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John Honorary cruncher
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Joined: 21 Feb 06 Posts: 2875 ID: 2449 Credit: 2,681,934 RAC: 0
                 
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Welcome to the Lunar Landing Challenge
PrimeGrid’s Challenge series continues with the Lunar Landing Challenge. Please come join us in commemorating the 39th Anniversary of the lunar landing by Apollo 11. A 3 day (72 hour) Challenge is being offered on PrimeGrid’s Prime Sierpinski Project sieve application.
The first lunar landing, although accomplished by 'Buzz' Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, would not have been possible without the support of tens of thousands of people working in the background. The same can be said about prime finding and sieving. The prime finder gets the glory; yet it takes the support of all the sievers working in the background (image) to facilitate the finding of the prime.
Here's to all the sievers! Without them, prime finding would be an EXTREMELY time consuming task. :)
To participate in the Challenge, please select only the PSP sieve project in your PrimeGrid preferences section. The challenge will begin 18 July 2008 00:00 UTC and end 21 July 2008 00:00 UTC. (Lunar Landing happened on 20 July 1969.) Application builds are available for Linux 32 & 64 bit and Windows 32 & 64 bit. Note: 64 bit Windows and 64 bit Linux benefit from a 1.5X speed advantage over 32 bit...so 1.5X the credit. :)
Here's a link to one of many time zone converters: The World Clock - Time Zone Converter
Scoring Information
Scores will be kept for individuals and teams. Only work units issued AFTER 18 July 2008 00:00 UTC and received BEFORE 21 June 2008 00:00 UTC will be considered for credit. Since this is a fixed credit project, we’ll be using cobblestones for scoring.
About the Prime Sierpinski Problem
Wacław Franciszek Sierpiński (14 March 1882 — 21 October 1969), a Polish mathematician, was known for outstanding contributions to set theory, number theory, theory of functions and topology. It is in number theory where we find the Sierpinski problem.
Basically, the Sierpinski problem is "What is the smallest Sierpinski number" and the prime Sierpinski problem is "What is the smallest 'prime' Sierpinski number?"
First we look at Proth numbers (named after the French mathematician François Proth). A Proth number is a number of the form k*2^n+1 where k is odd, n is a positive integer, and 2^n>k.
A Sierpinski number is an odd k such that the Proth number k*2^n+1 is not prime for all n. For example, 3 is not a Sierpinski number because n=2 produces a prime number (3*2^2+1=13). In 1962, John Selfridge proved that 78,557 is a Sierpinski number...meaning he showed that for all n, 78557*2^n+1 was not prime.
Most number theorists believe that 78,557 is the smallest Sierpinski number, but it hasn't yet been proven. In order to prove it, it has to be shown that every single k less than 78,557 is not a Sierpinski number, and to do that, some n must be found that makes k*2^n+1 prime.
The smallest proven 'prime' Sierpinski number is 271,129. In order to prove it, it has to be shown that every single 'prime' k less than 271,129 is not a Sierpinski number, and to do that, some n must be found that makes k*2^n+1 prime.
Seventeen or Bust is working on the Sierpinski problem and the Prime Sierpinski Project is working on the 'prime' Sierpinski problem. The following k's remain for each project:
[u]Sierpinski problem[/u] [u][i]'prime'[/i] Sierpinski problem[/u]
10223 10223*
21181 22699*
22699 67607*
24737 79309
55459 79817
67607 90527
152267
156511
168451
222113
225931
237019
258317
[b]* being tested by Seventeen or Bust[/b] Fortunately, the two projects combined their sieving efforts into a single file. Therefore, PrimeGrid's PSP sieve supports both projects.
What is sieving?
Sieving is the first step to prime finding. In general, a sieve separates wanted/desired elements from unwanted material using a tool such as a mesh, net or other filtration or distillation methods. The word "sift" derives from this term. (Wikipedia - Sieve)
In PrimeGrid's case, the desired elements ultimately are prime numbers and the unwanted material are composite numbers. Our tool of choice for PSP sieve is Geoff Reynolds' sr2sieve program. It eliminates possible candidates by removing numbers that have small factors. As this process is much faster than primality testing, it is good to thoroughly sieve a data set before primality testing.
Sieving removes many candidates at the beginning. However, the deeper the sieve goes, the slower the rate of removal, till eventually sieving removes candidates at the same rate as primality testing. This is sometimes referred to as "optimal depth". Primality testing is recommended at this point.
There are many factors that determine how much time and how deep to sieve. After sieving, all the remaining candidates must be primality tested to determine their "prime" status.
Additional Information
For more information about PSP sieve, please see these resources:
For more information about Sierpinski, Sierpinski number, and the Sierpinsk problem, please see these resources:
About Apollo 11
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Awesome! Looking forward to this Community Challenge!!
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John M. Johnson "Novex" |
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I tell you it takes me back. I clearly remember the Apollo 11 landing way back 39 years ago and looking up at the moon trying to see Neil and Buzz.
"We were wild in the old days"
T
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pschoefer Volunteer developer Volunteer tester
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Joined: 20 Sep 05 Posts: 685 ID: 845 Credit: 2,886,413,454 RAC: 139,386
                              
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The first lunar landing, although accomplished by 'Buzz' Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, would not have been possible without the support of tens of thousands of people working in the background. The same can be said about prime finding and sieving. The prime finder gets the glory; yet it takes the support of all the sievers working in the background (image) to facilitate the finding of the prime.
Here's to all the sievers! Without them, prime finding would be an EXTREMELY time consuming task. :)
I was about to ask how you link the lunar landing to PrimeGrid, now there is the answer. Well done. :)
I'll put everything into this challenge I have (ok, I'll leave out the old Pentium 233 MHz ;)). Too bad only the Q9450 has a 64bit OS, the C2Ds only 32bit... it's like driving with the hand brake active. :|
And of course I'll promote this challenge in my team forum a bit more than the last times.
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Finally! Something my 64-bit Vista system can excel at!
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Sid Send message
Joined: 15 Mar 08 Posts: 14 ID: 20216 Credit: 12,332,484 RAC: 0
            
