SETI Group

[solrules]

Anyone ever considered starting a SETI user group to total all of our CPU time?

SETI@Home (Search for Extraterrestial Intelligence at home) is a distributed computing project. It uses your spare CPU cycles to process data that can lead to the finding of life in the cosmos. SETI does not slow down your computer, it just runs in the background and takes ahold of the wasted computer processing time (usually put in a 'system idle' service) to make calculations. It can run in the background (which I recommend) all the time, or it can be configured as a screensaver, running only when you set it to. Lots more info here.

Very cool project. Can be run on Windows (all versions), Mac, *NIX. I have been doing it for a little over 3 years, and here is my data (although my email is not working anymore, and I cannot change it to my new email.)

 

[KermieD]

I put my processing cycles towards folding@home. It is a program to simulate protein folding and could end up being the magic bullet that leads to cures for everything from Alzheimer's to many forms of cancer.

https://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/

Here's the link to my folding team page:

https://vspx27.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=teampage&teamnum=13764

 

[shrox]

Very cool, this applies directly to me. The protein folding that is as a tool against Parkinson's.

shrox

 

[PAH]

I've been running SETI@home for about 8 months now on three systems. Two do nothing but run SETI@home 24/7. The third is my main system when I'm not using it. After looking at the Folding@home link KermieD mentioned, I'm going to start running that on one of my SETI@home systems instead.

Paul Hoetjes

 

[cydermaster]

I run SETI too. Heres my stats.

I've often wondered about getting a TRF SETI group off the ground. I'd be up for it.

 

[KermieD]

PAH, if you're looking to join a group there, you're always welcome to join the IRON Brigade folding team. Anyone's welcome. If TRF gets one going there, you can switch at any time.

 

[Hexnut]

Trailer Trash Aerospace is on SETI under the group list. I have 3 P'uters working on it now.

 

[rabidsheeep]

is this like FAH?

 

[Dbarrm]

Here are my stats.

Dan

 

[solrules]

Wow. Lots of people here have pretty impressive stats

FAH, SETI, and many others are very similar. They just use your wasted clock cycles to do calculations. They just have a different end purpose. They work on the premise that a bunch of computers far away =(=) a supercomputer (which is actually a bunch of computers close together ). There are a bunch of these projects, but you can really only run one project per computer (unless you have dual CPU's), so you have to pick and choose. I personally think either SETI or FAH would be best added to your computer than say, one that calculates the largest prime number.

 

[grimlock3000]

my stats

I have a very low average CPU time per work unit

 

[solrules]

I have now created a TRF group for the new BOINC version of SETI@Home . BOINC allows you to add modules of different projects to the same program, and share resources between the two. Works on the same premice as S@H and FAH. There are a few different projects for BOINC, but I am too lazy to give you url's to them. Old users of SETI@Home will still work for a while, but eventually it will be ported over to BOINC. More info here. Users can transfer their work units from the old seti to the new BOINC.

I have set up the group here. Sorry about the bad URL, but I found it takes a while for the edits to propegate the system (with so many requests, it is very hard!).

Join now!

Unfortunatly, FAH is not incorporated into BOINC. Yet. If you run FAH, this entire message is of no importance.

EDIT:
All information has propogated the system. Everything looks/works well now.

 

[ymj365]

Here are my SETI stats.

I saw the info about the BOINC version of SETI@home but haven't done anything about it yet. (When I last looked at it about six months ago, I recall that there wasn't a way to bring your old stats over to the new system. If they've changed that, cool! )

 

[aksarben10]

What is that site that you have a link to?? I went to it and tried to look up my seti id and it did not know me, so is it associated with seti?

Scott

 

[Zippy]

I've gone to the new BOINC version but it crashes my computer hard like a 57 Buick in a demo derby. I hope they can fix this as I've been doing SETI for years and would hate to have to drop it.

 

[cydermaster]

I've upgraded to BIONIC, and joined the TRF group.

This new BIONIC software doesn't seem to be working at mo - I keep getting the message "Message from server: No work available". Maybe it takes a while to transfer my old account, and it won't work until my details are updated?

 

[solrules]

There was a small server outage. It should be working now.

 

[cydermaster]

BOINC seems to be downloading now!

Cool!

 

[PunkRocketScience]

I just signed up for the team as well!

