Team OcUK SETI@home News Vol. 42

[TheTross]

Team OcUK SETI@Home News
For week ending 30/10/2008

Total Credit: 168,347,954
Crunched this week: 1,134,186 (-218,053 from last week)
Current World Position: 14
RAC: 187,286 (-80)
Current RAC Rank: 25 (+1)
Members: 1,054 (-1)
Active Members: 174 (16.5% of total members)


Teams Stomped
None

Teams Stomped By
None

Teams in our Sights
11 Team Art Bell (339 days) (-55)

The Ones to Watch
16 SETI@Taiwan (127 days) (-14)
17 TeAm AnandTech (143 days) (-40)
15 Team Starfire World BOINC (172 days) (+7)
18 Team China (222 days) (-60)


The Top Twenty
1 Mr Ludwig 7,496,473
2 bully 7,272,002
3 Biffa 6,031,963
4 CGS 5,758,675
5 Alan Woodford 5,413,073
6 Richard Smith 5,313,813
7 Meridian 3,974,043
8 Bob Townsend 2,941,931
9 carbon8ed 2,836,069
10 br83taylor 2,714,630
11 andrewking01 2,640,187
12 Gordon Proctor 2,540,327
13 geoff 2,502,543
14 IAN 2,490,415
15 BENJAMIN HERBLE 2,431,431
16 Sammael 2,178,116
17 Dunc 2,166,151
18 Bradshawma 2,065,388
19 Team Jolt Cola 2,001,122
20 Babyface uk 1,972,184


Top of the FLOPs
1 Mr Ludwig 24,053
2 IAN 10,790
3 Alan Woodford 10,032
4 Meridian 9,840
5 Biffa 8,424
6 Soulfire 6,389
7 GrandMasterD 5,658
8 Chasser 5,486
9 br83taylor 5,036
10 kev.morris 4,907
11 Phil 3,840
12 Gordon Proctor 3,837
13 MadMaC 3,667
14 Lee Dixon 3,626
15 carbon8ed 3,624
16 Dave 3,506
17 Ross Graham 3,502
18 CGS 3,412
19 andrewking01 3,193
20 geoff 3,024


Recent Tiffy Winners
Nat 1,000
lips of a moose 5,000
Rob_Davies 5,000
loudbob 100,000
ukdavros 250,000
geoff 2,500,000
Biffa 6,000,000


New Members
None


Splitters
haz3967


Members' Weekly Cobbly Dumpage
1 Mr Ludwig 168,703
2 Alan Woodford 67,114
3 IAN 63,270
4 Biffa 59,029
5 Meridian 55,608
6 GrandMasterD 43,857
7 Soulfire 38,925
8 br83taylor 35,544
9 kev.morris 33,490
10 Chasser 31,739
11 Phil 29,510
12 Lee Dixon 25,704
13 carbon8ed 24,825
14 Gordon Proctor 24,635
15 TheTross 23,822
16 MadMaC 23,146
17 geoff 23,087
18 andrewking01 21,382
19 retch 21,341
20 Pilgrim57 20,867
21 Colin Steadman 20,163
22 Dave 20,113
23 Ross Graham 18,381
24 Bob Townsend 18,261
25 Graham 16,978

26 CGS 16,660
27 JohnSheridan 13,350
28 loudbob 13,191
29 indigo_prime 12,548
30 Grimgoth 12,065
31 Ragnarok 11,287
32 Mart / Q6600 ap_4.35_SSE3 10,719
33 Bungle_Bear 10,338
34 SteveT 9,330
35 Ca9Phoenix 7,921
36 EvilOne 7,629
37 Vaz 7,236
38 john 6,742
39 Mad Pierre 6,694
40 RTS 6,610
41 Martin Green 6,527
42 quackers 6,519
43 DJ Bully 6,117
44 Dr Grey 5,919
45 starfury6 5,295
46 shady 5,231
47 kolala 5,127
48 AB1 Computers 4,979
49 ukdavros 4,677
50 Zarniwoop 4,607

51 Team Cake Boy's 4,586
52 Keith Symington 4,210
53 Paul Shellien 4,187
54 TheDogFather 4,093
55 DavidMarq 3,952
56 LJ 3,833
57 TwoFace76 3,664
58 hamesy 3,628
59 JT 3,451
60 Cluster 3,427
61 garry brown 3,274
62 Simon 3,182
63 BENJAMIN HERBLE 2,597
64 6EQUJ5Mike 2,578
65 Jez 2,505
66 clarknova 2,443
67 ______Y_o_z_z_e_r______ 2,401
68 Pro2type 835 2,400
69 Cruize 2,266
70 Barry 2,160
71 Dorsai 1,955
72 York Overclocker 1,943
73 Rob_Davies 1,917
74 Jeffrey Van Etten 1,916
75 Michael 1,828

