KWSN Orbiting Fortress

mtnbkrt17 · Squire Joined: 03 Dec 2013 Posts: 5

Hello all!

I'm new here! I'm new to BOINC as well, however I have amassed over 5,021,708 credits since October 23rd so I must be doing something right! I have never used a forum before so this is all so very new to me.

Some background:
I'm an engineering student with access to a couple hundred computers that I can have run BOINC every few days for maybe a night or so. I have been an active member of theskynet.org since it first became operational and have nearly stayed in the top 10 for the past 2 years. I recently started using BOINC so that I could contribute to the pogs.theskynet.org (the BOINC version of theskynet). It turns out setting up the BOINC program on the computers I use is quicker than setting up theskynet software. Since October 10th I have contributed 4,981,205 credits to POGS, and I'd like to see that number increase, so pogs will continue to be my main focus, though I do contribute to Einstein@Home and Primegrid.

My Proposal:
In September of 2011 I founded "The Knights Who Say Ni" alliance on theskynet.org, it currently has 42,216,118 credits and 13 members, it is in 13th place overall. When I recently started working with POGS I found "The Knights Who Say Ni! (POGS)" team on POGS and the same named alliance on theskynet.org. I then talked with the web managers of theskynet.org and they said they plan on merging POGS teams and theskynet.org alliances together soon. As it stands my alliance does not have a team on POGS while yours does. My proposal is that my alliance on theskynet.org merges with your alliance on theskynet.org (and subsequent team on POGS) and we create a large alliance. Currently your KWSN! alliance is in 32nd place, if we were to merge alliances your alliance would gain all 13 of my alliance members, as well as all their credits. The newly merged alliancs would be in 9th place. Once the alliances merge the members of my alliance would join your POGS team as well, adding to the BOINC total for your team. So what do you guys think of this idea?

I have talked to "KWSN Sir Mifun Fat in a Right Place" who told me to post on this forum and see what the general consensus was.

PhastPhred · Posted: Wed Dec 04, 2013 3:49 am Post subject:

Is there someplace we can see what your own members think?
I understand how you can speak for yourself, but are ALL your other members on board with us?
At http://www.theskynet.org/alliances/276?locale=en I see a half-dozen have already joined us
I think eliminating the confuzzleication would be good
You wanna Shrub, WE wanna Shrub, seems a no-brainer...
KWSN was here WAY before BOINC, so ya be joining one of the OLDEST Teams in Distributed Computing!
Glad ya dropped by the Fortress and all, Mountain Biker, just be careful of the Alpaca Droppings!

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branjo · Prince Joined: 05 Jan 2006 Posts: 746 Location: Slovakia

Since merging are a part of our everyday lives since the early beginning of our ultimate quest, I have not proble also with this one.

But as Sir PP said, we have to hear the vox (of) populi-without-an-"!"

#ni-1

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JumpinJohnny · Posted: Wed Dec 04, 2013 8:01 am Post subject:

Welcome to the Forum mtnbkrt17 #ni-1

I had hoped you would want to do this thing.
And thanks for the help there for 3 days in the Herschel B'day challenge.
You have probably noticed that our same team across all BOINC programs is "The Nights Who Say Ni!", (Including the word "The" and the "!"). This name is how all of our stats are tracked and credited in the BOINC system.
Any change in the name becomes a completely separate team. That's why Mifun chose that name when setting up an "Alliance" in the POGS, to keep it all consistent, which proved to work well seeing how theSkyNet POGS program has merged the "Alliances" with BOINC Teams on their website.
I like the idea of a further merger with your Alliance to bring people together and have more fun slapping our coconuts together and taunting other teams.
But like Phreddy said, we'd love to hear some input from some of your other "Alliance" members, though I think the final decision is totally yours as the Founder of that "Alliance".
We are on the same quest in the same program so it only makes sense to me to have everyone on the same TEAM.
But for the 4,000 some odd members, (some are really odd), of The Knights Who Say Ni!, We really have to keep the name.
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mtnbkrt17 · Squire Joined: 03 Dec 2013 Posts: 5

I agree with the general consensus to talk with the members of my alliance and see what their opinions are. I didn't do that originally because I was not sure how to message them, but I just figured it out and will be sending them a mass message asking about their opinion on the merger.

As for changing the name, I was planning on the merger having my alliance join your alliance, so the name would still be "The Knights Who Say Ni!", your alliance would just grow more powerful. Very Happy

mtnbkrt17 · Squire Joined: 03 Dec 2013 Posts: 5

It would appear that the members of my alliance are not easily contacted. Out of the 13 current members I was only able to send messages to 3 of them, the others have not used theskynet.org forums and I could not find them on POGS. I'll wait a day and see if anyone has any opposition to it, though I feel there will be none.

PhastPhred · Posted: Wed Dec 04, 2013 4:11 pm Post subject:

Your own Crunchin' is the majority of the Totals I assume?
BTW, better be cautious of using the PCs in the Labs or whatnot
Ask permission before ya's take a fall... AND lose a job!
SETI had a BIG, big-time Cruncher, forgot your Nick, NEZ #Beer

and all of a sudden his output became -0-, zero, zilch, nada IIRC
http://hothardware.com/News/School-Worker-Fired-For-Using-District-PC-To-Chase-Down-Aliens/
(I wish I had a job supporting a Computer Lab) #ni-1

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mtnbkrt17 · Squire Joined: 03 Dec 2013 Posts: 5

Yes the majority of my alliance's credits are mine, and a fair chunk of theskynet's credits are mine (I'm currently about 1.7% of it's total processing power).

I do realize that the computers that I use are not mine and are owned by the university. However I have yet to run into any issues with running the program. I have activated it while professors have been in the room and they don't bat an eye. If they or the "Office of Information and Technology" were to tell me to stop running the program then I would, but it's been on the computers for over 2 years and has not been removed by the IT guys yet. As I said earlier, I only run BOINC on the computers every few days for maybe 10 hours at a time. The computers reset each day and the program must be manually restarted, I don't have enough time to do it every day so they only get to run every couple days or so. I also have the program set up so that if someone uses the computer it stops crunching and allows them to do their work.

alpha_fruit · Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2013 9:15 pm Post subject:

Welcome and my 2cents is "just do it".
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Don't fuss about growing older, many are denied the chance.

mtnbkrt17 · Squire Joined: 03 Dec 2013 Posts: 5

The votes are in, the responses of my alliance members (or rather the lack of) have been tallied and it looks like the merger is a-go! Let's make KWSN! on theSkyNet more powerful than ever! #ni-1

JumpinJohnny · Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2013 8:14 pm Post subject:

Let's Ride

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Mifun · Duke Joined: 08 Jan 2012 Posts: 265 Location: Russia

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JumpinJohnny · Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2013 1:33 am Post subject:

It appears that the merger took place today. Very Happy

With the added firepower, that puts The Knights Who Say Ni! Alliance bumped up to 9th place in theSkyNet POGS leaderboard.
And... we have a new frontrunner for total credits on the POGS BOINC Team. #ni-1

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PhastPhred · Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2013 2:46 am Post subject:

All this talk of Mergers...

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lvanst · Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2013 11:46 pm Post subject:

LOL!
This happened in my neighborhood! (t'was not me)
http://hothardware.com/News/School-Worker-Fired-For-Using-District-PC-To-Chase-Down-Aliens/
#ni-1

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