The BOINC Championship!

[NeoGen]

Here it is guys, the contest I've been planning. :)

BOINC Championship - Season 2006
http://neogen.amdusers.com/champsymbol.JPG
(Mind not the quality of the symbol... I can only work with MS paint... and badly :lol:)

- 8 weeks of intense racing!
- 8 featured projects! (Plus WhatPulse just for fun)
- 2 separate leagues (regulars and pharmers :P)
- Only requirement to participate - crunch for AMD Users. :)



So, here's the plan. There are 8 races, each in a project, that last exactly 5 days each from monday 00:00 to friday 23:59 (my time ;)). Saturday and Sunday are pit stop days, for switching over projects, fine tuning the machines, fill up on workunits, etc.
The projects were selected based on a few constraints. Account creation must be open, work must be widely available, and workunits must be relatively short. (Those 3 rules exclude 2/3 of all boinc projects... :lol:).
Of course not all projects that followed those 3 rules got in, that would make the championship even longer that it is already. So I opted for those where our Team needs more help on. :)

After each 5 day race the top 10 crunchers at each league will get points (1st gets 10 points, 2nd gets 9, and so on). Just like on the car races, when the championship ends, the person with the most accumulated points wins.


Calendar of the races (Updated):

May 01 - May 05 -> Leiden Classical
May 08 - May 12 -> (break)
May 15 - May 20 -> SZTAKI
May 22 - May 26 -> Predictor@Home
May 29 - Jun 02 -> SIMAP
Jun 05 - Jun 09 -> Rosetta@Home
Jun 12 - Jun 16 -> Einstein@Home
Jun 19 - Jun 28 -> (break)
Jun 29 - Jul 07 -> MalariaControl
Jul 10 - Jul 14 -> PrimeGrid
EXTRA RACE
Jul 17 - Jul 21 -> Tanpaku



The WhatPulse race will be apart from the championship, through out the whole time, from May 1st to Jul 21, and will not give out any points. It was just a suggestion for fun, and there's no harm since it doesn't take cpu away from the projects. By the way, I'll be counting keys and clicks separately.:)


STATS
Main contest
BOINC CHAMPIONSHIP - Pharmers League (http://neogen.amdusers.com/contest2006/contestmainp.htm)
BOINC CHAMPIONSHIP - Regulars League (http://neogen.amdusers.com/contest2006/contestmainr.htm)
Leiden Race
Leiden Classical - Pharmers League (http://neogen.amdusers.com/contest2006/race1p.htm)
Leiden Classical - Regulars League (http://neogen.amdusers.com/contest2006/race1r.htm)
SZTAKI Race
SZTAKI - Pharmers League (http://neogen.amdusers.com/contest2006/race2p.htm)
SZTAKI - Regulars League (http://neogen.amdusers.com/contest2006/race2r.htm)
Predictor@Home Race
Predictor@Home - Pharmers League (http://neogen.amdusers.com/contest2006/race3p.htm)
Predictor@Home - Regulars League (http://neogen.amdusers.com/contest2006/race3r.htm)
SIMAP Race
SIMAP - Pharmers League (http://neogen.amdusers.com/contest2006/race4p.htm)
SIMAP - Regulars League (http://neogen.amdusers.com/contest2006/race4r.htm)
Rosetta@Home Race
Rosetta@Home - Pharmers League (http://neogen.amdusers.com/contest2006/race5p.htm)
Rosetta@Home - Regulars League (http://neogen.amdusers.com/contest2006/race5r.htm)
Einstein@Home Race
Einstein@Home - Pharmers League (http://neogen.amdusers.com/contest2006/race6p.htm)
Einstein@Home - Regulars League (http://neogen.amdusers.com/contest2006/race6r.htm)
MalariaControl.net Race
MalariaControl.net - Pharmers League (http://neogen.amdusers.com/contest2006/race7p.htm)
MalariaControl.net - Regulars League (http://neogen.amdusers.com/contest2006/race7r.htm)
Any questions? Post them below! :)

[NeoGen]

Oh yea... a few more details...

If any of the projects get problems, I may have to switch them on the calendar, or ultimately remove them from the championship. But whatever I choose, I'll warn you with plenty of time ahead.

Since I cannot keep track of how many computers each person is using, the cut-off value for getting people on the regular or pharmers league will be 600 credits/day. If you get more than that you'll go up to the mighty pharmers league, if you're below, you're with the regulars. (>90% of all of us) :)

[Nflight]

OK, I am in but my question is when does this whole Competition Start, do you have a day that is the definite date we are starting. As this information will need to be forwarded to all the people who are not active forum watchers but still are active participants in our Team Efforts.

Give us a Day to Start?

Once a certain day is chosen then we can manuever our machines to maximum power aka via OC'ing and will be ready for the big day!

I am very excited

:givemea:

[Electabots]

Cool i'll join in :) Gotta wipe my pc and hook my water cooler back up so I can get a nice oc for this :twisted:

[NeoGen]

It starts at May 1st, as said on the calendar on my first post, at 00:00 GMT DST (my time zone). At that moment I'll make the first values reading, and it'll be the "zeros" for everyone. What you get after that is accounted for the race.

But, I can't stop anyone from queing up some workunits *before* the contest, now can I? :P (Just remember guys that if keep the wu's over the deadline without reporting, you may not get credit for them :roll: )


And NFlight, I asked Vaughan and Empty_5oul for that special banner to announce the contest just for that. To see if the people who don't come by often, would come over and participate. I hope it works! :)

[AMD-USR_JL]

But, I can't stop anyone from queing up some workunits *before* the contest, now can I? :P (Just remember guys that if you keep the wu's over the deadline without reporting, you may not get credit for them :roll: )


Leiden Classical has a 3-day deadline, so you can get some on the 28th and still be able to meet the deadline. I have already got some, that way i will have a good weeks worth of pending credit. I dunno if that will do any good... :D But it couldn't hurt. :toothy7:

[mitro]

This should be lots of fun. :D In preperation for the race I nabbed a nice shiny new Opteron 165 which should arrive early next week. :P

[mitro]

One thing though, I"m not sure that breaking it into 2 classes by drawing the line at 600 RAC is the way to go. I think it should be by number of computers because when we get to Einstein, a good single core A64 is capable of more than 600 credits/day. We could all just sign up ahead of time with the number of computers (or even cores if you want to be more fair) we are going to use and then break it up into a couple (or more) classes. We are all trustworthy enough to stick to our words. :) And its easy to check anyway.

