Greetings and Best Wishes for 2007

[UBT - Timbo]

Dear UK BOINC Team member,

This is a little bit late to be wishing you a Merry Xmas. However, it's not too late to be wishing you a Happy New Year, and as such, on behalf of the UK BOINC Team, I wish you a peaceful and joyous 2007.


We've made some history....2006 has been an EXCEPTIONAL year for the UK BOINC Team.

Although first founded just eighteen months before, by the end of 2005, we only had approx. 250 members and less than 7 million credits and we were languishing around 6th in the UK and around 55th in the world - and we were a long way behind the five other UK Teams.

But, in just 12 months, our membership is now just short of 800, our credits total is over 42.5 million and we are now 2nd in UK and in 38th place in the World - a truly meteoric rise in terms of membership and credits.

As such, the UK BOINC Team is now a SUBSTANTIAL contributor to all of the 35 (or so) BOINC projects. This means that through the personal efforts YOU make towards the overall Team effort, we have actually helped do REAL research, for EACH and EVERY project.

And so, on behalf of the projects, I would like to personally THANK YOU for generating these results, as without them, far less research would be carried out.



So, what else happened to the UK BOINC Team during 2006?

Well, as a result of our desire to help EVERY project, during 2006 we became the #1 placed UK Team on most projects, including SETI, Rosetta, uFluids, and many more. And if we didn't quite make it to #1, we are mostly either #2 or #3..... (see here: http://www.ukboincteam.org.uk/stats/ubt ... -page.html).

What this means, is that in future, even more members will want to join us, as they will see how fast our credit generation is progressing and they will want to be part of our "winning team". This bodes well, because we want to attract even more members to crunch for BOINC, because this will in turn benefit the projects even more....and in some cases, for instance on the medical projects, such as Malaria Control and WCG, there is a potential for cures and treatments to be found much more quickly, which in turn will relieve the suffering endured by some of mankind.


So, what else was (and still is) happening?

- Well, we started a dedicated Team website (at: http://www.ukboincteam.org.uk/uk-boinc-team.html ). This is an ideal place to see what the Team is up to (in terms of credit generation) as well as to see which projects we support.

- We set up a dedicated forum for members and guests at: http://www.ukboincteam.org.uk/uk-boinc-team-forum.html . Now you can "talk" to other members directly, either for technical help (such as discussing whether there are issues with projects) or to find out what other members opinions are about other issues (BOINC or otherwise !)

- We set up a dedicated email address for members to use: On request, you can now have a Team specific email address (so your email address would be "username@ukboincteam.org.uk" ).

- We set up "Team signatures" (http://www.ukboincteam.org.uk/stats/ubt ... -page.html) where members can obtain free UK BOINC Team logo's which display members individual statistics, showing how many credits you have (These can displayed on personal websites or in emails).

- We also ran some dedicated events, called "Crunches" where we ask Team members to suspend crunching  for their chosen projects and instead to set aside maybe a week-end (or longer) and to crunch specifically for one or more nominated projects. This way, we generated a lot of "Team spirit" where many members were all crunching for the same aims at the same time. We held successful crunches for SETI, Rosetta, WCG and others during the year and during these events, we generated substantial credits for the chosen projects. We aim to continue doing Crunches during 2007.

- We were pleased to see NEW versions of the BOINC manager software become available - the latest (development version 5.7.2) has a simplified interface, improved reliability and far less installation issues (compared to the past). So, there is now a real potential to generate far more results for the projects, as members won't be suffering when BOINC crashes or causes issues with their PC.

- A NEW BOINC Helpdesk is now online. (see http://boinc.berkeley.edu/help.php ). This enables you to speak to someone directly, or via text-based "chat", using Skype. As such, any issues you have making BOINC work, can be discussed directly with an experienced user who can help you resolve most problems.


So, what's expected for 2007?
- that pretty soon, we'll reach over 1,000 members, although what would be much better was if EVERY member who has signed up to our Team actually generated some actual credits during the next 12 months. Having lots of members is great, but what we really need is to have more ACTIVE members - so, if you've stopped crunching for BOINC, please re-consider, maybe download the latest version  (see here:  http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download_all.php ) and help to make our Team the #1 UK Team crunching for BOINC.

-  that we'll increase our Daily RAC (Recent Average Credit) from 100,000 credits per day to perhaps, 120,000 or even 150,000 per day.

- that we may become the #1 UK Team on EVERY BOINC project, and in time, become the #1 Team in the UK.

- that more projects will make even more work available for BOINC members, so YOUR contribution will be of even greater significance than ever before.



So, a lot to look forward to, a lot more work units to crunch and hopefully a lot more benefit to come across the entire spectrum. And who knows...we might even find ET !!

Please keep crunching and have a Happy New Year.


All the very best,


Tim
Founder, UK BOINC Team
#2 ranked UK Team
#38th ranked World Team

FYI: To get the best from the UK BOINC Team, please take time to ensure:
1) You have joined the UK BOINC Team on each and every BOINC project you are a member of. (see here: http://www.ukboincteam.org.uk/ubt-joinus-page.html ).
2) That you use the SAME email address for every BOINC project you are a member of.
3) Visit our Forum - it's FREE to view - and FREE to join.