Formula BOINC 2023

[wbiz]

Well done, whoever you kicked on the shins appears to have got it sorted.

I haven't looked at the fallout yet, its so predictable though.

[UBT - Timbo]

Well done, whoever you kicked on the shins appears to have got it sorted.

I haven't looked at the fallout yet, its so predictable though.

Hiya

Well, all I could do is to use my noodle and think of ways to contact someone (anyone?) who might be able to contact Sebastien directly.

So far, no one has come forward to advise how the sites were restored/repaired and by whom?

I think there would be significant fall out *if* the outage occurred tonight just before the Sprint ended at 23:00 UTC. But the scheduler is working OK now and the totals are incrementing nicely, albeit with a big boost at 15:00 UTC as there were no stats collected since 01:00 UTC. So, I doubt anyone has anything to complain about now.

Fingers crossed another issue doesn't happen - and I await to hear from Sebastien as to how we can better manage these situations in the future.

regards
Tim

[UBT - Timbo]

Fingers crossed another issue doesn't happen - and I await to hear from Sebastien as to how we can better manage these situations in the future.

regards
Tim

Hi all

I think I spoke too soon as, sure enough, the FB website, the FB forum AND the L'AF website have gone offline AGAIN. And WU-Prop has the same issues again:

https://wuprop.boinc-af.org/

regards
Tim

[wbiz]

Fingers crossed another issue doesn't happen - and I await to hear from Sebastien as to how we can better manage these situations in the future.

regards
Tim

Hi all

I think I spoke too soon as, sure enough, the FB website, the FB forum AND the L'AF website have gone offline AGAIN. And WU-Prop has the same issues again:

https://wuprop.boinc-af.org/



regards
Tim

OVH has got loads of maintenance going on, started on the 8th and has now been extended until tomoz so I guess its not going well

https://www.status-ovhcloud.com/

I know the "not going well" feeling, I'm moving some of my sites over to different server company. Fifteen down, two to go, leaving the worst to last but I've got over a month to sort it.

[UBT - Timbo]

OVH has got loads of maintenance going on, started on the 8th and has now been extended until tomoz so I guess its not going well

https://www.status-ovhcloud.com/

I know the "not going well" feeling, I'm moving some of my sites over to different server company. Fifteen down, two to go, leaving the worst to last but I've got over a month to sort it.

Hiya

Thanks for the heads-up.

I'll keep an eye on this as the next Sprint is due to start on Thursday 14th Sept at 1600 UTC.

So, if the hosting provider (for FB) *still* have issues (or undergoing maintenance) then I might have to postpone the Sprint...but the next Sprint is due to start on Sept 21st, (one week later)...so there's little room to delay, so it might need to be postponed?

Will take a view on this in the next day or two, depending on the hosting provider status !

regards
Tim

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi all

(quoting from the post I just put on the FB forum)

In the light of recent issues with the hosting provider, I've now set up a Discord channel, which is, of course, entirely independent of the Formula BOINC servers.

So, please feel free to join up here, via this invitation code:

https://discord.gg/aWp5RcS7

At least having this as a backup, allows for some lines of communication to take place, if the website goes offline (for whatever reason).


Also: If you were not aware, there is a UBT channel on Discord here:

https://discord.gg/RuRbX7d3

Please note that the invitation codes expire within 7 days of this posting, so if you do not join within this period, send me a PM and I can create a new invitation code.

regards
Tim

[ChelseaOilman]

Joined FB Discord.

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi all

The project randomly selected for Sprint #17 is MilkyWay

Keep track of the teams taking part here:

https://formula-boinc.org/sprint_v3.py? ... &year=2023

Good luck everyone !

regards
Tim

[UBT - Timbo]

Joined FB Discord.

Thanks Carl.

I'm not sure if it'll become the main focus for FB members, but it's at least one way around the problem of communicating to fellow FB crunchers *IF* the website and forum go offline.

We shall see.

regards
Tim

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi all

Yet another Sprint (number 18 of 24) starts today at 15:00 UTC.

