Account created, PC is hidden

Thierry Van Driessche
Thierry Van Dri...
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Topic 188085

Unlike the other project I'm running, which are S@H and LHC@Home, when I created the account here, the PC is automatically hidden.

I know this has been already discussed several times in different threads as well as at S@H and others, but IMHO it would be much easier for people who wants help to have their PC unhided leaving the possibilty to people who wants to help to see what OS, what CC and what application the user is running. It makes help MUCH easier.

For people who are afraid their IP address would be shown to others, THIS IS NOT THE CASE. Just to test it for those who wants, look at my PC, it is unhided.

For those who really doesn't want to have their PC shown, their is still a possibilty to hide afterwards.

Comments are welcome.

Greetings from Belgium
Thierry

old511
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Account created, PC is hidden

Quote:

Unlike the other project I'm running, which are S@H and LHC@Home, when I created the account here, the PC is automatically hidden.

I know this has been already discussed several times in different threads as well as at S@H and others, but IMHO it would be much easier for people who wants help to have their PC unhided leaving the possibilty to people who wants to help to see what OS, what CC and what application the user is running. It makes help MUCH easier.

For people who are afraid their IP address would be shown to others, THIS IS NOT THE CASE. Just to test it for those who wants, look at my PC, it is unhided.

For those who really doesn't want to have their PC shown, their is still a possibilty to hide afterwards.

Comments are welcome.

Ithink you have it the nail on the head so to speack

Bernd Machenschalk
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RE: For those who really

Quote:
For those who really doesn't want to have their PC shown, their is still a possibilty to hide afterwards.


AFAIK this is not fully true - external statistic sites will show a machine on your account when they learn about it, and will not remove it from their DB when it is later hidden on Einstein@Home.

BM

BM

Annika
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Goodness and I thought I was

Goodness and I thought I was paranoid... honestly, what is so bad about people knowing your boxes?

RandyC
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RE: Goodness and I thought

Message 5971 in response to message 5970

Quote:
Goodness and I thought I was paranoid... honestly, what is so bad about people knowing your boxes?

I saw it posted somewhere, but can't remember exactly (getting old I guess).

There are a few research outfits out there with experimental boxes and they use various BOINC projects to stress-test them. And of course, they don't want to let their new models and prototypes known for competitive reasons.

Seti Classic Final Total: 11446 WU.

Annika
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That makes sense, of course.

That makes sense, of course. I thought we were talking normal users with plain-vanilla boxes here. Thanks for clearing that up.

RandyC
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RE: That makes sense, of

Message 5973 in response to message 5972

Quote:
That makes sense, of course. I thought we were talking normal users with plain-vanilla boxes here. Thanks for clearing that up.

Well, you asked the question.

Seti Classic Final Total: 11446 WU.

Odysseus
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RE: Goodness and I thought

Message 5974 in response to message 5970

Quote:
Goodness and I thought I was paranoid... honestly, what is so bad about people knowing your boxes?


For at least one SETI@home user I’ve seen posting on the subject, it’s receiving well-meaning but unwanted advice about errors and so on, which seems to cause him embarassment. For myself, I’d rather that my errors be accessible to those who might learn somethng from them … and of course it’s easier to get help if & when required.

Nightbird
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RE: Goodness and I thought

Message 5975 in response to message 5970

Quote:
Goodness and I thought I was paranoid... honestly, what is so bad about people knowing your boxes?


cheaters -> hidden boxes, very often

(the reverse isn't true)

[

Annika
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Only the clever ones I guess

Only the clever ones I guess *lol* cause I've seen my share of people with simply ridiculous benchmarks showing them openly... for example someone with a 3200+ benchmarking about 3 times as well as my 3500+ in the integer score but taking longer for WUs... which is even dumber as this kind of cheating is absolutely no good at Einstein. Gave me a laugh...
As for people seeing and correcting my errors... I can understand why people would find that embarassing but I want my PC to work properly so much that I decide it's worth it ;-) at least unless someone is really arrogant about it. But I haven't come across this kind of behavior here, great community :-D

Alinator
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RE: RE: Goodness and I

Message 5977 in response to message 5971

Quote:
Quote:
Goodness and I thought I was paranoid... honestly, what is so bad about people knowing your boxes?

I saw it posted somewhere, but can't remember exactly (getting old I guess).

There are a few research outfits out there with experimental boxes and they use various BOINC projects to stress-test them. And of course, they don't want to let their new models and prototypes known for competitive reasons.

Hmmm, I suppose that make a kind of sense, but really is pretty thin. The reason is "hidden" is a relative term as far as BOINC is concerned. It really only means it makes it more difficult to link the host to the user, since you can always see the result data by host ID. So it's not like you aren't "leaking" any information by running hidden.

For example, if you were looking to gain intelligence on a competitor and suspected they were BOINC'ing as a benchmark, you could always DL the stats xml's and do your own statistical analysis of the data. Over time you could probably generate a pretty good list of interesting candidates and patterns when combined with other intelligence sources, and let's face it industrial espionage goes on all the time. If you're really concerned about secrecy, it would make more sense to run your own internal BOINC project for testing purposes.

I suppose you could sum it up by saying it's like any "lock", it only keeps your friends out. ;-)

Alinator

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