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Finally! Something my 64-bit Vista system can excel at!
Makes me want to do the upgrade from 32-6 bit Vista, but the UPGRADE is on the order of $220.
Guess that I will wait until I can get Vista Ultimate on an 8 core Nehalem this time next year.
. . . and the bright side is that in a year, M$ will get the worst bugs worked out.
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Team Calm Chaos has made Primegrid it's POTM. We're investigating how this works in order to participate. Is there anything special the team founders need do, or will that be taken care of by the project statiticians?
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More questions.
Is the work only PSP Sieve, NOT PSP LLR project?
Is the time 00:00:00 July 18th Midnight of the 17th(Thursday), or Midnight on the 18th(Friday)? |
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More questions.
Is the work only PSP Sieve, NOT PSP LLR project?
Is the time 00:00:00 July 18th Midnight of the 17th(Thursday), or Midnight on the 18th(Friday)?
18-20 July PSP Sieve Lunar Landing 3 days Teams & Participants
18 July 2008 00:00 UTC and end 20 July 2008 24:00 UTC.
PrimeGrid’s Prime Sierpinski Problem sieve application.
Only PSP sieve.
Team Calm Chaos has made Primegrid it's POTM. We're investigating how this works in order to participate. Is there anything special the team founders need do, or will that be taken care of by the project statiticians
Nothing you need to do You will see the result on frontpage both Team and Participants result.
Good Luck :)
/Lennart
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John Honorary cruncher
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Joined: 21 Feb 06 Posts: 2875 ID: 2449 Credit: 2,681,934 RAC: 0
                 
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More questions.
Is the work only PSP Sieve, NOT PSP LLR project?
Yes, as Lennart pointed out, only PSP Sieve. If you want to maximize credit, you should have only PSP Sieve selected in your PrimeGrid preferences for the duration of the Challenge. All other projects should be deselected.
Is the time 00:00:00 July 18th Midnight of the 17th(Thursday), or Midnight on the 18th(Friday)?
Here's a link to one of many time zone converters: The World Clock - Time Zone Converter
Just change the date to 18 July 2008 00:00 UTC and select your location in the "Select place to convert to" field, then hit "convert time".
For example, 18 July 2008 00:00 UTC is 17 July 2008 8:00 PM (20:00) EDT. And the challenge will end 21 July 2008 00:00 UTC or 20 July 2008 8:00 PM (20:00) EDT.
Using Lennart's example, 18 July 2008 00:00 UTC is 17 July 2008 24:00 UTC (midnight) and 21 July 2008 00:00 UTC is 20 July 2008 24:00 UTC (midnight). :)
I hope this helps.
p.s. It's nice to know that PG is Calm Chaos' POTM. We very much appreciate it. Thanks!
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John Honorary cruncher
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Joined: 21 Feb 06 Posts: 2875 ID: 2449 Credit: 2,681,934 RAC: 0
                 
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For the adventurous types out there who are "driving with the hand brake active" (running a 32 bit OS on a 64 bit machine): ;)
The definitive dual-booting guide: Linux, Vista and XP step-by-step
Definition: ad*ven*tur*ous
ADJECTIVE:
- Inclined to undertake new and daring enterprises.
- Hazardous; risky.
ATTENTION: Not to be tackled by the "faint of heart"!
Good Luck! :)
p.s. here's a link to ALL BOINC clients (including 64 bit): http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download_all.php
[EDIT] Here's a site suggested by Tim. Looks like a friendlier option: :)
Wubi - Ubuntu Installer
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RytisVolunteer moderator Project administrator
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Joined: 22 Jun 05 Posts: 2653 ID: 1 Credit: 94,971,959 RAC: 132,179
                     
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There is also a way to install 64bit OS in the free VMWare Player running on 32bit hosts, and benefit from speedup (not 100% increase because of overhead, but still significant). This, however, requires certain CPUs with virtualization capabilities. You can check if your computer supports 64bit virtual OS running on 32bit host OS by running the "Processor Check for 64-Bit Compatibility" tool from VMWare (http://www.vmware.com/download/server/drivers_tools.html).
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Oooh err that sounds a bit scary John. I trotted along to http://wubi.sourceforge.net/ which downloaded and installed 64bit ubuntu 8.04 onto my Windows PC as a dual boot system with little pain. The difference in speed in going from 32 bit Micro$haft to 64 bit open source is gratifying.
Cheers!
T
For the adventurous types out there who are "driving with the hand brake active" (running a 32 bit OS on a 64 bit machine): ;)
The definitive dual-booting guide: Linux, Vista and XP step-by-step
Definition: ad*ven*tur*ous
ADJECTIVE:
- Inclined to undertake new and daring enterprises.
- Hazardous; risky.
ATTENTION: Not to be tackled by the "faint of heart"!
Good Luck! :)
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Vato Volunteer tester
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Joined: 2 Feb 08 Posts: 841 ID: 18447 Credit: 643,729,555 RAC: 550,258
                           
