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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Support
Forum: Suggestions / Feedback
Thread: Eliminate one reason why members stop contributing |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 75
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
This is in my experience one reason why we loose contributors: Boinc is using too much of our computer resources. Well, that's kind of the point. Well you couldn't be more wrong - BOINC (and World Community Grid) are meant to: Make best use of our resources WHILE WE ARE NOT USING THEM (without causing heat issues, etc, requiring people to fiddle with their BOINC client OR project website settings to fix the problem of resource hogging) AND if (IF we allow a project to use our resources WHILE we are using our devices) to do so WITHOUT impacting our device performance. You can play with your BOINC/World Community Grid/Project Preferences all you like. I have spent months trying to setup BOINC/World Community Grid to run according to my preferences without effect (and I do have an IT background). I was running only one World Community Grid project (Mapping Cancer Markers) and have tried everything for the project to "play nice" but it just does what it wants. It was getting 100% of my CPU resources (but since I live in the subtropical area it meant it was pushing my CPU temps past their specs). After all other options have failed I have decided to go to the World Community Grid Website and change my account settings to ONLY run between certain hours - not during peak heat times). It simply ignored them, I have updated the settings to no effect, so I have reset the project (to no effect). I have then removed and added the project to my client (thinking the existing WUs/Tasks don't get updated) I haven't gotten a single work unit - and after all that I am happy with it (there will always be other suckers). I am not a sucker - make it work according to our preferences (or don't ask for our help). Make your mind up. This resource hogging phenomenon is not in ANY WAY specific to the World Community Grid Projects - many BOINC projects behave in the same unethical way - IBM World Community Grid is just the latest to jump on the badwagon of poor ethical behaviour. I have decided to remove Mapping Cancer Markers as a project (my last CPU only project) as I have better things to do with my PC than watching the CPU temperature (or being woken up to a heat warning from my CPU/motherboard/OS). Find some other suckers - hey, one is born every second (so they say), use them, then lose them. A lot of these BOINC/World Community Grid projects should be treated as malware - even though they don't "infect" your computer they DO take it over (in terms of resources) so it is malware like behaviour. I am done with this XXXX even though I want to help in cancer research, I think the World Community Grid can find other (new) suckers ... happy recruitment badge hunting people ... ;-) |
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ca05065
Senior Cruncher Joined: Dec 4, 2007 Post Count: 325 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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The Microsoft free program Process Explorer shows that WCG BOINC programs run with a priority of 4. Most other processes run with a priority of 8 while important operating system processes run with a priority of 13. This means that CPU cycles are only used for WCG when they are not required for other higher priority processes.
If you are concerned about temperatures within the chip I would recommend the free program tthrottle which reduces cpu cycles used by BOINC processes when a temperature specified by the user is reached. My limit is set to 70 degrees centigrade well below the maximum operating temperature of my i7. The CPU normally runs between 60 to 70 degrees and very rarely reaches the limit set. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
CZ make sure your Local Prefs are not over riding your Web based ones.
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Coleslaw
Veteran Cruncher USA Joined: Mar 29, 2007 Post Count: 1343 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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CZ, it certainly sounds like you have mis-configured BOINC in some way. Have you taken the time to post your issue in the BOINC Agent Support thread? Typically when IT background individuals gets as frustrated as you seem to be, they go to the experts or the community for some guidance. Since this is a suggestion thread, I would suggest creating your own thread in that section so others can help. Might I also suggest you post your system specs, BOINC version (including whether you downloaded it from WCG or from the developers site), Your configuration choices within the client as well as the preferences you set on your WCG page, and last as well as probably most important a copy of your Event Log from your BOINC client starting from a fresh start up of BOINC. Usually about 30 or 40 lines will do. That is what I would do in my IT background opinion.
----------------------------------------Edit: typo     [Edit 1 times, last edit by Coleslaw at Nov 16, 2014 3:25:10 PM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Hello everyone,
here I have got the numbers of some workunits which have been "user aborted": faah931949_ ZINC12197263_ x2vg5RTKNUC_ 00_ 0-- 719 User Aborted 09.11.14 14:28:04 19.11.14 04:25:37 0.00 0.0 / 0. faah931951_ ZINC01216546_ x2vg5RTKNUC_ 00_ 0-- 719 User Aborted 09.11.14 14:46:54 19.11.14 04:27:55 0.00 0.0 / 0.0 faah931951_ ZINC02578540_ x2vg5RTKNUC_ 00_ 0-- 719 User Aborted 09.11.14 14:46:53 19.11.14 04:27:55 0.00 0.0 / 0.0 faah931950_ ZINC01204960_ x2vg5RTKNUC_ 00_ 0-- 719 User Aborted 09.11.14 14:41:45 19.11.14 04:27:55 0.00 0.0 / 0.0 faah931950_ ZINC16293855_ x2vg5RTKNUC_ 00_ 0-- 719 User Aborted 09.11.14 14:35:29 19.11.14 10:08:39 0.00 0.0 / 0.0 I post those numbers to show, that the fact that people abort workunits is a fact. In my opinion it would be a good idea to analyse the following: Do most people abort workunits just after the beginning of calculation? or do they abort lateter? What systems do those people have? Would they have been able to complete the workunits they aborted in the timle limit or nott? If not, this would clearly indicate, that it would be a good idea to have a project with very small workunits. Thank you for attention and answers Yours Martin Schnellinger |
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jonnieb-uk
Ace Cruncher England Joined: Nov 30, 2011 Post Count: 6105 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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There are xxx reasons why people abort WUs and they will change from day to day, person to person, project to project etc etc.