76 Bradshawma 1,774
77 A1lenski 1,758
78 Barbie 1,731
79 FluffySheep 1,725
80 Rabid Dog 1,688
81 Nat 1,634
82 diogenese 1,600
83 lips of a moose 1,573
84 Spitoo 1,523
85 KevinH 1,449
86 edward 1,421
87 Elbulus 1,374
88 reggyt 1,348
89 A1Masachist 1,347
90 Phil James 1,295
91 the_running_man 1,262
92 dmc1970 1,213
93 BlueDeath 1,181
94 God 1,127
95 Addict 1,116
96 Nitwit 1,035
97 OracleGod 1,015
98 Mark 923
99 Warspite 870
100 Just 857

101 xrobert 817
102 Anemia 816
103 Tel2 809
104 David 798
105 JayMax 789
106 dchbrown 756
107 Ed Winward 739
108 Willowbark 709
109 Hadley Robert Denton 684
110 DeCeBee 654
111 Shining69 577
112 Administrator 562
113 Naran K Patel 503
114 Gerard Scheitler 404
115 DrJohn 348
116 Blue Icarian Wings 331
117 Bungee 291
118 siofwolves 290
119 Ken Syrett 252
120 Ian Coggins 240
121 Martin 230
122 Phlipper 229
123 Cyclone 217
124 a2l 199
125 Mark Lloyd 179

126 Smurfinho 162
127 FrostedNipple 149
128 nedsram-cdl 147
129 Billy 110
130 Micheal 93
131 Allen Conquest 92
132 Chris 92
133 Ez-up 90
134 Mattus 89
135 Lewis Stuart 89
136 Sharks 83
137 ezy50 62
138 Jim414 46
139 gabriel 46
140 TheVelvetUnderground 46
141 easygoin' 46
142 buysox 45
143 Will H 45
144 Maximilian 45
145 gsf600y 45
146 King Richard 33
147 shaf* 28

Today's news is brought to you by the websites All Project Stats, BOINCstats and Team Starfire World BOINC Stats ‘N Stones.


Bit of an odd week stats-wise, as I think some of the stats sites have had issues with getting the latest data. Seems to be ok now though, and I think the large drop in our production since last week is down to the news being posted before the latest update, as our RAC is virtually the same. So nothing to worry about there!

As always, congrats to all the tiffy winners!

 

[TheTross]

Astropulse

I've embarassingly neglected Astropulse developments in recent news posts, so here goes.

For those that aren't aware, Astropulse is essentially an extension to SETI@home in that it searches for broader-band, short-time pulses. Because of this, Astropulse WUs take a good deal longer to process than the standard WUs, sometimes taking several days on slower machines. The good news is that optimised apps are now available, which significantly reduce the compute time - Link (Windows only).

Should you wish to participate in Astropulse, this page is an essential visit, as it explains what you need in order to run it. Also, ensure that Astropulse is checked in your SETI@home preferences. I think it is by default, but it's always better to be sure.

If you run into any problems give me a shout. I don't run Astropulse now but I gave it a (very) quick whirl when it first started and it's pretty easy to set up.


Thanks to Dougiebabe2003 for the links and constant Astropulse info whilst I've been slacking!

 

[indigo_prime]

I want to stop astropulses from dropping to my clients, its absolutely raped my cobbly dumpage over recent weeks!

 

[br83taylor]

i thought if you install the normal optimised clients, then it doesn't download any astropulse, or at least mine don't.

 

[Biffa]

Correct, however if you download the optimized astropulse client and hack your xml file about a bit you can get it to download and crunch both Optimised seti and Astropulse.

 

[TwoFace76]

Correct, however if you download the optimized astropulse client and hack your xml file about a bit you can get it to download and crunch both Optimised seti and Astropulse.

...Wouldn't mind a walk-through... If anyone is willing... or know of one?

 

[KE1HA]

Correct, however if you download the optimized astropulse client and hack your xml file about a bit you can get it to download and crunch both Optimised seti and Astropulse.

Just the quesiton I was going to ask about. I have a couple of rigs that just get hammered on F@H, and as I've been a SETI@HOME member since somewhere in 2003 ish time frame (Team-10 of course), thought I'd use them for SETI instead of sending them o the scrap heap.

I'm running Ubuntu-64 bit, I installed BOINC via apt-get install boinc-client, have ia32-libs installed, then modified the auth.cfg and hosts for remote management.

I "Finally" found where the things installs it too, /var/lib/boinc-client. I've downloaded the Ak optimized client.

Im assuming all I do is swap out the download seti client with the AK version. But what about this XML file, do we merely swap it out too or do we just need bits of it, and if so what bits do we need to change ?

 

[TheTross]

Note that the optimised client linked to above is for Windows ONLY. I'm not sure if there are any optimised apps available for anything other than Windows, though of course other platforms can still run Astropulse with the appropriate standard client.

If you're a windows user:

(Taken from the Advanced Users page):

The app_info.sam file contains text that should be inserted into your existing app_info.xml, either before or after the similar block used by seti@home, but still inside the <app_info> tags. When you edit your app_info.xml, be sure to remove any space before a backslash: <main_program/>, rather than <main_program />. These tags will evidently cause problems after the file is edited, if the space is not removed.