I'd run the thing just because the screensaver is so cool!

I'm getting data and it seems to be processing, but my name hasn't shown up on the team list yet. Is there a timelag for it to do so?

 

[cydermaster]

Originally posted by RocketmanTM
Is there a timelag for it to do so?

I found there was a few minutes delay before my name registered.

Thanks for joining.

 

[ymj365]

Well, I just joined TRF BOINC team as well (you know, it's interesting (or maybe not), but this is the first time I've considered joining a SETI@home team... I guess I've decided I like this place. ) It isn't listing me on the team screen yet, but my screen shows me as a member, so I guess it is good to go.


Perhaps it's a minor thing, but they're only crediting me with 49523 of my old-style work units! (I currently have 52777, and will probably have another 300-500 before I can switch all of the PC's I have running classic SETI@home to the new version.)

I certainly hope they have plans to move all of the classic work units over to the new system once they retire the old system completely. My PC's (and the ones I maintain at work ) worked hard to crank those units!

 

[cydermaster]

It would be a bummer if they didn't give people some recognition for all the spare clock cycles they donated to the old SETI.

I'm transfering all my 'available' PCs over to the new system, so I can start racking up the credits asap.

Thats 5 on the team now ..... c'mon, there must be more people willing to donate their PC's unused time!!

 

[Zippy]

I'm going to sign up for the TRF team although it won't do any good right now since BOINC boinc's my computer.

 

[Elbmod]

Okay - I've converted....


and here are my stats . I'm about to join the TRF group too!

 

[cydermaster]

Originally posted by elbmod
I'm about to join the TRF group too!

Yea - another Brit; the team is getting almost cosmopolitan!

Whos gonna be the first to show some credits? I've compleated 2 WUs so far, but not been granted any credit for them yet (I'm only the first to return both).

7 members now - we're getting stronger!

 

[solrules]

Originally posted by cydermaster
It would be a bummer if they didn't give people some recognition for all the spare clock cycles they donated to the old SETI.

There is a different way to clock the amount of work done on your machine with BOINC. Not positive on the details, but the BOINC is more accurate (whereas SETI had a different CPU time per WU) and pretty standerdized. If you transition to BOINC, your WU's will for the most part be credited. The descripency comes with the different algorigithms to compute CPU time.

Thanks to all who joined! We will make one heck of a computing force

 

[HeadHunter]

Originally posted by cydermaster
Yea - another Brit; the team is getting almost cosmopolitan!

Whos gonna be the first to show some credits? I've compleated 2 WUs so far, but not been granted any credit for them yet (I'm only the first to return both).

7 members now - we're getting stronger!

I just checked the team stats and I made the board, but the server is telling me there is no work available

who's the boinc guru?

We didn't find somebody out there already have we

 

[Zippy]

I'm certainly NOT a guru but they are having problems with WU's right now, nobody's getting them so we are all in the same boat.
It's a shame becouse the screen saver crashes my computer so I shut that off and am just trying to run SETI in the background to see if that crashes my pc but now I can't even do that becouse no WU's.

 

[cydermaster]

It looks like some of the kit they got to handle BOINC has had a CATO. I'm onto my last WUs for both of my machines.

 

[ymj365]

Solrules: The old credits ("Work Units completed") doesn't really take into account the CPU time used to process those WUs... it just counts WUs and some WUs need more CPU time than others (e.g. if a WU is obviously very noisy with radio interference, the old client aborts processing but still gives full credit for it). The new system credits users based on the actual work done (within limits, anyway). IMHO, the new system is better (it is certainly fairer). I just hope they credit me the rest of my WUs... I broke 50000 (at 52885 now) and I'd like to see that fact acknowledged (somehow, 49523 is way less impressive).

Zippy (et al): If your goal is to crank as many WUs (or rather, get as much credit as possible), then you really want to turn off the screen saver portion, since redrawing the screen uses a fair amount of CPU time, especially on older systems and those without fancy video adaptors. Using the Blank screen saver is best, at least in terms of wasting CPU cycles, though I usually use the Login Screen saver for PCs with Win2k.

The four machines I have up at home right now are running SETI@home under BOINC, though two of them (setup last night) have no work to do and one of the others will be done with its work in about 2.5 hours.

Next week will be fun at work (NOT!) (I'm going to have to switch about 40 or so PCs to BOINC).