[Lagu]

Hi Mitro

Have you seen this link;

http://www.amdusers.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=2454#29668

I have 3 computers as I will put in. We have 2 classes, one for they as own 1 to 3 computers and one for they as own farms i guess.

Lagu :)

[mitro]

I saw that thread :)

I was bored:

http://www.dualcoreamd.com/images/2006BC.jpg

[NeoGen]

The two leagues idea was because people with 1 or 2 computers couldn't compete against others with arrays of them. The winners would always be the same few. So it was suggested that we tried to create an upper league for the top crunchers, and a normal league for the rest of us (like me :roll: )

I was thinking at 1,000 credits/day as limit, but then I looked at our stats and people who actually did 1,000 per day were less than a handfull across all projects. Following a suggestion from Empty_5oul, that limit was lowered to 600. It was a value more in account for our team members.

Now back to mitro's suggestion... I'm afraid it's next to impossible, for various reasons, to track how many machines each person is using. :-( Remember that it's not just us here in the forum that will be participating, but the lot of hundreds of people we got on our Team, and that 90% of them don't even come by often.
Oh... and by the way, sorry if I mislead you guys, but I didn't mean 600 RAC on my posts up there, I meant 600 credits per day, crunched and awarded. The RAC unfortunately can't tell me much, as it is a kind of measure that has no upper bounds.

It's still a week to go, so I'm open to suggestions. Any ideas? Keep me posted. :)

[NeoGen]

WOW! :D

I won't even ask how did you do that, but it looks awesome! :)

With your permission I'll use it for the contest pages (that I'm still to build :P)

[mitro]

Permission granted :) Unfortunately I didn't ask Shumacher or the folks at Ferrari for their permission, but I doubt they'll mind. LOL

[gamer007]

Nice mitro. :) :lol:

I'm definately in.
00:00 GMT is midnight, so I'm -8 GMT.... so, gah.. 3pm April 30th. :D

[Dee]

I voted yes...but I didn't realise it was for the big guys....my highest here :oops: was 17 ...S o I guess you can count me out!

[NeoGen]

No, it's not for big guys, it's for everyone. :)

If you run any of those projects during the dates I defined, you will be a participant on the contest. :)

[Dee]

I'm gonna have to get my feet wet then....I've only done the climate one! :shock:

[NeoGen]

00:00 GMT is midnight, so I'm -8 GMT.... so, gah.. 3pm April 30th. :D

Gamer, I'm actually on daylight saving time, so I think it's GMT+1 for me, which makes it... -9 for you? (relatively to me)
So... if my calculations are right... it's 2pm for you. :)

[dAVE]

Dee How about a contest Grandma against Grandad. There is still life in me, how about you?

[NeoGen]

Have you two been over at this thread here...? :P
http://www.amdusers.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=1974&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

[dAVE]

I have, I am the black spot in your "young and beautiful" profile for AMD users!

[Dee]

Oh Well...a group of 'over-excited' guys will not have their eyes on a little old granny and granddad...we're gonna win Dave....I feel it in me bones har har! :lol: :lol: :lol:

[dAVE]

Don't get too excited Dee, the pic is an old one of me, I had more hair then! Night all. It is time for my coco, Dave.

[Dee]

Neogen...what would be an easy project for me to start with?
Will it affect my climate work?

[NeoGen]

Any of those projects up there in the beggining of the thread is good for starting. They're up and running, have work widely available, and their workunits are short.
On the other hand it will indeed lower your BBC RAC a bit since with two or more projects, the boinc manager will split the cpu time for both, according to the shares you give to each.
You'll crunch 2 projects (or more), but each will only get 50% of the cpu time.

[swhite4784]

i would race be im too fat to reset all my computers at work for each race...lol only have 9 comps but like i said im fat!

[NeoGen]

Yea... and the calendar I defined is actually not good for work computers. :P
You'd have to go there at weekends to change it, Saturday or Sunday. :roll:

By the way people, this time now, before we start, it's the best time for experiments. Remember that optimized boinc clients yeald more credits/workunit at many projects. And also, there are unnoficial Einstein@Home optimized apps that cut down the workunit time by half. Very nice! :)

[dAVE]

NeoGen, are you going to tell us newbies where to go for these apptimised clients and the gen on them? Dave.

[NeoGen]

If you had asked me that yesterday, I would have pointed you to the humungous thread that goes on the Einstein boards... but this morning (my time) our administrator Vaughan told me about a site, and it's great. Check it out! :)
http://einstein.terrorfront.info/en/index.htm

[gamer007]

I'm using an optimized client for Einstein. I forgot which one, but I'll try this one.

[AMD-USR_JL]

I see that Blackheath and Empty_5oul have recently joined Leiden. Lagu, NeoGen, TrekkyLeaper, Maximillian, and I all have some WUs pending. Every one else appears to be waiting to strike. There is also a mysterious 16th member who has yet to get credit. Do you guys have a lot of Pending Credit?

It was a good idea picking Leiden to start with. We really needed help there. Almost no one was crunching. Our biggest rival, Free-DC, only has a rac of 1.7K, we could really beast them here and gain some ground. Is Leiden Classical in the DC Vault?

We also went from 22nd to 21st in rac today, thanks to Blackheath who added a whopping 190 in rac. :D

[NeoGen]

I don't know why these projects don't pick up much speed, they're simple to use, don't take much of resources, and have quick workunits that don't tie up the machine for too long.

I guess once people find a stable project to rely on, it's hard to make them try other things. :roll:

But that's what the contest is for! :)

[Dee]

I'm sorry guys...I'm going to go on a course in May...so won't be able to take part in the whole thing... :-(

[gamer007]

Just tried the optimized E@H app. Final time for my 1st WU in ages? 1:46hrs! :D

Before optimized, it was like 6-8 hours.

[drezha]

TBH honest then, I think a brief spurt at Einstein sounds good...

Not a huge fan at all but if I can have nice short units like that :D ;)

[Strongbow]

I have created the links to each site for those of us who haven't created accounts yet...