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For the adventurous types out there who are "driving with the hand brake active" (running a 32 bit OS on a 64 bit machine): ;)
I'm going to follow some of the instructions at http://www.pendrivelinux.com/ to build 64bit ubuntu usb flash-drives with persistence. No need to permanently alter the setup on the host machine other than telling the bios to boot off a flash device, so to some extent, less risky.
(I've done this before for other purposes - this will be the first time I've done it for number crunching. Luckily for me, my whole family have dual core amd64 boxes - the only factor is if I have time to complete this before the challenge) |
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Thanks everyone,
links and this info will be passed on to the the team's message board.
tony
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That's great and I am surely to take part in. |
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I'm going to follow some of the instructions at http://www.pendrivelinux.com/ to build 64bit ubuntu usb flash-drives with persistence. No need to permanently alter the setup on the host machine other than telling the bios to boot off a flash device, so to some extent, less risky.
(I've done this before for other purposes - this will be the first time I've done it for number crunching. Luckily for me, my whole family have dual core amd64 boxes - the only factor is if I have time to complete this before the challenge)
I've just done that, and it has been a pain. Part of the problem is that there are about 5 easily accessible HowTo's on the Internet for different versions (Feisty Fawn, Hardy Heron etc.), none of which is complete or self-contained, not to speak of *working*. It took me two days and three or four different trys to get it persistent, and the keyboard setting still refuses to be saved. Plus booting from the pendrive takes (felt) five minutes. I do not encourage anybody new at Linux to try this. H. |
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Vato Volunteer tester
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Joined: 2 Feb 08 Posts: 841 ID: 18447 Credit: 643,729,555 RAC: 550,258
                           
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I would agree that this isn't really for beginners - sorry I didn't make that clear
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I have to say I love this new count down till the Community Challenge begins :) Thanks to which ever mod put that in this time! It helps a lot since my time zone is way different and it just makes it a hell of a lot easier.
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John M. Johnson "Novex" |
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I have to say I love this new count down till the Community Challenge begins :) Thanks to which ever mod put that in this time! It helps a lot since my time zone is way different and it just makes it a hell of a lot easier.
Yes, thank you. It makes sense as this whole PrimeGrid thing is worldwide rather than limited to just one lab or even one country.
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I'm in!
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wbr, Me. Dead J. Dona
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Ime in again
just watching the clock :>)
b.
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Member of The UK BOINC Team.
Join us here
http://www.tiny.cc/UBT
http://bobtonson.page-visit.com
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do I need to do anything to join, or just start use the Prime Sierpinski Project sieve application? |
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do I need to do anything to join, or just start use the Prime Sierpinski Project sieve application?
just join in the fun ....
but only wu's sent to you between the the start and finish times of the challenge will count to your total...
so check your start time and load up work at the correct time. and off you go..
admin will take care of your stats..
b.
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Member of The UK BOINC Team.
Join us here
http://www.tiny.cc/UBT
http://bobtonson.page-visit.com
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Let me get this straight, since only work units that are "issued" after the begin time will be credited, everyone will be trying to get work at 00:00:01 UTC, thus pounding the servers for work?? |
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Let me get this straight, since only work units that are "issued" after the begin time will be credited, everyone will be trying to get work at 00:00:01 UTC, thus pounding the servers for work??
Thats right When all dl. wu at same time it will be heavy for the server.
Because off that I suggest that all (who have a easy way to change the cache) to change the cache to 0 at start.
Then increase it after 1-2 hr’s.
/Lennart |
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whooo whooo just two hours to lift off
b.
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Member of The UK BOINC Team.
Join us here
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Many at Team Calm Chaos stand ready at the pad........
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T-minus 10 min. till liftoff. :)
/Lennart |
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T-minus 30 min. till liftoff. :)
/Lennart
I'm right there with you Lennart! Our teams going to rock!
Best of luck to all teams in this wonderful Community Challenge "Lunar Landing"!!
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John M. Johnson "Novex" |
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all the best to every one :>)
b.
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Member of The UK BOINC Team.
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pschoefer Volunteer developer Volunteer tester
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Joined: 20 Sep 05 Posts: 685 ID: 845 Credit: 2,886,413,454 RAC: 139,386
                              
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LIFTOFF!!!
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Server load is happily rising, server is often next to unreachable. It would be nice to see also the network load ;-)
Peter
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Vato Volunteer tester
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Joined: 2 Feb 08 Posts: 841 ID: 18447 Credit: 643,729,555 RAC: 550,258
                           
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Well, we're more than an hour in, and only 2 of my machines have managed to download any work at all. This is looking depressingly like the first challenge.
I assume we're being hammered by many clients trying to download 3 days worth of work again.
What resources are needed to improve this?
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It would be really nice and I would love it if one of the Mods could put top Participants and Top Teams on the front page like the last 2 Community Challenges since it has started and we've already got WU's to turn in from when it started :) Thanks
Edit: Forgot the magic word Please!
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John M. Johnson "Novex" |
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John Honorary cruncher
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Joined: 21 Feb 06 Posts: 2875 ID: 2449 Credit: 2,681,934 RAC: 0
                 
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This is looking depressingly like the first challenge.
Yes, unfortunately this looks a lot like the first Challenge. We made several adjustments this time and for the most part, they have been successful. The Lunar Landing Challenge is currently doing over 3 X's more work than the highest peak of the Ides of March Challenge...and it hasn't crashed.
However, we are disappointed that it still took way too long for people to receive work. We will continue to search for solutions to this problem.
Stats will be coming as soon as the server load returns to "normal" (at this time, it appears to be coming back down). Currently, it's more critical for people to receive work than it is to display stats. However, at the first opportunity, we'll get the stats up. Please remember that it's a 3 day Challenge. :)
Thank you once again to everyone for tolerating these growing pains. We appreciate everyone's contribution to the Challenge and to PrimeGrid in general.
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RytisVolunteer moderator Project administrator
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Joined: 22 Jun 05 Posts: 2653 ID: 1 Credit: 94,971,959 RAC: 132,179
                     
