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Profile Rebirther
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Message 253 - Posted 16 Sep 2006 6:44:43 UTC

Seems to be a little problem with validation.
http://docking.utep.edu/result.php?resultid=8945 2 Results back and ok, but the third got an invalid. Is it not similar with other results?

Can you set the quorum to 3/3?

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Message 254 - Posted 16 Sep 2006 7:20:01 UTC

This begs another question.

How are credits awarded in this project currently?

It appears to be working thusly:

1. WU goes pending until 2nd valid return. 3 issued, quorum of 2 ?
2. Both valid returned results (and subsequent results before deadline?) get the credit requested by the 2nd returned result. Not average or first requested credit.





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Message 256 - Posted 16 Sep 2006 7:32:57 UTC - in response to Message ID 254 .

This begs another question.

How are credits awarded in this project currently?

It appears to be working thusly:

1. WU goes pending until 2nd valid return. 3 issued, quorum of 2 ?
2. Both valid returned results (and subsequent results before deadline?) get the credit requested by the 2nd returned result. Not average or first requested credit.



There is a quorum of 2 at the moment, if two 2 results back the lowest value get credits for all. The 3rd result get the same amount of credits as 2 others.
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Message 289 - Posted 17 Sep 2006 1:30:22 UTC - in response to Message ID 256 .

This begs another question.

How are credits awarded in this project currently?

It appears to be working thusly:

1. WU goes pending until 2nd valid return. 3 issued, quorum of 2 ?
2. Both valid returned results (and subsequent results before deadline?) get the credit requested by the 2nd returned result. Not average or first requested credit.



There is a quorum of 2 at the moment, if two 2 results back the lowest value get credits for all. The 3rd result get the same amount of credits as 2 others.


I think awarding the lowest value to all will be generating a big credit uproar. If you're going to use a quorum, make it an average.
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Message 533 - Posted 21 Sep 2006 5:39:09 UTC

Is the minimum quorum is now 3? Do I understand that correctly?

Does that make sense for an alpha project? Do we really need that redundancy to ensure result accuracy? Are we are wasting test cycles?
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Message 536 - Posted 21 Sep 2006 14:30:39 UTC

At the moment we are trying to understand how the system works in order to try to come up with the best set up possible. In this process testers play a big role and of course this seems like something logical. I will discuss this with the team.

Thank you fo your support

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Message 538 - Posted 21 Sep 2006 16:30:07 UTC - in response to Message ID 253 .

Yes, this was a problem we had with app version 5.1 where errored results were validated successfully, while correct results were invalidated. That problem was fixed in 5.2, but there might still be some 5.1 results around (although we have asked people to abort all of these).

The answer to the second question is: we had the quorum set to 2 initially (with 3 replicas) but this has been set to 3 currently (3/3). Again, there might be some results around that use a quorum of 2, but these should dissappear eventually.

As Memo said below, we are currently trying to make sense of the credit system ourselves and decide on a fair policy. Granting average credit to everybody instead of lowest seems the correct thing to do, we just have to find out where to configure this in the system :-)

Thanks for helping us test our system!

Andre

Seems to be a little problem with validation.
http://docking.utep.edu/result.php?resultid=8945 2 Results back and ok, but the third got an invalid. Is it not similar with other results?

Can you set the quorum to 3/3?


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Message 618 - Posted 26 Sep 2006 16:27:30 UTC
Last modified: 26 Sep 2006 16:29:01 UTC

What happened here:
http://docking.utep.edu/workunit.php?wuid=3444


    [*]12746 130 18 Sep 2006 6:21:51 UTC 18 Sep 2006 7:23:24 UTC Over Success Done 207.84 1.05 pending
    [*]12747 217 18 Sep 2006 22:59:36 UTC 18 Sep 2006 23:26:23 UTC Over Client error Compute error 189.42 0.37 ---
    [*]12748 233 18 Sep 2006 23:40:12 UTC 19 Sep 2006 3:32:59 UTC Over Success Done 5,631.64 9.70 pending
    [*]20647 103 22 Sep 2006 13:31:40 UTC 23 Sep 2006 9:51:43 UTC Over Success Done 7,256.46 13.77 pending
    [*]21827 207 23 Sep 2006 10:04:42 UTC 23 Sep 2006 10:06:19 UTC Over Client error Compute error 0.00 0.00 ---
    [*]21828 137 23 Sep 2006 10:20:01 UTC 23 Sep 2006 14:44:43 UTC Over Success Done 5,082.33 9.75 pending
    [*]21830 190 24 Sep 2006 3:16:35 UTC 24 Sep 2006 16:43:10 UTC Over Success Done 5,750.20 9.90 pending
    [*]21940 --- --- --- Unsent Unknown New --- --- ---


5 in, all pending, 4 with success, 1 with error.
What's wrong with the success ones to reach no consensus?

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Message 619 - Posted 26 Sep 2006 17:30:38 UTC - in response to Message ID 618 .

I'm not sure what's going on here. I'll see if we can figure out why these are not reaching consensus. Thanks.

What's wrong with the success ones to reach no consensus?

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Message 631 - Posted 27 Sep 2006 4:43:07 UTC - in response to Message ID 618 .
Last modified: 27 Sep 2006 4:43:48 UTC

Currently on vacation, but got a wireless connection in a hotel somewhere :-)

The problem is result http://docking.utep.edu/result.php?resultid=12746 . This is a 5.1 result that was successfully validated although it had an error. It was followed by some real 5.1 successful results that were also validated. The problem is that the validator is now stuck with a couple of valid results, but with different outcomes; that's why it is confused and won't give credit yet. We'll have to find a solution for these cases as long as 5.1 results are still around. When the 5.1's are gone, the problem will be gone.

Everybody who is still crunching 5.1 results, please abort these as soon as possible!!