May 01 - May 05 -> Leiden Classical
http://boinc.gorlaeus.net/

May 08 - May 12 -> Predictor@Home
http://predictor.scripps.edu/

May 15 - May 20 -> Einstein@Home
http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/

May 22 - May 26 -> SZTAKI
http://szdg.lpds.sztaki.hu/szdg/

May 29 - Jun 02 -> HashClash
http://boinc.banaan.org/hashclash/

Jun 05 - Jun 09 -> XtremLab
http://xw01.lri.fr:4320/

Jun 12 - Jun 16 -> Rosetta@Home
http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/

Jun 19 - Jun 23 -> uFluids
http://www.ufluids.net/

[Keith75]

I tried signing up for ufluids and it won't accept any of my email addresses. It just says that I need to enter a valid email address. :mad:

[mitro]

I tried signing up for ufluids and it won't accept any of my email addresses. It just says that I need to enter a valid email address. :mad:Is that happening when you go to sign up for an account or when attaching the project to BOINC? If its the latter it may just take a while for your account to be active.

EDIT: Thanks for the links, blackheath. Is it just me or is the HashClash site down?

[Keith75]

When I try to sign up for the account.

Keith

[NeoGen]

There's two ways to create an account, on the site and through the boinc wizard. Which one are you using?

[Keith75]

I was doing it on the site. Forgot about the BOINC wizard.

[Strongbow]

I've got the same problem as Keith75 :cry:

[NeoGen]

Both on the site and through the boinc wizard?

[Strongbow]

Ah Ha!!!! :D

It failed just from the site, but then I attached and created a new account from BOINC and it all worked fine! :D

[Keith75]

Worked for me as well.

Keith

[AMD-USR_JL]

Alright everone, tonight or tomorrow morning (depending on your time zone) is when you want to get some WUs. It says here (http://www.gaisma.com/en/location/setubal.html)NeoGen is on UTC+0, thats the same as GMT+0 right? So look in your clock settings and + or - to get NeoGen's time. So once it is the 28th on Neogen's time you want to create your account at Leiden. Once you have created it, go to your account -> General Preferences -> Edit -> Network Usage -> Connect to network, change it somewhere around 3-4 days. You should already have gotten work from Leiden so the next time it connects it will download enough to last you for 3-4 days. Once you have your WUs cached you are going to want to disable boinc's network activity, so it can't send back completed WUs. Once it is May 1st on NeoGen's time then you will want to allow boinc to connect.

Have fun :D
Happy Crunching! :toothy7:

[NeoGen]

They missed out a detail about Portugal in that link... we got Daylight/Summer time, or something like that :roll: So it's (temporarily) GMT+1 here. :P
http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/europe/european-union/portugal/index.htm

I'm hoping to start the first field tests tomorrow too, to see if the tables get filled correctly and stuff like that. And then I still have to code an HTML export macro. Empty_5oul has already provided me a neat template for the contest pages that I have to play with later. :P

[AMD-USR_JL]

Cool, so it's 8 p.m. here at GMT-5 so it must 2 a.m. there, so i can start :D

Edit: Lol, when i looked at the link of SwEEtNeSS you provided i noticed my prediction above was an hour off. I looked it up and found out i am on daylight savings time too, so i'm GMT -4. :D

[Lagu]

Hi NeoGen

Both of us have GMT+1 but I think you are 1 hour late than me. If the clock is 00.00 in Sweden I think the clock is 01.00 in Portugal. Right?

Watch this link:
http://www.timeanddate.com/

According this clock: Sweden 10.30
Portugal, Lizbon 9.30.

This should mean I will start the race clock 01.00 Sunday night.

Lagu ;)

[Strongbow]

NeoGen,

Also, are you going to measure how much we collectively boost our team position during each project race. It just would be good to know!

[Strongbow]

Regarding disabling network activity in BOINC...

If it uploads the completed WU and it states "Ready to Report" in BOINC, does that mean I have already submitted my results or will it wait until I update?

[Lagu]

Blackheath

Ready to report means it is ready as soon you allow your network to send it. Your WU´s as you have done can never go away if you have choose "No network" so to say. But if your queque is empty I guess they vill be submited if you want more WU´s.

Lagu ;)

[Strongbow]

Thanks Lagu!

So that means that even though it has uploaded the WU it will not claim credit until I have submitted it.

[Lagu]

Yes, that´s right.

Lagu :D

[Strongbow]

Cheers Lagu! or should I say "Skal" :D

[NeoGen]

blackheat, I think the heads up warning about the contest has already gave a small boost on a few projects, particularly on Leiden, where about a week ago we were ranked around 21st (if I'm not mistaken) and now we are 16th. :)
Each race is quite short, so there will not be much data to be collected about rank improvements, but I'll see about making up a few fields for it. In last year's Spring Contest, as it was a two month race, there was quite a number of improvements all around in the contest projects, not ony in ranks, but production and even lots of members joining at the projects. :)

Lagu, you are indeed one hour ahead of me. :) I am at GMT+0 but have Daylight saving time, which makes it GMT+0+1 (= +1). You are at GMT+1 and also have DST, so you are GMT+1+1 (= +2) :P

[mitro]

Well I don't know about y'all, but I am ready and excited.

I decided to only use 4 computers. I somehow think I'll get by. :)

[Lagu]

Guys, we have 2 scalps as we can take in leiden:

Team Commonwealth: 34.890.24, rank 13, 2 members

Crunchers Inc: 31.961.33, rank 14, 2 members :rightfighter5:

Boinc@Poland: 31.610.35, rank 15, 32 members :rightfighter5:

AMDusers: 28.665.65, rank 16, 17 members =D< :thumbleft:

Germany: 27.692.45, rank 17, 25 members :sad2:

We perhaps can stomp one of them if we run all 5 days 7/24. I think it is realistic.
We have also the chanc to incrace the mouth between us and Germany.

Let´s go for it guys. No pardon! :joker:

Lagu :roll:

[NeoGen]

QUESTION TO EVERYONE!

Given that Einstein was recently discovered to have low quotas, I wanna ask you guys what you think... Should we change Einstein to some other project, or leave it there even with the quotas problem?
I don't know if in two weeks from now they'll have raised the quotas already...

[gamer007]

I can't say since it takes me around 1:45hrs to do a WU. And I use the computer often, so I can never reach the 32 WU quota.

But given people maybe using several computers and such.. maybe another project be used. Perhaps SIMAP@Home?