Take a look here to see which project has been selected:

https://formula-boinc.org/sprint_v3.py? ... year=2023]

So, hopefully, anyone with some spare crunching time on their BOINC hosts might want to take part?

regards
Tim

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi all

The project randomly selected for Sprint #18 is PrimeGrid

Keep track of the teams taking part here:

https://formula-boinc.org/sprint_v3.py? ... &year=2023

Good luck everyone !

regards
Tim

[wbiz]

Ooops, TSBT been knocked off 1st place by two teams, I hope the Scottish wind turbines are spinning well, there's going to be some serious grid power used to defend their position.

I've messed up my setup yet again, hopefully it will sort itself out in the next few hours.

FB having some "moments" since about 6am (BST), feels like a DDOS attack rather than the server going ape? Page loads happen sometimes.

[wbiz]

Ooops, TSBT been knocked off 1st place by two teams, I hope the Scottish wind turbines are spinning well, there's going to be some serious grid power used to defend their position.

FB having some "moments" since about 6am (BST), feels like a DDOS attack rather than the server going ape? Page loads happen sometimes.

Both those are fixed, TSBT back on top spot, FB running smoothly but looks like it may have temporarily lost some updates

[UBT - Timbo]

Both those are fixed, TSBT back on top spot, FB running smoothly but looks like it may have temporarily lost some updates

Hiya

Yup, the 6am (UTC) update this morning did not take place...but all totals were updated on the 7am update, so nothing was lost.

Given the relative complexity of exporting stats from the projects, importing them into the FB back-office and then compiling said stats into human readable form, it can sometimes go askew. It's just the nature of the beast

regards
Tim

[ChelseaOilman]

@wbiz, time to pre-order your raspberry pi 5!
https://vilros.com/products/raspberry-p ... TLK6svvcUY

[UBT - Timbo]

@wbiz, time to pre-order your raspberry pi 5!
https://vilros.com/products/raspberry-p ... TLK6svvcUY

Hi Carl and wbiz

That store has sold out (already, or so it says - but it does say "Notify me when available") but they can be pre-ordered from here in the UK:

https://thepihut.com/products/raspberry-pi-5

regards
Tim

[wbiz]

@wbiz, time to pre-order your raspberry pi 5!
https://vilros.com/products/raspberry-p ... TLK6svvcUY

Only when they start coming up secondhand, I'm not buying any Raspberry microcomputer new since the way they treated the hobby market during the recent shortages and also the planned selling of Raspberry Pi Ltd.

However I've been looking at going x86 again for my desktop computer and haven't decided what to get yet, prices are a bit raised again at the moment. I guess bargain time is around the beginning/end of the financial year when large companies update their systems.

@tim they aren't expected in stock until end of October, this is a break in tradition for Raspberry Pi by pre-announcing a product. Part of it may be that they haven't released RPiOS Bookworm yet, its still in testing.

[ChelseaOilman]

However I've been looking at going x86 again for my desktop computer and haven't decided what to get yet, prices are a bit raised again at the moment.

What are you interested in doing? Buying a pre-built system or building your own. When I get back to my winter home in Texas late next month I have lots of older hardware I'm not really using and would be willing to give you for free if your willing to pay shipping costs. Your call.

[wbiz]

However I've been looking at going x86 again for my desktop computer and haven't decided what to get yet, prices are a bit raised again at the moment.

What are you interested in doing? Buying a pre-built system or building your own. When I get back to my winter home in Texas late next month I have lots of older hardware I'm not really using and would be willing to give you for free if your willing to pay shipping costs. Your call.

Many thanks yet again for your generosity but I doubt you will be clearing anything that I have in mind, not that I know what I want yet

Really I need a mini/usff PC to have on my desk, its not for boinc use. I don't do anything really heavy like games or video editing.

I have a great liking for HP and Intel and that is limiting me

My other option is buying a new Beelink or similar but I have a feeling there's going to be a bit of a revolution in new kit next year and now isn't the right time to be looking at new.

