I expect they will not want to be constrained in future events, preferring to keep things as flexible as possibe, that is what I would want.

Yup, the Pentathlon follows the same format - a 5 day event held on non-consecutive days and then 4 multi-day events.

My team, (BOINC@Denmark), is really in a state of limbo now. We had a website, with a forum, and several general and personalised stats pages which I wrote the software for, but the guy who hosted the site, a fellow member of the team, one day, disappeared off the planet taking everything with him. Without the forum, participating in events like this would be impossible to manage.

You could always start up a new forum - either buy a domain name and download forum software (like phpBB), to install onto it or maybe start one on Facebook, or Discord...then you need someone who is an admin on one (or more) of the projects and get them to message everyone (on the project) to join up.

It won't be difficult to do.

And if you can write stats pages, I might have a job for you !! (Seriously, as one of our team also created such pages and then did a moonlight flit - the stats pages worked for a good few years and then more recently, the stats website vanished).

regards
Tim

[adrianxw]

I was not thinking about modifying BOINC Manager itself. I was thinking of a standalone program which could be set up with the pentathlon particulars before the event started, and could interact with BOINC Manager to achieve the desired effects. (I was a professional software engineer for almost 40 years before I HAD to retire). I remember BOINC being particularly well endowed with external interfaces.

>>> a 5 day event held on non-consecutive days and then 4 multi-day events

Err, a little confused now, that is not how it worked this year. The "marathon" event was from the start to the end, ie. 14 days...

If you look at our old page, boincdenmark.dk, you will find a travel site for visitors to Holland.

Don't get excited. I had to retire from software engineering in 2008 when I had a heart attack and died for 46 minutes. All stuff I do now takes me a long time, I can usually prevail though.

[UBT - Timbo]

I was not thinking about modifying BOINC Manager itself. I was thinking of a standalone program which could be set up with the pentathlon particulars before the event started, and could interact with BOINC Manager to achieve the desired effects. (I was a professional software engineer for almost 40 years before I HAD to retire). I remember BOINC being particularly well endowed with external interfaces.time, I can usually prevail though.

Hi Adrian

No worries...

However, I'm unaware of any external interfaces that work with BOINC Manager directly, so that you can control what BOINC (the separate program) does.

BOINC Tasks (as Mark mentioned) comes close, but this is a BOINC Manager substitute and it is based on the BOINC open source code (I believe).

Source Code:
https://github.com/BOINC/boinc

and

BOINC Tasks:
https://efmer.com/boinctasks/

>>> a 5 day event held on non-consecutive days and then 4 multi-day events

Err, a little confused now, that is not how it worked this year. The "marathon" event was from the start to the end, ie. 14 days...

The events were:
Marathon - held over 14 consecutive days
City Run - held over 5 consecutive days
Cross Country - held over 5 consecutive days
Sprint - held over 3 consecutive days
(that's 4 multi-day events)

and:
Javelin (featuring WCG) took place over 5 different non-consecutive days within the 14 day "window".

So, it did take place as I described - you have assumed that my mention of a "5 day event" related to the Marathon (which it didn't).

If you look at our old page, boincdenmark.dk, you will find a travel site for visitors to Holland.

Don't get excited. I had to retire from software engineering in 2008 when I had a heart attack and died for 46 minutes. All stuff I do now takes me a long time, I can usually prevail though.

If the original registered owner of boincdenmark.dk did not renew it, then the domain name is then up for grabs and marketing firms grab it, for their own advertising purposes...and that's what has happened to it.

We had the same problem with ukboincteam.com (which was registered by another, now inactive, member). And when he didn't renew the domain name, it was bought/taken over by a US seller of domain names...and they wanted something like $15,000 for it.

As the "owner" of both ukboincteam.org.uk and ukboincteam.co.uk, I emailed them and asked if they would reassign it to me, as the domain name is so specific, it cannot be used by anyone else. They agreed and transferred it to me for FREE.

So, maybe if you register "boincdenmark.COM" (which is available) you can ask the current rights holder of the ".DK" version if they will reassign it to you? Or maybe just use the boincdenmark.com domain as it's quite a nice domain name to have.