Andre

What happened here:
http://docking.utep.edu/workunit.php?wuid=3444

    [*]12746 130 18 Sep 2006 6:21:51 UTC 18 Sep 2006 7:23:24 UTC Over Success Done 207.84 1.05 pending
    [*]12747 217 18 Sep 2006 22:59:36 UTC 18 Sep 2006 23:26:23 UTC Over Client error Compute error 189.42 0.37 ---
    [*]12748 233 18 Sep 2006 23:40:12 UTC 19 Sep 2006 3:32:59 UTC Over Success Done 5,631.64 9.70 pending
    [*]20647 103 22 Sep 2006 13:31:40 UTC 23 Sep 2006 9:51:43 UTC Over Success Done 7,256.46 13.77 pending
    [*]21827 207 23 Sep 2006 10:04:42 UTC 23 Sep 2006 10:06:19 UTC Over Client error Compute error 0.00 0.00 ---
    [*]21828 137 23 Sep 2006 10:20:01 UTC 23 Sep 2006 14:44:43 UTC Over Success Done 5,082.33 9.75 pending
    [*]21830 190 24 Sep 2006 3:16:35 UTC 24 Sep 2006 16:43:10 UTC Over Success Done 5,750.20 9.90 pending
    [*]21940 --- --- --- Unsent Unknown New --- --- ---


5 in, all pending, 4 with success, 1 with error.
What's wrong with the success ones to reach no consensus?



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Message 638 - Posted 27 Sep 2006 14:58:26 UTC - in response to Message ID 631 .

Everybody who is still crunching 5.1 results, please abort these as soon as possible!!


5.01 is the only application available to Macs.
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Message 668 - Posted 29 Sep 2006 2:59:34 UTC - in response to Message ID 638 .

Sorry, this was only meant for Linux users, not for Macs. Macs seem to do fine with 5.1 for the moment (but we'll release 5.2 anyway as soon as we get our compiler problem solved). You see 501 in the boinc client, but this is really 5.1. I don't know why the Boinc client puts a 0 in the version number.

Andre

Everybody who is still crunching 5.1 results, please abort these as soon as possible!!


5.01 is the only application available to Macs.


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Message 671 - Posted 29 Sep 2006 3:53:09 UTC - in response to Message ID 668 .

Sorry, this was only meant for Linux users, not for Macs. Macs seem to do fine with 5.1 for the moment (but we'll release 5.2 anyway as soon as we get our compiler problem solved).


Intel Macs do fine yes, but many of the valid results get 0 credits (just so everyone is aware).
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Message 680 - Posted 29 Sep 2006 14:07:02 UTC - in response to Message ID 671 .
Last modified: 29 Sep 2006 14:07:33 UTC

I've looked at one of your results that got 0 credits: http://docking.utep.edu/result.php?resultid=22831
This result was actually marked as invalid and therefore got 0 credits. Of course there still remains the question why it was marked invalid; I will try to keep an eye on other similar results to find out.

Thanks,
Andre

Sorry, this was only meant for Linux users, not for Macs. Macs seem to do fine with 5.1 for the moment (but we'll release 5.2 anyway as soon as we get our compiler problem solved).


Intel Macs do fine yes, but many of the valid results get 0 credits (just so everyone is aware).


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Message 683 - Posted 29 Sep 2006 14:34:23 UTC - in response to Message ID 680 .

I've looked at one of your results that got 0 credits: http://docking.utep.edu/result.php?resultid=22831
This result was actually marked as invalid and therefore got 0 credits. Of course there still remains the question why it was marked invalid; I will try to keep an eye on other similar results to find out.

Thanks,
Andre


Yes, there are lots of those for the Macs.
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Message 684 - Posted 29 Sep 2006 14:52:43 UTC - in response to Message ID 631 .

Currently on vacation, but got a wireless connection in a hotel somewhere :-)

The problem is result http://docking.utep.edu/result.php?resultid=12746 . This is a 5.1 result that was successfully validated although it had an error. It was followed by some real 5.1 successful results that were also validated. The problem is that the validator is now stuck with a couple of valid results, but with different outcomes; that's why it is confused and won't give credit yet. We'll have to find a solution for these cases as long as 5.1 results are still around. When the 5.1's are gone, the problem will be gone.

Everybody who is still crunching 5.1 results, please abort these as soon as possible!!

Andre

What happened here:
http://docking.utep.edu/workunit.php?wuid=3444

    [*]12746 130 18 Sep 2006 6:21:51 UTC 18 Sep 2006 7:23:24 UTC Over Success Done 207.84 1.05 pending
    [*]12747 217 18 Sep 2006 22:59:36 UTC 18 Sep 2006 23:26:23 UTC Over Client error Compute error 189.42 0.37 ---
    [*]12748 233 18 Sep 2006 23:40:12 UTC 19 Sep 2006 3:32:59 UTC Over Success Done 5,631.64 9.70 pending
    [*]20647 103 22 Sep 2006 13:31:40 UTC 23 Sep 2006 9:51:43 UTC Over Success Done 7,256.46 13.77 pending
    [*]21827 207 23 Sep 2006 10:04:42 UTC 23 Sep 2006 10:06:19 UTC Over Client error Compute error 0.00 0.00 ---
    [*]21828 137 23 Sep 2006 10:20:01 UTC 23 Sep 2006 14:44:43 UTC Over Success Done 5,082.33 9.75 pending
    [*]21830 190 24 Sep 2006 3:16:35 UTC 24 Sep 2006 16:43:10 UTC Over Success Done 5,750.20 9.90 pending
    [*]21940 --- --- --- Unsent Unknown New --- --- ---


5 in, all pending, 4 with success, 1 with error.
What's wrong with the success ones to reach no consensus?




Will the sending of the last result for this WU help?
I've just seen it:
21940 306 28 Sep 2006 20:31:09 UTC 3 Oct 2006 20:31:09 UTC In Progress Unknown New --- --- ---

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Message 686 - Posted 29 Sep 2006 15:18:40 UTC - in response to Message ID 680 .

I've looked at one of your results that got 0 credits: http://docking.utep.edu/result.php?resultid=22831
This result was actually marked as invalid and therefore got 0 credits. Of course there still remains the question why it was marked invalid; I will try to keep an eye on other similar results to find out.