	<app>
		<name>astropulse</name>
	</app>
	<file_info>
		<name>astropulse_4.35_windows_intelx86.exe</name>
		<executable/>
	</file_info>
	<file_info>
		<name>libfftw3f-3-1-1a_upx.dll</name>
		<executable/>
	</file_info>
	<file_info>
		<name>ap_graphics_4.35_windows_intelx86.exe</name>
		<executable/>
	</file_info>
	<app_version>
		<app_name>astropulse</app_name>
		<version_num>435</version_num>
		<file_ref>
			<file_name>astropulse_4.35_windows_intelx86.exe</file_name>
			<main_program/>
		</file_ref>
		<file_ref>
			<file_name>libfftw3f-3-1-1a_upx.dll</file_name>
		</file_ref>
		<file_ref>
			<file_name>ap_graphics_4.35_windows_intelx86.exe</file_name>
			<open_name>graphics_app</open_name>
		</file_ref>
	</app_version>

Stop BOINC, create a backup of the existing app_info.xml file, plonk the above code into app_info.xml as per the instructions above, put the necessary files into the \BOINC\projects\setiathome.berkeley.edu directory*, then restart BOINC. You may not get Astropulse WUs straight away, but assuming you've followed everything above then AP WUs should be downloaded at some point.


*If you have BOINC v6.2.14 or higher, that file location should be ...\BOINC Data\... instead of ...\BOINC\... This directory may be hard to find, but see the faq at http://boincfaq.mundayweb.com/index.php?view=376.

 

[KE1HA]

Thanks TheTross ... Will have a crack at this when I get home.

For Linux I downloaded these:

Linux Port of Alex Kan's v8.0 Science App Release

Source: http://lunatics.kwsn.net/

Linux 64 SSE3 AMD/Intel Compatible Science App:
Intended for Intel & AMD CPUs, running 64 bit Linux, that have SSE3 capability

File Download

Linux 64 SSSE3 Intel-only Compatible Science App:
Intended for Intel CPUs, running 64 bit Linux, that have SSSE3 capabile.

File Download
.

 

[TheTross]

KE1HA, those linux clients are optimised for the standard SETI WUs only. They won't work for the Astropulse ones. As far as I'm aware there are no Astropulse optimised apps for linux available, and from reading around it seems unlikely there will be any for a little while as they'll need writing from scratch.

Of course, if you download those clients you linked to then you can still get Astropulse WUs if you really want to, but you'll need to edit app_info.xml accordingly and use the appropriate files. Again, use this page to download the correct files and app_info.xml editing info.

 

[KE1HA]

KE1HA, those linux clients are optimised for the standard SETI WUs only. They won't work for the Astropulse ones. As far as I'm aware there are no Astropulse optimised apps for linux available, and from reading around it seems unlikely there will be any for a little while as they'll need writing from scratch.

Of course, if you download those clients you linked to then you can still get Astropulse WUs if you really want to, but you'll need to edit app_info.xml accordingly and use the appropriate files. Again, use this page to download the correct files and app_info.xml editing info.

Man, I'm glad I read this first before proceeding ..LMAO.. it's been a while since I've messed with SETI ( like 2 years ). I think I'll just follow your advise and see how that works out

 

[TheTross]

No probs mate. If you're stuck at any point give me a shout; I can't help with any Linux-related issues but I should be able to sort out any difficulties with the clients and app_info editing. I suppose it all seems really complicated at first sight, but it's actually pretty straight forward.

Don't forgot though that these WUs take a looong time compared to the standard SETI WUs and mess with your RAC big time. They also don't really give a good credit return for the amount of time spent on them (at least they didn't; not sure if that's been rectified or not). The upshot is that they produce science that the standard WUs cannot.

 

[KE1HA]

I think most of my trouble is becsue I've used the Ubuntu distribution for instllaling BOINC + one of the Dual Xeon CPU's, (your not going to believe this one) Was LOOSE in it's socket as in just sittign on the pins and not loked down the flippen system was running on (3), yep count'em 3 cores ..LMAO.. I can't for the life of me figure out how it even ran, let alone pruduce any points !!!

I've never seen that before. I should have taken screen shots of it. Me and one of my FSE's took the thing apart today. We put a pair of 3.06's in it as I thought one core was dead !!.

The benchmarks went up to a reasonable level, I think ?? I was shocked at what those things do compared to the newer technology. At one time those were to die for, now there out to pasture. One core pulled an Astropulse WU, and your right, they are not to be taken lightly. How important is the RAM . FSB in S@H?

I have two systems for FAH to build this week (Delboy is not gonna be happy with me ), but when those are ticking over nicely, I'm going back to the SETI boxes for a complete revamp. Right now there doing whatever the default WU's are. I'd prefer a completely manual (CLI) install so will be reading up on that, then employ your changes from above.

At some point I'll be getting back to my main build, as I dont have a primary gamming PC ..Talk about Irony.. !!!
.

 

[TwoFace76]

Downloaded the optimized astropuls-application and tried to modify the app_info... Running it now so we'll see how well it performs

 

[TwoFace76]

Downloaded the optimized astropuls-application and tried to modify the app_info... Running it now so we'll see how well it performs

Doing an astropulse unit in about 10h with the optimized app. Thats on a Q6600@3GHz. Not too shabby