Willl there be any new work soon?

Hi all,

We started a new batch of WUs. There should be enough work for everybody for some time.
Happy crunching

Malek

Will there be any new work soon?

Hi all,

We started a new batch of WUs. There should be enough work for everybody for some time.
Happy crunching

Malek

This batch will last probably till the middle of next week. Then, I will start 3 or 4 other batches if everything goes as planned.

Malek

Hi, just joined the project. My Core i7 burns through the tasks with median completion time of 19 minutes each. Sounds like I joined just in time for all the work to do. :)

This batch will last probably till the middle of next week. Then, I will start 3 or 4 other batches if everything goes as planned.

Malek

Some are as long as this one and some are even longer.

Malek

Thanks for the update Malek. It's nice to have some VP work to do :o)

Thanks Malek,

It looks like we burned through these WUs more quickly than planned. Only 10 on the server--are there more on the way from this batch, or will we wait for the new batch(es)?

By the way, nice use of the forum to communicate - it's much more efficient than emailing each member, as you'd said. I/we appreciate the updates - 1 quick post from you and then everyone can know what's going on. I'll spread the word to my team. Very easy, nice communication and sincerely appreciated.

Take care and best regards,

StandardbredHorse

Yeah, seems my calculations were wrong. This batch is done, I will start the next one probably tomorrow.


____________
Malek

Yeah, seems my calculations were wrong. This batch is done, I will start the next one probably tomorrow.

Yeah, seems my calculations were wrong. This batch is done, I will start the next one probably tomorrow.

Any news?

Yeah, seems my calculations were wrong. This batch is done, I will start the next one probably tomorrow.

Any news?

Hope some will be released today for my birthday.

Yeah, seems my calculations were wrong. This batch is done, I will start the next one probably tomorrow.

Any news?

Hope some will be released today for my birthday.

Well, happy belated birthday Ray. My birthday came and went yesterday and still nothing :(

Hi all,

Sorry for being late in starting the new batch.
I just started it today, I hope everything will go fine with this one as well.
These wus require quite a bit of memory. I tried my best to reduce memory usage but that's all I could do (at least for now). I would understand if some of you decide not crunch from this batch because of the memory issue.

Thank you


____________
Malek

Hi all,

Sorry for being late in starting the new batch.
I just started it today, I hope everything will go fine with this one as well.
These wus require quite a bit of memory. I tried my best to reduce memory usage but that's all I could do (at least for now). I would understand if some of you decide not crunch from this batch because of the memory issue.

Thank you

A bit more than 500MB/Task peak RAM usage (that's what the windows task manager says), I had to disable it on one quad that has only 2GB, with 4GB they run without trouble.

On my systems I see it using between 500 and 600 Megs of memory. Seems to very some from unit to unit. Running good on the system with 6 Gigs of memory, on the laptop with only 1 Gig some ran, many failed at the start.

On the system with little memory I started CPDN with a high resource share to keep it running, that only allows one of these at a time and they are running.

I can run 3 WUs with my 8G RAM system, but I had to NNT FreeHal.

It looks like the server needs a kick again.....

Malek.
Is there any update on how this batch is doing on being completed? 10@, 50%? Or App. number of units in it?

This batch has 2M wu. A bit more than a 100K have been created and around 90K of them are already done.
____________
Malek

90% of mine errored out in 2secs. Such as this.

Edit: looks like just plain mem errors, given the size of the WUs. Problem is when you have 8 threads in one machine and 3GB RAM, it'll error out at least 2 of the WUs, then it'll load up two more, those will error out, etc.

90% of mine errored out in 2secs. Such as this.

Edit: looks like just plain mem errors, given the size of the WUs. Problem is when you have 8 threads in one machine and 3GB RAM, it'll error out at least 2 of the WUs, then it'll load up two more, those will error out, etc.

I can run 3 WUs with my 8G RAM system, but I had to NNT FreeHal.

Me too. I can start only 3 WU's on my 4 GB RAM Quad-machine. But since i was registered, i crunched over 100 WU's without an error.

regards Monty

Me too. I can start only 3 WU's on my 4 GB RAM Quad-machine. But since i was registered, i crunched over 100 WU's without an error.

regards Monty

4/25/2010 8:10:20 AM Virtual Prairie Message from server: No work sent
4/25/2010 8:10:20 AM Virtual Prairie Message from server: (there was work but it was committed to other platforms)

4/25/2010 8:14:16 AM Virtual Prairie Message from server: No work sent
4/25/2010 8:14:16 AM Virtual Prairie Message from server: (there was work but it was committed to other platforms)

It looks like the server needs another kick today.

It looks like there might be a problem with the result table and/or work generation.

