In Which we discuss the next folding at home competition
- Thread starter Joe42
- Start date
I agree about -advmethods. Another thing, obviously beta work won't be allowed.
Is there any way we can have all the competition clients fetch their wu's from a controller server allowing us to help everyone get set up and then start sending wu's at a specific time and stop sending them at a specific time?
Also, i think we should have at least one further prize which is a raffle prize i.e there will be a random draw of all who have entered. That way people with lower spec machines will still enter. In fact i think it might be better with the emphasis placed on the raffle prize or prizes... what do you think?
I'll be devising a customised quick guide for the post to make it as short and as simple as possible.
Is there any way we can have all the competition clients fetch their wu's from a controller server allowing us to help everyone get set up and then start sending wu's at a specific time and stop sending them at a specific time?
Also, i think we should have at least one further prize which is a raffle prize i.e there will be a random draw of all who have entered. That way people with lower spec machines will still enter. In fact i think it might be better with the emphasis placed on the raffle prize or prizes... what do you think?
I'm going to keep my first post as a facts and figures list as it will just get too messy if we start including drafts for the actual post.SiriusB said:
I'll be devising a customised quick guide for the post to make it as short and as simple as possible.
Soldato
Ah, forgot about the spaces issue. Still, not a problem, we can just separate the prefix from the username with another underscore or no space at all.
Raffle sounds like a great idea and means everyone has an equal chance of winning something. Should we include the league winners in the raffle? Also another issue regarding prizes... would it be appropriate for us, the organizers, to be eligible for prizes? I wouldn't want anyone to think the worst should one of us win a prize - especially when it comes to the raffle since I am unsure how anyone could cheat with the actual crunching.
SiriusB
Raffle sounds like a great idea and means everyone has an equal chance of winning something. Should we include the league winners in the raffle? Also another issue regarding prizes... would it be appropriate for us, the organizers, to be eligible for prizes? I wouldn't want anyone to think the worst should one of us win a prize - especially when it comes to the raffle since I am unsure how anyone could cheat with the actual crunching.
SiriusB
Very good point.
I think the best thing would be to exclude winners of league prizes from the raffle.
I wouldn't want to win a prize personally, that seems a bit ridiculous particularly if i had donated towards it. I don't need a prize to keep me folding.
Difficult to say really. Would it be fair to exclude all current team member from all prizes? probably not.
Should we exclude all those who donate to the prize fund from receiving a prize?
I think the best thing would be to exclude winners of league prizes from the raffle.
I wouldn't want to win a prize personally, that seems a bit ridiculous particularly if i had donated towards it. I don't need a prize to keep me folding.
Difficult to say really. Would it be fair to exclude all current team member from all prizes? probably not.
Should we exclude all those who donate to the prize fund from receiving a prize?
Have we decided what we're doing about gpus yet? Are we just saying no gpus?
I think the hit to the team production of anything we consider doing should be ignored, as i think this competition will more than make up for it with new members.
How long will it be? iirc the last one was 2 weeks, same this time? I think so.
I think the hit to the team production of anything we consider doing should be ignored, as i think this competition will more than make up for it with new members.
How long will it be? iirc the last one was 2 weeks, same this time? I think so.
Joe42 said:
Can't think of a way to do it. It was easy enough with SETI because all the WUs were functionally the same, and there was no distinction between the assignment servers and the servers which carried the WUs. That distinction makes a similar thing much harder to implement with Folding, since all requests have to go through the assignment server...
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So its not really possible then, unless we used benchmarking wu's or something.
Is there any way of setting up the client but preventing it from fetching a wu?
Its just i can see it being a real pain to get everyone to set up their clients at a set time. If anyone runs into problems they'll loose out. Of course you could just start counting points at a set time but you couldn't use eoc stats then. We would have to make something else equally good for people to monitor stats.
Maybe this could be done in future with an eoc like stats page on team ocuk.
Is there any way of setting up the client but preventing it from fetching a wu?
Its just i can see it being a real pain to get everyone to set up their clients at a set time. If anyone runs into problems they'll loose out. Of course you could just start counting points at a set time but you couldn't use eoc stats then. We would have to make something else equally good for people to monitor stats.
Maybe this could be done in future with an eoc like stats page on team ocuk.
Doh.Mattus said:-configonly
Of course. So we just have to have everybody run it at a specific time... still not ideal. You could use task scheduler though couldn't you. Best if we tell people to do that.
Although as it would be 2 weeks long there's not much to loose by being a few hours late. At least getting everyone to put it in task scheduler they wouldn't all have to remember to start it.
Soldato
There is nothing stopping anyone who has a dual core rig with GPU from entering just one core - it is what I plan to do.
Those with single core CPUs and GPU will just have to decide whether they can afford to lose the GPUs production.
I have already offered to handle the prizes and should I be chosen I will exclude myself from all prizes. In fact, even I am not chosen I would not take a prize. Should I actually win the Single Core league [which I doubt] the prize can go to whomever came next. I am only entering for the competition, not the prizes.
As for setting up clients that's easy - we simply set a date and time by which everyone is to be ready. If there are any problems from the announcement till the ready date we can sort them out. If someone isn't ready by that time then there is nothing we can do.
As for starting I am not sure... To be honest I think we are just going to have to go on faith as I think people starting at slightly different times will be balanced out by people not dumping their last WU in time for the deadline.
SiriusB
Those with single core CPUs and GPU will just have to decide whether they can afford to lose the GPUs production.