How can the WU be labeled as "Sucess" and "Invalid" at the same time? Also, why is it invalid? There are no error messages of any kind that I can see.
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Message 687 - Posted 29 Sep 2006 16:20:42 UTC - in response to Message ID 686 .

How can the WU be labeled as "Sucess" and "Invalid" at the same time? Also, why is it invalid? There are no error messages of any kind that I can see.

BOINC client said it was success (ie. application returned error code 0, no CPU limit exceeded, no problems downloading/uploading, etc) but the validator determined the result was invalid by looking at output files. I think the validator doesn't even run on a result that doesn't have Outcome: Success
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Message 688 - Posted 29 Sep 2006 17:03:33 UTC - in response to Message ID 687 .

BOINC client said it was success (ie. application returned error code 0, no CPU limit exceeded, no problems downloading/uploading, etc) but the validator determined the result was invalid by looking at output files. I think the validator doesn't even run on a result that doesn't have Outcome: Success


I see. How do we find out why the validator determined it to be invalid?
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Message 689 - Posted 29 Sep 2006 17:08:29 UTC - in response to Message ID 688 .

I see. How do we find out why the validator determined it to be invalid?

Ask the project team ;)
Afaik the validator only compares the different results, they will probably all be somehow different through rounding errors and such. If the results are within some limits the same, they are declared "valid". If one or two differ too much, they are "invalid". The single computer can't know that. If a puter constantly deliveres invalid results, although it thinks they are valid, something will be broken inside (too much overclocking, broken circuits, flawed memory...).
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Message 690 - Posted 29 Sep 2006 17:21:55 UTC - in response to Message ID 689 .

Ask the project team ;)
Afaik the validator only compares the different results, they will probably all be somehow different through rounding errors and such. If the results are within some limits the same, they are declared "valid". If one or two differ too much, they are "invalid". The single computer can't know that. If a puter constantly deliveres invalid results, although it thinks they are valid, something will be broken inside (too much overclocking, broken circuits, flawed memory...).


You're telling me that I get screwed out of credits if someone else's WU gets messed up to the point where it doesn't match mine? That's nuts.

This is a stock machine, with the official client. So there is either a problem with the application, or the other WU(s) this is being compared against. I'm guessing the former, so we should investigate this further (that's why we're here, right?).
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Message 691 - Posted 29 Sep 2006 17:50:28 UTC
Last modified: 29 Sep 2006 18:13:10 UTC

Same thing is happening to Intel PIII as well. It would be something to do with the application.

The results calculated on different platforms are just too different to validate at this point. Whether that means the science is accurate or not I couldn't say.

It is something the project needs to address prior to Beta or release though.

*Edit, forgot to mention PIII running Windows. Linux seems to handle it better.

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Message 693 - Posted 29 Sep 2006 17:59:58 UTC - in response to Message ID 690 .

You're telling me that I get screwed out of credits if someone else's WU gets messed up to the point where it doesn't match mine? That's nuts.

This is a stock machine, with the official client. So there is either a problem with the application, or the other WU(s) this is being compared against. I'm guessing the former, so we should investigate this further (that's why we're here, right?).

That's always a possibility, of course, but a unreasonable one methinks.
The validator doesn't know what's right or wrong, otherwise it wouldn't be necessary to send the WUs in the first place. What it does is treat all results that proclaim validity alike, and if some messed up puters will agree on the same wrong result, it has to take it as velid, how should it know otherwise?

In the Wiki is an simple example of the validation process, look here . But as most puters are probably working correct, you usually only have to wait a bit longer until consensus is reached.
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Message 694 - Posted 29 Sep 2006 18:42:15 UTC - in response to Message ID 691 .

The results calculated on different platforms are just too different to validate at this point. Whether that means the science is accurate or not I couldn't say.


I thought we were doing only homogeneous validation? In other words, my intel macs WUs are only being validated with other intel mac WUs.

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Message 695 - Posted 29 Sep 2006 18:48:43 UTC - in response to Message ID 693 .


In the Wiki is an simple example of the validation process, look here . But as most puters are probably working correct, you usually only have to wait a bit longer until consensus is reached.


For these 0 credit WUs, consensus *was* reached, but mine gets labeled Invalid. The indefinately "pending" WUs is a different problem I am having.

And this is not a rare thing. For computer 210, there are *10* of these on the results that are still showing. Like I said, this is completely stock mac, with stock client. Something is wrong with the application.
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Message 698 - Posted 29 Sep 2006 23:01:55 UTC

It's not running homogenous validation. This has been discussed in another thread that I can't find at the moment.

If the admins would like to address this issue, I ran a few more results on my PIII system with the new (5.4.11) version of BOINC to see if it made a difference, it hasn't.

Host is here.

Needless to say, I won't be running any results on that system until this issue is addressed. If you need further testing, let me know and I'll put through something.

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Message 700 - Posted 30 Sep 2006 0:31:30 UTC - in response to Message ID 698 .
Last modified: 30 Sep 2006 0:32:05 UTC

It's not running homogenous validation. This has been discussed in another thread that I can't find at the moment.


According to the developer, we are using homogenous validation. See #3 here:

http://docking.utep.edu/forum_thread.php?id=53&nowrap=true#590

FWIW, I agree. This really needs to be at the top of their To Do list. Credits are needed to keep people here. Yes, people expect there to be issues with alpha projects. But if you don't fix it quickly, people will leave.
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Message 702 - Posted 30 Sep 2006 1:35:08 UTC - in response to Message ID 689 .

Afaik the validator only compares the different results, they will probably all be somehow different through rounding errors and such. If the results are within some limits the same, they are declared "valid".

This is correct. But obviously it also checks that files are valid before comparing, ie. if format is correct, no upload errors, maybe file is empty because app failed!
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Message 810 - Posted 4 Oct 2006 19:26:29 UTC - in response to Message ID 684 .

Currently on vacation, but got a wireless connection in a hotel somewhere :-)

The problem is result http://docking.utep.edu/result.php?resultid=12746 . This is a 5.1 result that was successfully validated although it had an error. It was followed by some real 5.1 successful results that were also validated. The problem is that the validator is now stuck with a couple of valid results, but with different outcomes; that's why it is confused and won't give credit yet. We'll have to find a solution for these cases as long as 5.1 results are still around. When the 5.1's are gone, the problem will be gone.