[ChelseaOilman]

My other option is buying a new Beelink or similar but I have a feeling there's going to be a bit of a revolution in new kit next year and now isn't the right time to be looking at new.

My two Beelinks have been crunching Cosmology tasks non stop since I got them. They do a pretty good job without using a lot of electricity. Recently passed 4 million points and plan to keep them running Cosmology until I pass 10 million.

There will be better stuff next year and every year after that. It's a never ending cycle. Just built another Ryzen 7950X system a couple days ago and have the parts to build another when I get back to Texas.

[wbiz]

I was going round in circles and wasting far too many hours so I've got myself yet another very cheap HP Prodesk with an i5 4590S in it, if I spot a i7 4790S CPU going for pennies I might upgrade but the i5 is more than fine for my normal desktop and programming usage. It will release another Pi4 for Boinc but I'm also thinking of selling all my Pi4's, most of my programming is either machine agnostic or for the Raspberry pico or zero.

Raspberry Pi 5 availability is expect to start at the end of October and not to be in full flow until January/February next year.

In reality the Orange Pi 5 released earlier this year is a very similar product, available and much better in many respects, audio in/out, hdmi in, much faster GPU etc. The Orange Pi is dearer but they have dropped the price by 30% to place the price much closer.

While I'm tempted to get an Orange Pi, I'm not sure I have a use for it and I've got more than enough clutter. By the time you add a power supply, case, NVMe drive etc its a long way from a sub £100 system and better options in the used x86 market pop up now and then.

Dropping audio out from the Rapberry Pi 5 sounds a bit silly to me, admittedly for less than £5 you can get a USB or HDMI audio adapter but it isn't the same. Going for the Videocore VII instead of ARM-Mali GPU like used in the RK3588 SoC used on the Orange Pi 5 and numerous other SBC's may have been the price difference to try and keep Raspberry in a lower price bracket from Orange Pi etc.

Interesting that Orange Pi has gone from the lower price budget alternative to the higher price, higher performance competitor. Also Orange Pi are bringing out new SBC's before Raspberry and updating Debian ahead of Raspberry.

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi all

FB Sprint #19 starts in two days time on Thursday 5th Oct, at 21:00 (UTC).

The project has been randomly selected and will be announced here:

https://formula-boinc.org/sprint_v3.py? ... &year=2023

regards
Tim

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi all

The project randomly selected for Sprint #19 is Asteroids@home

Keep track of the teams taking part here:

https://formula-boinc.org/sprint_v3.py? ... &year=2023

Good luck everyone !

regards
Tim

[wbiz]

Bit of a struggle getting tasks at the moment but it should settle down. Got the first run loaded up on all computers, I will be upping the cache.

[wbiz]

Early morning sprint for us in the UK in about nine and a half hours time.

[wbiz]

Gerasim, one of my favourites

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi all

Better late than never !!

The project randomly selected for Sprint #20 is Gerasim

Keep track of the teams taking part here:

https://formula-boinc.org/sprint_v3.py? ... &year=2023

Best of luck to everyone !

regards
Tim

[UBT - Timbo]

Gerasim, one of my favourites

Hiya

Thanks for posting this - I've been busy this morning, so I did not have time to post which project was selected !

regards
Tim

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi all

There are just 4 more FB Sprints until the end of this season.

In the case of Sprint #21, the randomly selected project has now been chosen.

You can find out which project on FRIDAY 27th October (at or after 06:00 UTC) here:

https://formula-boinc.org/sprint_v3.py? ... &year=2023

Good luck to anyone joining in

regards
Tim

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi all

The project chosen for Sprint #21 is SRBase

But please note this from their messageboard earlier today:

There are some connections issues / slowdowns on uploads / DNS. Local connections without the DNS is just fine. The cable provider need to fix this soon.

https://srbase.my-firewall.org/sr5/foru ... =1817#9195

Hopefully this has a minimal effect on the Sprint.

regards
Tim

[ChelseaOilman]

Sadly all these recent sprints are for projects I've reached my points goals in. I'm currently micro managing several projects on 9 computers right now. Unless a sprint comes up that is for a project I need points in I'm probably not going to bother switching projects. I'm just waiting for the first snow storm to prompt me to head to Texas for the winter. Should happen any day now.