I reported a task at 26 Apr 2010 15:52:33 UTC but the one I first tried to report 41 seconds later isn't being acknowledged. Scheduler replies are either:

It looks like there might be a problem with the result table and/or work generation.

I reported a task at 26 Apr 2010 15:52:33 UTC but the one I first tried to report 41 seconds later isn't being acknowledged. Scheduler replies are either:

It looks like there might be a problem with the result table and/or work generation.

I reported a task at 26 Apr 2010 15:52:33 UTC but the one I first tried to report 41 seconds later isn't being acknowledged. Scheduler replies are either:

Sorry for the multiple posts. There was no response and I retried a couple of times.

Could it be that when this batch is over we will get a bonus a 3 credits per unit for all the server and memory problems? That would sound good.

Sorry for the multiple posts. There was no response and I retried a couple of times.

This batch has 2M wu. A bit more than a 100K have been created and around 90K of them are already done.

This batch will last probably till the middle of next week. Then, I will start 3 or 4 other batches if everything goes as planned.

Malek

Well,

Work is progressing much slower than predicted. 2/3 of the wus aren't yet processed.
____________
Malek

That is bad for the project, but good for the ones of us who want to keep our computers buzy here. Looks like I have to get going and get the 4th cruncher working again.

Well,

Work is progressing much slower than predicted. 2/3 of the wus aren't yet processed.

Well,

Work is progressing much slower than predicted. 2/3 of the wus aren't yet processed.

I assume this is due to the huge memory requirements. Most people today have dual core machines at a minimum. And at >1gb per task required, that means 3-4gb needed to run this project, including the OS and other applications. Very few of those dual core machines have the memory required to successfully crunch this batch of tasks. Now imagine a quad core, or even worse yet, an i7 which will run 8 tasks at a time. They would need at least 12gb of RAM. I don't think you will find many machines out there with that kind of memory.

Phenom 1055T CPU running at @3,0 Ghz
http://vcsc.cs.uh.edu/virtual-prairie/show_host_detail.php?hostid=14438

Phenom 1055T CPU running at @3,0 Ghz
http://vcsc.cs.uh.edu/virtual-prairie/show_host_detail.php?hostid=14438

26 days without a post to this thread??? This one always had them.

To stop the no posting streak I guess I will put in a couple stupid questions.

Are we about 75 - 80% completed on this batch?

Do we get bonus credits at the end for the high memory use? I did say stupid questions.

26 days without a post to this thread??? This one always had them.

To stop the no posting streak I guess I will put in a couple stupid questions.

Are we about 75 - 80% completed on this batch?

Do we get bonus credits at the end for the high memory use? I did say stupid questions.

Well, you guessed it right. We are at 75% of the batch now.
And for the credit question, I think the wus are already well paid even considering the memory usage. So, sorry, no bonuses.
____________
Malek

Well, you guessed it right. We are at 75% of the batch now.
And for the credit question, I think the wus are already well paid even considering the memory usage. So, sorry, no bonuses.

That is good, it would only draw people away from the higher credit projects and crash the server. This way keeps more units for those who like the project.

Any word on when the next batch of work will be available?
____________

Any word on when the next batch of work will be available?

Database/file status
State #
Results ready to send 0
Results in progress 0
Workunits waiting for validation 0
Workunits waiting for assimilation 0
Workunits waiting for deletion 0
Results waiting for deletion 0
Transitioner backlog (hours) 0


.... waiting patiently for my next batch !!!!!!!!!!

LOL

Hello all,

Sorry to inform you that you will have to wait for few days before I can get the new batches running. I need to deal with other issues before.
Thanks for understanding.

Malek
____________
Malek

A few days it is. We'll happily crunch 'em when you give 'em.

No Problem, thank you for letting us know.

Hello all,

Sorry to inform you that you will have to wait for few days before I can get the new batches running. I need to deal with other issues before.
Thanks for understanding.

Malek

..... <<< theme from Jeapardy >>> (the long version!!!) .....

Thank you Malek for these infos.
____________


"Libre de penser... pensez Libre" =8?()>

any news?

Glad to see you back online! Any new work expected soon?
____________

BUMP!

Hi Malek,

your latest news was well over a month ago that it would take a few days for the new batches to be released to the wild. Your predators are getting hungry, so could you please give us some info as to what we can expect? Is this a dry season as announced on the front page?

Thanks for your reply in advance,
Bart

Hi all,

Yes I promised new work around a month ago but I had to take care of other issues before and it took much longer than expected.
The batches are still planned but I can't say when I'm going to launch them.

I'll post to the board once I get these batches started.

Thank you all

Mimi??

Hi all,

Yes I promised new work around a month ago but I had to take care of other issues before and it took much longer than expected.
The batches are still planned but I can't say when I'm going to launch them.

I'll post to the board once I get these batches started.