[NeoGen]

A third option I didn't remember before... switching Einstein to another later week. Someone said here that they'll be raising the quotas soon, when they officially implement the faster version.
We can postpone Einstein for some later week if you guys think the quota will be raised soon enough.

[Lagu]

You as have experience from your AMD Athlon 64 3800+ - 4.800+ what are your option?

I think you should run out of work using both cores. If you set your communiction to the server to 2 days you can get 200 workunits but how long? Will it work every day or can it be to little.

My calculation for Einstein:

My AMD Athlon 64 3200+ can crunch 50 work units as is 3 Hour long. Such a WU takes 0.48 - 0.50 CPU-hours.

AN AMD Athlon 64 3800+ - 4800+ must get done at least 100 - 115 WU´s running 7/24.
Mitro´s newest "Supercomputer" AMD Opteron 165, 2999 MHz how much can he crunch? I guess more than 3800+/4800+ I can be wrong but if he got the same type of WU as me he perhaps can do 2 x 30 min = 180 work units.

I don´t know if this is realistic because no experience. Only you as have a dual core can calculate how much you can crunsh.

Please if you think it yet is OK, tell us. Even if you are unsure also tell us.

Lagu :)

[Lagu]

NeoGen

Yes, I was thinking of this too. Move it as to the last week and we will see what happen.

Lagu :D

[mitro]

I never run out of work on Einstein unless I don't connect for a couple days. Like I said before, you just need to start on the project a couple days early and set your preferences to "connect every 10 days" and you should build up a reserve aftr a couple days.

You still may want to move it to a later week if they ARE planning on raising the quotas.

[mitro]

OK... we haven't had nearly enough **it-talking in this thread, so I'll stir the pot. :) Who's gonna give me a run for my money? C'mon... I'm running 4 lousy computers. Somebody has to have a decent pharm! :P

[Steve Lux]

Some of us are smart enough to know we don't know enough and haven't prepared enough to compete. For instance I wouldn't bet the pink slip for my Tundra on a 1/4 mile against a Ferrari. My Tundra may be quick for a truck but the Ferarri would kick its butt.

A man's gotta know his limitations. For now I'll settle with dogging some of you old timers in Predictor. I have some ideas that I haven't seen implemented elsewhere, but they could take a year or more to implement. Meanwhile I'll be slowly bringing in more traditional OC'ing techniques.

Alcoa has announced this month that they are selling my division (Alcoa Home Exteriors), so until there is some reliable certainty concerning my financial future there won't be any more significant investments in computing power. Until such time I'm just going to save up and pay bills. Preparing for the worst and hoping for the best as it were. None of us are totally secure from the harsh vagarious tides of fortune - despite our best efforts.

[Strongbow]

Who's gonna give me a run for my money? C'mon...

Yo Mitro!!!

I have no chance at the moment but my new system should arrive during the championship so I may be able to bite your toes!

...it's a long shot but I'm checking to see if I'm allowed to virtualize one of our local BladeFrames into a BOINC farm when it's not being demo'd (I've already created the BOINC builds), that would give me 24 servers with most of them having 4xOpteron 885s for about 12 hours a day - not sure if IT Security like the idea yet though as they haven't given me the green light yet! :? :cool: If I get an OK, then Mitro you might as well power down!!!:lol: ;)


Note:
For those of you who do not know what a BladeFrame is, then it is a cabinet with up to 24 processing blades, each capable of having up to 4 x Opteron (or/and Intel) DCs and 32GB. All state, identity, drives, I/O etc. are virtualised so that you can configure servers in software and can change the network and configuration instantly from the mgt console. That way you can have these servers do a task and then change themselves into a completely different server at a point in time, upon failure or based on thresholds. Great stuff for the championship if I can get approval!

[Dee]

Blackheath....OK...I'm a tad jealous... :lol: =P~

[vaughan]

Um, looks like I'd better start borging too.

[Strongbow]

I've just had a thought! Doesn't come often! ;)

Has anyone told the BOINC hosts what we're doing? ...a bit of publicity never harmed anyone! ...we could just state it in their newsgroups!

[Ototero]

I'll need to find the back door key into all the PC World shops and borg all their machines overnight.

No one would notice. :roll:

[mitro]

...it's a long shot but I'm checking to see if I'm allowed to virtualize one of our local BladeFrames into a BOINC farm when it's not being demo'd (I've already created the BOINC builds), that would give me 24 servers with most of them having 4xOpteron 885s for about 12 hours a day - not sure if IT Security like the idea yet though as they haven't given me the green light yet! :? :cool: If I get an OK, then Mitro you might as well power down!!!:lol: ;)


I'm just sitting here thinking about all those lovely Opterons... ok... I need to change my shorts. :)

If you could make that happen I'd gladly bow down at your feet. :notworthy:

[Steve Lux]

If someone really had the spare bucks I wonder what one of those ClearSpeed math co-processor boards would do. Starting at $10,000 a pop is a bit rich for 99% of us though.

[Beerknurd]

I would like to borrow some money from that other 1% of us!!!!!!

[AMDave]

I'd like to be the other 1% :lol:

Offtopic - nice work on the My Space, Beer. Bonus points on the colour choice :D

[mitro]

Just to remind my fellow Americans, the championship starts this afternoon/evening.

(assuming you are on Daylight Saving Time)

7pm Eastern
6pm Central
5pm Mountain
4pm Pacific

So hurry up! If you aren't yet on Leiden Classical get going!

And best of luck to everyone (not just he Yankees)! :D

EDITED

[Lagu]

Hi

I can´t see any new members joining Leiden. There is same old faces. But i have calculate our WU´s as is under progress or pending:

Mitro: 3.466 WU´s.
AMD-USER_JL: 411
Blackheath: 782
Lagu: 330
Empty: 102
Lazykiller: 36
Maximillian: 6

Total: 5133 and with an average of 2.0 points we should earn 10.266 points and move from 13th to 11th rank.

AMDave seems not to like the race or he will take the chance to stomp any of us? :D

And not to forgot: Vaughan as can be a :joker: He has his computers hidden. perhaps we can move to 10th rank when he have fire on his artillery? :D

Lagu :)

[Strongbow]

Good luck everybody! :hello1:

Let's hope for lots of wu's and no blue's (screens),
Let's hope for lots of crunching and no lunching,
Let's hope for lots of trickles and no prickles,
Let's hope for lots of umph and no bumpf,

...I'll give up now as I was never any good at poems at school :roll:

[mitro]

ugh... I was off by an hour and updated the time now. I automatically know I'm GMT-6 but forgot to account for DST on my end... DUH!

