LHC@home

@MAGIC Quantum Mechanic: I know exactly what you are saying.

Not long ago, I posted a similar statement in the GPUGRID Forum: http://gpugrid.net/forum_thread.php?id=4628#47930 - with headline "Users Ranking distorted by collective contributions".
Exactly same problem as described by you :-(

Magic,

yes it is a great disharmony for those Volunteers who stay here for more than 10 Years.
We can crunshing forward very slow at the moment.
The LHC-projects will grow exponentiell with this BIGGEST Computers you can buy.
Have also some frustration, that a normal flow of work for us old ;-) Volunteers is not possible.
Since 14 Years my Computers running also for WCG (from time to time more or less-when LHC have such problems since this FOUR weeks).

We know, that we can NEVER reach this big power of some Computer-Farms. Only, if GPU-work will be possible.

For me, I hope that the new ways to create work for LHC ( for example docker) is something let me spent my Computer Power for LHC again.
And may be, they found something like Higgs-Boson in the next future.
But, the hope is the last thing.....

Hi Magic, Erich and maeax,

Please don't be discouraged! Actually this issue was discussed at our last LHC@home coordination meeting at CERN last Tuesday. The feeling was that volunteers would feel SUPPORTED when they saw that CERN was not just leaving them to run alone but was contributing some of its own resources in periods when these became idle. You should know that LHC@home has higher and higher visibility these days at CERN and in the LHC experiments due to its very substantial contributions.

It would really not be the time to give up now!!

Thanks to all our volunteers and Happy New Year from the team.

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Hi Ben,

I agree to your post.

Just like to add one point:
The communication from the project teams to the volunteers has to be improved.
Especially for those subprojects that have been silent for months.

Just tell the volunteers:
"We have to run a batch of inefficient tasks for 1 week but need them for science."
or
"We have network issues xyz but are working on it."

All of this would be accepted better than silence.

Cheers

The communication from the project teams to the volunteers has to be improved.

I know I would appreciate this very much. The WU we crunch have cryptic names and even though I will never fully understand all details, it would be nice if some context could be given.

I myself have found the lure of BOINC credit to be misleading. First, because I cannot catch up to users that have accumulated credit for decades. Second, hardware has become very expensive and I am not willing to spend Dual Xeon, i9 or Threadripper prices. I now try to focus on specific, personal goals (certain CPUs, users with similar credit, high efficiency etc). But even those goals are limited (i.e. running my system 24/7).

In the end, since we all run the same software, the competition will always be won by the user who is willing to out-spend all others.

At this level of conversation, one might recall the thought of "pierre de coubertin" :
In a competition ,"the most important thing is to participate".
More precisely, "The important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle, the essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well".
Credits are not the only factor to consider ,other values can be shared in this project (knowledge , culture , informations ,tastes ans mood,...).

At this level of conversation, one might recall the thought of "pierre de coubertin" :
In a competition ,"the most important thing is to participate".
More precisely, "The important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle, the essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well".
Credits are not the only factor to consider ,other values can be shared in this project (knowledge , culture , informations ,tastes ans mood,...).

I was sharing one of those Philippe ....that was "mood"

You would understand my mood more if you were here 24/7 since 2004 like I have.

I NEVER take a day off here.

maeax knows what I am saying since we discuss things on the Cern projects and I do Alpha and Beta work too and even Ben Segal knows what I did for 7 years at vLHC which is the only reason we even have VirtualBox tasks here.

And a few other members understand what I am saying.

Also computezrmle (and I think he was one of the GPU stats guys I was with over at Einstein.......I tend to forget names)

Not really sure what to expect but was just saying how I was feeling at the second since I have only been a Cern Projects and Einstein member all these years (started BOTH the very first day they started with Boinc and never miss a minute......well unless the power goes out)

Ben Segal I must admit is the only one that ever gave a fairly quick reply all these years........and I mean ALL these years (and I have talked to him and Eric McIntosh over these years)

It is just strange doing thousands of hours of work and thousands of dollars and I have always been a person with as many as 10 computers at home just for this.

And then I look at the stats where I have been at the top of the page for 3 years of Beta testing and see I will be passed by a "pool" in 2 weeks.

And being here every minute since 2004 and I see pools with 500 computers.

The only thing I think is that members like me that were crazy enough to spend 14 years doing this just made sure it worked before 10,000 computers came to finish the job.

In all my years here I only know one person who actually can have a long list of top of the line Xenons and even moved to Switzerland that is actually one human being.
I suppose I could actually do the computer thing as long as I could keep the wife from coming upstairs to where I have my 10 computers (I already do that which is how I just added 3 more 8-core i7's) and of course have the truck deliver them when she isn't home ....but then moving to Switzerland she would not allow.

I remember over at Einstein a couple years ago they actually shipped lots of members some fancy framed certificate when they got lucky and found something on a home computer(I didn't get one since the one thing one of mine found was before that idea) and yeah I had to buy aout 8 GeForce ards so I could be in the Top 20 over there and that isn't easy either.

But for the last 14 months I have been just running all but 2 cores for the Cern alpha-beta-and public work. and just have my GeForce 660Ti SC running at Einstein......which is 50 cores........but then we now have Xenons here with 52 cores on one computer.

