Real new, real keen, but bit of a hiccup

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
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RE: Cheer up, Mike. She

Message 20691 in response to message 20690

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Cheer up, Mike. She could have asked for a horse :-)


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If she lives in the Australian bush, she's probably already been through one of those :).

Yeah, we had one for dinner last night.:-)

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You should get her two DVDs for being so kind and thoughtful :).

Quite right ( it's actually a DVD set ) and yes that was a light touch indeed.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

Gary Roberts
Gary Roberts
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RE: She probably wanted it

Message 20692 in response to message 20690

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She probably wanted it (BOINC) all along, just figured to work Mike for some "value added" :-)

Even so, she still vastly underestimated the "added value" she could have achieved :).

You must remember, she's apparently been eavesdropping on these otherwise "private" communications so she has shown remarkable restraint, given what is at stake here :). After all, that computer just has to go BOINC'ing :). And she should know that :).

Cheers,
Gary.

Gary Roberts
Gary Roberts
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RE: Quite right ( it's

Message 20693 in response to message 20691

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Quite right ( it's actually a DVD set ) and yes that was a light touch indeed.

Maybe if you throw in a bonus DVD you can get her to drop the "No BOINC before DVD" bit :).

Also, you should take a look outside your door. That queue in the waiting room is almost out the front door now and the receptionist is tearing her hair out :).

Cheers,
Gary.

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
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RE: Maybe if you throw in a

Message 20694 in response to message 20693

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Maybe if you throw in a bonus DVD you can get her to drop the "No BOINC before DVD" bit :).

Doh! Of course! I'm on it....

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Also, you should take a look outside your door. That queue in the waiting room is almost out the front door now and the receptionist is tearing her hair out :).

BALD long ago!! Besides I haven't had a secretary walk out since......err...... last time! :-(

On the upside I've slid BOINC into 2 work computers, Frontserver and Hotstuff ( don't ask ). They'll be moonlighting 8pm to 8am, so we'll see how they fire up over the weekend.

Speaking of which, I've cracked 4 figures!! ::--))

Now, on the suggestions/improvement side, any chance of specifying the 'at work' preferences to be configurable per 'which day of the week'. That way I, and no doubt others, could max-out after hours usage over the weekends. Currently I can't optimize usage over the weekends from say, Saturday 1pm to Monday 8am. Currently with 8pm to 8am ( fine ) for weekdays, EAH is missing out 1pm to 8pm on Saturdays and 8am to 8pm on Sundays. Greedy aren't I?

The outstanding thing about EAH is that it is ( pretty well ) set and forget.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

Gary Roberts
Gary Roberts
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RE: On the upside I've slid

Message 20695 in response to message 20694

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On the upside I've slid BOINC into 2 work computers, Frontserver and Hotstuff ( don't ask ). They'll be moonlighting 8pm to 8am, so we'll see how they fire up over the weekend.

Boy, you don't waste time do you!! :).

When you quote your computer names, please realise that they don't mean a thing to us. No doubt you've discovered your own computer list on the website where you can see a great deal of information on each of the machines you have registered with the project. You will have seen the page where they are all listed (6 at the moment and growing rapidly) :). We can see that list because you have your machines "unhidden". When you click on the individual CPUIDs in that list you get all the details. When anybody else clicks on a CPUID, we only see a small subset, not including any sensitive details and certainly not the computer name or IP address. In this thread click on Michael Roycraft's name and look at his computer and see how much less you can see.

One of your "Rites of Passage", which you may have already completed anyway, :), is to "drill down" into your own and other users results lists and see what you can determine from the data. As an example, check out the results list for one of your hosts, CPUID = 468546, and bring up its results list, currently 25 results. You should be able to see two "Client errors", both of which occurred at 8 Dec 2005 6:47:18 UTC. Your machine has dual virtual CPUs so something happened at that particular time - perhaps some sort of system crash. Let's investigate further. Click on one of the ResultIDs, say 12055452. You will get a page about that result, including the error output produced when the result terminated. Notice you can see the version of BOINC (5.2.13) and a brief error message "Incorrect function. (0x1) - exit code 1 (0x1)". Let's say we would like to know more. To do this we need to go to the Unofficial BOINC Wiki.

The Wiki is an all volunteer effort to try to document everything possible about BOINC. The driving force is Paul D. Buck, whose name you will see from time to time on many BOINC project boards. He is an amazing character and he may very well appear here shortly and give me a roasting :). Anyway, when you get to the main page of the Wiki, just paste the error message into the Google search box.

From the page of hits, the third one is a good one to go to because it gives you a big list of very similar error messages and you can pick out the exact match. The 18th one down in this big list is an exact match so click on it. just before you do, notice that a number of the messages in this list have a note added by Paul about needing "Log examples". He's trying to document, with examples, every single error message that ever existed. As I said, he is an amazing character :).