Thank you all

Thanks for the info Mimi, eehh, Malek ;) Strange things happen sometimes. I'll be grazing the prairie when you let the plants grow again.

Bart

Hi Malek,

Do you have any news about news WU...?

thanks and have a nice day!

olivier
____________

Good morning Malek
It's now closing in on October and still no new work units.
Any word on when we will be getting some new units?

Any word on when we will be getting some new units?

Hi all,

I'm testing few workunits for the next batch which will start (if everything os OK) right after the test wus are done.

Thank you all for your patience.

One of you suggested (via email) that we establish a mailing list to announce availability of workunits. Anyone who would like to join the mailing list please send an empty email to vcsc@cs.uh.edu with subject "announcement mailing list"
____________
Malek

And is there supposed to be something like an @ and something more in front of the vcsc.cs.uh.edu?

For a moment I thought I'm loosing it and that my end was nigh, but then I saw you corrected your post after I posted mine. Also the url with the dot is still in my clipboard. So I'm still sane!! (as far as I'm concerned ;) )

Thanks for the correction Malek, expect a mail from me.

Bart

Edit:
Btw, you could maybe also post RSS news?

I see we have work again. Is there any word on how many units there will be this time?

The last WUs were very tasty! Will we get more of those? *yum yum* ;-)))
____________
Greetings from Cori

Yes it's coming. Waiting for the last wus to add a new application version and restart the work generator.

Malek
____________
Malek

Awww, sweet! :-))))
I am looking forward to the new crrrrrunchies then. *smiles*
____________
Greetings from Cori

That didn't last too long

no work for days - any news?

The current batch is done (much faster than expected) but another one (not much larger) is coming soon.

Malek
____________
Malek

... much faster than expected ...

The current batch is done (much faster than expected) but another one (not much larger) is coming soon.

Malek

We will try to make it last a little longer.

The current batch is done (much faster than expected) but another one (not much larger) is coming soon.

Malek

not to sound impatient, but soon means?

not to sound impatient, but soon means?

Today?!

The test series seemed to have worked quite well, you can bring on the large batch now

getting bored....

Just started a new batch of wus (200K). Let me know if anything goes wrong.
____________
Malek

Yippieh! It's nice to be 'riding over the prairie' again! *smiles*
____________
Greetings from Cori

time to refresh this..

Hi Malek,

No clonal plant to be put under the tooth...

Good crunch @ all.
____________


"Libre de penser... pensez Libre" =8?()>

Sorry, nothing for now.

____________
Malek

anyone out there?

Just we peaceful WU grazers *g

Simap will be put of work in about 5 days. That would be a good time for new work here. Probably will not happen but would be good.
____________
Pizza@Home | My Stats

any work coming soon?

Still nothing in sight?

Quite some time since the last WU arrived now
____________

Some work for your other BOINC project (SOFT) maybe?

Sorry everyone,
Nothing in sight yet, the ecologists are concentrating on experiments at this time. And for me, well, I'm on a maternity leave for now.

Malek
____________
Malek

Congratulations!

3 months further down the road - any news?

Wow!! Welcome back. What a nice surprise to see the website up again after so many months. Any good news for the eager crunchers after the long waiting?

Any good news for the eager crunchers after the long waiting?

It really has been a LONG time since we could do any crunching here. Anything scheduled (hoped - prayed) for the near future?

To those who just joined or are reading the posts before joining.

I am not in any way a project admin for this project. But I will warn you not to waste your time with attaching to and waiting for workunits for this project. It is apparently a dead project. If you want to wait for many months its your time but why waste it? There are many reliable projects out there to devote your time to.

There have been no new work units since March of 2011. (Over a year and a half ago at the time of this writing.) The last post from an administrator was June of 2011. The web site has gone through many issues and hasn't been updated for some time. The project admins haven't updated people with any current status either. Frankly, the web pages should have been shut down and the project properly terminated but it wasn't.

So in all likeliness this is a dead project and a waste of your time.

Shame.

You can also read what's written on the main page :

Note:
- The project comes across long periods of inactivity (no workunits available). During these periods, we are extensively studying the outcome of the previous workunits and reflecting these results on the application and the coming workunits.
- We are establishing a mailing list to announce the availability of new workunits. If you would like to join this mailing list, please send an empty email to VCSC AT CS DOT UH DOT EDU with subject "announcement mailing list".

