Info 12th BOINC Pentathlon 2021

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Endgame124

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Feb 11, 2008
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Google Translation of the post:

What a year is behind us. A year full of efforts, fears, hardships and quarantines. Full of excitement, stress and boredom and all at the same time. Countless sporting events have been canceled or postponed. But our BOINC Pentathlon took place and is taking place again. He is our light at the end of the tunnel, our silver lining. Our inoculation of energy.

Finally the Pentathlon again.
Do you feel that special tingling already? Do you feel the crackling tension? Can you hear the faint roar of the fans?
Yes, it's time again. Crunch time! Pentathlon time!

Small insidious intruders still make life difficult for us. But just as they didn't manage to prevent the Pentathlon last year, they won't be able to do so this year either.

Even if they really try everything! Because you have now attacked me too. But even if the head hurts, the lungs gasp and the body is playing global warming, I won't let myself be stopped to make your mouth water.

We know that pentathletes don't knock over anything that quickly. Because this year we're going to fill the dozen. This innovative, cross-project competition for the teams in the BOINC world is taking place for the twelfth time. It perks up tired crunchers and awakens team spirits that seem buried. It is the ultimate life test for any team.

Do you remember?
- Can SETI.Germany confirm its upward trend?
- Do SETI.USA and Team China dare to compete again?
- Will TeAm AnandTech reach for overall gold?

While questions 1 and 3 will be answered by the competition, question 2 remains unanswered. Perhaps the dragon and eagle will still dare to get out of their burrow during the lessons. So far, 25 teams have registered, a newcomer and many familiar faces wake up the friends in me and certainly yours too. Even if SETI.USA and SETI.China are missing, we already have a great field together that guarantees an exciting competition.

It will certainly start with the marathon, where the route was announced last night. The track at SiDock is really new territory for the pentathlon and we will see which team shows its ambitions right from the start.

Is it really TAAT or is the green planet striking back? What about CNT, which we have on the bill every year, but the great success is still missing. Can TSBT drink everything down again and what about SG or the francophone alliance?

We still only know one discipline and four more will follow. These are still secret, including their start date, and will certainly challenge the teams again. Our intrepid pentathletes must be vigilant and must not allow themselves to be distracted, neither by small or large creatures in biological or technical forms of life, nor by seductive calls from friends from the bedroom ...... Every second of distraction can become bitter revenge.

So be ready! Because:

It will be exciting at the BOINC Pentathlon - from. 05/05/2021 - again with the daily report

Your jeeper
 
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StefanR5R

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Dec 10, 2016
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A new Linux application version is listed at apps.php but it has got a lower version number than the current one and does not seem to be in active use. It may have its own task queue, according to the looks of server_status.php. Perhaps they added checkpointing in this version.
The new application has been renamed to "CurieMarieDock on BOINC + zipped input". A Windows version has been added. There is currently no work queued for this application, nor is there an announcement yet.
 

StefanR5R

Elite Member
Dec 10, 2016
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Thanks @Icecold. I updated posts #1 and #47.
It will be prudent to check the deadlines again before filling the work buffers.
Edit: …although the deadline is supposed to remain at 2 days for the duration of the Pentathlon.
 
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voodoo5_6k

Senior member
Jan 14, 2021
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Yeah, thanks @Icecold! I should've come here first this morning to read :D I've now got 80 tasks with 5/5/2021 deadline, and 176 with a 5/4/2021 deadline (running as high-priority according to BoincTasks) before I noticed... I'll try again once all of the 5/4/2021 tasks have been reported. The 5/5/2021 tasks are suspended for now, to get the others through as fast as possible.
 

Ken g6

Programming Moderator, Elite Member
Moderator
Dec 11, 1999
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I finally got a VM upgraded to Ubuntu 20.04. But now I'm not able to register my email with sidock. :( Maybe it doesn't like the underscore?
 

Ken g6

Programming Moderator, Elite Member
Moderator
Dec 11, 1999
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Javelin Throw is World Community Grid - Microbiome Immunity Project only.
 
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TennesseeTony

Elite Member
Aug 2, 2003
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www.google.com
I finally got a VM upgraded to Ubuntu 20.04. But now I'm not able to register my email with sidock. :( Maybe it doesn't like the underscore?
Several projects will not accept my email, as it starts with a number.

Yeah, 2nd project announcement and I'm not ready yet. :(
 

voodoo5_6k

Senior member
Jan 14, 2021
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SiDock is out of tasks this morning. I could fetch a few tasks (like 10 or so), but that's about it. Currently, "Tasks ready to send"=0. I'll have to keep refreshing their project status page ;)
 

StefanR5R

Elite Member
Dec 10, 2016
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Marathon
SiDock is out of tasks this morning. I could fetch a few tasks (like 10 or so), but that's about it. Currently, "Tasks ready to send"=0. I'll have to keep refreshing their project status page ;)
On Sunday, they readied 4 times as many tasks-ready-to-send than they usually do:
results_sidock-month.png
I wonder if they will provide some more before May 5, or if that's it until then.


