UK BOINC Team Forum

Posted: **Tue Mar 03, 2020 12:21 am**

Hi all

Just seen this:

SETI@home: SETI@home hibernation
On March 31, the volunteer computing part of SETI@home will stop distributing work and will go into hibernation.

We're doing this for two reasons:

1) Scientifically, we're at the point of diminishing returns; basically, we've analyzed all the data we need for now.

2) It's a lot of work for us to manage the distributed processing of data. We need to focus on completing the back-end analysis of the results we already have, and writing this up in a scientific journal paper.

However, SETI@home is not disappearing. The web site and the message boards will continue to operate. We hope that other UC Berkeley astronomers will find uses for the huge computing capabilities of SETI@home for SETI or related areas like cosmology and pulsar research. If this happens, SETI@home will start distributing work again. We'll keep you posted about this.

If you're currently running SETI@home on your computer, we encourage you to attach to other BOINC-based projects as well. Or use Science United and sign up to do astronomy. You can stay attached to SETI@home, of course, but you won't get any jobs until we find new applications.

We're extremely grateful to all of our volunteers for supporting us in many ways during the past 20 years. Without you there would be no SETI@home. We're excited to finish up our original science project, and we look forward to what comes next.

One wonders what's behind this decision - funding? Lack of results (over the 20 years)? Staff leaving? Who knows...

Either way it's been a roller coaster 20 years and I'll be very sad to see it go.

regards
Tim

Posted: **Tue Mar 03, 2020 7:24 am**

Damn I only just got back into it

I'd already moved most of my cpu cores onto WCG, will have to look at something to point my gpu's at come the 31st.

Posted: **Tue Mar 03, 2020 8:25 am**

Likewise..

It will be interesting to see how long it takes them to analyse 20+ years of data.

Posted: **Tue Mar 03, 2020 9:54 am**

It was SETI that got me started nearly 18 years ago and I will be sad to see it go.

Means I will concentrate more on the other few that I do

Posted: **Tue Mar 03, 2020 11:07 am**

Slaine wrote: ↑Tue Mar 03, 2020 7:24 amDamn I only just got back into it

So it's your fault!

chriscambridge wrote: ↑Tue Mar 03, 2020 8:25 amLikewise..

Or maybe not ...

Tim,

Is it worth sending an email to the UBt SETI members to re-direct them to a different project (or here)? It would be a shame to lose almost three thousand users (well, 242 active users) who haven't realised SETI is no longer working.

Posted: **Tue Mar 03, 2020 11:54 am**

Woodles wrote: ↑Tue Mar 03, 2020 11:07 am
Tim,

Is it worth sending an email to the UBt SETI members to re-direct them to a different project (or here)? It would be a shame to lose almost three thousand users (well, 242 active users) who haven't realised SETI is no longer working.

Hi Mark

Possibly....

I found out by way of the BOINC Manager "Notices" tab, so I assume anyone who is an active SETI cruncher might get the same message. So, assuming they check these, they would know.

I'm more than happy to ping out a message to UBT members on SETI project and perhaps direct them to come here and they can chat with other members about their options (assuming they still want to run BOINC).

This is also going to affect FB....as SETI is a named project for a Sprint...so perhaps there might be enough interest to recommend SETI for one of the two March Sprints....12th-15th or 19th-22nd ? And then SETI will get a good send off?

regards
Tim

edit: "Your message was sent to 2950 team members." via SETI@home project website

Posted: **Wed Mar 04, 2020 7:42 am**

I'm going to give GPUgrid a spin and see how things pan out. I'm gonna miss BOINC cos I put a lot of time and effort in to building my score.

Chris.

Posted: **Wed Mar 04, 2020 12:29 pm**

Hi Chris

Welcome to the forum

You have indeed generated a huge number of credits on SETI@home which has helped UBT get to 27th place in the world for SETI@home credits...so it will be a shame that we cannot improve on that...at least until the future of SETI@home project is settled (ie whether it will just end or whether new data can be crunched at some point).

One thing about GPUGrid is that they haven't had any recent tasks for CPUs. Their sub-projects that had CPU tasks were Quantum Chemistry and Python Runtime - but they haven't had any of these for a while.

So, you might want to consider crunching some Rosetta or CPDN tasks with any CPUs you have available and your GPUs can run GPUGrid.

regards
Tim

Posted: **Wed Mar 04, 2020 7:02 pm**

Hi all

Given that the end of March will see no further SETI tasks, I've made a conscious decision to try and get to at least the 7m mark on this project.

I'm currently at 5,741,420 so, I need to earn 1,258,580 credits over the next 27 days to get to 7m - so that about 46,600 credits per day .

My GTX970 are each earning around 100 credits for every 550 seconds of crunching (give or take). So with 86,400 seconds in a day, I can earn approx {(86400/550)*100} = 15,709 credits per day per GTX. And I've got 3 of them.

That will get me close-ish to 7m

But I'm going to try and aim a bit higher and I'll use my CPU's as well for this final "push" and with luck I can at least get a Top 50 placing within the Team on this project.

I've also reactivated my SETI@home Beta account, as I have earned 516,385 credits there (to date) and it'd be nice to hit the 1m mark.

regards
Tim

Posted: **Fri Mar 06, 2020 9:23 pm**

Seems to be some sort of issue with getting new tasks atm, just getting "project has no tasks available" for a couple of hours now, I did get a bunch of gpu tasks earlier but had to wait a good while for them, had a quick look at the SETI forum & there's an issue with the task validations.
I'll have no chance of getting a silver badge before lights out at this rate.