[ChelseaOilman]

Are you aware rebirther the SRBase admin was injured a while back? Not sure how well he's running the site considering his condition.
https://srbase.my-firewall.org/sr5/foru ... =1814#9140

[wbiz]

A little battle going on between us and Boinc Synergy in the Universe@home sprint but we are both outside the points region.

At least twelve UBT members have contributed so far.

[UBT - Timbo]

Sadly all these recent sprints are for projects I've reached my points goals in.

Hiya

Sadly, I cannot influence how the Sprint project is randomly chosen, although I do remove any potential projects *IF* they are offline or have very few tasks available. So, it's just how the cookie crumbles as to which one is selected.

I'm currently micro managing several projects on 9 computers right now. Unless a sprint comes up that is for a project I need points in I'm probably not going to bother switching projects. I'm just waiting for the first snow storm to prompt me to head to Texas for the winter. Should happen any day now.

Understood. But thank you for your contributions when Sprint projects did fit your needs when it comes to points goals.

Do you use WIndows for your hosts? As there is a program called BOINC Tasks, that enables you to control various hosts from one (Windows) desktop machine. I did try it once when I had a few hosts, but now I'm down to 1 that runs 24/7 and the other is sporadic when it's a basic project that an old chugger of a PC can handle...

Good luck with the shift down to Texas...hope it's warmer there and no chance of hurricanes that might affect you! In UK, autumn has started and it is already getting quite nippy !!

regards
Tim

[UBT - Timbo]

A little battle going on between us and Boinc Synergy in the Universe@home sprint but we are both outside the points region.

At least twelve UBT members have contributed so far.

Hiya

I tried to download some Universe tasks, but my host machine did not get any tasks, and the downloads were stuck and kept re-trying but no tasks were received. I reset the project but still no joy

Other FB members were getting tasks, (as can be seen by the credits earned) but none for me

regards
Tim

[ChelseaOilman]

Do you use WIndows for your hosts? As there is a program called BOINC Tasks, that enables you to control various hosts from one (Windows) desktop machine.

Good luck with the shift down to Texas...hope it's warmer there and no chance of hurricanes that might affect you! In UK, autumn has started and it is already getting quite nippy !!

Still in Colorado but I should be heading South soon.

I'm far enough inland that hurricanes are rarely an issue. Mostly the people on the Gulf coast are the ones that need to be concerned.

I've used BOINCTasks before. I change things around so often that I gave up on it. BOINCTasks works on both Windows and Linux.

[wbiz]

We just get water, here is one of our lawns on 20th October before the real storms. Managed to fit my Mk1 drain pump in just before the storms so its stopped that happening but its electronic level detection and not behaving itself 100% so just waiting on some bits to make it electromechanical which shouldn't mind the humidity as much.

It took four and a half hours to drain this pumping it down a half inch hose pipe.

[ChelseaOilman]

Just leave the water in and get some Koi!

[wbiz]

Fifteen hours until the next sprint.

Starts at 0800 16th November (UTC, GMT)

[wbiz]

The sprint is Asteroids.

(Is one of Carl's targets 20 million on Asteroids?)

[wbiz]

Team is 3rd place on the first hour

And still 3rd on the second hour

[UBT - Timbo]

Team is 3rd place on the first hour

And still 3rd on the second hour

Hiya

Many thanks for your efforts to publicise the Sprints !! I've now moved house, but I cannot get an internet service (via the phone line) for about 2 more weeks, so I'm hot-spotting on my mobile, which is only 4G

Here's hoping we can keep this position through out the next 3 days, but I suspect that we will drop down a few places, once other teams start crunching these tasks.

regards
Tim

[wbiz]

but I suspect that we will drop down a few places, once other teams start crunching these tasks.