Everybody who is still crunching 5.1 results, please abort these as soon as possible!!

Andre

What happened here:
http://docking.utep.edu/workunit.php?wuid=3444

    [*]12746 130 18 Sep 2006 6:21:51 UTC 18 Sep 2006 7:23:24 UTC Over Success Done 207.84 1.05 pending
    [*]12747 217 18 Sep 2006 22:59:36 UTC 18 Sep 2006 23:26:23 UTC Over Client error Compute error 189.42 0.37 ---
    [*]12748 233 18 Sep 2006 23:40:12 UTC 19 Sep 2006 3:32:59 UTC Over Success Done 5,631.64 9.70 pending
    [*]20647 103 22 Sep 2006 13:31:40 UTC 23 Sep 2006 9:51:43 UTC Over Success Done 7,256.46 13.77 pending
    [*]21827 207 23 Sep 2006 10:04:42 UTC 23 Sep 2006 10:06:19 UTC Over Client error Compute error 0.00 0.00 ---
    [*]21828 137 23 Sep 2006 10:20:01 UTC 23 Sep 2006 14:44:43 UTC Over Success Done 5,082.33 9.75 pending
    [*]21830 190 24 Sep 2006 3:16:35 UTC 24 Sep 2006 16:43:10 UTC Over Success Done 5,750.20 9.90 pending
    [*]21940 --- --- --- Unsent Unknown New --- --- ---


5 in, all pending, 4 with success, 1 with error.
What's wrong with the success ones to reach no consensus?




Will the sending of the last result for this WU help?
I've just seen it:
21940 306 28 Sep 2006 20:31:09 UTC 3 Oct 2006 20:31:09 UTC In Progress Unknown New --- --- ---


Finally:
application Charmm
created 18 Sep 2006 2:45:02 UTC
name 1tng_mod0001_1254_335479
minimum quorum 2
initial replication 7
max # of error/total/success results 3, 8, 5
errors Too many success results


Success sucks ;)
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Message 811 - Posted 4 Oct 2006 21:41:54 UTC - in response to Message ID 810 .

We'll check these 0 credit results out as soon as possible. And of course we'll re-credit all of these results if needed.

Thanks for making us aware of these!!!

Andre

Currently on vacation, but got a wireless connection in a hotel somewhere :-)
The problem is result http://docking.utep.edu/result.php?resultid=12746 . This is a 5.1 result that was successfully validated although it had an error. It was followed by some real 5.1 successful results that were also validated. The problem is that the validator is now stuck with a couple of valid results, but with different outcomes; that's why it is confused and won't give credit yet. We'll have to find a solution for these cases as long as 5.1 results are still around. When the 5.1's are gone, the problem will be gone.

Everybody who is still crunching 5.1 results, please abort these as soon as possible!!

Andre

What happened here:
http://docking.utep.edu/workunit.php?wuid=3444

    [*]12746 130 18 Sep 2006 6:21:51 UTC 18 Sep 2006 7:23:24 UTC Over Success Done 207.84 1.05 pending
    [*]12747 217 18 Sep 2006 22:59:36 UTC 18 Sep 2006 23:26:23 UTC Over Client error Compute error 189.42 0.37 ---
    [*]12748 233 18 Sep 2006 23:40:12 UTC 19 Sep 2006 3:32:59 UTC Over Success Done 5,631.64 9.70 pending
    [*]20647 103 22 Sep 2006 13:31:40 UTC 23 Sep 2006 9:51:43 UTC Over Success Done 7,256.46 13.77 pending
    [*]21827 207 23 Sep 2006 10:04:42 UTC 23 Sep 2006 10:06:19 UTC Over Client error Compute error 0.00 0.00 ---
    [*]21828 137 23 Sep 2006 10:20:01 UTC 23 Sep 2006 14:44:43 UTC Over Success Done 5,082.33 9.75 pending
    [*]21830 190 24 Sep 2006 3:16:35 UTC 24 Sep 2006 16:43:10 UTC Over Success Done 5,750.20 9.90 pending
    [*]21940 --- --- --- Unsent Unknown New --- --- ---


5 in, all pending, 4 with success, 1 with error.
What's wrong with the success ones to reach no consensus?




Will the sending of the last result for this WU help?
I've just seen it:
21940 306 28 Sep 2006 20:31:09 UTC 3 Oct 2006 20:31:09 UTC In Progress Unknown New --- --- ---


Finally:
application Charmm
created 18 Sep 2006 2:45:02 UTC
name 1tng_mod0001_1254_335479
minimum quorum 2
initial replication 7
max # of error/total/success results 3, 8, 5
errors Too many success results


Success sucks ;)


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Message 827 - Posted 5 Oct 2006 4:33:49 UTC - in response to Message ID 811 .
Last modified: 5 Oct 2006 4:34:04 UTC

We'll check these 0 credit results out as soon as possible. And of course we'll re-credit all of these results if needed.

Thanks for making us aware of these!!!

Andre


Don't worry about the credits, this is alpha, what's lost is lost.
But make sure to have it straightened before going public.
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Message 831 - Posted 5 Oct 2006 6:37:48 UTC - in response to Message ID 827 .

Don't worry about the credits, this is alpha, what's lost is lost.
But make sure to have it straightened before going public.


I disagree. DC is sucessful because of credits. Full stop.

Yes, this is an alpha project. Yes, credits are not guarenteed and may be lost. That's all implicit.

But consider this: This is not only an alpha for the mechanics of the science project, but more importantly for how to deal with us "donators". The social testing. *Now* is the time to figure out the project's position on credits, and how to deal with unexpected issues like this. Now is the time to think it through. What's fair? And why? Do they need to make their decisions based on president with other projects, and why? Do they keep credit decisions on par with other projects? And why?

Now is the time for the project to define their "moral center" with regard to issuing credits in return for our CPU time. This is the most important aspect of a DC project, because if they alienate us, there is no project.

