how can i retrieve old completed work units for SETI?

[Sunny129]

ok...i used to crunch numbers for SETI@home. i was a Team AnandTech member, but i had to stop due to high CPU temps. i was removed from the team by the proper authorities after my account sat idle for a period of time. its been over a year, but at last i have rejoined the team. unfortunately i never saved any of the completed work unit data from a year ago, or even knew how to save that kind of info. now i'm crunching numbers again and have discovered some add-on software that allows you to view your work unit data on a map of the stars, both current and past work units. but of course the only work unit showing up on the map is my current one since i just got back into, and have no saved files from the past to import to the map software. does anyone know if the main SETI server @ Berkeley saves this information, or if its even poosible to get back old information like that which i never saved in the first place? when i ran SETI over a year ago, i only completed 32 work units (318hr 23min 38.4sec of CPU time), but i would like to see these completed work units on the map. is this at all possible?

thanks...eric

 

[SoulAssassin]

To be honest, I don't think it's possible to import that data. Maybe one of the others may know, but my guess is no. Don't let that discourage you, with the new big and bad hardware you're probably running you can make that up in a pretty short amount of time.

Welcome back aboard!

 

[Sunny129]

actually now that you mention it, i dont recall my system taking so long to process a work unit when i did this a year ago. i went to look at my stats, which are still up at the SETI@home website, and my average CPU time per work unit is 9hr 56min 59.3sec. since i started up again two days ago, i have been working on this one work unit for over 40 hours now. i am using the same system i had when when i did this over a year ago. are different work units different sizes, or is something wrong?

 

[Baldy18]

I'm sorry to say that you won't be able to get that old information.

Your times may be slow because you have a screen saver set to turn on or you have the hard drive set to power off after a certain amount of time in you power settings.

 

[Smoke]

i was removed from the team by the proper authorities after my account sat idle for a period of time.

Since "removing a team member with completed WUs just because they has become inactive" is not an approved action by anyone in authority that I know of, I would like to do a followup. Could you supply me with your SETI NAME that was removed? Was it "Sunny129"? You say you had 32 WUs completed?

Never mind on the SETI NAME and completed WUs, I just found you:

1511) Sunny129 32 318 hr 23 min 9 hr 56 min 59.3 sec Fri Jan 5 22:04:30 2001 United States

You were not removed from the TeAm. You are ranked 1,511th on the TeAm Roster.

Do you still have the SETI PASSWORD for that account? It is something that you need to save. If you don't have it, do you still have access to the email address that you used when you first signed up for SETI (the AOL account)?

As far as seeing the 32 WUs you completed by the January 5th, 2001 date in a star map, just as SoulAssassin said, I too don't believe that would be possible.

 

[Sunny129]

i thought i was removed b/c i hadn't been productive in a while. anyways, i still have access to the password and account info. but thats not how i "reactivated myself. since i assumed i was removed from the team, i just went to the website and submitted my email address and SETI@home password again. i hope i didn't create a duplicate account or something strange like that. if you guys want to check into that i would appreciate that, but i'm pretty sure it just recognized me as an existing team member (even though it welcomed me to the team again). just le me know if anything is wacky...

thanks guys...eric


oh yeah...i don't have any screensavers running (i run SETI as long as my system is turned on, so i don't even use that screensaver), and i don't have any power saving options activated (monitor, hard disks, system standby...none of that is being used).

 

[lane42]

Sunny129 welcome Back

 

[Sunny129]

thanks lane42

...so i'm still wondering, are all workunits the same size, or are some larger than others? and if so, do they differ drastically, or are they relatively similar in size? i finally finished that work unit i started two days ago, and i feel as though 41 hours is too much time spent on one work unit...especially when the stats say that my average CPU time per unit is about 9 hours. i guess thats why i have to wonder if some workunits are significantly larger than others.

 

[SoulAssassin]

Are you using the GUI or the cmd line version? The workunits do differ slightly in size and amt of processing time but nothing like what you're describing (10->40hrs). If you're running a flavor of NT then check your processes tab under task mgr and see what else has a decent amount of CPU current and total. As others have already said, make sure your screen saver is set to blank or off and you're HD isn't set to turn off. Those are the most common sources of something like that. Make sure you're not running two copies of seti as well.

 

[Spacehead]

My guess is that you used the GUI v3.03 or v3.06 before & are now using the GUI v3.07. Does that sound correct?
Lots of people complain about v3.07 taking way longer to process than previous versions.

 

[Sunny129]

nope...there are no screensavers set to go off, and no hard disk set to turn off either. as for running two copies of SETI, i didn't know you could do that, but i closed SETI (and made sure no version of SETI was running) and restarted it just to be safe.

yes i am now using version 3.07. i'm not sure what i was using in the past, but if v3.07 is less than a year old, then i must have been using a previous version, since that's how long its been since i stopped running SETI and started again. what's interesting is that i probably have a backup copy of the installer for the previous version on disk somewhere, but i heard that after a while of releasing a new version, they phase out the old version, rendering the software useless...but that's just what i've heard.

anyways, i dont know what was up with that first work unit since i've been back at it. i'm on my second one now, and its 33.5% done, almost going on 3 hours now. so at this rate it should be donein under 9 hours if it holds constant. beats the hell out of the 41 hours it took to process that first unit.