The last asteroids we ended up 16th, I suspect we will do a bit better this time but I doubt we will be in the points.

Quite a few members have been playing asteroids recently and Carl appears to have his heating on full, over quarter of a million in one day is amazing on asteroids.

[UBT - Timbo]

Hiya

Looks like UBT earned 1 FB pt for 10th place at the end of Day 1 of the Sprint.

Currently still in 10th place so maybe more FB pts can be earned if we stay in the Top 10 for Day 2 and Day 3

https://formula-boinc.org/sprint_v3.py? ... &year=2023

regards
Tim

[wbiz]

That was annoying, we appeared to stabilise at 6th for a long period of time then slid down to 10th just in time for the end of day 1.

These slow-to-validate projects make projections difficult, my hourly rate is all over the place.

I hope house move went well?

[UBT - Timbo]

That was annoying, we appeared to stabilise at 6th for a long period of time then slid down to 10th just in time for the end of day 1.

These slow-to-validate projects make projections difficult, my hourly rate is all over the place.

Hiya

With a quorum of 2, one issue is always going to be how quickly (or slowly) your wingman finishes their task(s).

And of course some FB members might be bunkering lots of tasks in readyness to process/crunch them as well as preventing any completed tasks from being uploaded

Sadly, there's no a lot anyone can do about this Though FB has tried by offering FB points on each day of the Sprint and therefore it is not in any ones personal interest to withhold completed tasks until say the last day.

I hope house move went well?

Thanks for asking

The move took place over 2 days and then it's just been a question of resolving any minor issues and moving furniture to where it is best suited.

However, there have been bigger issues I've had to deal with (and all involving water or plumbing !) such as:

* Three of the taps (one in the utility room and two in the kitchen) that either leaked or would not turn ! (Now fixed by plumber visit !!)
* The waste u-bend in the utility room had not been capped off (from when a washing machine had been connected previously), so when the sink was emptied, some of the water flooded onto the tiled floor.
* I had a shower on Sunday night and somehow some water leaked from the shower cubicle...and onto the floor and then *through* 3 small holes in the ceiling underneath and onto the new landing carpet underneath !
* The dishwasher refuses to allow water to fill it up, so it doesn't work (it was working before !!). I've an idea it might need to be "primed" as there could be an airlock inside the internal pipework...but the control panel does not light up, even with mains water pressure activating the reed switch cut-out.

But bit by bit, I'm sorting it out. Might just take another week or so

regards
Tim

[ChelseaOilman]

The sprint is Asteroids.

(Is one of Carl's targets 20 million on Asteroids?)

25 or 50 million is my target. Unfortunately the timing for the sprint came at a bad time. I set all my computers to no new work on thursday and they are all packed in the back of my truck right now. I'll be heading to Texas as soon as I winterize the house. You probably got some points from tasks waiting to be validated. Asteroids was running on almost all my computers prior to being shut down.

Edit: Checked just now, In progress (0) · Validation pending (1561)

[wbiz]

The sprint is Asteroids.

(Is one of Carl's targets 20 million on Asteroids?)

25 or 50 million is my target.

You expecting a cold winter in Texas?

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi all

So for Sprint #23, we finished 12th but earned 1 FB point, due to a strongish showing on day 1, where we ended up in 10th place.

Sadly, we didn't do so well on Days 2 and 3.

https://formula-boinc.org/sprint_v3.py? ... &year=2023

Just one more Sprint which starts this coming Thursday at 8pm UTC.

And then it'll just be hoping we can accrue some FB points on some of the Marathon projects, until the end of the year.

regards
Tim

[wbiz]

Ten hours until the next sprint.

Starts 20:00 23rd November 2023 (UTC/GMT)

[UBT - Mikee]

Hi

I see Yoyo is the selected project.

Ages since I did this.

Remind me - do these appear to stick around 99%, however, they are still running and eventually finish?

Mike

[wbiz]

Sprint is yoyo

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi

I see Yoyo is the selected project.

Ages since I did this.

Remind me - do these appear to stick around 99%, however, they are still running and eventually finish?