Once you get to the page for the exact message, you will find every bit of information that is currently known about the message together with documented examples from message logs from various projects where the message has been seen. Sometimes it's a feast and sometimes it's a famine. In this case there is a suggestion of possibly an out-of-date graphics driver. So the obvious question I would ask you is if you can remember at the time of the error, were you by any chance trying to look at the EAH graphics (screensaver) or could the computer have tried to go to the BOINC screensaver? Or failing that, do you remember anything unusual that might have happened around that time?

This really isn't an inquisition :). I'm just interested in furthering your growing "addiction" as rapidly as possible :). I figure a good way to do that is to show you the power of what is available already. The good thing is that it's not just you I'm showing. There should be a fair old "audience" lurking around who might also see how easy it is to self diagnose problems :).

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Speaking of which, I've cracked 4 figures!! ::--))

Yes you have indeed and if you look at this page, you will see you have jumped 11,395 places in the last day with only 4 of your computers currently registering. Your world rank is 42,252 out of 78,241 and your Australia rank is 1,078 out of 1,932. You will scream up both lists quite quickly with the horsepower at your disposal :). Already, your RAC (Recent Average Credit) is predicting a bright future and when the extra machines kick in you are going to take off like a rocket :).

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Now, on the suggestions/improvement side, any chance of specifying the 'at work' preferences to be configurable per 'which day of the week'. That way I, and no doubt others, could max-out after hours usage over the weekends.

That's not directly possible at the moment, but there is an indirect way of achieving the sort of behaviour you are looking for. BOINC is quite good at getting out of the way when a machine is needed by the user. BOINC itself takes little resources but the science app will consume every spare CPU cycle that is on offer. Personally, I run the thing 24/7 and never notice a slowdown in what I need to do. I find the low priority science app just stops being greedy whenever I need to do something. If that's out of the question, I feel that a good compromise is to set the preference for "Do work when the computer is in use" to "No" and set the idle timeout to about 15 seconds. BOINC detects keystrokes and mouse movements so when someone is using the machine, BOINC will completely stop. If the person goes to make a coffee, or answer the phone, after 15 seconds of inactivity, BOINC will sneak out of hiding and start gobbling up CPU cycles like crazy and then stop instantly at the first mouse movement or keystroke. The user wont even notice. To make this most effective, the preference for "Leave applications in memory when preempted" should be set to "Yes". This way, the app can stop and start at will with no lag time to read and write to disk and no loss of progress due to reloading from a previously saved checkpoint. You probably wouldn't want to do this if the machine had only 256MB RAM but 2 of yours have 512MB, one has 768MB and 3 have 1024MB so you shouldn't have any problems with that preference unless you were supporting about 10 projects, in which case memory might get a little crowded :). To make use of nights over weekends, you must be running 24/7 so I reckon you should give the above a try on one work machine and see what the user response is. I'll bet you they probably will be unable to see any difference.

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Greedy aren't I?

Yes, you're a classic "clinic case" :). You will be committed to the tender loving care of Nurse Rachette within the next week :). In which case you can come and look me up. I'm in Ward ZZ, bed 57G :).

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The outstanding thing about EAH is that it is ( pretty well ) set and forget.

That's what you think now!! Just wait until you really get hooked on the stats :).

Cheers,
Gary.

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
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RE: When you quote your

Message 20696 in response to message 20695

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When you quote your computer names, please .......see how much less you can see.

Thank you, that's absolutely right. Of course you can't see all that I know. As is should be. Noted for future.

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One of your "Rites of Passage", which you may.......the Unofficial BOINC Wiki.

Again, thank you. I had noted those errors, and I had let them be for the moment. You have drilled beautifully, but only I know exactly what had happened. The dog tripped the power cable between the UPS and the computer ( yeah I know ... it's the classic late homework excuse ). But alas not between the power point and the UPS. Or even better, not tripping either. I've fixed that ( the cabling ..... not the dog ). This is the HOME aspect of EAH. :-)

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The Wiki is an all volunteer........have happened around that time?

The Wiki referencing ultimately resolves to:

'The Work Unit was being processed and there was an internal error and the Science Application "crashed"'

and/or

'The error occurs on the reading of the Work Unit Data File (the input data).'

As it's an Intel P4 with HT, both of the virtual's were interrupted, at 21.56 and 0.53 seconds respectively into the work unit. Maybe Mr. Buck will need to add:

'Domestic quadruped interruption to power supply'

or somesuch, to his error logging ( if he hasn't already ). International readers may ( correctly ) suspect that we're a bit FERAL Downunder! :-)

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This really isn't an inquisition........it is to self diagnose problems :).

Please never be shy to direct/correct/enlighten me. I love it!

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Yes you have indeed and if you ........off like a rocket :).

Wow, I think I'll have to go and have a lie down now. :-)

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That's not directly possible at the moment.....probably will be unable to see any difference.