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As I'm writing these lines, validator is catching up, and once it's done that, stats generation will be enabled (automatically). The links will be put on the frontpage as soon as we have data.
[edit] The mission telemetry (as in, stats ;)) is starting to flow in :)
http://www.primegrid.com/challenge/lunar/top_users.html
http://www.primegrid.com/challenge/lunar/top_teams.html
http://boincstats.com/stats/challenges.php
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Great! Thank you two mods for helping out and I will continue to have most of my computers run psp seive :) I most agree with John about the laggyness it was quite bad but its getting a whole lot better.
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John M. Johnson "Novex" |
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yes was a very slow start to this challenge....
but all seems to be going well now...
well done all..
b.
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Member of The UK BOINC Team.
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A bug in "Pending Credit":
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STRING in /home/boinc/proj/html/user/pending.php on line 12
"Tasks" is not affected.
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Vato Volunteer tester
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Joined: 2 Feb 08 Posts: 841 ID: 18447 Credit: 643,729,555 RAC: 550,258
                           
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I didn't mean to sound so discouraging... It has run better than the first challenge for certain - delay is a much lesser issue than server problems.
I would think about suggesting that more server grunt would help, but I don't know the existing architecture, nor how well boinc is suited to split the various functions onto additional machines, nor what the logistics and cost implications of that would be.
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Wahoo quelle bonne nouvelle je vais enfin pouvoir faire fonctionner normalement mon QX9650 sous Vista Pro 64...Génial Prime Grid
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There is some possibility to have a partial ranking like the previous challenges?
PS: too bad that I started nine hours late... |
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There is some possibility to have a partial ranking like the previous challenges?
PS: too bad that I started nine hours late...
Here it is.
User Stats
Team Stats
BoincStats
/Lennart |
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RytisVolunteer moderator Project administrator
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Pending credit page has been disabled because it was causing database lockups.
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There is some possibility to have a partial ranking like the previous challenges?
PS: too bad that I started nine hours late...
Here it is.
User Stats
Team Stats
BoincStats
/Lennart
Thanks!
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pschoefer Volunteer developer Volunteer tester
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Joined: 20 Sep 05 Posts: 685 ID: 845 Credit: 2,886,413,454 RAC: 139,386
                              
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The start of the challenge was like a real rocket start... after liftoff, the thrust is very high, but it takes some time till the final speed is reached. ;)
But the stats don't look very good at all... I doubt that I have gotten 14k credits since begin, and the team values in the 11:15 UTC stats made a big jump and are very odd, too.
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RytisVolunteer moderator Project administrator
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Joined: 22 Jun 05 Posts: 2653 ID: 1 Credit: 94,971,959 RAC: 132,179
                     
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The start of the challenge was like a real rocket start... after liftoff, the thrust is very high, but it takes some time till the final speed is reached. ;)
But the stats don't look very good at all... I doubt that I have gotten 14k credits since begin, and the team values in the 11:15 UTC stats made a big jump and are very odd, too.
Stats processing is backlogged, too - I gave it kickstart, so the stats increased - that was second stage rocket starting ;)
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Sysadm@Nbg Volunteer moderator Volunteer tester Project scientist
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Joined: 5 Feb 08 Posts: 1216 ID: 18646 Credit: 858,466,806 RAC: 175,927
                      
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The start of the challenge was like a real rocket start... after liftoff, the thrust is very high, but it takes some time till the final speed is reached. ;)
But the stats don't look very good at all... I doubt that I have gotten 14k credits since begin, and the team values in the 11:15 UTC stats made a big jump and are very odd, too.
Sorry, but this stats i can´t believe ...
or is there a massive increase of granted Cobblestone´s ???
Have a look at my Computers, if you doubt
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Sysadm@Nbg
my current lucky number: 113856050^65536 + 1
PSA-PRPNet-Stats-URL: http://u-g-f.de/PRPNet/
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RytisVolunteer moderator Project administrator
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Joined: 22 Jun 05 Posts: 2653 ID: 1 Credit: 94,971,959 RAC: 132,179
                     
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Sorry, but this stats i can´t believe ...
or is there a massive increase of granted Cobblestone´s ???
Have a look at my Computers, if you doubt
Thanks for letting me know, there indeed is a bug! I'm fixing it now.
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pschoefer Volunteer developer Volunteer tester
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Joined: 20 Sep 05 Posts: 685 ID: 845 Credit: 2,886,413,454 RAC: 139,386
                              
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The top teams have more challenge points than their daily outputs in the last days. And I myself have more than twice my daily output, while some teammates start complaining that they have been granted much more credits since 00:00 UTC than shown in the challenge stats.
Something must have gone wrong with the second stage starting.
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Problem is not with granted credit, it's just the challenge stats. The decimal point shifted one place at the 11:15 update.
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Sysadm@Nbg Volunteer moderator Volunteer tester Project scientist
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Now i got 681.23 (Last update: Fri Jul 18 11:50:04 2008); this sounds better!
I will watch it ...
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Sysadm@Nbg
my current lucky number: 113856050^65536 + 1
PSA-PRPNet-Stats-URL: http://u-g-f.de/PRPNet/
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Iam not happy with start "a worst case scenario", server down and no wus since start at 2:00 UTC, all cores idle for hours. bad for a challenge :(
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Iam not happy with start "a worst case scenario", server down and no wus since start at 2:00 UTC, all cores idle for hours. bad for a challenge :(
I have to agree !!
We know the problem and we are working on it.
Sorry
Lennart |
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John Honorary cruncher
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Joined: 21 Feb 06 Posts: 2875 ID: 2449 Credit: 2,681,934 RAC: 0
                 