Quoted from AF>LePommierJerome: "So coming here to write dramatically "this is a dead project go away" without having actual information from anybody at the university or organism involved is a bit pointless"

To AF>LePommierJerome: 1st off don't misquote me as saying "this is a dead project go away". If you are going to put something in quotes be sure it's actually what I said rather than your own version that you inserted here. I didn't say that. You make it sound as if I just came here to complain. I too have contributed to VP before it quit providing workunits. It was a poor at best project then. But I continued to contribute with work as I could. I've got just as much right to post here as you do. I probably would have continued if workunits were available. But the way the admins here just disappeared can't be at least a little concerning to you? I'm not a BOINC newbe and didn't just come here to complain. I too wanted to know what was going on and was never given an answer to anything by the project admins. The reality is that when the admins abandon a project's community for years it's likely it's a dead project.

Someone did need to warn new people looking for new projects to think about avoiding this one as they'll get no work. Most new users appreciate information like this so they don't waste their time on projects which no longer exist but keep their servers going endlessly giving the impression they are active. New users want work units not your form of wishful thinking.

The homepage explains nothing. That info was put there years ago to explain how they originally then would have a week or two delay between work units. I guess you think that's being dramatic? What would you call defending a site that has had no work since March of 2011, almost two years ago? This is a dead project by almost anyone's definition. It's homepage should have been updated with current info or shut down. Neither was done. So I'm just trying to help new users not waste their time on places like this. Any admin could speak up and let users know that new workunits are coming soon or that they are soon to start up again, but no one has.

One of the things that drive away new users is getting stuck by choosing their new projects and waiting for weeks or months (or in this case years) for work and having you give them the impression there is hope and they should just wait. After two or three of these they just quit BOINC and go away. The community then loses a user who could have contributed to some other worthy projects. This is not one of them! Do the new users a favor and don't fill them with hope this project will be starting up any time soon. You're also not an administrator apparently so your comments by your own definition are as pointless as mine.

The project admins have obviously abandoned it as they haven't updated anything for years. Someone just forgot to kill the servers when everyone left it. Any project admin could have responded to the months of requests from current users asking what was going on. They chose not to and probably aren't even reading the forums anymore. They could have suspended new enrollment if it was in hiatus. They didn't. They could have put a simple message on the homepage about quitting but they didn't. The problem is the new users do choose projects based on homepages that are still active. Then when they get no workunits they come to the message forums for info on why. They are looking for info about why they don't get new work units not a please wait some more kind of response. New users need to be warned of this before wasting their time on what they think is an active project when it isn't.

No information from the project admins for years implies that the project is dead. If you want to wait for years for work it's your perogitive. But don't criticize those who try to help new users by telling them nothing is happening here and isn't likely to any time soon. I specifically said in my post I was not an administrator. I, as many other users did try in vain to contact the administrators who don't respond. It's your years of waiting Jerome that could be thought of as a bit pointless! But that's your choice. Just don't give others the same false hope you have unless you yourself have heard something from the admins about it restarting up again.

Here's the last quote from a project admin (Malek Smaoui) that I could find if anyone is interested. It's from June 30th of 2011:

Sorry everyone,
Nothing in sight yet, the ecologists are concentrating on experiments at this time. And for me, well, I'm on a maternity leave for now.

Malek

The project admins have obviously abandoned it as they haven't updated anything for years. Someone just forgot to kill the servers when everyone left it. Any project admin could have responded to the months of requests from current users asking what was going on. They chose not to and probably aren't even reading the forums anymore. They could have suspended new enrollment if it was in hiatus. They didn't. They could have put a simple message on the homepage about quitting but they didn't. The problem is the new users do choose projects based on homepages that are still active. Then when they get no workunits they come to the message forums for info on why. They are looking for info about why they don't get new work units not a please wait some more kind of response. New users need to be warned of this before wasting their time on what they think is an active project when it isn't.

No information from the project admins for years implies that the project is dead. If you want to wait for years for work it's your perogitive. But don't criticize those who try to help new users by telling them nothing is happening here and isn't likely to any time soon. I specifically said in my post I was not an administrator. I, as many other users did try in vain to contact the administrators who don't respond. It's your years of waiting Jerome that could be thought of as a bit pointless! But that's your choice. Just don't give others the same false hope you have unless you yourself have heard something from the admins about it restarting up again.

It might not be dead, this is dated 2013 :

Improving volunteer computing scheduling for evolutionary algorithms

Pretty much unlikely though isn't it?


____________

It might not be dead, this is dated 2013 :

Improving volunteer computing scheduling for evolutionary algorithms

It might not be dead, this is dated 2013 :

Improving volunteer computing scheduling for evolutionary algorithms

... and it is rather erratic with work availability too ...

No, that's just a link to a journal article Malek co-authored, published in January 2013 but apparently about ViP and written well over a year ago: "... intend to graduate in 2011" her bio paragraph says, at the end of the article.

Grmbl ... over a year ago ... I didn't see that :-/

There is another project, it's about optimizing savonius rotors, I wonder if it will go public some day or if it was only a proof of concept for this project.

Please, turn off your servers
They are consuming electricity for nothing....