LHC@home

All is running rather well from CERN side and I have initiated an intensity scan to run while I work a bit on the GPU. I have a real time deadline and I
must try this over the next two weeks. In spite of a couple of issues
with the CERN infrastructure I have still managed to queue over 90,000 Work Units as part of an Intensity scan (different bunch sizes and charge).

We are getting flak about credits or points. One obscene message I tried to hide, but the user said he got only
200 points for 80 hours when he expected at least 1000, and another user 62.70 points for 110 hours. So we lost a couple of volunteers, but we are also getting support with over 40,000 active Work Units.

There is also an issue with the real time deadline for my 10 million turn jobs.

I hope to fix the MAC executable next week with my colleague.

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Do your 10**7 jobs have the same 'intensity scan' deadline pressure? If not, we could perhaps suspend any long resends we happen to get in the next few days, and concentrate on the others?

I've noticed a couple of oddities:
WU 2511570 - validation inconclusive
WU 2505053 - decided to test my non-sse capabilities with a long 'un. Sod's law strikes in the BOINC server code, again. Not to worry, it's over half cooked already, and should be finished tomorrow.

Hopefully, Igor will be able to cure the 'low credit on long runs' problem with a quick configuration change when he gets back (perhaps even before I report that task? ;) ), and then you can put the word round to the missing volunteers that it's safe to come back.

Think i get one of this "long units with low credits" too:
http://lhcathomeclassic.cern.ch/sixtrack/result.php?resultid=5453579
42 hours @ 3.5 Ghz Phenom II and 316 Cr (~3 times lover if compare to average from "normal" relative short WUs)
and second long WU is running right now (~40 hours too)

No problem for me if it just 1 or 2 Wus. But certainly better to fix it.

And one more - this long Wus have much shorter deadlines than short WU.
So they run in high priority mode.
This is by design or a glitch?

My real time deadline is for the work with the
NVIDIA TESLA GPU. The 10**7 jobs are "interesting"
and I have 95%/97% results returned fo the two studies.
There is no hurry for the Intensity scan; I have
automated the procedures to a maximum for the next
week or two. Mark you I shall then have a huge backlog
of post-processng and analysis to do. Eric.

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Sounds like a definite glitch to me....maybe this
is related to the credit as well. We shall see. Eric.

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Well I think "validation incloncusive" would mean
we have two results which are different! Interesting.
Eric.

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Sounds like a definite glitch to me....maybe this
is related to the credit as well. We shall see. Eric.

The long WU with the short deadline is WU 2505852 - it's a short deadline, because it's a replacement for a task which failed to come back in time. That's one we've known about for a while.

I think it would be nice to have the credits fixed but not critical, I've been doing this since 2008 and I have no plans on leaving.

Hmm... Yes, seems my short deadline WU is resend. But i do not see why it was sent to me? - this WU have 2 good result already. I am 3rd.
If second result was reported after deadline(and after resend to me), then BOINC usual mark such tasks as "too late to validate". But it marked OK now...

P.S
it low credit too: ~40 hours - 260 Cr

We are getting flak about credits or points. One obscene message I tried to hide, but the user said he got only
200 points for 80 hours when he expected at least 1000, and another user 62.70 points for 110 hours. So we lost a couple of volunteers, but we are also getting support with over 40,000 active Work Units.

There is also an issue with the real time deadline for my 10 million turn jobs.

Its a shame this kind of thing happens, but for many people CREDITS is the entire reason for running a BOINC project.
Personally I only have 2 antique slow computers but as they'd be running anyway, doing BOINC work is an amazing thing for me personally.

As far as I can see, what contributes a great deal to the success of a BOINC project is close feedback between the BOINC Admin and the Volunteers on these message boards - when there is very little theres a lot of posts of the theme "what the hell are we doing this for anyway" and "lets go do Project x where we get 20% more credits/hour"

On the other hand in a well-known project one of the programmers posted "well isnt this nice, I get to talk to you guys out there and you tell me when you think my code is working well" which gives a nice rapport between everyone.

Just my 10pworth, anyways.