Mike

Hi Mikee

Long time no speakee Hope you and Mrs Mikee are well.

And thanks for your contribution to the Sprint !!

I've not had any issues with YoYo tasks "sticking" at 99% since I resumed crunching their tasks yesterday - so, just go to the Task window of BOINC Manager, click on a YoYo task and then click on Properties box. It should give you the progress rate percentage...so that should help you figure out if the task is bogged down?

You can also use File Manager to view the "slot number" for the specific task (as given in the Properties box) and ensure that the timestamp on the "stderr.txt" file (in that "slots" directory) is both very recent and that this timestamp is updating regularly.

Sadly, the YoYo forum is (mostly) in German so not so easy to search to see if anyone else is having the same issue

regards
Tim

[UBT - Mikee]

Long time no speakee Hope you and Mrs Mikee are well.

And thanks for your contribution to the Sprint !!

Hi

Yeah still here, but not as active on the forum as I used to be - real life interferring I'm afraid!

Though upcoming inheritance means I've just ordered a new custom PC as this one is 6 years old, will transfer to Graphics to add to the new one so should be good for GPU sprints in the future.

Mike

[wbiz]

Yoyo is so painful, very long tasks, huge amounts of memory on some tasks and generally boring. I'm amazed that people run yoyo, it used to be a lot better.

Sorry, had to vent.

[ChelseaOilman]

Yoyo is so painful, very long tasks, huge amounts of memory on some tasks and generally boring. I'm amazed that people run yoyo, it used to be a lot better.

Sorry, had to vent.

Yeah, not my favorite project either. Make sure in the project preferences you deselect ECM P2 tasks. Those are the worst.

There's been some discussion over in the Yoyo forum about the linux apps not always giving credit for finished tasks. Might want to keep an eye out for that.

I have Yoyo running on a couple of my Windows boxes. So far it looks good.

[UBT - Timbo]

Yoyo is so painful, very long tasks, huge amounts of memory on some tasks and generally boring. I'm amazed that people run yoyo, it used to be a lot better.

Sorry, had to vent.

Hiya

The ECM tasks do take a long time (though the ECM P2 tasks are shorter). So, it just depends on the host CPUs crunching ability and how recent it is. The memory requirement is also a bit of an issue but again, new hardware should be able to cope.

But at least there are tasks available, so one can afford to be selective

regards
Tim

[UBT - Timbo]

Yeah, not my favorite project either. Make sure in the project preferences you deselect ECM P2 tasks. Those are the worst.

There's been some discussion over in the Yoyo forum about the linux apps not always giving credit for finished tasks. Might want to keep an eye out for that.

Hiya

Strangely, I found the ECM tasks take my hosts longer to crunch and the same hosts take less time for the ECM P2 tasks !

The Yoyo forum is mostly in German, so I find it difficult to follow any relevant posts there...and I don't use Google Chrome, which can auto-translate text into English from other supported languages...

I have Yoyo running on a couple of my Windows boxes. So far it looks good.

Excellent - welcome to the fray

regards
Tim

[wbiz]

There's been some discussion over in the Yoyo forum about the linux apps not always giving credit for finished tasks. Might want to keep an eye out for that.

I noticed that, I finished this task a week before anybody else and got nothing

[wbiz]

Strangely, I found the ECM tasks take my hosts longer to crunch and the same hosts take less time for the ECM P2 tasks !

I find that as well, the tasks have random lengths and also the estimated remaining time is often very random as well, I had some 20 hour tasks that are heading towards 60 hours and conversely some tasks finished way earlier than estimate. Any changes you make often come back to bite you.

[UBT - Timbo]

I find that as well, the tasks have random lengths and also the estimated remaining time is often very random as well, I had some 20 hour tasks that are heading towards 60 hours and conversely some tasks finished way earlier than estimate. Any changes you make often come back to bite you.