And I can't imagine having 10 computers here to just check my emails and I am not a fan of Facebook either.

So I just decided to stop by the cafe and have a cappuccino and think about how I was still in my 40's back in 2004 (oh my I turn 60 in 10 days)

Maybe THAT is the problem

(ok I know Ben and Eric have a few years on me ......but.......well I wore myself out in the physical world too)

Ok its almost midnight and I have to make sure all of my computers will do what I tell them when I finally fall asleep around 4am

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Volunteer Mad Scientist For Life

Happy (very soon) birthday Magic!!!

I found passing 60 quite a mental effort so you have my sympathy there. But I have good news for you: passing 70 and then even 80 was much easier. It also helps if you reckon your age in hexadecimal: I just passed 50 which is about how I feel most days.

All the very best and lots of thanks for your dedication.

Ben

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Guys,

don't be disappointed.
Cheer up and keep on crunching!
It's for science.



<not_to_be_taken_too_serious>

Just found (or should I say "will have found") a snippet from a news message in the IGNN (Intra Galactical News Network) from the year 2332:


... as Gorax Genevus, director of the brand new QLISHC (Quite Larger Inter Space Hadron Collider, located betwen Sun and Alpha Centauri) and board member of the SEGI (Search for Extra Galactical Intelligences), mentioned: "This would have never been possible without the basic work of lots of volunteers in the early 21st century, especially one of my famous and honorable ancestors, known under his nickname MAGIC Quantum Mechanic, who fought day and night against slow data connections, computing errors, ..."

</not_to_be_taken_too_serious>


Cheers

I am going to take a course on Cloud Computing from University of Dublin through Future Learn of Open University just to explore the idea of using Cloud Computing in BOINC. I think that World Community Grid has already done that with IBM as sponsor.
Tullio

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I think that World Community Grid has already done that with IBM as sponsor.
Tullio

Yes, IBM had changed WCG in Cloud Computing, some months ago. WCG was stopped for 48 hours therefore!!

And then I look at the stats where I have been at the top of the page for 3 years of Beta testing and see I will be passed by a "pool" in 2 weeks.
And being here every minute since 2004 and I see pools with 500 computers.

I can fully understand and also share your frustration.
In a way, the credit system is not really fair :-(

++++ ++++ Breaking news for a real Milestone: +++++ ++++
LHCatHome had reached 10 Billion Points yesterday:
http://www.teamocuk.co.uk/sprojectcred.php?p=LHC
Cern have a ring (27km) and a ring have no end.

Happy (very soon) birthday Magic!!!

I found passing 60 quite a mental effort so you have my sympathy there. But I have good news for you: passing 70 and then even 80 was much easier. It also helps if you reckon your age in hexadecimal: I just passed 50 which is about how I feel most days.

All the very best and lots of thanks for your dedication.

Ben

Thanks Ben, I will try to remember what you said and hope to see that 70 and 80 mark too.........of course if this is still running I will still be here to help.

I will give base 16 a try and see how that works instead of just trying to say I am 59 for the next 10 years

-Samson

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Volunteer Mad Scientist For Life

++++ ++++ Breaking news for a real Milestone: +++++ ++++
LHCatHome had reached 10 Billion Points yesterday:
http://www.teamocuk.co.uk/sprojectcred.php?p=LHC
Cern have a ring (27km) and a ring have no end.

Thanks Axel

Credit is not what matters to the pools with 500 machines.

Magnitude is what matters, which is the percentage of credit received compared to the other users.

There is nothing wrong with getting paid for your labor, even if it's labor of your silicon machines.

If it weren't for the crypto currency I received over the last two years; I would be homeless.
Literally, the police would have tried to evict me from my paid-for house this year for failure to pay property taxes.
My fixed income can't meet the needs even though the hot water is turned off, the house is uninsured, I have no life insurance, no health insurance, no car, and get food stamps.

This crypto currency is based on actual science done and not on wasted electricity endlessly trying to decrypt a new BtC or Eth block.

Using electricity to heat the globe just to generate currency is not going to reduce global warming.
Currency has to be provided for actual work done whether it's BOINC projects, producing content for social media or auditing national elections with blockchain clients.

There is no country with guaranteed basic income, TMK, and AI/automation is on an exponential growth rate while human population is also soaring, so
getting paid to manage computing that produces actual science is one means of survival.

Hi :-)
I just noticed that my machine passed 20.000.000 credit, earlier this week.
https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/show_host_detail.php?hostid=10455668
(most imported from the old Atlas@home site)

2 personal milestones to report: 🎺
7 MegaBoincs for LHC and lhc-dev combined
and
10G events, 6 from vLHC, 1.5 from -dev and 2.7 here.
🙆

2 personal milestones to report: 🎺
7 MegaBoincs for LHC and lhc-dev combined
and
10G events, 6 from vLHC, 1.5 from -dev and 2.7 here.
🙆

Bravo Ray!

Many thanks for your help, both events and advice to others.

Ben

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Agile Boincers from Switzerland (Cern) have reached:
1.000.000.000 Points as User! Respect!!
https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/top_users.php