Once it "goes public", it will be far to late to figure that out. And without a precedence, they will appear capricious. That gets ugly. We've both seen that.

So while they are testing with us, we are testing with them. We are here to help them do it right...right?
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Message 838 - Posted 5 Oct 2006 10:21:27 UTC - in response to Message ID 831 .

Once it "goes public", it will be far to late to figure that out.

100% agree. The policy on credits should be established within the testing phase, because it's much easier to change rules (even if they were so radical). Also , when the number of the participants is limited, a consensus can be formed more easily.

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Message 840 - Posted 5 Oct 2006 10:49:03 UTC - in response to Message ID 838 .
Last modified: 5 Oct 2006 10:53:40 UTC

Once it "goes public", it will be far to late to figure that out.

100% agree. The policy on credits should be established within the testing phase, because it's much easier to change rules (even if they were so radical). Also , when the number of the participants is limited, a consensus can be formed more easily.

For my Intel Mac, the credits are evened out for the projects I am doing: (normalized as credits per 100 CPUseconds)

  • Einstein 112.97/22.4= 3.6219
  • Seti (post Sept. 24) 31.6/9.0= 3.511
  • Seti (pre Sept. 29) 33.9/9.1=3.73

There is continuous updating to get the credits more or less equivalent across the projects and between computers based on the work done.

The credits my machine is getting with Docking is:


  • docking 14.55/5.54= 2.63

For my computer, Docking is giving quite a bit less credit than the other projects.

For Rosetta, there has been a torturous analysis and modification of the credit system. It is now trying to establish a new system that uses an "average" of the results for different computers to come up with the "fair" credit. For example, I got these results for 2 Rosetta WU's:


  • rosetta high 49/14.2= 3.45
  • rosetta low 37/14.2=2.61

For my computer, Rosetta is giving similar or slightly less credit than average for the projects I am crunching at.

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Message 841 - Posted 5 Oct 2006 11:14:38 UTC - in response to Message ID 840 .

Even if there are obvious differences for each project between credit per hour, I don't decide which projects I have my hosts crunch by concerning the relation. S@H has the high score, but I rarely crunch it because I don't have any interest in it. Whether larger amount of credits can get awarded or not doesn't motivate me.
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Message 842 - Posted 5 Oct 2006 11:14:50 UTC - in response to Message ID 840 .
Last modified: 5 Oct 2006 11:15:39 UTC

double post...
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Message 845 - Posted 5 Oct 2006 12:07:39 UTC - in response to Message ID 831 .

Once it "goes public", it will be far to late to figure that out. And without a precedence, they will appear capricious. That gets ugly. We've both seen that.

So while they are testing with us, we are testing with them. We are here to help them do it right...right?

That's just what I said: It's not important yet, but get it straight before going public.

Of course credits are important in DC, and fairness with them as well. But now it's more important to point at faults and get them dealt with then to get credits.
It's fine to get them, it's always better to get them in alpha as well, ubt if not, so what? Just make sure to watch a bit more closely for any irregularties with credits and mention them here.
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Message 849 - Posted 5 Oct 2006 12:35:27 UTC - in response to Message ID 842 .

Credits cannot be traded for anything therefore they are worthless. There should be no need for this project or any other project to develop a policy for giving out something that is totally worthless. Yet there is a need. Why?

I believe the credit culture that has grown up within the DC community is a culture that belongs to a few thousand vocal individuals who have duped the projects into believing that nobody will crunch unless they receive credits and that credits must be awarded fairy and consistently. All that in spite of the obvious, glaring fact that credits are worthless. Even worse, the credit culture has driven projects to use a quorum of 3 to prevent cheating when a quorum of 2 would be adequate for many. That's a huge waste of resources just to protect something of no value. It is plain to see that credits hurt the enterprise rather than promote it.

I propose that all projects, all at once and all together, discontinue the practice of awarding credits and return DC to what it should be... a gift and labor of love given with the expectation of promoting the common wealth rather than promoting an anonymous pseudonym in a virtual world. If a few thousand members leave the community then so be it. They were here for the wrong reason to begin with. If the projects made an honest effort at advertising and recruiting, the few who leave could be replaced overnight. The reward to the projects would be that they are no longer servile to a few thousand credit whores and a few thousand zombies who mimic the whores because they have nothing better to do.

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Message 850 - Posted 5 Oct 2006 14:34:13 UTC - in response to Message ID 849 .
Last modified: 5 Oct 2006 14:39:24 UTC

Since credits are measureable in the boinc-sphere, it can be a milestone, and accelerates the competetion among teams and therefore advances the science (well, maybe I've said the similar thing on another board...). The case of the SAP of CPDN is a really good example. There has existed a competition (no officially though) between BOINC Synergy and UK BOINC Team for a month or so.
The top chart of this page shows that both RACs increased compared to when the competition hadn't appeared clearly.

Though it's just one of the examples, certainly in each team and in each project there are participants who want overtake other teams. Each of them devotes computer's cycle to the project particularly, and as a result not only they have a chance to be the number 1 in the world, but also their intensive crunching advance that science whether it's large or not.

Credit is not of course what has worth in the society except the boinc-sphere, but it's no bad to be accepted as what motivates some of us to crunch.
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Message 856 - Posted 5 Oct 2006 14:54:39 UTC - in response to Message ID 849 .

Credits cannot be traded for anything therefore they are worthless.


Just because you can't spend it, it's worthless? Wow, I guess there is no point in keeping score when playing tennis with a freind, or basketball, or using "money" when playing Monopoly. What's the point, right?
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Message 875 - Posted 5 Oct 2006 18:41:57 UTC

You can't spend it, but it also doesn't cost the project to supply it. Things don't have to be of value to be valuable.
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Message 880 - Posted 5 Oct 2006 22:00:22 UTC - in response to Message ID 856 .
Last modified: 5 Oct 2006 22:09:44 UTC

Credits cannot be traded for anything therefore they are worthless.


Just because you can't spend it, it's worthless? Wow, I guess there is no point in keeping score when playing tennis with a freind, or basketball, or using "money" when playing Monopoly. What's the point, right?