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Iam not happy with start "a worst case scenario", server down and no wus since start at 2:00 UTC, all cores idle for hours. bad for a challenge :(
I have to agree !!
We know the problem and we are working on it.
Sorry
(written in a light, playful tone)
Oh, come on....OK, yes, it was a VERY, VERY BAD start...but "worst case scenario," I don't think quite that bad. :) Close, but not quite.
A "worst case scenario" would have been total lost of vehicle....an explosion on the launch pad...a complete scrub of the mission. We may have lost all communication with the vehicle at the start, but it's been regained now.
The mission clock is running. We are still flying right now! The Lunar Landing is still a go. :)
It's obvious that space flight is exciting...as there was just too many people attempting to board the vehicle at liftoff. Until we're able to get a larger vehicle (or multiple vehicles), we'll have to reconsider our boarding procedure. :)
We continue to grow and learn with each one of these Challenges. We are currently performing 3 X's more work than the first Challenge and we're surviving...not thriving...but surviving. That in itself is a huge accomplishment considering how stressing to the vehicle the first Challenge was.
As Lennart mentioned, we are working on it. Mission control is monitoring the situation and making changes as necessary. The rest of the mission should go smoothly. However, there is one more critical time...the landing! :)
Please don't wait till the end to jettison your payload. We have to work with our current vehicle...no in flight replacements. :) Please start jettisoning a few hours before the landing. We'll discuss further as that mission objective draws near.
Once again, thank you to everyone for joining us on this mission. We'll do our best to bring it to a successful conclusion.
Best of Luck to everyone!
p.s.
vehicle = server
Mission control = Rytis
jettison = upload
payload = WU's
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Well, actually BOINC is designed to avoid that a lot of clients contact the server at once and in short intervals to get some work. The goal is simply to reduce the load on the server, especially the spikes. A server can handle a constant amount of work but if there are peaks in the workload the server might get unresponsive for some time. That is a problem every client-server-system has and therefore BOINC tries to avoid these peaks in server load. There are several mechanism for that (like exponentiall backoff in case of an error, sending multiple workunits at once, etc) and in general these mechanisms work well.
However, in case of these challenges a lot of people suddenly start up their clients and start to query the server for more and more work all at the same time. This obviously makes the server load go higher and higher as could be seen last night on the server status page. In general there are two solutions for this problem:
a) Build a server that is strong enough for even the highest peak in the load curve.
b) Try to avoid these situations completly.
Option a) is obviously quite expensive and a waste of ressources for most of the time as the server is then just running idle. And option b)... Well, I already talked about that.
Conclusion: The server problems at the beginning of a challenge like this can't really be solved. Of course, their impact can be reduced and that was already done compared to the first challenge. But the problem is not on the server's side, it's the users this time.
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How about making different times for challenge? So that people can choose when to start challenge (for different timezones) in their preferences. For example, some people choose choose to start at 01:00 am UTC, some at 02:00 etc. |
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@John:
I have enough WUs now, hope you will reach your goal, I dont like idle cores ;)
Keep your servers working :)
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RytisVolunteer moderator Project administrator
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How about making different times for challenge? So that people can choose when to start challenge (for different timezones) in their preferences. For example, some people choose choose to start at 01:00 am UTC, some at 02:00 etc.
That's a good idea, we'll most definitely think about that for the next challenge.
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How about making different times for challenge? So that people can choose when to start challenge (for different timezones) in their preferences. For example, some people choose choose to start at 01:00 am UTC, some at 02:00 etc.
That's a good idea, we'll most definitely think about that for the next challenge.
It might be enough to keep the time interval for any host and let it freely slide (somehow).
Peter
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I don't know how hard this would be to program or if it would be just an easy thing but you could do something like this for the next Community Challenge, have the first people that start and send in WU's into "the Top Participants" on the main page have there names in red for the first hour or 2. Then after another set time passes have these new people have there names in blue, and the lastly after the last set time passes and the new WU's come in have these last people have there names in green. Then after that at the end just end it red, blue then green. Just a thought :)
Edit: so once you start you started in the first part and are always red for this challange, or you came in on the 2nd time slot and are blue colored for this whole challenge, and or you came in the last slot and are green for the whole challenge :) But that doesn't mean you can't move up passing people just means it makes the issues stated above fixed. Just a thought :)
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John M. Johnson "Novex" |
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Sid Send message
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SIMAP has been hoeing this same row since when they issue work on the first of the month, their servers get smoked.
From what I can gather, the project servers can be setup to only give a fixed number of WU's [say 10-20] to each core. When those units are finished and uploaded, new work will be issued to replace them.
After 4 hours or so, these restrictions would then drop out.
This might help solve some of the server overload situation PG experienced 25 hours ago.
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SIMAP has been hoeing this same row since when they issue work on the first of the month, their servers get smoked.
From what I can gather, the project servers can be setup to only give a fixed number of WU's [say 10-20] to each core. When those units are finished and uploaded, new work will be issued to replace them.
After 4 hours or so, these restrictions would then drop out.
This might help solve some of the server overload situation PG experienced 25 hours ago.
I'm Glad were all pitching in to think of good ideas to help the next Community Challenge not suffer from the start up issues that this one did. It amazes me the community support here its just like "wow" the community actually cares and to some that is so wonderful. So please if you or anyone else can think of any other ideas to help the issue the arose this morning from this Community Challenge, please by all means post it and the mods will pick which one they like the best or they will at least have more ideas to spin with when they make changes. Thanks a lot everyone.
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John M. Johnson "Novex" |
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John Honorary cruncher
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With just a little over a day into the Challenge, the output is quite significant. You can see the impact here: PSP Sieve Daily WU
Also, an incredible milestone is about to be reached at Seventeen or Bust. PrimeGrid is about to become the all time top siever: SB Sieving
Congratulations everyone. Well done!!!
p.s. While PrimeGrid has been in the top spot at Prime Sierpinski Project for some time now, this Challenge has had a huge impact there as well. PSP Sieve (the sieve stats are a little bit down the page).
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With just a little over a day into the Challenge, the output is quite significant. You can see the impact here: PSP Sieve Daily WU
Also, an incredible milestone is about to be reached at Seventeen or Bust. PrimeGrid is about to become the all time top siever: SB Sieving
Congratulations everyone. Well done!!!
p.s. While PrimeGrid has been in the top spot at Prime Sierpinski Project for some time now, this Challenge has had a huge impact there as well. PSP Sieve (the sieve stats are a little bit down the page).
Wow Congratulations indeed !! In the past 60 days we've went from an avg. of 80,000 Work Units up to 178,500 Work Units and the Community Challenge isn't even over yet!@! So I can't wait to see how high we can get that mark wth this challenge because its not going down yet thats for sure.
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John M. Johnson "Novex" |
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Vato Volunteer tester
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I don't know how hard this would be to program or if it would be just an easy thing but you could do something like this for the next Community Challenge, have the first people that start and send in WU's into "the Top Participants" on the main page have there names in red for the first hour or 2. Then after another set time passes have these new people have there names in blue, and the lastly after the last set time passes and the new WU's come in have these last people have there names in green. Then after that at the end just end it red, blue then green. Just a thought :)
The idea of this is on the right lines IMHO, but the start of the challenge has to be based on when WUs are downloaded from the server, otherwise people could get 10 days worth of cache in advance and crunch them with network access disabled, and then re-allow network access as soon as the challenge began.
A slight change would be to have a time window for starting the challenge. Once a user downloads a WU during this window, it adds 72 hours and that is the closing deadline for that user.
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Sid Send message
Joined: 15 Mar 08 Posts: 14 ID: 20216 Credit: 12,332,484 RAC: 0
            