Posted: **Fri Mar 06, 2020 10:09 pm**

Hiya

I set my caches at 10 days + 10 days, in the hope I could grab a few tasks, before everyone else jumped on board...and thus far, my cache has been topped up and I have plenty to keep me ticking over...though it did take a while to load up fully, no doubt due to a surge in interest.

I'm also hoping that the 1st FB Sprint will be for SETI so I'll start bunkering tasks over the weekend in the small hope I can have a large number of credits that will be awarded once the Sprint starts (and assuming that SETI is chosen).

(UPDATE 8th March): I've now set my PCs to be offline with the faint hope that SETI will be chosen for the 1st Sprint on Wednesday. If it isn't chosen then expect a nice hike in credits by Thursday morning and if it IS chosen then a hike in credits sometime Thursday afternoon

{UPDATE: 9th March}: Well that's a b*gger....2 of my 3 PCs cannot download enough tasks to keep them ticking over "offline" for more than a day - and that's despite setting a 10+10 days "cache", within BOINC Manager. So, I've had to upload all the completed tasks from 2 PCs in order to be able to download more tasks.

I suspect that SETI@home are limiting the total number of tasks one can download.

It didn't use to be like this

regards
Tim

Posted: **Mon Mar 16, 2020 11:34 pm**

Hi all

Just a quickie, as we enter the final couple of weeks before SETI goes into hibernation.

For those who joined in the early days, there's a thread on the SETI Message board (link below) for people to join "The 20 Year Club" (it's an unofficial subject name, just for people to say they remember the "olden, golden days").

So, pop along and make a post:

https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_t ... p?id=83966

PS: My "Joining Date" on the Messageboard says "3 Apr 1999", making me one of the earliest joiners....but there is a secret - many years back, SETI had a server outage and quite a few members found that their "Joining Date" had been reset to an earlier date...and mine was reset as well...I think I actually joined in late July or early August 1999 - so I still qualify

regards
Tim

Posted: **Tue Mar 17, 2020 12:58 am**

According to their site I've done just short of 17 years. That sounds about right.

Posted: **Tue Mar 17, 2020 8:33 am**

Well I've been a member of the project since 28th September 1999 so I made my twenty years badge. However, I stopped crunching Seti on 14th September 2012 so I'd feel a bit guilty claiming I was supporting the project for all of those twenty years.

Posted: **Tue Mar 17, 2020 9:38 am**

I'm sure I was on SETI in '99, however have long since lost that account. My current account is only 2006.

Posted: **Tue Mar 17, 2020 10:07 am**

Woodles wrote: ↑Tue Mar 17, 2020 8:33 am Well I've been a member of the project since 28th September 1999 so I made my twenty years badge. However, I stopped crunching Seti on 14th September 2012 so I'd feel a bit guilty claiming I was supporting the project for all of those twenty years.

HI Mark

Such a shame you didn't quite get to the (unofficial) 13 year club !!

But you've done great wortk on other projects, so at least you've got your "20 Year BOINC Club" badge !!

regards
Tim

Posted: **Tue Mar 17, 2020 10:10 am**

Damien Healy wrote: ↑Tue Mar 17, 2020 9:38 am I'm sure I was on SETI in '99, however have long since lost that account. My current account is only 2006.

Hi Damien

As I recall, when David Anderson came up with BOINC, there was a transition phase where original SETI@home members could transfer their accounts over to BOINC, although one couldn't transfer any of the "old" SETI@home credits to BOINC - it was just transferring the username and the starting date.

So, if you missed that "transfer window" then I guess when you joined the BOINC version of SETI@home, that process wasn't available?

regards
Tim

Posted: **Tue Mar 17, 2020 11:04 am**

Damien Healy wrote: ↑Tue Mar 17, 2020 9:38 am I'm sure I was on SETI in '99, however have long since lost that account. My current account is only 2006.

Hi Damien,

Would this be you in a previous incarnation? - https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/show_us ... rid=509737

Posted: **Tue Mar 17, 2020 11:48 am**

Yes, that seems about right. Well done

Thought I might have more CPU hours under my belt though, since one of my work hats in 1999 was to handle IT ... and that meant putting SETI screensavers on the PCs!

Posted: **Tue Mar 17, 2020 11:54 am**

Damien Healy wrote: ↑Tue Mar 17, 2020 11:48 am Yes, that seems about right. Well done Thought I might have more CPU hours under my belt though, since one of my work hats in 1999 was to handle IT ... and that meant putting SETI screensavers on the PCs!

You made the twenty years club then

Well it was nine months of screensavers, did the computers actually get used?!

Posted: **Tue Mar 17, 2020 12:03 pm**

Woodles wrote: ↑Tue Mar 17, 2020 11:54 am Well it was nine months of screensavers, did the computers actually get used?!

Well, as much as they could be 'used' when plugged into a 28.8k modem?

Posted: **Mon Mar 23, 2020 10:32 am**

Just realised I've made the 20 year club, missed it with everything that's going on atm, although I do have an older account from August 99, but didn't realise you could only link one legacy account when I restarted on SETI.

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