You could even register boinc-denmark.dk (with the extra hyphen)...

re: stats
Fair enough - I just mentioned it in case you fancied doing something positive/helpful to wile away the time

regards
Tim

[adrianxw]

You own the domain names, do you host the website? The stats pages I made for our pages used data from a small database on the server machine which was owned and operated by our former member. The program which kept that database up to date was a C++ program which collected and processed the raw stats files from project servers. The actual page html was written with data from that database, if I remember correctly, I wrote that in Perl, I don't remember why exactly, it was probably as a learning exercise for the language. Clearly, such a set up requires all the components to be running on the server machine, or, at least, the local network, if there are unpredictable delays due to net weather etc. calling up the page could be set with pregnant pauses which would render it useless.

...Hampshire have taken two wickets in the first three overs. Reasonable start...

... now 4 wickets in six overs...

... 17 for 5 now...

[UBT - Timbo]

You own the domain names, do you host the website?

Hi Adrian

I personally own the UBT domain names (.co.uk, .org.uk and .com) and then I also do the hosting via my own company, which use a dedicated server at a "server farm" owned by an ISP. So, yes I own and host all the UBT websites.

The stats pages I made for our pages used data from a small database on the server machine which was owned and operated by our former member. The program which kept that database up to date was a C++ program which collected and processed the raw stats files from project servers. The actual page html was written with data from that database, if I remember correctly, I wrote that in Perl, I don't remember why exactly, it was probably as a learning exercise for the language. Clearly, such a set up requires all the components to be running on the server machine, or, at least, the local network, if there are unpredictable delays due to net weather etc. calling up the page could be set with pregnant pauses which would render it useless.

The ubtstats.co.uk website was created in php, I believe, by our member Temujin, who worked in IT and was for a long time our teams "crunch leader". It was not hosted by me, but by Temujin who had sole control of it.

I did not have access to the "back office" workings of this, but I do recall, that his code would "trawl" each of our teams project page and then "capture" the team credits total and individual members credit totals, on an HOURLY basis. This was then fed into a database and the stats pages were then displayed from this.

We could display tables of stats by project or overall total stats. Various functions could then be done, such as sorting on any column (user position,user name, todays credits, yesterdays, last weeks, etc).

Not only that, but it also did the same for 3 other UK teams, namely TSBT, BOINC UK and Team England. So we could keep an eye on the competition !!

It was very useful and included a number of "open source" code (that was duly acknowleged on the website).

Column sorting by:
Standardista Table Sorting - http://www.workingwith.me.uk/articles/s ... le_sorting

Javascript popup by:
overLIB - http://www.bosrup.com/web/overlib/

Floating Menu by:
Henrik Petersen, NetKontoret - http://www.echoecho.com/toolfloatinglayer.htm

Graph Icon by:
FAMFAMFAM - http://www.famfamfam.com/

Flags by:
Jacorre Design Studio - http://www.jacorre.com/design/pixelflagicons.htm


(see screen grab attached)

ubtstats-screen-grab-50.jpg

...Hampshire have taken two wickets in the first three overs. Reasonable start...

... now 4 wickets in six overs...

... 17 for 5 now...

aha -a cricket fan !! Your secret is safe with us

regards
Tim

[adrianxw]

Okay Tim, I had a look, it is a bleak view for me, but, I have been presented with similar mountains, and have suceeded in the past. I will start working with PHP, which I've never used before, and see how I get on. DO NOT ASSUME I WILL GET ANYWHERE!!!!!!! I have in the past however. I was a professional software engineer qualified to work on safety critical systems, but my brain was really trashed by my "death". This does, at least, give me a purpose or direction.

The Hampshire Leicestershire game fizzled out. To much rain. Leicester avoided the follow on by one run. Hampshire gave up their second innings and put them back in, but there was no time.

[wbiz]

I am feeling the need for a BOINC Manager manager. Something that will adjust settings at certain times. Rules are not really the answer though. I can add a rule "somewhere" that says "at midnight, stop running A and start running B". What I want is "at midnight, look at A, if I suspend it, will it have enough time left to complete when I restart it, if so, suspend it and start B". Similar questions concerning work already downloaded for A, and, "do I have any work from B that I could start". There are numerous simple questions that you would not think twice about, but to automate the action, they have to be considered.

Why do it through boinc-manager? Boinc-client has an extensive API though it would be a very steep learning curve, that's all that boinc-manager and boinctui uses.

[adrianxw]

I know, and it is probably where I would start.