[gamer007]

Mitro, I hope your generalizing Americans. ;) Don't forget us Canadians.

And so were are working on Leiden Classical first. Alrighty! :D
Good luck to everyone. I know I won't get 1st place. :P

[mitro]

I figured Canadians were smart enough to figure it out themselves. :) I can never think of those far east time zones. We can only remember 4 zones

Disclaimer: I am also leaving out our friends in Alaska and Hawaii. If there are any of you.... FIGURE IT OUT YOURSELVES! hehehe

[gamer007]

Hehehe. :lol: Your real nice Mitro, leaving out Alaska and Hawaii. :twisted:

[Electabots]

So...it starts in 30 minutes correct?
Edit: oh ic...a hour and 30 minutes...alright

[Keith75]

Here's a new one. I signed up for Lieden at their website and got an account. I can log into the account on their site and view my info. When I try to attach it in BOINC Manager it says that they can't find my account. If I try to create a new one in BOINC Manager it says that the email address is already in use.
:roll:

Keith

Fixed it. It was a problem accepting the account key. I just made a password at their site and then it let me attach using it.

[Lagu]

Hi

Good luck to eweryone

Lagu ;)

[gamer007]

It's 4PM Pacific (well.. almost :P ). As I've said.

Good luck to everyone! And have fun! :D
:wav:

[vaughan]

Vvrroom :!:

They're off and racing :wav:

May the best farm win :!: :shock: :D :hello1:

[mitro]

I'd hold on to those results for a while... we haven't gotten the green light from Neo ,have we?

[NeoGen]

Just posted on another thread, so it would show up on top on the main page. :)

GO! GO! GO! :twisted:

[Lagu]

Hi

I´m afraid he have problems with his router or broadband. He have showed he is online for hours but I think it is falce. When he not could log of his name will still remain.

Lagu

[AMD-USR_JL]

SwEEt, I just sent my cached results and i went from 5.6k to 6.8k :D

[LisaD]

I'll be a spectator. :cool:

[daddygeek]

I'll be a spectator.

Me to, Over 2/3rd of my power is not on line. :cry:

I moved to a small apartment till my house sells. No room for 150lb servers or a 6ft rack :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[vaughan]

I need some BOINC advice. Some of my computers seem to trickle feed results one at a time back to Leiden Classical whilst others save them up and wait for me to send in a batch of completed results. Why is there different behaviour? How do I control them so they behave in the same way?

[gamer007]

I think it's when BOINC reports to the project for more WUs, as it'll report back WUs. Since Leiden Classical WUs vary in length, it would seem that when a long WU is done, it will report back that WU and request more, where as short WUs will accumulate until BOINC's done enough to request more work.

I've set my cache low (I think it's around 0.3 days), so it'll report back more often, and get WUs more often. I've done this because I don't want a backlog of WUs as I have a slow CPU.

[vaughan]

Mine is set to connect every 3 days. Some computers have lots of cached work; others grab about 12 or so then trickle feed them back until zero remain then grabs a dozen again.

[Strongbow]

All mine are now set to 0.1day! ...get 'em in, crunch 'em, get 'em out! ...I want credits and not pending at the end of the race! ;)

[drezha]

All mine are now set to 0.1day! ...get 'em in, crunch 'em, get 'em out! ...I want credits and not pending at the end of the race! ;)
TBH in the projects if there people crunching, by the end of a week most will have returned early units already and be validated quite quickly...

Where as this method downloads new units and so might have more waiting to be validated...

I mean I have 3.5 day cache's and I can return a batch of Predictor units and all of them may be validated that day whereas they may not this way... we'll see... :P

[Strongbow]

I know what you mean and I thought about holding on to them for longer but Leiden seems to validate quickly so I went for the 'get 'em out quickly' strategy!

You never know, I might be waiting for your results to come in for my credits! "hurry up will yuh!" ;) ;) :lol:

[AMDave]

Erm.
Small drawback to the short cache strategy.
My ISP went out for 5 hours.
That meant 2 hours of non production after my caches dried up.
All fine again now.
But, dang! Watch out for that one :oops:

[drezha]

You never know, I might be waiting for your results to come in for my credits! "hurry up will yuh!" ;) ;) :lol:

:lol:
I crunch for TPR and not touched Lieden at all :roll: ;)

[mitro]

I throught I'd switch projects a little early on my work computer, but I'm unable to attach Predictor. Anyone else tried and have this problem?

[NeoGen]

I tried and couldn't make it too.
I hope it's because of the scheduled backup day...

Reminder: Every Wednesday at noon pacific time we will be offline for several hours to dodatabase backups.

[AMDave]

yes.
I had the same problem attaching the project to my clients (5.2.13) using the GUI.
But being a nerd :lol:, I went straight to the command line.
I stopped the GUI client and restarted it from the command line with the appropriate -attach_project <PROJECT_URL> <key> and it worked fine.
Same thing with the next client (5.2.13 also)
After they downloaded the project clients and some wu's I restarted the client s in GUI mode. No probs.

[Lagu]

I throught I'd switch projects a little early on my work computer, but I'm unable to attach Predictor. Anyone else tried and have this problem?

Hi Mitro

You have too many WU´s as not is done (3066 work units) and peoples are waiting for your pending WU´s to werify their work units I think it should be good you continue run Leiden to the to Friday, the last day.

You may remember many of your teammates is dependence of your work units.

Lagu :D

[mitro]

Don't worry... I've decided to skip Predictor and stay on Leiden an extra week.

[Lagu]

Hi

I think it is imposible to get a new rank in Predictor. The gap to next team is too large. But perhaps we can reach the 1.000.000 level? Of source it will be lesser points if Mitro will skip it.

Lagu :)

[Nflight]

BUt of course Mitro has suggested he will return to predictor after the Championship, so losing his power now is not lost completely. I am right on this statement am I not there Mitro?

[mitro]

Actually no... I've changed my view on Predictor. The reason its so easy to gain ranks is because so many people are leaving it due to the fact that the project is not run very well with almost no feedback to the users. Read through the message boards and you'll see the mass dissatisfaction that has occurred. I'll go wherever the wind blows me... but it won't blow me back over to Predictor.