I have already offered to handle the prizes and should I be chosen I will exclude myself from all prizes. In fact, even I am not chosen I would not take a prize. Should I actually win the Single Core league [which I doubt] the prize can go to whomever came next. I am only entering for the competition, not the prizes.
As for setting up clients that's easy - we simply set a date and time by which everyone is to be ready. If there are any problems from the announcement till the ready date we can sort them out. If someone isn't ready by that time then there is nothing we can do.
As for starting I am not sure... To be honest I think we are just going to have to go on faith as I think people starting at slightly different times will be balanced out by people not dumping their last WU in time for the deadline.
SiriusB
I guess we'll have to trust people not to jump the gun. It's not too important that everybody starts at the exact same time, as long as nobody starts before that time. How soon after the start time people actually switch on shows how much they want to win 
In my experience task scheduler can be a pain as you have to set it up with a password (which I don't have), though maybe I'm just rubbish...
In my experience task scheduler can be a pain as you have to set it up with a password (which I don't have), though maybe I'm just rubbish...
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Soldato
No task scheduler really is a pain sometimes and I reckon it will just add one more potential thing to go wrong. Last thing we want is a deluge of people complaining that Task Scheduler didn't work properly and they want a restart.
Man of Honour
Where are the prizes coming from? We've not had prizes in any previous competition and I'm not even sure they're appropriate given the forum rules about personal financial gain. Non financial gain (e.g. donating CPU cycles, giving spare hardware for crunchers etc.) is fine and has been done before.
Soldato
Damn it !!! I've been primarily doing einstein@home and am starting to ramp up my output like the good 'ol days.
Can I still join this ?
Can I still join this ?
Soldato
Subliminal Aura said:
Of course you can, we are just discussing the format.
Personally I think we should have a gauntlet like the good old Seti days (remember Team Ocelot and Team Curried Badgers). Say 4 teams and try and make each team fairly evenly matched. Trying to work out a formula to level the playing field for all users is going to be a neat trick.
Dunc
Associate
I think the idea of GPU users just entering their CPU is probably best - that way we can still contribute in the best possible way to OcUK but we can also enter competition.
In terms of starting I think just setting a time (make sure we give at least 3 days notice to let people get set up etc) and then saying GO would be best
In terms of starting I think just setting a time (make sure we give at least 3 days notice to let people get set up etc) and then saying GO would be best
Soldato
Berserker said:
Surely being given something as a gift or a prize is not considered personal financial gain? You said it yourself we give hardware away, and whens all said and done we can never really guarantee any hardware given away will be used for folding.
As for the prizes, a few of us, including myself, have offered to donate some money. The prizes aren't going to be huge, just little incentive that will get - hopefully - a lot of people involved.
Still, I suppose it would be prudent to find out if we are allowed to do it before we make any promises.
SiriusB
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Soldato
Been having a think about this – and thought I’d suggest an alternative ranking system.
We all know that the newer cpu’s will whoop the older one. So why not have all participants in four leagues. One motherboard allow only rule
League One ‘blockbusters’
All Ranked by Points (colours to show quad/duel/duel-duel/single/gpu as per single cruncher list now)
Quite simply most is best, simple as!
Easy to rank, easy to compile, easy to compare.
No prizes just braging rights
All other leagues cpu’s only participants
League two ‘overclockers’
All Ranked by factor of stock cpu speed.
Ranked by dividing points over stock GHz.
Will re-rank above list not only evening paying field via GHz but also boosting participants scores with good Oc’s (this is OcUK afterall)
A well clocked C2D will probable still win
Artic silver / quality HSF / Oc related prize
League three – ‘ecowarrors’
All Ranked by factor of Watts used for system at load
Ranked by dividing points over cpu watts used – agreed before comp.
AMDs or laptop’s should do well here.
Low power usage prize ?
League Four ‘wallet wonder’ / ‘bang for buck’
All Ranked by factor of MM price
Ranked by dividing points over cpu second hand cost on MM – agreed before comp.
Could be very intresting AMD’s scoring highly again.
Below is a semi guessed table based on this weeks news numbers. Some figuars maybe well out so please advised and I'll amend/update.
A C2D rig (without a x1900) would be good to add into the table.
We all know that the newer cpu’s will whoop the older one. So why not have all participants in four leagues. One motherboard allow only rule
League One ‘blockbusters’
All Ranked by Points (colours to show quad/duel/duel-duel/single/gpu as per single cruncher list now)
Quite simply most is best, simple as!
Easy to rank, easy to compile, easy to compare.
No prizes just braging rights
All other leagues cpu’s only participants
League two ‘overclockers’
All Ranked by factor of stock cpu speed.
Ranked by dividing points over stock GHz.
Will re-rank above list not only evening paying field via GHz but also boosting participants scores with good Oc’s (this is OcUK afterall)
A well clocked C2D will probable still win
Artic silver / quality HSF / Oc related prize
League three – ‘ecowarrors’
All Ranked by factor of Watts used for system at load
Ranked by dividing points over cpu watts used – agreed before comp.
AMDs or laptop’s should do well here.
Low power usage prize ?
League Four ‘wallet wonder’ / ‘bang for buck’
All Ranked by factor of MM price
Ranked by dividing points over cpu second hand cost on MM – agreed before comp.
Could be very intresting AMD’s scoring highly again.
Below is a semi guessed table based on this weeks news numbers. Some figuars maybe well out so please advised and I'll amend/update.
A C2D rig (without a x1900) would be good to add into the table.
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