The point of a tennis match might be to determine who is the better player. In that case points serve a purpose. On the other hand some people play just for exercise and don't bother keeping score. Whatever the players agree upon is what's best for them. Likewise, the point of a monopoly game is to see who can become the wealthiest. The money (the points) serve a purpose there too. In both cases, participants agree upon what the game is all about.

The point of crunching, however, is to do science, not to see who controls the most FLOPS. Lately it seems the point has become amassing credits which apparently proves A has more FLOPS than B. So what? What does that have to do with docking and folding? That's not the game I agreed to play and I resent the fact that my FLOPS and electricity are being wasted policing and enforcing the credit system and weeding out cheaters. If it cost me nothing to crunch I would care less. And if policing the cheaters didn't slow the science it wouldn't matter to me at all. But it does slow the science and I care deeply about doing better science and doing it faster.

Suguru holds that the competition is good for the science. Is it really? We can see spikes in a project's production when 2 teams square off but when they do they ignore other projects to focus on just 1 project. Production at those other projects therefore must go down. While the total production of all projects combined doesn't suffer it certainly isn't enhanced by competition. So again, the competition does not serve the science.

KWSN holds that the credits cost the projects nothing. That has been shown to be false in at least 1 case and it's probably false in many other cases as well. At SIMAP, for instance, the Holy Quorum of 3 was inviolable law, as sacred as the The Holy Trinity is to the Pope. Then POOF! one day the Good Code Faeries delivered code that made it possible to abandon the reliance on client-side benchmarks and POOF! they started doling out fixed credits and POOF! the 3 quorum was tossed out the window like a piece of fiery toast and a much more productive 2 quorum was ushered in. Well, that's all just too much POOFing and spoofing for me to buy. I don't believe in Code Faeries. It's obvious now the quorum of 3 had NOTHING to do with scientific rigor. It was all about preventing credit cheating. So, credits don't cost the projects? They cost dearly in lost production, 33% under a quorum of 3 if a quorum of 2 is all you really need. It seems 2 is all SIMAP ever really needed and it's more than likely the same at many other projects, 2 is enough. Then there is the cost of electricity and hardware paid for by crunchers, not the projects.

The projects have become like bad welfare bums squandering the taxes you and I pay. They squander our resources and electricity and nobody holds them accountable. Somehow, a pail full of worthless points is supposed to make up for it. Horse excrement! Take a million of them to your utilities provider and just see if you can get a little knocked off your bill. Not worth even a Big Mac Worthless over at Ronnie Rotten's hamburger joint.

I think it's high time crunchers did something about the waste and the credit system that fosters the waste. We need an across the board strike, 3 days of no crunching, maybe more, whatever it takes to either force the projects to sit down with the BOINC devs and get serious about revamping the credit system or else abolish credits across the board.
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Message 889 - Posted 6 Oct 2006 3:59:57 UTC
Last modified: 6 Oct 2006 4:01:01 UTC

I think the credit system helps in many ways. First thing that comes to my mind is when a team looks for new members to improve in the rankings. Of course the system has its cons as well.

We are taking the credit issue very seriously... don't think that we don't care. The least we want is for somebody to walk away because of credit... worthless or not is something that is here and we have to deal with and make sure that our users are fine with.

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Message 891 - Posted 6 Oct 2006 7:26:46 UTC - in response to Message ID 880 .

hi dave,

Suguru holds that the competition is good for the science. Is it really? We can see spikes in a project's production when 2 teams square off but when they do they ignore other projects to focus on just 1 project. Production at those other projects therefore must go down. While the total production of all projects combined doesn't suffer it certainly isn't enhanced by competition. So again, the competition does not serve the science.

Please make sure that competition also motivates us to commit the project more. If one seriously commits the competition, then he perhaps try to bring his computer resource more out by, for example, upgrading CPU or RAM, or more simply, running PC longer. Doesn't it advance the science? Also, there's no need to help all sciences be advanced.

Well, if scientists were forced to produce the scientific results in limited period, then they wouldn't depend upon distributed computing, which is sustained by volunteers, and purchase or borrow supercomputer by themselves...
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Message 894 - Posted 6 Oct 2006 8:28:30 UTC - in response to Message ID 889 .
Last modified: 6 Oct 2006 8:56:00 UTC

I think the credit system helps in many ways. First thing that comes to my mind is when a team looks for new members to improve in the rankings. Of course the system has its cons as well.

We are taking the credit issue very seriously... don't think that we don't care. The least we want is for somebody to walk away because of credit... worthless or not is something that is here and we have to deal with and make sure that our users are fine with.


Ummm... your users? It's the other way around, no? The projects are our users and since they use for free we are called hosts. I think if most of the hosts out there understood what their machines are really being used for they'd quit crunching tomorrow. Fortunately for the projects most hosts just crunch and don't bother keeping up with issues that affect them. Charities have been raked over the coals in the press before for wasting contributions and a few have not faired well. I think the projects ought to get their act together before some journalist with an attitude and a reputation for sticking up for the little guy decides there's a story that needs telling and a rip off that needs exposing.
I encourage you to get your initial replication and quorum down to 2 no matter what it means to the credit system.

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Message 899 - Posted 6 Oct 2006 18:10:43 UTC - in response to Message ID 894 .
Last modified: 6 Oct 2006 18:11:33 UTC

I encourage you to get your initial replication and quorum down to 2 no matter what it means to the credit system.

So 2 is the scientific necessary amount for validation of a result. An experiment done twice is a valid foundation for a new theory?

I simply don't know what's needed, could be one, could be 10, just don't let you decide this via credit discussion, but for scientific needs. As for this massive redundancy is a must, just not necessary on a WU by WU level, you can calculate credits on this redundancy, either WU by WU, or per batch of WU like Rosetta and Folding.
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Message 901 - Posted 6 Oct 2006 19:18:47 UTC - in response to Message ID 899 .

just don't let you decide this via credit discussion, but for scientific needs.