 

[Sukhoi]

You're using the 3.07 GUI. You want to be running the 3.03 CLI for good times. I would guess your WU times would be in the 6 hour range.

 

[Sunny129]

yeah but that doesn't have the cool graphical interface i think i'll finish up this one work unit since it seems to be going much faster than the first one, and then i'll try one using the CLI 3.03 and compare it to the unit i'm working on now to see which is faster...

 

[Baldy18]

You'll be plesently surprised when you see the CLI cut your times in half.

 

[Sukhoi]

Actually, I would be pleasantly surprised.

 

[Sunny129]

WTF? so i closed the GUI for a moment so i could set up the CLI v3.03. i thought i had downloaded an install file, but when i ran the .exe, it just created some other file in the same directory as the .exe. then it prompted me for my email address, but when i put that in, it said i wasn't in the database. what's going on?

 

[Baldy18]

Yeah the CLI doesn't have an install since it is just a command line program. I would suggest following these instructions for setting up the CLI.

Ok so maybe cutting times by 1/3 is closer to reality but it depends on everyones individual configuration as to how much of a performance gain you will realize.

 

[Sunny129]

thanks for the instructions...i'll get back to you in a while...

 

[toft-dk]

Welcome back Sunny129

 

[Sunny129]

well i'm back with some very interesting news (which doesn't pertain to the topic of this thread at all, but is exciting for me nonetheless). instead of installing CLI and giving it a whirl, i decided to mess around with an old PIII sitting in my closet in the retail box, never been opened. knowing that i'll never get anything for it now, i opened it up and switched my golden orb for the stock hsf that came with the PIII 800EB i had in my closet. i removed the orb, cleaned the CPU off and gave it a thinner coat of arctic silver, and put the stock hsf on. not only are my temps significantly lower, but it makes alot less noise than the orb...and i mean ALOT less noise. in fact, as i unplugged it and plugged it back in to listen to it turn on and off, i couldn't hear the difference. its like it makes no noise at all. i might even be able to leave my system on at night now! well anyways, i guess i'll get back to the SETI stuff...i'll let you guys know whats going on soon...eric

PS - thanks to all those who seem to belong to the Team AnandTech welcoming committee...its good to be back!

 

[Sunny129]

ok i'm ready to tell of my adventures in crunching numbers w/ CLI v3.03...by the way, i don't know how i supposed to know how to do all that i had to do to set up and run CLI on my own. anyways, i followed all the instructions on that page you linked me to. but i have a problem...it slows down my system like crazy. the mouse moves smooth as ever, but if i click on an icon or a link, it takes a second or two to highlight or go to the page. if i maximize or minimize folders, webpages, etc., again i get a delay of a second or two, and we all know that if a system takes anywhere over a millisecond to react to that kind of thing, something is very wrong. anyways, i can't imagine i'm the first to encounter this sort of problem with the CLI. can anyone help me out with this? in the mean time i'll be running the GUI minimized...

 

[Smoke]

Rule #1

You cannot run the GUI Client and the CLI Client on the same computer. In order for the CLI Client to work properly you must UNINSTALL the GUI CLIENT completely.

Now for the lag time you are experiencing. It sounds to me you have placed a DOT in your Seti Driver Settings next to NORMAL in the "SETI Client Priority" box. That should always be set to LOW. Change it and click SAVE CONFIG. Do a shut down / restart just to clear everything up and I think you will not experience the lag any further.

 

[Baldy18]

Yeah listen to Smokeball he has a lot of experience (to put it nicely),

 

[Sunny129]

ok, i didnt know what SoulAssassin meant when he said to make sure i wasn't running to copies of SETI at once, but i guess that mistake is possible to make if you have both the GUI and CLI. anyways, i obviously knew not to have both running at the same time once i installed the CLI, but i figured as long as the GUI is not running, then installation and execution of the CLI should run smooth. well let me uninstall the GUI and set the CLI priority to low, and i'll let you know if that fixed my luperLAG...back in a few...

 

[Assimilator1]

A few additional comments

I have had the GUI installed along side the CLi ,it didn't cause me any problems (just don't run them together).
Going to the CLi from an optimised GUI client will shave about 25% off your WU times,I have seen this on a PII rig,2 PIII rigs,a Duron & an Athlon rig
If the GUI client is not optimised then WU times can be halved like Baldy18 says (see I'm not pickin on ya Baldy)

Sunny129
Back in Jan 2001 you would of probably been running v3.0 ,or maybe v2.0x ,in Feb 2001 v3.03 was enforced ,this version added approximatley 50% to WU times!.All earlier versions were blocked from that date & were rendered useless(from v1.0-v3.0).This would also partially explain why you remember an older rig not being much slower.
Another thing is that v2.04 GUI of SETI was barely any slower than the equivalent CLi version(v2.4) ,I'm not sure about v3.0 but I think it was the same for that 1.

I guess I'm an oldie as most of these whippersnappers (incl you Smokie) don't remember that

Btw I'll buy that PIII 800 off you!