Hiya

All I've done is to select the sub-projects with shorter "estimated times to completion", in the preferences section of the Yoyo project website...and then I just downloaded about 2 days worth of tasks and then set BOINC Manager to "No new work" - and then I just monitor how they are progressing...mostly my hosts take longer than the estimated time, so hopefully, I'll be able to finish the tasks I have in my buffer - and before the Sprint deadline on Sunday evening !

regards
Tim

[ChelseaOilman]

It's been a while since I ran yoyo so maybe I'm remembering wrong about the ecm p2 tasks. So far I've only done ecm tasks. They haven't taken that long to complete and I haven't noticed any issues. On your recomendations I just enabled ecm p2 tasks as well. I'll see how it goes.

That's what I'm getting with just ecm tasks.

[ChelseaOilman]

I'm getting some ecm p2 tasks now. One thing I notice is I have a p2 task waiting for memory. When I was just running ecm tasks alone I didn't see that. The p2 tasks must use more memory I guess. This is on a Ryzen 7950X 16C/32T system with 32 GB of memory.

[wbiz]

With my x86 computers looking at my current ECM tasks.

ecm_ru are longest at 40 hours
ecm_hc tasks are long at 38 hours.
ecm_cw varies a lot, I have some at 27 hours and some at 4 hours
ecm_op tends to be consistently the shortest at 4 to 10 hours

[ChelseaOilman]

I had to go back to just requesting ecm tasks. I only have 4 p2 tasks running on this computer and memory usage went way up from just running ecm tasks. If I got hit with all p2 tasks I think I would have a big problem. Maybe if you have a cpu with a low amount of cores and a lot of memory it would be ok but for me I don't see it working out well.

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi both

I took at look at my completed tasks, and sadly, unlike many other BOINC projects, you cannot separate out the different sub-projects to see which sub-project gave the best credits per second of crunching or to see how long each task took...

And looking here, according to the website:

https://www.rechenkraft.net/yoyo/server_status.php

implies that ecm P2 tasks take lesss time...

Code: Select all

Application	unsent	in progress	avg runtime of last 100 results in h (min-max)	user in last 24h
ecm		2,867	11,067		11.73 (1.50-179.17)				517
Siever		6,703	5,746		21.75 (13.01-35.25)				295
ecm P2		1,209	3,602		1.90 (0.23-19.34)				315

And this shows the needs and timings of ecm sub-project P1/P2 tasks:

https://www.rechenkraft.net/wiki/Yoyo@h ... _Workunits

So, hopefully this works out in practice !!

regards
Tim

[ChelseaOilman]

Ecm runs in two phases. Phase 2 is shorter but needs up to 1800MB of memory.

There's the issue for me. The few P2 tasks I got had much shorter completion times but memory usage was way to much. My computers have a lot of threads but even though I have 1GB of memory per thread installed it's not enough. So for me P2 tasks are the worst. I could run them ok if I turned off HT in the BIOS or set the CPU to 50% so I get half as many tasks but for a 3 day sprint I'm not doing that. No clue if that would even result in better points running half as many tasks.

[ChelseaOilman]

Correct me if I'm wrong but the way FB sprints work now is each day determines the FB points earned. So for a team like ours that can't get into the top 10 all 3 days wouldn't it be better if we just bunker till the last day and at least get some FB points for day 3?

[UBT - Timbo]

Correct me if I'm wrong but the way FB sprints work now is each day determines the FB points earned. So for a team like ours that can't get into the top 10 all 3 days wouldn't it be better if we just bunker till the last day and at least get some FB points for day 3?

Hiya

Yes, basically each team earns FB points for placing in the Top 10 for each 24 hour period, once the Sprint starts.

And after 3 days, the total team FB points are divided by 3,thereby giving an average total over the 3 days. (And the average is generally rounded UP, if the resulting average points score is fractional).

This was done to discourage bunkering, so, a team with (say) zero FB points on Day 1 and 2, and then uploading hundreds/thousands of tasks on Day 3, would have whatever points earned on Day 3, averaged out - so say they got 25 points as they earned the most credits on Day 3, so they would only gain 25/3 = 8.33 (rounded up to 9).