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I think it would be nice to have the credits fixed but not critical, I've been doing this since 2008 and I have no plans on leaving.

Exactly - its a hiccup. It doesnt matter.
Theres lots of posts on here from the Project Admin about it - its gonna be foxed!

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My PC is contributing to LHC@home for science, not for credits. I'm very pleased that LHC@home is going strong again, and that I can contribute ever so slightly to the most awesome machine built so far.

Well I think "validation incloncusive" would mean
we have two results which are different! Interesting.
Eric.

Results are in now, if you're interested. Two results matched and validated, the third (not mine, I'm pleased to say) was declared invalid.

WU 2511570

We are getting flak about credits or points. One obscene message I tried to hide, but the user said he got only
200 points for 80 hours when he expected at least 1000, and another user 62.70 points for 110 hours. So we lost a couple of volunteers, but we are also getting support with over 40,000 active Work Units.

At my humble opinion, distributed computing was invented not for getting credits by participants. Let God judge them, meanwhile we (and particularly me) will crunch with might and main.

p.s. I dream now about deep upgrade for DC projects, hope it will became possible this year...

Ah;thanks for that news. I am getting more and more confident
about "my" numerical reproducibility. (I am still hoping to set
up a test/information system to tell the owners of systems with
rejected results that their machines aren't working properly! I
Don't know when I can find time for that though....) Great, Eric.

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All this about credits, hours, wu per hour or day, are the credits lacking? This misses the point of what I am doing with
particle physics at CERN in a very small but important part for the future of mankind. The mere proximity to CERN is a gift that outweighs anything material. Like a baryon feast we are invited to this historical undertaking,that is monumental in size. This project represents our epochs Great Pyramid with the work of hundred of thousands. We are allowed to participate in this science; with mystical suggestions,this a study on particles making up various parts of atoms. This is historic work and we get to participate in it. In the scheme of things, the importance is in moving mankind forward into new realms. Star Trek has nothing to compare, "to discover new worlds" we are there. We are making a future that will enable humans to a greater understanding ofthe workings of the universe. Such a gargantuan undertaking dwarfs my everyday life. I drift between everyday thoughts; sex, a stripper party; and suddenly I hanging out in the hood with Gamma busters, Higgs bosons, a beginning universe. I am floating away thinking of particles. What an awesome transition to be able to take, anytime. I still cannot wrap my head around the fact that I can be alive at a moment in which discoveries are being made that will influence the human race now and in the distant future.
I did help a little, something to help it happen to understand another side of the universe, that of the very small.
Puck huck the credits, let me be part of this, this is important to me. Credits?!???!! I am lucky to have an opportunity
such as this!
SunBadger*

I run LHC because I have a background in physics, want to see some new results soon (proof of particles expected) and seems months doing nothing, last few weeks lots of data to crunch, is nice. Credits are nice, but the project is most important to me. When LHC has work to do, my single home computer is profiled to work 100% LHC and video graphic processor SETI. Can not wait to promise of LHC comes out - crunch Sixtrack on video processors.

Only thing I do not understand, is when see a machine, Intel or AMD, with benchmarks up to 20% slower than mine, which I over clock and run benchmarks frequently execute much faster, I need to understand why this is happening. Running Vista 64 bits vs Windows 7 of others.

I am NOT looking forward to one bit, the shut down of CERN for aprox. 2 years, as I understand it, for upgrades, to reach 14 tvolts. Important of course, just wish that it could go faster for all of us. I guess those scientiest working on projects at CERN share the same feelings, but at least, CERN is doing something I consider very important.

Keep up the great work there, and thanks to those that donate computer time from their hearts to see progress of science.
Bill in Brazil

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William C Wilson
São Paulo Brazil

I like your post, agree with you 100%. Nice to have at least some, very very very small part of the world´s greatest project.

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William C Wilson
São Paulo Brazil

I am running also Test4Theory@home which simulates proton-proton collisions in the LHC via the MonteCarlo method.You have only to install VirtualBox on your system, because CERN uses Scientific Linux for its programs.
Tullio