If the science demands 3 then let it be 3, I have no problem with that. But if it's 3 just to reduce cheating then that is a massive abuse of the contribution made by crunchers and in that case I say throw out the whole credit system rather than let that abuse continue for even 1 more day. If 1000 credit whores leave because of it then too bad, it's their loss not the project's, the project will get 10,000 to replace them if they advertise their efficiency and their philosophy of spending OUR money to DO SCIENCE rather than spending it on titillating a pack of credit whores by converting cash into useless, worthless credits.

I won't quit this project just because a credit system is in place but I have quit other projects (TANPAKU, Spinhenge) because they waste my CPU time and electric power far more than an alpha/beta project needs to. These days I favor SIMAP (quorum 2, replications 2) but I'll give D@H a chance and take into consideration it's only alpha.
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Message 902 - Posted 6 Oct 2006 20:12:04 UTC

Altruism got me to sign up my one PC. The competition/points/esprit de corps got me to

o buy 13 more machines
o solicit donations of 2 older machines that were gathering dust at friend's homes
o convince a frient to let me run BOINC on her two machines

That's 17 machines (or 29 cores, or 36 threads) that are running DC projects because of competition.

Without it, I would still be running my single PC when I could remember to do so.
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Message 905 - Posted 6 Oct 2006 23:11:10 UTC - in response to Message ID 902 .
Last modified: 6 Oct 2006 23:12:24 UTC

Altruism got me to sign up a handful of machines I own, only 2 of which do much, the others are slow.

Altruism got me to sign up over 200 other crunchers. Some are friends, most were total strangers I struck a conversation with and gave a CD bearing latest BOINC installer and a little .html file with some advice and links to helpful sites. I don't know how many crunch for teams and I couldn't care less if they crunch for a team or not.

Altruism keeps me writing articles for [url = http://www.wcgwiki.org]wcgwiki[/url]. So you see there are people who do things just to be nice, no reward required, they don't do it to prove they're somebody, they just do it. This "gotta be on a team and kick butt" attitude so prevalent these days is a blight on humanity.

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Message 909 - Posted 7 Oct 2006 6:27:19 UTC - in response to Message ID 905 .

Altruism got me to sign up a handful of machines I own, only 2 of which do much, the others are slow.

Altruism got me to sign up over 200 other crunchers. Some are friends, most were total strangers I struck a conversation with and gave a CD bearing latest BOINC installer and a little .html file with some advice and links to helpful sites. I don't know how many crunch for teams and I couldn't care less if they crunch for a team or not.


You're *so* much better than me. Your message is coming through loud and clear. Funny thing is, my competitive crunching is just as valuable to the projects as your angelic crunching. Motivation is meaningless. A flop is a flop.

Look, have you never participated in competitive team sports? Baseball? Basketball? Soccer? There is a reason many people do this beyond exercise. It's a great way to meet new friends, and teamwork can be its own reward.

I think you are dead wrong about what motivates many (most?) personal crunchers. And that competition is critical. Without some way of keeping track, and measuring one's contribution, people lose interest. In my opinion, altruism attracts personal crunchers, but credits are what drive them them once here.

This "gotta be on a team and kick butt" attitude so prevalent these days is a blight on humanity.


Ah. So that's why I do it.
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Message 914 - Posted 7 Oct 2006 16:38:25 UTC - in response to Message ID 909 .
Last modified: 7 Oct 2006 16:44:30 UTC


You're *so* much better than me.


Sorry you feel that way but gee, wasn't the point of your other poast to prove you're *so* much better than me?

Your message is coming through loud and clear. Funny thing is, my competitive crunching is just as valuable to the projects as your angelic crunching. Motivation is meaningless. A flop is a flop.


I agree, my message is loud and clear. Trouble is you just don't seem to be getting it. If we have a quorum of 3 rather than 2 just to keep your competitive crunching honest then your competitive crunching is wasting 33%.

Look, have you never participated in competitive team sports? Baseball? Basketball? Soccer? There is a reason many people do this beyond exercise. It's a great way to meet new friends, and teamwork can be its own reward.


Agreed. But does every single thing we humans do have to be organised into teams and a competition created? Why not just be on Team Docking and help kick disease butt.

I think you are dead wrong about what motivates many (most?) personal crunchers. And that competition is critical. Without some way of keeping track, and measuring one's contribution, people lose interest.


I disagree. I think you are dead wrong about what motivates crunchers and I think most would rather see the competition die than crunch 1 out of every 3 work units for nothing. Most people just get out from behind their 'puters and go bowling or join a softball league or something when they want to meet new people and kick some butt. You don't really meet people here, not really. Have you tried bowling or something like that?

This "gotta be on a team and kick butt" attitude so prevalent these days is a blight on humanity.


Ah. So that's why I do it.[/quote]

Now it seems to sinking in.

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Message 916 - Posted 7 Oct 2006 17:52:46 UTC - in response to Message ID 914 .
Last modified: 7 Oct 2006 17:54:05 UTC


You're *so* much better than me.

Sorry you feel that way but gee, wasn't the point of your other poast to prove you're *so* much better than me?

No. Read it again. I was trying to illustrate the positive effect of competition on DC flops. I will say it again: Altruism gets people in the game, competition keeps them there and drives more flops. Not all people, obviously. But enough that DC would suffer without it.
Your message is coming through loud and clear. Funny thing is, my competitive crunching is just as valuable to the projects as your angelic crunching. Motivation is meaningless. A flop is a flop.

I agree, my message is loud and clear. Trouble is you just don't seem to be getting it. If we have a quorum of 3 rather than 2 just to keep your competitive crunching honest then your competitive crunching is wasting 33%.

Duh. That's why I asked for exactly that in this very same thread back on 09/23. It's the 5th from the top. Read it for yourself. I don't recall seeing anyone here disagreeing with reducing the quarum, except the staff (at least for the time being).

But that's not what we're arguing about now, which is the value of competition/credits to DC.
Look, have you never participated in competitive team sports? Baseball? Basketball? Soccer? There is a reason many people do this beyond exercise. It's a great way to meet new friends, and teamwork can be its own reward.