Whereas, they could have uploaded tasks over the 3 days and earnt more FB points, depending how many credits other teams earned on the corresponding day.

I guess one would need to figure out what other teams strategies are, to decide if bunkering is worth it...AND on what day is best to upload...

But that should be easy to do, as the daily stats are visible on each Sprint page (and if you have a few hours to crunch the numbers !!!!!).

regards
Tim

[ChelseaOilman]

The way we're doing it right now ends up getting us no points. So anything else can't be worse. Next year when FB starts up again we need to plan a strategy.

[UBT - Timbo]

The way we're doing it right now ends up getting us no points. So anything else can't be worse. Next year when FB starts up again we need to plan a strategy.

Hi Carl

I like how you are thinking...

But this will depend on at least 2 things:

1) That FB is actually running in 2024 - as I've had ZERO contact with Sebastien - and he is not responding to PMs (via the forum) or to emails (as one of his fellow LA'F colleagues sent me his email address). And clearly the website needs to be updated significantly to take into account the change in dates (at the very least)

2) Somehow, we need to get more UBT members to take part in the Sprints...or perhaps, we just consider one specific project (for the Marathon) that becomes the teams "cheerleader" project and all and sundry acquire credits (and hence FB points) on a year long basis, esp when the Sprints are NOT running. This might at least earn us 25 FB points...and if more get involved in the Sprints then we can acquire more FB points every race weekend.

I am hopeful that both the above will happen...but we have had more members join in on the Sprints in past years, but most of these members are now no longer active...so, that just leaves 3 or 4 of of us taking part...

regards
Tim

[wbiz]

As much as I absolutely detest the fact, forums are just not the way to go these days, the best promotion platform is Facebook.

I hope one day that common sense will prevail and forums become the future again but we have a couple of generations bought over with "instantaneous gratification" and lots of money brainwashing everybody into supporting commercial money grabbing middleman.

And some of the Boinc projects are not being conducive to people donating spare computer time

[ChelseaOilman]

As much as I absolutely detest the fact, forums are just not the way to go these days, the best promotion platform is Facebook.

As far as I'm concerned Mark Zukerberg can stick his Facebook app where the sun don't shine! You won't see me there. The BOINC project itself and a few of the BOINC projects are on Discord. A bunch of the top teams use Discord as well. That's where to look for me.

[wbiz]

[s]On tactics......

A few million points on Gerasim (which is a high return project) will gain us two extra FB marathon points and put us one point away from becoming joint 11th overall for 2023.

I haven't spotted any other obvious easy pickings for the end of the year.

EDIT: Except the team we are chasing are also doing the same at 300k a day - Rechenkraft.net

[all subject to my interpretation of how the scoring system work][/s]

[UBT - Timbo]

As much as I absolutely detest the fact, forums are just not the way to go these days, the best promotion platform is Facebook.

Hiya

Well, UBT does have a presence of Facebook but I do not think it has done us any good, except to act as a "place marker" and hopefully entice a few people to view this forum.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ukboincteam/

Mikee was (and probably still is) curating our presence of Twitter (now X) but I don't use it and I haven't seen if anyone has commented or posted anything there.

I'd like to think that dedicated forums like this one, do have a place in the world...but the general hub-bub generated by Facebook, Twiiter, MySpace, Yahoo, or whoever else, does tend to draw people in and hence, if one is using these platforms to socialise, then forums like ours are not really going to keep people adequately satisfied so they can get their "interactive buzz of the day" !!

regards
Tim

[wbiz]

On tactics......

A few million points on Gerasim (which is a high return project) will gain us two extra FB marathon points and put us one point away from becoming joint 11th overall for 2023.

I haven't spotted any other obvious easy pickings for the end of the year.

EDIT: Except the team we are chasing are also doing the same at 300k a day - Rechenkraft.net

[all subject to my interpretation of how the scoring system work]

That dream has died, we were catching up with Rechencraft nicely on Gerasim but in the overall marathon Russia has grabbed a few points from somewhere and are probably unreachable.