[NeoGen]

There's three components on (almost) all DC projects... the science, the means to achieve it, and the community.

Why must they (project coordinators) always disregard the third component... :roll:

[Lagu]

Mitro

Yes, you are right :!: I´ve read their forums and I got worry. I was thinking if it is the right project for the race. There is more project as is mych better and need a boost.

NeoGen, should we change project? I don´t like it. We have no chance to shange ranks. We are 27 and vill continue there even after the race.

We need a project as is stable and in harmony not disharmony.

Lagu

[mitro]

I really am not trying to get Predictor off the races, I just personally wanted to continue on Leiden and give someone else a chance to win. If they resolve the issues with attaching the project, then I see no reason not to include it in the race.

[NeoGen]

I'm starting to get worried too... about the not being able to attach :? (attach normally that is... I'm not a tech wiz like AMDave ;) )

I've tried it just now and still it won't attach... if the backup day was wednesday and it's already friday now, something is wrong...

Who's in favor of switching to XtremLab this week?(passing Predictor to the 3rd week)
That will give us time to ponder about what's going on with Predictor, and/or wait for a fix. Or ultimately take it off the contest. :-(

EDIT: Answer quick please.

[gamer007]

I don't mind if we switch. I say we go with it. After hearing this, I'm loosing faith in Predictor. I liked it when it started, a nice project that had constant updates. Now, looks like its dying. :-(

[Doomeva]

Who's in favor of switching to XtremLab this week?(passing Predictor to the 3rd week)


Me. No point having a dodgy project in the Championship.

EDIT: That's Vaughan's post. Dad was using MY computer again. Gggrrrr!

[gamer007]

:lol: Tell your dad to stay off your computer! :twisted:

[gamer007]

So, whats the verdict w/ XtremLab? :cool:

[NeoGen]

I was hoping that more than 2 people answered... not yet enough to make a quorum here. lol

Here's the question again, in case people have missed it due to be falling behind on the thread.

Who's in favor of switching to XtremLab this week?(passing Predictor to the 3rd week)


Let's make it like this... check this post time. If in... about 5 hours from now no one disagrees the idea, or no more than one against versus each two in favor, then even if I'm not present the switch is official, and I'll post about it when I come by. :)

[Lagu]

NeoGen

You have sent your message when I was sleeping.

Yes, change to ExtremLab. As I said before; We are number 27 in the stats and will still be there if we run Predictor.

Lagu :)

[AMDave]

Yep. Totaly agree. There is no point in trying race a project that is not fully accessible to everyone. Switching my clients to Xtreme Lab now.

For the moment, lets put Predictor to the end of the queue whilst we review if we still run it (pending it actually working properly) or replace it with another project.


NeoGen,

Could you update the schedule in your post at the top of the competition thread, please? I think there was another change on page 3 or 4 of the thread that was made in-thread also.

Cheers mate :thumbleft:

[Evil-Dragon]

It's fine with me, XtreamLab is it then :)

[Lagu]

I´ve checked XtremLabs home page:

Hosts: 2.566
Users: 929
Computing Hosts: 127 (4 %)
Maximum quota per day: 200

Only 4 % is running this project, but how fast will it be validated? If you have an AMD Athlon 64 3000+, 3200+, 3800-4800, Opteron, Intel P III and P4. It should be fast I think.

Have you an older PC I´m unsure if you can be verified when only 4 % is computing that project.

200 WU´s seems low but if every WU takes 10 minutes you have 2000 minutes divided by 60 minutes and it takes 33 hours to run them all. I think it is enough for most of us.

It will be exiting run their WU`s and notice how it goes.

Lagu :)

[drezha]

Lagu, not all projects send WUs to similiar PCs.

I mean I use an Intel P2...Works no problem on every project Ive run.

[NeoGen]

Well, the quorum was met, Predictor bumped two weeks down. I was thinking only one week at first, but one week passes by too quickly.
Next Monday, XtremLab it is! :)

May 01 - May 05 -> Leiden Classical
May 08 - May 12 -> XtremLab
May 15 - May 20 -> SZTAKI
May 22 - May 26 -> Predictor@Home
May 29 - Jun 02 -> HashClash
Jun 05 - Jun 09 -> Einstein@Home
Jun 12 - Jun 16 -> Rosetta@Home
Jun 19 - Jun 23 -> uFluids


I'm sorry everyone for all these last minute changes, this might have affected some people's queues who were set on Predictor already. I really wasn't expecting Predictor to fail us like this...
I've double checked XtremLab, and it allows attaching to the project as well as getting work. Workunits have 5 days of deadline.

Everything is set once again... so start queuing. ;)

[Nflight]

Sometimes it isn't my day after all. I mean today I get final notification that my Professional Licensure with the State has been approved. So I plan on celebrating till just reading this news about the Predictor Race. I was so enthusiastic I was hoping to lead the charge while riding a white stallion Horse down my main street. This will have to wait another 2 weeks. Hey you can't have everything you wish for, hope for, dream on.

Ok I am going to reinform those who thought I would be returning to SIMAP by the end of next week that it may be a little later on in May or Early June till I make my way back to the Team Effort.

Push On Contest members - Lets make the big moves you made in Leiden Classical with all the rest of the Projects that could use some help! I am still here just a little emotional about the delay. :cry:

EDIT: This means I can just work on catching up to Mitro sooner then before!

[NeoGen]

NFlight, is there any word on the Predictor boards about why the project is "unattachable"?
I had a quick look on the help part but no one was talking about it...

[Nflight]

I will ask and report my findings....

[Steve Lux]

It's too bad about Predictor. Likely we will achieve 26th place before the race gets here. It's a long pull of over 75,000 credits from 26th to 25th and we'd need some significant resources diverted here to make that in a week. With enough team capacity diverted to Predictor we we could achieve 24th place.

[NeoGen]

NFlight, they replied to your post and fixed the problem. :)

I've just tried and am now able to attach to the project and get work. 4th week it is... Predictor Showdown! :P

[dAVE]

I was hoping to join in this week as I have no chance of winning but it seemed like fun. This thread seems to indicate that XtremLab is running but Lagu's thread indicates that it is cancelled. Could we have a post/new topic telling us what is happening Dave. :?:

[Empty_5oul]

sorry for all the confusion.

there have been a few problems deciding which project to have this week. Therefore rather than make a "spur-of-the-moment" decision we will HAVE NO CONTEST this week.