Agreed. But does every single thing we humans do have to be organised into teams and a competition created? Why not just be on Team Docking and help kick disease butt.

We are. I'm on the Docking@Home team, and I am also part of a sub-team. They're not mutually exclusive.

[Balance of "I'm right, you're wrong", "You're right, I'm wrong" deleted]
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Message 921 - Posted 7 Oct 2006 21:04:21 UTC - in response to Message ID 916 .


You're *so* much better than me.

Sorry you feel that way but gee, wasn't the point of your other poast to prove you're *so* much better than me?

No.


Me neither. I was just trying to show that altruism plays a big role here too and that DC won't die if the credits stopped tomorrow. As utility rates continue to spiral upwards more people are going to question the excesses. Each and every project would do well to trim excesses now, before people leave DC, rather than trying to get them back after they leave. If supporting the credit competition is what's driving the excess then the credits have to go for the sake of the science unless some other way of awarding credits can be implemented.



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Message 937 - Posted 9 Oct 2006 2:28:31 UTC - in response to Message ID 916 .


Duh. That's why I asked for exactly that in this very same thread back on 09/23. It's the 5th from the top. Read it for yourself. I don't recall seeing anyone here disagreeing with reducing the quarum, except the staff (at least for the time being).


Don't speak for the staff please :-)

I fully agree that we should go to a quorum of 2 if we can go to a quorum of 2 without compromising the results. For the moment, our scientist (who deliver the input data and process the output data) want to see 3 results agreeing before trusting the result enough. And that's the real job that we, boinc and all the other projects have to do: convince scientists that this system is a 100% reliable so that 2 agreeing results can be trusted; until that time we have to stick with three. But don't worry, behind the scenes a lot of footwork is done so that we can hopefully reduce the quorum at some point.

Thanks!
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PS I'm not a scientist, I'm a computer engineer :-)
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Message 938 - Posted 9 Oct 2006 3:01:20 UTC - in response to Message ID 937 .


Duh. That's why I asked for exactly that in this very same thread back on 09/23. It's the 5th from the top. Read it for yourself. I don't recall seeing anyone here disagreeing with reducing the quorum, except the staff (at least for the time being).

Don't speak for the staff please :-)

Wouldn't think of it. I was just repeating what you said in message 538 of this thread.
I fully agree that we should go to a quorum of 2 if we can go to a quorum of 2 without compromising the results. For the moment, our scientist (who deliver the input data and process the output data) want to see 3 results agreeing before trusting the result enough. And that's the real job that we, boinc and all the other projects have to do: convince scientists that this system is a 100% reliable so that 2 agreeing results can be trusted; until that time we have to stick with three. But don't worry, behind the scenes a lot of footwork is done so that we can hopefully reduce the quorum at some point.

I agree it is too early to switch to a 2 quorum system, at least for the macs. Different mac models returning different results is a real problem. And even a quorum of 3 doesn't really fix it. Let's say it is the mac mini that is creating the bad results. If you got a WU returned by 3 mac minis, they would all match, validate, issue credits...but still be a bad result.
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Message boards : Number crunching : Validator and Quorum

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    }
  }
  [1]=>
  array(7) {
    ["file"]=>
    string(48) "/boinc/projects/docking/html_v2/inc/forum_db.inc"
    ["line"]=>
    int(60)
    ["function"]=>
    string(6) "update"
    ["class"]=>
    string(6) "DbConn"
    ["object"]=>
    object(DbConn)#60 (2) {
      ["db_conn"]=>
      resource(120) of type (mysql link persistent)
      ["db_name"]=>
      string(7) "docking"
    }
    ["type"]=>
    string(2) "->"
    ["args"]=>
    array(3) {
      [0]=>
      object(BoincThread)#3 (16) {
        ["id"]=>
        string(2) "36"
        ["forum"]=>
        string(1) "2"
        ["owner"]=>
        string(2) "52"
        ["status"]=>
        string(1) "0"
        ["title"]=>
        string(20) "Validator and Quorum"
        ["timestamp"]=>
        string(10) "1160362880"
        ["views"]=>
        string(4) "1775"
        ["replies"]=>
        string(2) "54"
        ["activity"]=>
        string(20) "4.5179505631299e-129"
        ["sufferers"]=>
        string(1) "0"
        ["score"]=>
        string(1) "0"
        ["votes"]=>
        string(1) "0"
        ["create_time"]=>
        string(10) "1158389083"
        ["hidden"]=>
        string(1) "0"
        ["sticky"]=>
        string(1) "0"
        ["locked"]=>
        string(1) "0"
      }
      [1]=>
      &string(6) "thread"
      [2]=>
      &string(13) "views=views+1"
    }
  }
  [2]=>
  array(7) {
    ["file"]=>
    string(63) "/boinc/projects/docking/html_v2/user/community/forum/thread.php"
    ["line"]=>
    int(184)
    ["function"]=>
    string(6) "update"
    ["class"]=>
    string(11) "BoincThread"
    ["object"]=>
    object(BoincThread)#3 (16) {
      ["id"]=>
      string(2) "36"
      ["forum"]=>
      string(1) "2"
      ["owner"]=>
      string(2) "52"
      ["status"]=>
      string(1) "0"
      ["title"]=>
      string(20) "Validator and Quorum"
      ["timestamp"]=>
      string(10) "1160362880"
      ["views"]=>
      string(4) "1775"
      ["replies"]=>
      string(2) "54"
      ["activity"]=>
      string(20) "4.5179505631299e-129"
      ["sufferers"]=>
      string(1) "0"
      ["score"]=>
      string(1) "0"
      ["votes"]=>
      string(1) "0"
      ["create_time"]=>
      string(10) "1158389083"
      ["hidden"]=>
      string(1) "0"
      ["sticky"]=>
      string(1) "0"
      ["locked"]=>
      string(1) "0"
    }
    ["type"]=>
    string(2) "->"
    ["args"]=>
    array(1) {
      [0]=>
      &string(13) "views=views+1"
    }
  }
}
query: update docking.thread set views=views+1 where id=36