Excellent thoughts. I'll have to mull that over for a while more.

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Yes, you're a classic "clinic case" .......I'm in Ward ZZ, bed 57G :).

She's gorgeous ..... not!

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That's what you think now!! Just wait until you really get hooked on the stats :).

Oh dear, and I've just read the bits about BOINC 'participant'/'farmer'/'lunatic'. Line, what line? It's not a problem, really, I can handle it ..... honestly ..... trez cool ! (|;-|)

Thank you very, very much for your detailed interest.

I must add that this forum is simply much more focussed and polite than many others I've ever visited!

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
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Done deal for immediate

Message 20697 in response to message 20696

Done deal for immediate install of BOINC! :-)

(A) Season Two DVD set of "Dead Like Me".

(B) $60 AUD spending money.

(C) Recipient to be taken to nearest large regional shopping centre to get A and use B.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the group for their valuable contributions toward creating what is clearly a major scientific breakthrough. I just know her computer is going to be THE ONE to find THE SIGNAL...... :-)

Cheers!

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

Michael Roycraft
Michael Roycraft
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LOL. Did you ever get taken

LOL. Did you ever get taken to the cleaner's! Since she's a "real sharpy thingy whatsits", you could've put it on the boys' computers and two days later she'd have been running it on her own accord. :-)

Tell her and the lads "Welcome", from Einstein@Home.

(edit) Mike, I was thinking (Oh Lord, what is it this time) about your weekend hours idea, and I'm just guessing here, but maybe it would be possible with, say, a service install, to remotely alter the preferences for those machines on Saturday afternoon, and then change them back before office hours Monday. Perhaps one of our Service Install experts could chime in here, one way or the other.

Regards,

Michael

microcraft
"The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice" - MLK

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
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RE: LOL. Did you ever get

Message 20699 in response to message 20698

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LOL. Did you ever get taken to the cleaner's! Since she's a "real sharpy thingy whatsits", you could've put it on the boys' computers and two days later she'd have been running it on her own accord. :-)

Great! Now you tell me! :-)

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Tell her and the lads "Welcome", from Einstein@Home.

Yo!

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(edit) Mike, I was thinking (Oh Lord, what is it this time) about your weekend hours idea, and I'm just guessing here, but maybe it would be possible with, say, a service install, to remotely alter the preferences for those machines on Saturday afternoon, and then change them back before office hours Monday. Perhaps one of our Service Install experts could chime in here, one way or the other.

Perhaps I should divulge more about my workplace. There are essentially two types of computers from the BOINC point of view :

(A) This sort CANNOT be distracted AT ALL for extended ( but well defined ) periods, however can be used pretty well exclusively for BOINC otherwise ( essentially non-business operating hours ).

(B) These are much less 'industry critical' and could no doubt be fitted to some variation of usage preference specification as per Gary's suggestions below.

I've already approximately implemented this distinction by using the A type under the 'work' usage profile ( 8pm to 8am ), and using the 'school' usage profile for the B type ( always potentially available 24/7, but interruptible by the user ). I mean, BOINC doesn't care if it's not actually at 'school', right? That's why I've enacted BOINC on only two of the work computers, to test how this runs before I generalize.

Also, the A's usually don't actually have a keyboard, mouse or display attached ( though can have as need arises ). After we had set them up, we now interrogate and control them using remote access software via the network from another workstation.

As an aside, I can discuss these generalites safely in public, due to some unique and special precautions that we have on our network which makes any such knowledge moot to a potential hacker. This also includes large semi-starved dogs chained to key locations, where we have installed drain-holes in the floor to enable the brisk sluicing away of blood and any leftover material....... :-)

A more elaborate solution could contain the following:

- allow users to create/specify multiple usage profiles ( beyond the current 'home', 'work' and 'school' categories ).

- allow each computer to behave with a different profile at different times under some form of scheduling ( which would include weekday/weekend distinctions ). A sort of meta-profile with shades of Jekyll & Hyde!

I don't want much, do I? :-)

I think I hear the footsteps of a BOINC developer coming, who is going to clout me over the back of the head with a ream of source-code and tell me to write the blessed thing myself! :-)

Oh dear, I sense that I have NOT crossed the lines to 'farmer' or 'lunatic'. I think I've parachuted in as the latter.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

Michael Roycraft
Michael Roycraft
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Mike, I think that my

Mike,

I think that my scheme is not so hare-brained after all, then. So long as you can remotely control those in group "A" (possibly via "Remote Desktop"?), you should be able to access them after office hours close on Saturday, edit the preferences from "work between the hours of..." to the hours of 0:00 to 0:00, and let them crunch fulltime until Monday a.m., when you remotely reset the hours to preclude office hours.

Not sure I've thought this through completely, but it's a good start at a solution.

microcraft
"The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice" - MLK

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