Javelin Throw
The history of this contest:
2019 – NFS@home = fixed credit, quorum of 1
2020 – NumberFields@home = fuzzy credit, quorum of 1
2021 – WCG MIP = fuzzy credit and inconsistent performance, adaptive validation
 
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StefanR5R

Elite Member
Dec 10, 2016
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Javelin Throw
The history of this contest:
2019 – NFS@home = fixed credit, quorum of 1
2020 – NumberFields@home = fuzzy credit, quorum of 1
2021 – WCG MIP = fuzzy credit and inconsistent performance, adaptive validation
To make it all worse, the performance feedback which a user can get from the WCG site is… lacking.
 

Icecold

Golden Member
Nov 15, 2004
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The Pentathlon has started. For anybody that isn't super familiar with the Pentathlon or unsure of what to run - SiDock is the marathon project that runs for the whole competition, so it is a 'safe' bet to start running that.
 

StefanR5R

Elite Member
Dec 10, 2016
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Looks like a perfect start.
Contest site and SiDock site are working without a glitch AFAICS, tasks are readily available. :-)

The second Javelin Throw day has been announced too; the calendar in post #1 is updated.
 

lane42

Diamond Member
Sep 3, 2000
5,721
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#1 Gold
1st
TeAm AnandTech :)
1 422 875
1 422 875
#2 Silver
2nd
Planet 3DNow!
1 165 669
1 165 669
#3 Bronze
3rd
The Scottish Boinc Team
780 557
780 557

A Good Start
 
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StefanR5R

Elite Member
Dec 10, 2016
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You all might need to get used to that teams like P3D or SG tend to upload bunkers ~5 hours later. :-)
00:00 UTC is 2 AM local time here. I for one will avoid to get up at this time going forward. (Might still occasionally.)
 

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
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You all might need to get used to that teams like P3D or SG tend to upload bunkers ~5 hours later. :-)
00:00 UTC is 2 AM local time here. I for one will avoid to get up at this time going forward. (Might still occasionally.)
From what I understand, with the short timelines, and task restrictions, bunkering is very difficult if not impossible in sidock, which I actually like. Its all about horsepower, and I think we have it.
 

voodoo5_6k

Senior member
Jan 14, 2021
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00:00 UTC is 2 AM local time here. I for one will avoid to get up at this time going forward. (Might still occasionally.)
Oh yeah, tell me about it (I'm in Germany) :D I knew I was going to get up at 06:00, and the earliest deadline for any WU I had was 06:45 or so. But still, you never know. So I set the networking preference for all clients to 02:00 to 06:00 and unrestricted bandwidth before going to bed. Worked great. When I got up at 06:00, all clients had reported their finished tasks and gotten new ones (if configured).

From what I understand, with the short timelines, and task restrictions, bunkering is very difficult if not impossible in sidock, which I actually like. Its all about horsepower, and I think we have it.
I'd agree with that. Especially for a server farm like yours. For my measly system, I already needed three client instances. And I might have needed four, if had realized the shortened deadline earlier (so I had to chew on 2 client instances almost entirely filled up with 5/4/2021 tasks). And with the 128 task limit, I was constantly adjusting the number of threads for each instance once one started to run out of tasks so all CPUs would be remain fully loaded. Doing this with your server farm... Wow...

@pipin Good one :D Thanks, and all the best for you too :)
 
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Icecold

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Nov 15, 2004
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Alright, is there any part of Primegrid I can run my 6700XT for that will help?
PPS Sieve is generally the highest performing project from a points perspective. I would expect it to perform fairly well on a 6700XT. The city run (primegrid) starts in 2 days, 11 hours.

There's another project(I'm pretty sure WW) that performs well too on most cards, and also offers the chance to find a prime, but PPS Sieve is generally a safe bet. The other GPU projects like GFN, etc. are significantly less PPD than PPS Sieve.
 
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Endgame124

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Feb 11, 2008
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PPS Sieve is generally the highest performing project from a points perspective. I would expect it to perform fairly well on a 6700XT. The city run (primegrid) starts in 2 days, 11 hours.

There's another project(I'm pretty sure WW) that performs well too on most cards, and also offers the chance to find a prime, but PPS Sieve is generally a safe bet. The other GPU projects like GFN, etc. are significantly less PPD than PPS Sieve.
Thanks! I just edited my preferences and will start picking up work for PPS Sieve today.
 
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StefanR5R

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Dec 10, 2016
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So I set the networking preference for all clients to 02:00 to 06:00 and unrestricted bandwidth before going to bed. Worked great.
There lie dangers in unattended reporting of bunkered results though:
  • The contest site may experience delays when pulling initial stats from the project server. Results which are validated before the initial stats were obtained don't count, obviously.
  • Congestion of the project server during the first hours may lead to transfer failures between server and client, which the client responds to with increasing retry backoff periods if left alone.
(And at my home specifically, the cheap cable internet connection works reliably according to Murphy's principle: It breaks up when I'm not there.)

--------
Alright, is there any part of Primegrid I can run my 6700XT for that will help?
In addition to @Icecold's info, I added some to post #1 now… consisting of merely a link to information in the organizing team's forum., for now. Gotta run back to work.
 
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