A question of morality regarding SETI clients

Robor

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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I'm looking at SetiWatch and I see several of my clients running much lower than what they should. I've got a P233 looking at 42 hrs to complete. I've got 3 P2-300's that are looking at 22 hrs. I'm using the 2.70 (beta) client and I understand that completion time varies a lot more than the 2.4 client. The 2.70 client seems to be great for faster machines but a bad option for slower boxes. I'm probably going to load the 2.4 client back on these slower (less than P2-350) machines just for more stable times.

That said, is this wrong? Should I run the 2.70 beta client because it produces the WU the fastest? Should I be running the 2.4 client instead of the 2.70 beta because it's the latest public client available? Should I always run the latest (official) client available even if it's slower than a previous version? What if 3.0 comes out and it doubles the WU time? How many of us will switch from 2.4 or 2.70B if 3.0 takes twice as long to finish?

Should Seti@Home require the latest client be used to analyze data? I dunno. I'm all for the stats but this is a scientific project. I'm sure SETI just wants the best data available. I'm rambling and need to get back to work... ;)

Rob
 

Hellburner

Senior Member <br>Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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My understanding is that they will quickly start refusing results from the 1.x, 2.x clients once they get the 3.x client out the door.

I've have noticed a monstrous hit from the 2.7x client on my P5 core machine. But I'm going for the science, not the stats ;)
 

blade47

Golden Member
Dec 12, 1999
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I thought that they retired the old clients after awhile and only took wu's from the newer clients after the cut off date. I may be wrong but I thought I read that somewhere. If not that would be the easiest way to force people to use the newer clients even if they were slower.

 

Robor

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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That's good to hear. I don't mind the slower WU times as long as everyone is using the same client. If one team is using a bunch of old betas that are faster than the newer clients it wouldn't be fair to the legit teams. I'm in it for the science and the stats. :)

BTW - I loaded the 2.4 CL Clients on 2 of the 4 boxes. They're running better already. Will finish with the other 2 before the end of the day. That trick of Assimilator1's with the conagent file works perfectly! Thanks again Assim!!!

Rob
 

networkman

Lifer
Apr 23, 2000
10,436
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The 2.7x series of clients are BETA, so I don't see any problem with continuing to use the 2.04 client; remember, originally, they(S@H) were trying to keep the deployment of 2.7x to only the official BETA folks, and people have been spreading it everywhere. While perhaps this new client does look for more info, I'm not using it until we're supposed to, regardless of the speed involved.