We will ensure it is all straightened out and the projects will all be checked for the following weeks. The calendar will be edited/modified as we check projects are suitable (and running with available work!)

At the moment it is highly likely SZTAKI will be the next project. So if people want to try and optimise their settings/overclock for these workunits this project would be the best bet.

[NeoGen]

Check your points guys :)

BOINC CHAMPIONSHIP - Pharmers League (http://neogen.amdusers.com/contest2006/contestmainp.htm)
BOINC CHAMPIONSHIP - Regulars League (http://neogen.amdusers.com/contest2006/contestmainr.htm)

[Nflight]

So I take it the race is on suspension this week? NO race till next week or are your racing and I am not figuring out where your racing at this time??? :?:

[Strongbow]

Hi Nflight,

It's getting a bit confusing but this week's race is off due to finding out that Xtremlab was not competitive enough simply because the wu's were ~10mins each regardless of processor.

Next week it will be SZTAKI

See this thread for more info...
http://www.amdusers.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=2537#30515

Cheers,

BH :cool:

[NeoGen]

Yea... the only competition active, so by speaking, is on WhatPulse. Yesterday I collected the base values, so today I'll post the first values for everyone. :)


And just my luck... SZTAKI has ran out of work not long ago. I just made a post on their boards asking about it, hope I get an answer soon...

[Empty_5oul]

sztaki should start another set of matrixes hopefully.

it was dimension 10 completed a while back. i think 11 is now done. so i assume 12 will be next.
last time the change over was almost instant. A little overlap as work expires and needs to be crunched (currently there is no work buy 30,000 pending currently uncrunched tasks).

[gamer007]

So is SZTAKI set for next week? Sigh, what terrible timing for our contest. :-(

[NeoGen]

Yea, so far SZTAKI is on for next week... but as I said before... I'm jinxed. :-(

GOD, please let there be work on SZTAKI in the next few days! [-o<

I don't wanna have to change the calendar again... :-(

[NeoGen]

Got a quick answer to my prayers...
http://szdg.lpds.sztaki.hu/szdg/forum_thread.php?id=327

Hoping they get the work generator back up, then the only problem is that the checkpointing isn't working... but is that really a problem for us on a contest week, and with short workunits? :P

[gamer007]

No checkpoints shouldn't be a problem for me, unless I get a BSOD while burning DVDs again. And if I have to restart when I install something.

[Lagu]

There is exaktly as Leiden Classical. So long you not need to restart Boinc you are a lycky man. Otherwice you are an unlycky one. If you must reboot your computer you are unlycky too.

QMC@Home is hard. You can restart Boinc 10 times and it is always there starting from the last checkpoint. But their WU´s isn´t that fast as 10-15 min. Instead at least 5 hours perhaps more.

Lagu ;)

[NeoGen]

I had posted this before... you remember it, don't you blackheat? :)


Pharmers League Country Stats (http://neogen.amdusers.com/contest2006/contcountryp.htm)
Regulars League Country Stats (http://neogen.amdusers.com/contest2006/contcountryr.htm)

[Empty_5oul]

im liking the current stats neo :lol:

[Strongbow]

I had posted this before... you remember it, don't you blackheat? :)

:D I do remember those stats (we need more users in the UK!) but I was actually after the race stats for SZTAKI as I haven't seen them yet so I'm not too sure how I'm doing! :? :D


EDIT: Doh!!! I've just seen them on the other thread!

[Strongbow]

Is it Predictor next week then, our team could do with a boost as we're 26th at the moment!

...oh and I must give many many THANKS to Mitro for the loan of that monster he has just added to my account! Woo Hoo!!! \:D/ \:D/ \:D/

:D

[NeoGen]

Next week is Predictor indeed... :)

I wonder how many credits will NFlight unload on the first day... :P

[Nflight]

Next week is Predictor indeed... :)

I wonder how many credits will NFlight unload on the first day... :P

Actually Not enough, really.

But I wanted to make a point that after we were at some of these Projects I have noticed a few Teams gathering strength at our departure. Take a look at Leiden Classical, Team Boinc.be has suddenly gained momentum!

Check it out. :-k

[NeoGen]

Races calendar was updated! Check 1st post. :)

[Lagu]

NeoGen

Is Rosetta from 9 juni (today) nailed and clear? No change or? How about the delay?

Lagu :)

[NeoGen]

Yes, Rosetta is up for next week. But starts on June 5, not 9, that's when it ends.

[dAVE]

NeoGen. Temperatures here have at last hit the 80s and I have had to wind the overclocking down. I am also without an optimised client at the moment so I there is a real chance that I will drop below 3000 credits this week. It was sort of agreed that if you were mainly in one league then you stayed there. Can I elect to stay in the Pharmers league because I don’t want to mess up the close contest that I see developing in the regulars’ league? dAVE

[NeoGen]

That's one matter I haven't thought about thoroughly yet...but yes, people should only appear on one league. And that reminds me that I still have to upload the updated contest files... but my net connection is so bad that I can't stay more than 30 seconds online without it breaking down...:?

Well... let's see how it goes this week and I'll think of something. I have faith that you'll still be able to reach 3,000 by the end of the week. :)

Speaking of race and credits... this goes to everyone -> since my net connection is barely holding up, it might take a bit of time until I extract the base values of everyone tonight. Please wait for my post saying that the race is started, before you dump the stored workunits.

[gamer007]

I can wait. I just finished HL2: Episode 1 so I need to make up a few hours. :P

[Empty_5oul]

hope you can resolve the net problems soon neo.

[Murray]

What are the odds of a Prime Grid contest being added? It would be so nice to over take team Picard in style :cool:

[Empty_5oul]

if any of the projects have downtime or are not "race-able" on then we will switch (this happened in the second week - possibly before you were here though).

so if any of the porjects we decided go wrong prime grid may take their place. but I would say the odds of this are fairly low.

[Murray]

if any of the projects have downtime or are not "race-able" on then we will switch (this happened in the second week - possibly before you were here though).

so if any of the porjects we decided go wrong prime grid may take their place. but I would say the odds of this are fairly low.

Ok...maybe next time :?