----------------------------------------There is no hard data that can be analysed in the way you suggect just anecdotal tales in the forum. WhY did you abort the WUs? |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Hello jonnieb-uk
Thank you for the answer. I respect your high contribution to WCG, higher than mine ( I see the badges). But: Do you know for sure that there is no such data to be analysed? Has a WCG tech said this? All the best Martin Schnellinger |
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jonnieb-uk
Ace Cruncher England Joined: Nov 30, 2011 Post Count: 6105 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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I spend an amount of time analysing almost all the publically available WCG data and there is nothing relevant.
----------------------------------------NO WCG tech has said anything but I suggest if they were to respond their answer would be along the lines of : We are a relatively small team and have to prioritise the tasks we undertake etc etc You haven't given your resaon for aborting WUs so why should your request merit any priority? |
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Sgt.Joe
Ace Cruncher USA Joined: Jul 4, 2006 Post Count: 7666 Status: Recently Active Project Badges: 
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Hello everyone, here I have got the numbers of some workunits which have been "user aborted": faah931949_ ZINC12197263_ x2vg5RTKNUC_ 00_ 0-- 719 User Aborted 09.11.14 14:28:04 19.11.14 04:25:37 0.00 0.0 / 0. faah931951_ ZINC01216546_ x2vg5RTKNUC_ 00_ 0-- 719 User Aborted 09.11.14 14:46:54 19.11.14 04:27:55 0.00 0.0 / 0.0 faah931951_ ZINC02578540_ x2vg5RTKNUC_ 00_ 0-- 719 User Aborted 09.11.14 14:46:53 19.11.14 04:27:55 0.00 0.0 / 0.0 faah931950_ ZINC01204960_ x2vg5RTKNUC_ 00_ 0-- 719 User Aborted 09.11.14 14:41:45 19.11.14 04:27:55 0.00 0.0 / 0.0 faah931950_ ZINC16293855_ x2vg5RTKNUC_ 00_ 0-- 719 User Aborted 09.11.14 14:35:29 19.11.14 10:08:39 0.00 0.0 / 0.0 I post those numbers to show, that the fact that people abort workunits is a fact. In my opinion it would be a good idea to analyse the following: Do most people abort workunits just after the beginning of calculation? or do they abort lateter? What systems do those people have? Would they have been able to complete the workunits they aborted in the timle limit or nott? If not, this would clearly indicate, that it would be a good idea to have a project with very small workunits. Thank you for attention and answers Yours Martin Schnellinger Just looking at your sample of aborted units brings one thing to mind. This person or persons may be micromanaging their system to only run FAHV (Vina) units and not run the faah(Autodock) units. On a Linux system, they would be getting a much better point return for their system. Another thing which comes to mind is they needed to clear out their system for any number of reasons such as: go on vacation(holiday), sold/ gave away system, opted out of this project to crunch other projects, etc. I agree with johnnieb-uk when he states: There is no hard data that can be analysed in the way you suggect just anecdotal tales in the forum. Cheers
Sgt. Joe
*Minnesota Crunchers* |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
I would like to be able to set a limiter on all projects, not only on CEP2.
Also, it's strange nobody has mentioned people's privacy and security concerns. I think many more would be interested if there was an option to run projects inside a virtual machine. WCG should put together a software package that contains a VM, a free guest OS and BOINC. Then they should explain that WCG has no access to people's personal files, which would be completely separated from the BOINC files in the guest OS, and that WCG is not exposing their computer to any security risks that can cause their banking passwords to get into the wrong hands. Today there's little or no mention of this. This is such a big concern for people that WCG should have it prominently displayed on the download page. I think MANY have second thoughts after they've installed the software, which is partly why so many install and so few crunch on. Telling people this, is not enough. WCG must show it in order to convince. One way to do this is to have a fully visible and useable guest OS. That way newcomers can see the separation between the host OS and the guest OS. Offering a free second OS would also attract more people, provided it's simple to install and run. This will convince more people to stay, but there are structural trends working against WCG: the migration from desktops to pocket computers, and the fact that today's processors, unlike yesterday's, do a pretty good job of clocking down when idle and thereby saving power - there's no spare computer capacity, at least not any that doesn't come with a higher power bill. Perhaps that's another reason people don't stay: why waste western central banks' newly printed money on this, when one can spend it on Made in China plastic toys? Far more gratifying ... |
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