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Would using more than one subproject on PG challenges remove a bottleneck and prevent problems like this one?
7/18/2008 2:21:29 PM|PrimeGrid|Sending scheduler request: To fetch work. Requesting 114 seconds of work, reporting 0 completed tasks
7/18/2008 2:21:34 PM|PrimeGrid|Scheduler request succeeded: got 0 new tasks
7/18/2008 2:21:34 PM|PrimeGrid|Message from server: No work sent
7/18/2008 2:21:34 PM|PrimeGrid|Message from server: No work is available for PSP Sieve
7/18/2008 2:21:34 PM|PrimeGrid|Message from server: No work available for the applications you have selected. Please check your settings on the web site.
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Would using more than one subproject on PG challenges remove a bottleneck and prevent problems like this one?
7/18/2008 2:21:29 PM|PrimeGrid|Sending scheduler request: To fetch work. Requesting 114 seconds of work, reporting 0 completed tasks
7/18/2008 2:21:34 PM|PrimeGrid|Scheduler request succeeded: got 0 new tasks
7/18/2008 2:21:34 PM|PrimeGrid|Message from server: No work sent
7/18/2008 2:21:34 PM|PrimeGrid|Message from server: No work is available for PSP Sieve
7/18/2008 2:21:34 PM|PrimeGrid|Message from server: No work available for the applications you have selected. Please check your settings on the web site.
If there is many user dl. wu at the same time you can get that message.
You should get new wu next time you try.
/Lennart
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Sid Send message
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If there is many user dl. wu at the same time you can get that message.
You should get new wu next time you try.
Lennart:
Problem is that at the beginning of the PG Lunar Landing Challenge, I got that same message for the best part of FOUR hours.
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RytisVolunteer moderator Project administrator
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There is a queue of WUs prepared to be sent. The maximum amount that the feeder holds is about 150. Once a request comes in, it is assigned some (or all) WUs from the queue. If a user makes a big request (for example, has set up his work fetch to be a full day or more), he will get all 150 WUs from the queue, and further requests before queue refill won't get any.
The queue refill happens every 5 seconds, or (here's the catch) slower, if the server is overloaded - and at the beginning of the challenge, the database barely held, therefore the queue wasn't being refilled as often as needed.
What we are going to do for the next challenge is to drop the maximum available number of WUs on-host to a limit lower than the queue (for example, 5 per core). This might mean more work requests from the hosts, but it will make sure there is work in the queue more often.
Also, we are going to get a new server that should increase our capability of handling a lot of requests happening in the same time before we do the next challenge.
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pschoefer Volunteer developer Volunteer tester
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No chance for me to reach top 30 users again this time, but we have a very exciting race for #1 team spot: http://boincstats.com/stats/compare_graph.php?pr=pg&table=team&type=challenge&challenge_id=4&id%5B%5D=11&id%5B%5D=37 :D
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That looks fun. Good luck to both teams.
You leave me for dead but I'm giving Heidi1 and Rytis a run for their money and even better have been a bit lucky so far with factors found. John/Novex is not far behind. I reckon he has a load of credits to claim and will take us all out on the final bend.
No chance for me to reach top 30 users again this time, but we have a very exciting race for #1 team spot: http://boincstats.com/stats/compare_graph.php?pr=pg&table=team&type=challenge&challenge_id=4&id%5B%5D=11&id%5B%5D=37 :D
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We at the small team Calm Chaos are pretty darn happy we're hanging in the top 10 teams. It's been fun so far.
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i totally agree with astro top job guys and girls here and asro well done,truly for keeping us up to date good job beers to you, ;-)
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Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room.
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That looks fun. Good luck to both teams.
You leave me for dead but I'm giving Heidi1 and Rytis a run for their money and even better have been a bit lucky so far with factors found. John/Novex is not far behind. I reckon he has a load of credits to claim and will take us all out on the final bend.
No chance for me to reach top 30 users again this time, but we have a very exciting race for #1 team spot: http://boincstats.com/stats/compare_graph.php?pr=pg&table=team&type=challenge&challenge_id=4&id%5B%5D=11&id%5B%5D=37 :D
Heya my friend Tim :) how goes it? Yeah I'm hoping I catch up to at least a few of you lol but we shall see it's still fun anyway and they say if your not having fun then your mom didn't teach you how to spank right or something....anywhoo lol just wanted to drop in and say hi to the Tim.
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John M. Johnson "Novex" |
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ltdSend message
Joined: 30 Sep 07 Posts: 10 ID: 12893 Credit: 18,034,132 RAC: 0
                 
