General Questions and Interests
3 Oct 2010 23:10:30 UTC
Topic 195358
(moderation:
Hi Everyone:)
I'm kind of new to this stuff. So, I have few questions.
When my screensaver comes up that shows the constellations rotating;
What is that Boinc Logo doing in the constellations?
What are those color arrows related to?
Why is my Graphics Card so important when all my computer does is crunch data? Or, do I have the ability to acess more graphic intensive projects?
Like I said, I love this stuff, but I don't know that much about it yet.
Thanks,
Mike or Saturn6
General Questions and Interests
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Hi and welcome! :-)
The logo is indicating the sky position where a ( presumed ) source lies, and reflects the parameters of the currently executing work unit on your computer. The other various right-angular looking objects are projections onto the sky of the position of the interferometers ( Hanford, Livingston, Virgo, GEO ).
The screen saver is eye-candy and not related to the ability to crunch data. As for using the graphics card for computations, at E@H this is limited to certain aspects ( that which is suitable for massively parallel algorithms ). Other projects do have computations which are more suitable for more efficient GPU usage. Our GPU programs only utilise address later type NVidia cards at present ( cuda enabled ).
Cheers, Mike.
( edit ) I ought add that the whole idea of BOINC projects, E@H included, is for 'citizen scientists' to assist the professional ones ( meaning it is their primary life work ) with computing resources that cannot be afforded. This enables lines of research that literally would not otherwise happen. The collective computing power at E@H rivals supercomputers/clusters. We also save the project a considerable fortune in power bills too .... millions of dollars per year I believe.
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:) Well, whatever it
)
Mike:)
Well, whatever it takes to get the public more involved with science, the better I believe.
Einstein@Home alone seems to be a massive project. Now include another 30 or so projects anyone can become involved with, I hope this sort of thing becomes s hit.
The only flaw or potential problem I see is that just number crunching isn't going to be very eye-appealing to someone who is expecting some sort of graphic pictures, etc. which the computer is doing its thing.
To me, it don't matter, just as long as I feel I am contributiing something to the goal of greater knowledge and perhaps solving some of our mysteries.
My computer now seems to be stalled, not computing for some odd reason though. Emmmmm.
Maybe I just don't understand what is going on behind all this stuff:) I just wish I had gotten a much better education when I was much younger. I would have loved to have been a working Astronomer.
There is a issue I would like to discuss with an Astronomer about a Nebula that seems real odd in Scorpius. I use Microsoft Worldwide Telescope and it shows a Nebula, IC4592 - IC4602 Scorpius, generally titled Blue Horselead, with a circular object below it seemingly drawing material away from the Nebula. I have tried several times to discuss this with a few astronomers in a few local collegs around here and they either don't understand my questions or I'm not asking the right questions.
They tell me its a earth-based flaw in the optics, the object in question I am curious about. But, I don't believe it is a flaw, certainly not earth-based.
Who could I send an email to with attached photos to? I'd really like to get to the bottom of this.
Thanks,
Mike
RE: My computer now seems
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This could be because the Boinc defaults include a setting that stops the crunching when you go below 25% free cpu. To fix this and crunch 24/7/365 go in the Boinc Manager, down by the clock, and click on Advanced, Preferences and the the processor usage tab. You will see a line in the top section that says:
While processor usage is less than ___ percent (o means no restriction). Put a zero on that line and after clicking ok at the bottom your pc should start crunching again. You can set your pc to not crunch while you are actually using it in that section too, that way your pc will be more 'usable' but make sure you set the setting to like 1 minute afterwards so it starts right back up as soon as you stop using it.
Also you mentioned you like the screensaver, this will actually slow down your crunching because you pc has to use the cpu to process it and can't spend it crunching your workunit. It is a trade-off, show the pretty pictures or do more crunching. Me I just turn the monitor off when I am not working on the pc anyway, so the screensaver is not used by me. Make sure you set the screensaver to none if you do it that way though, you don't want it processing pretty pictures if the screen is off.
Hi Climateprediction.net
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Hi
Climateprediction.net has a nice eye-candy intensive screen saver IIRC.
As for IC4592 - IC4602, I would suggest to look at images from various sources to get a better idea of what is a telescope artifact and what is real.
Here are some pictures (one close up, one wide field)
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090521.html
http://www.saratogaskies.com/image.pl?i=32
CU
HB