[NeoGen]

Or... I could add an extra round for Primegrid. I'll think about it. ;)

[NeoGen]

There was an update to the calendar due to problems with uFluids and HashClash. This week will be a week of break for everyone to relax and crunch their favorites, and the week after that will be for PrimeGrid.


Calendar of the races (Updated):

May 01 - May 05 -> Leiden Classical
May 08 - May 12 -> (break)
May 15 - May 20 -> SZTAKI
May 22 - May 26 -> Predictor@Home
May 29 - Jun 02 -> SIMAP
Jun 05 - Jun 09 -> Rosetta@Home
Jun 12 - Jun 16 -> Einstein@Home
Jun 19 - Jun 23 -> (break)
Jun 26 - Jun 30 -> PrimeGrid
Jul 03 - Jul 07 -> ?

[Murray]

Or... I could add an extra round for Primegrid. I'll think about it. ;)

Brilliant, I am very happy that this is going ahead...we are a top performing team in PrimeGrid and this race will help us catch up to the teams with nearly 1 million credits :cool:

Thanks Neo :D

[Murray]

Just a quick note to everyone who is stocking up on PrimeGrid WUs at the moment...the project doesn't have any new work, but the admin has been away and will no doubt fix the problem when he returns tommorrow :thumbleft:

[NeoGen]

I'm praying for that. [-o<
I've put Primegrid up on contest because the others were failing, I hope PrimeGrid doesn't fail me too... :-(

[Murray]

I'm praying for that. [-o<
I've put Primegrid up on contest because the others were failing, I hope PrimeGrid doesn't fail me too... :-(

The project is currently offline for maintainence which is a good sign...everything should be back to normal soon (I hope) :shock:

[Murray]

Work seems to be flowing again...:D

[NeoGen]

If nothing odd happens until sunday, the race is on! :)

[NeoGen]

I updated the calendar once more. The MalariaControl race will be slightly longer than the previous one, starting today and ending on the 7th (as to end on a Friday and setting the schedules right again). That'll be 9 full days of race.

I am hoping Primegrid can be ready by then... :roll:

[Strongbow]

Any updates on PrimeGrid?

[NeoGen]

I asked that on the other thread, still waiting for any reports to come in :roll:

[vaughan]

PrimeGrid was pretty stable when I was running it earlier this week.

[gamer007]

IIRC, I was running Primegrid during last week's break. It was stable. Don't know about now though.

[NeoGen]

I started PrimeGrid and it's been going ok, no work breaks or anything.

(If no one spots any problem) PrimeGrid for next week! :)

[vaughan]

Great, it will be a good test for Rytis' server that he shares with another project. Is it chess960?

[cicide]

I was getting ready to start working primegrid for the next part of the championship, but I noticed Primegrid only runs on windows systems (no linux client)

So alas, I cannot participate.... :evil:

[Strongbow]

I don't know why I'm telling you this as you'll whip my ars* again! :lol:

Why not try running a Winx86 BOINC under WINE? ..it does work when you ./wine boinc_cli.exe

[cicide]

I don't know why I'm telling you this as you'll whip my ars* again! :lol:

Why not try running a Winx86 BOINC under WINE? ..it does work when you ./wine boinc_cli.exe

Hrm, never thought of that, but I think I'll pass. I'm not real fond of the actual primegrid project either. I'd rather keep helping projects like simap, malaria, etc.

-Chris

[AMD-USR_JL]

Hey Chris, what linux distro are you running? My computer had a nasty virus, so i had to reformat it. I've tried distro after distro, but it's either my processor, or my video card, or even my hdd that messes up. I think i've had bad choices. I even tried the new X86 MAC OSX and X86 Darwin. I think Bill Gates put something on my puter, so that only windows will work. :twisted:

[NeoGen]

Well guys, I was dazzled by all the new projects popping up recently but turns out that none is stable enough to be raced on unfortunately.
- RCN has very long workunits, with no checkpointing, and plus their current batch of workunits is about to end soon.
- VTU@Home is out of work.

Which leaves us with Tanpaku. It's a perfectly normal boinc project now that they've upgraded to boinc v5. It has short workunits and I've never seen work flow shortage, so I'm assuming it is quite stable.

The contest would end this coming Friday with Primegrid, but I was thinking of extending it just a little more...
What do you guys say to one final showdown on Tanpaku?? :D

[vaughan]

Yes.

I agree that RCN & VTU are not viable at this point in time.

We need to be ready to roll when the Reisel Sieve Sieving gauntlet starts with Team Phoenix Rising.

[drezha]

Riesel Sieve gauntlet ;) LLR and Sieve included.

Unfortunatly in fighting at TPR at the mo seems to be perhaps throwing our gauntlet off towards Rosetta@home ATM or a smaller BOINC project...

[outlawolf]

ive been crunching rosetta lately on all my computers, the fact that u can set the length of work units is great, other projects need to pick it up. The graphics are nice too.

[AMDave]

I should be free of my other commitments in about 2 1/2 days which is great timing. I've been on a "classics" sabbatical for quite some time and a breath of fresh is in order for me atm. I can bring a couple of boxen to the party. Tanpaku-shitsu sounds just the ticket NeoGen.

Whether or not TPR hit the ground at the same time is not an issue (but would be a bonus) as this is a just week-long burst.

> - other comments posted in the challenge thread

[Nflight]

Well guys, I was dazzled by all the new projects popping up recently but turns out that none is stable enough to be raced on unfortunately.
- RCN has very long workunits, with no checkpointing, and plus their current batch of workunits is about to end soon.
- VTU@Home is out of work.

Which leaves us with Tanpaku. It's a perfectly normal boinc project now that they've upgraded to boinc v5. It has short workunits and I've never seen work flow shortage, so I'm assuming it is quite stable.

The contest would end this coming Friday with Primegrid, but I was thinking of extending it just a little more...
What do you guys say to one final showdown on Tanpaku?? :D

I like the idea A lot, check out this link: http://www.amdusers.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=2816#33183

[Strongbow]

Hey NeoGen,

The main contest pages haven't been updated for a while!

Also, is PrimeGrid the final race of the competition? :cry:

[NeoGen]

Oops... forgot to update those, as they are done manually once a week. I'll get right on it.

I proposed an extension for Tanpaku, and since no one posted any complains against it, next week the race is on. :)

17 Jul -> 21 Jul - Tanpaku (Final race)