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Impact of the challenge on PSP can also be seen here:
PSP online sievestats |
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Impact of the challenge on PSP can also be seen here:
PSP online sievestats
Those are LLRNet stats it says not public ones, since the numbers should be a lot higher. A Hell'ove a lot higher! But thanks Tim :)
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John M. Johnson "Novex" |
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Dang the Edit went away to fast when I lost my internet connection since it's raining here. Oh well, I was just going to say would it be possible to have a count down timer till the Community Challenge ends? And Tim what do you think of the idea?
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John M. Johnson "Novex" |
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John Honorary cruncher
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Impact of the challenge on PSP can also be seen here:
PSP online sievestats
Those are LLRNet stats it says not public ones, since the numbers should be a lot higher. A Hell'ove a lot higher! But thanks Tim :)
Actually, that chart includes PrimeGrid's factor submissions as well.
would it be possible to have a count down timer till the Community Challenge ends?
After liftoff, the countdown clock turned into the mission clock. It is counting up to 3 days 00 hours 00 minutes 00 seconds. At that time, the mission will end.
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Impact of the challenge on PSP can also be seen here:
PSP online sievestats
Those are LLRNet stats it says not public ones, since the numbers should be a lot higher. A Hell'ove a lot higher! But thanks Tim :)
Actually, that chart includes PrimeGrid's factor submissions as well.
would it be possible to have a count down timer till the Community Challenge ends?
After liftoff, the countdown clock turned into the mission clock. It is counting up to 3 days 00 hours 00 minutes 00 seconds. At that time, the mission will end.
Ah Ok 3 days 00 hours 00 minutes 00 seconds, roger that :)
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John M. Johnson "Novex" |
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John Honorary cruncher
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Just under 19 hours remaining in the Challenge and there are close races in both Teams and Participants categories.
The amount of work being done has smashed PrimeGrid's single day record. Yesterday, PrimeGrid earned approximately 3.4M cobblestones.
It looks like it's going to be a close and exciting finish. Please remember to upload early and often. The server is going to get hit hard again as the Challenge draws to an end.
Good Luck everyone and congratulations on the incredible work done so far.
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ltdSend message
Joined: 30 Sep 07 Posts: 10 ID: 12893 Credit: 18,034,132 RAC: 0
                 
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About the PSP chart I posted.
It only shows the sieve submission. But you found the error in the chart. I forgot to change the texts when I originaly created it out of an llrnet chart. |
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Vato Volunteer tester
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Joined: 2 Feb 08 Posts: 841 ID: 18447 Credit: 643,729,555 RAC: 550,258
                           
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Server seemed to have some wobbles about ~10:30 UTC - seems to be back now.
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It'll be fine. Having a large enough cache to ride out the bumps is a good thing. I didn't notice any extra server load during that particular time, so it must have been a back end thing of some kind.
Still Crunching happily along.
tony
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It was an Apache problem, it did no longer accept new connections.
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Join team BOINCstats |
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12 hours remain in the mission. Crunchem' while you can. |
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My wus used to finish faster, then they increased the size and credit. I WAS taking 18 minutes on wus during this challenge, but now notice them only taking 9 minutes. Have we reverted to the smaller ones again? |
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I've had a few throughout the Challenge that have been "half-sized", taking around 10 minutes on my quad instead of about 21 minutes.
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Calm Chaos Forum...Join Calm Chaos Now |
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Vato Volunteer tester
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Joined: 2 Feb 08 Posts: 841 ID: 18447 Credit: 643,729,555 RAC: 550,258
                           
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These are older WUs that had been issued previously but had timed out when not returned prior to the deadline and are now being reissued. No problem.
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Dang the Edit went away to fast when I lost my internet connection since it's raining here. Oh well, I was just going to say would it be possible to have a count down timer till the Community Challenge ends? And Tim what do you think of the idea?
John I'm too busy choking on my beer* reading your message 9689 to answer right now.
Cheers!
* Proper beer. The kind you buy from bars not just rent.
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pschoefer Volunteer developer Volunteer tester
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Joined: 20 Sep 05 Posts: 685 ID: 845 Credit: 2,886,413,454 RAC: 139,386
                              
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The eagle has landed!
Thank you all for this great challenge, although the start was a bit hard, it was great fun. Especially the close race for number 1 team spot was very exciting and compensates me for not reaching top30 or at least top50 this time. ;)
Congratulations to everyone for his own achievement in this challenge!
Looking forward to competing with you all again in the next challenge. :)
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Vato Volunteer tester
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Joined: 2 Feb 08 Posts: 841 ID: 18447 Credit: 643,729,555 RAC: 550,258
                           
