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Sir Richard Biggerstaff · Knight Joined: 27 Nov 2005 Posts: 45 Location: Maine, USA

I'm running BOINC on three PC's -- two old and decrepit, one reasonable. Until last week I was running the old SETI@Home client. Now that I've upgraded to BOINC, I find I have choices. (We used to say in my software days, "User Choice = Bad".)

Might I invite some opinions, prosyletizations, and / or rants on the relative merits - and stability - of the various project options?

Thank you and Good Ni.
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Sir Richard Biggerstaff
A Dark and Stormy Knight

ToeBee · Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2005 11:59 pm Post subject:

It all comes down to what projects you feel are worthy and/or fun to process for. I personally like LHC@home because they are using BOINC to help build the world's largest particle accelerator. It will make particles go BOOM! #Microwave

It is a concrete goal that will be accomplished within the next few years. The problem with that project is that their work supply is very intermittent. Sometimes they have work for 2 weeks and then nothing for 2 weeks. They have to run a batch and then analyze the results before they can create more work.

ProteinPredictor@Home has smaller work units that run well on my oldest cruncher (P3-500). They usually have a pretty steady supply of work. Einstein@home seems to be one of the most stable projects from what I have seen. They are searching for "gravity waves" for those who are into quantum physics.

Then there is Climateprediction.net... Don't run that on anything but top of the line. Work units take WEEKS of CPU time and I have had problems with it pushing "questionable" RAM over the edge into the "non-functioning" realm just because it uses a lot of memory and seems to access it heavily. Not the project's fault but their client will lay the smack down on your hardware Razz

While they haven't been the most stable of projects it doesn't matter as much since the work units take so long. And that is about all the projects I have direct experience with. Well except for seti. I am currently doing a lot of seti mostly because our seti team is lagging a little and may eventually fall out of the top 10 which would make our founder somewhat unhappy #Mad

I'm hoping with classic shutting down, some of our big producers will move to BOINC and help boost our production.

I know some people are concerned about whether or not the results of a project will be open for review as opposed to being proprietary and potentially making someone rich off of free CPU cycles. I think I have seen particular concern about this on the protein folding projects since the results could possibly lead to new medicines being developed which would undoubtedly cost an arm and a leg to buy at your local pharmacy even if you helped to develop it by donating CPU cycles.

For what its worth, here you can see the breakdown of what projects I am currently doing. Those pie charts are always in flux with me as LHC comes and goes and I play around with BOINC on various computers. Your BOINC user name appears to be different than your forum handle so I can't look you up but you can look yourself up on the team stats site.

But above all, every shrub is precious no matter which field it is from! Smile

alpha_fruit · Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2005 5:29 am Post subject:

F@H is a very good choice. You can find it here.
http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/download.html
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Ib Rasmussen · Knight Joined: 02 Jun 2005 Posts: 35 Location: Denmark

ToeBee · Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2005 1:04 pm Post subject:

LanDroid · Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2005 1:06 pm Post subject:

I suggest concentrating on the two biology related Boinc projects, Predictor and Rosetta. One reason is these complement the folding@home project that so many knights are involved with. All three are related to protein structures and folding. By crunching three similar programs, our team can help make a bigger contribution in this area.

[/pimping]

Sir Richard Biggerstaff · Knight Joined: 27 Nov 2005 Posts: 45 Location: Maine, USA

I have stopped taking work on the LHC project; the sixtrack application seems to take over my PCs and not give them up. Is anyone else experiencing symptoms with it?

Look me up in the stats as "Richard Biggerstaff" if you're curious.
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Sir Richard Biggerstaff
A Dark and Stormy Knight

Sir Richard Biggerstaff · Knight Joined: 27 Nov 2005 Posts: 45 Location: Maine, USA

I get that there are Folders and Boincers, and coming from the old SETI project, I'm a Boincer almost by default. Why isn't running Rosetta and/or Predictor as valuable as F@H?

I imagine all the teams are seeing a bump in membership from people like me, who started seeing messages that the old SETI project will stop issuing work soon. The 15th, I think. I was a solitary knight, alone in the shrubberies for years, until I saw the light with Boinc!

#ni-2

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Sir Richard Biggerstaff
A Dark and Stormy Knight

Michelle · Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2005 9:27 pm Post subject:

I think they are just as worthwhile as each other, Sir Richard. #ni-1

There are many good projects out there to participate in and I think it really boils down to personal choice. I'm running 7 BOINC projects plus Find-a-Drug (ending soon) on this computer, and I'm running F@H and eon on my other computer. Most of the Looneys are involved in many different ones, and switch between them as the need arises - usually when we need a boost in a project's stats. Very competitive business this. Laughing

Some Looneys favour F@H over BOINC, hence all the Folding pimps.
Laughing

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ToeBee · Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 2:35 am Post subject:

Part of the reason I prefer BOINC is because of its multi-project features. From the little glimpses I have seen here and there it looks like BOINC hasn't gone over very well with a lot of folding users. Though I guess the early versions of BOINC didn't go over well with a lot of people which is unfortunate however now a lot of people are bashing it based on their experience from over a year ago even though it has changed a LOT since then and has improved greatly.

Dagger · Prince Joined: 10 Mar 2004 Posts: 2918 Location: BC Canada

I'm thinking something about the number of handles increasing. I can't quite remember what exactly.
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Apple · Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 6:10 pm Post subject:

Sir Richard Biggerstaff · Knight Joined: 27 Nov 2005 Posts: 45 Location: Maine, USA

Yes, I found the work/reward ration a little thin too, at 6600+ hours to complete...

#ni-1

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Sir Richard Biggerstaff
A Dark and Stormy Knight

ToeBee · Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2005 4:46 am Post subject:

You DO get credit along the way. Every <insert correct number here> time steps it sends a "trickle" that gives you credit. I don't remember the exact number but on my 2400+ I think it usually sent 1-2 trickles per day depending on resource share settings, etc.

Dagger · Prince Joined: 10 Mar 2004 Posts: 2918 Location: BC Canada

Back when i was running CPDN every trickle was ~ 75 cobblestones. And at about 3 to 4 a day (64 3200+) it adds up fairly quick.
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When in doubt, kick it until it works.

Ib Rasmussen · Knight Joined: 02 Jun 2005 Posts: 35 Location: Denmark