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i think that went pretty well overall - some glitches, but getting better each challenge we have.
the word is obviously out - lots more users, lots more WUs.
no chance of me getting individual points anymore either, though the team challenge still has some mileage for me :-)
well done all!
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Thank you all for a great challenge !
We have done more then 6.2M points on PSP this 72 hr's. :)
You can see some off the impact Here
/Lennart
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It was a blast and our little team Calm Chaos stuck it out and finished in 10th! |
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Vato Volunteer tester
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Joined: 2 Feb 08 Posts: 841 ID: 18447 Credit: 643,729,555 RAC: 550,258
                           
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6.2M points is a lot!
how many factors?
and how many extra factors compared to our usual run-rate?
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6.2M points is a lot!
how many factors?
and how many extra factors compared to our usual run-rate?
You can see it here.
http://www.psp-project.de/sievestats.php
/Lennart |
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Thank You for this exciting Challenge !
and Respect to our most favourite Opponent, L'Alliance Francophone.
Yamazaki
SETI.Germany
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Thank You for this exciting Challenge !
and Respect to our most favourite Opponent, L'Alliance Francophone.
Yamazaki
SETI.Germany
Hi,
Thank you.
Congratulations to your team, especially Marodeur6. We were surprised by the power of SETI.GErmany for this challenge.
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100th post. snicker, snicker
This is also the highest post counted thread on the entire page.
It was fun, perhaps we can try this again.
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The challenge was a big fight for the team BOINC@Heidelberg and myself.
At least we can keep the big team SETI.USA in behind with only 10 active crunchers.
Thank you all for the organization - even if the start of the challenge was not so smooth like it was planned. - I lost 9 hours of time due to no WUs are available for me. :)
But now - can you pleast give the link for the pending WUs back?
Thank you - and we will see us at the next challenge :D
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100th post. snicker, snicker
Yes, we can see that:
The challenge was a big fight for the team BOINC@Heidelberg and myself...
Congratulations.
...will see us at the next challenge :D
Idem, we would like to take one's revenge.
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Vato Volunteer tester
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Joined: 2 Feb 08 Posts: 841 ID: 18447 Credit: 643,729,555 RAC: 550,258
                           
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Approx how long before the challenge tables show the results please?
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John Honorary cruncher
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“Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” The Lunar Landing Challenge is over. By far, this was the most productive Challenge to date. Over 6.3M cobblestones were generated and over 525,000 WU’s were completed. PrimeGrid set a single day record of over 3.4M cobblestones (almost 4 X’s PG’s normal daily output).
193 teams and 1331 individuals participated
The Challenge Points stats are official. Congratulations to SETI.Germany as the top team and Banshee as the top individual. Remember, the top 30 places earn points for this Challenge.
While the Challenge had a very rough start, the rest went smoothly. Even the end barely raised the server load above 2. The participation greatly exceeded our expectations. It definitely made for an exciting Challenge as there were some close competitions in both the team and individual categories.
We continue to be amazed and humbled by everyone’s generosity. With your support, these Challenges continue to grow each month. As a result of this Challenge, PrimeGrid is now the top user all time with Seventeen or Bust Sieving, and it only took 9 months to reach that milestone! An incredible accomplishment. Job well done everyone...most definitely a worthy cause to celebrate! :)
Also, if we include the 3 days leading up to the Challenge, PG completed just under 1P (peta, 10^15, 1000000000000000) of sieve work in 6 days. :) Another amazing accomplishment.
The next Challenge is tentatively set for mid August. Also tentative is that the project will be on a new prime search (LLR application) – Sophie Germain. Additionally, we have already come up with few more changes to help with the start of the Challenge. Please check back at the end of July for more details.
Thank you again to everyone. We appreciate your participation and hope you had fun!
Stats: Participants | Teams
To see the impact the Lunar Landing Challenge had on the Prime Sierpinski Project, take a look at these charts:
PSP Daily WU
PSP Daily Credit
Other Stats:
SB Sieving
PSP Daily sieve stats
PSP Sieve Rankings (the sieve stats are a little bit down the page)
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now the server load is up to seven....
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RytisVolunteer moderator Project administrator
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now the server load is up to seven....
We had a database crash, now all back up. Server is catching up.
All I can say - good timing, managed to keep alive during the challenge :)
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John Honorary cruncher
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now the server load is up to seven....
We had a database crash, now all back up. Server is catching up.
All I can say - good timing, managed to keep alive during the challenge :)
Database is down again...more information to come.
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Server load is happily rising, server is often next to unreachable. It would be nice to see also the network load ;-)
That was a fast reaction!
Thanks
Peter
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Can you announce the days of August's challenge please???
It'd be easier with more notice to get more our team in.
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Can you announce the days of August's challenge please???
It'd be easier with more notice to get more our team in.
Thx
Your asking for the next Community Challenge right? I could have sworn it was posted somewhere but I cant for the life of me remember where, If I find it I'll post a link from here unless someone beats me to it :)
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Can you announce the days of August's challenge please???
Your asking for the next Community Challenge right? I could have sworn it was posted somewhere but I cant for the life of me remember where, If I find it I'll post a link from here unless someone beats me to it :)
Can someone beat you? Impossible! ;-)
I can see the post in the remnants of the The Dog Days of Summer Challenge thread, including the from-to dates, just that the thread "has been hidden for administrative purposes", so I'd rather hold on...
Peter
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RytisVolunteer moderator Project administrator
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Can you announce the days of August's challenge please???
Your asking for the next Community Challenge right? I could have sworn it was posted somewhere but I cant for the life of me remember where, If I find it I'll post a link from here unless someone beats me to it :)
Can someone beat you? Impossible! ;-)
I can see the post in the remnants of the The Dog Days of Summer Challenge thread, including the from-to dates, just that the thread "has been hidden for administrative purposes", so I'd rather hold on...
Peter
We are planning the challenge, however, we are not sure if it will be featured in August because the server can barely keep up. We'll let you know as soon as we know ourselves.
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