Stopping 99% of all my SETI production as of today

[Ben98SentraSE]

99% of my SETI production comes from my work machines. As I found out last week, the SETI CLI does NOT run at the lowest possible priority on the OS, and it has miniscule(sp?), yet existing issues with particular OS/application combinations, particularly Win2k with Outlook 2000. I have always understood that "SETI cannot interfere with anything else going on on your computer; it is the lowest possible priority on the system and will only use extra CPU cycles that no other process needs." Now that I have learned that this is untrue (runs at like a priority 3 instead of 1 or something?), among other reasons I will discuss, I am going to cease all my work SETI production which will take me from around 40WU/day to pretty much 1WU/day from my home K62-350.

Other reasons why I am no longer going to run it at work:

-I believed that SETI was 100% harmless and blameless, it could do no wrong and not interfere with any other programs. Now that I know of the Win2k/Outlook 2000 problem (that only affects my work PC- no one else has this combo), this logic is now broken and I can no longer feel "safe" that it won't interfere with other programs, particularly our credit union's core processing vendor's software that most likely no other SETI enthusiast uses. I have not found any instances where it has directly interfered, but a failing PPro 200 overheating because of SETI while I was gone from work months ago was not a positive point to my boss since he was the one to deal with the issue while I was at a class.

-I am not specifically disallowed to run it, but because of the PPro 200 server overheating issue from a few months ago, SETI is now a very negative thing to my boss and, not that I could see losing my job over it, I can't see it being worth fighting for and causing angst among us. It's not worth it, especially with the understanding that the SETI client can cause problems, no matter how few and far between.

-Again I always thought the SETI client completely blameless, that it couldn't possibly interfere with any other program on Earth. That is a silly assumption to make. Programmers aren't perfect, and every computer configuration in the world could not be tested with the SETI client, or any other program for that matter. There is ALWAYS the possibility for conflicts. ... In the middle of writing this email I just found that a printing problem someone was having was caused by the SETI client! She would try to print to her local Laserjet 1200 and it would go to the print queue and sit there and not print until she closed all her open applications! I closed the SETI client and it works like a charm! See what I'm talking about?

This is the decision I have made. No hard feelings toward the SETI project or Team Anandtech (my WU's will always be TA's), it's just that it's logical to me to stop running it at work for the reasons above.

Happy Holiday's everyone

 

[DarkMajiq]

Sorry to hear about then Ben, I hope you'll stick around the forums, though

 

[RaySun2Be]

Sorry for your loss.

I certainly understand, Ben, as I can only run SETI on non-production machines at work. No production servers (dang it :Q), no user PCs, for the same reasons, and I was lucky to be able to get permission to run it at all.

It sucks though to see your output drop down from what it once was though.

In reality, even commercial applications cause conflicts and problems. IMHO, the best written distributed client is the distributed.net RC5/OGR client, as it did operate at the lowest priority, and caused no problems with the work fleet, and I was able to run it on all PCs and some servers. However, even as good as it is, there are some rare situations and combinations of hardware/software that it caused problems too.

Bottom line is, the company invested money in those machines to run their business applications, and if a non-business application interferes with that or user productivity, it's not going to be tolerated or supported.

And the increase in WUs/stats is not worth losing a job over.

 

[BadThad]

Yea....sorry to hear it.

I've read about the win2k/outlook2000 issue....but I have yet to see it. I have a few machines running this combo without issue. Maybe I'm just lucky, I dunno, but there is no problem on ANY of the machines.

At any rate, the choice is yours to make and your choice is the most conservative one...a good, safe bet.

 

[micron]

Sorry about the loss Ben , shutting down SETI is the right thing to do though.

 

[IsOs]

I'm sorry to hear about your problems. That's one of the reason that I didn't install Outlook in any of the work machines. I only have them using Outlook Express which does not show as much interference. The SETI screensaver does not interfere with Outlook. Granted it's not going to give you as much production as the DOS client, but it will be something.

If your work computers have huge memory, 1 GB running Windows 2000, try to disable virtual memory. One drawback is that you can't do that in a computer that uses program requiring lots of memory, but like most general work computers, they are most likely being used for word processing and spreadsheet.

If running the screensaver is not an option and the computers are running 24/7, you could run them as scheduled service, using a script activating them when no one is presumably using them. I think Soni has a script that can perform the trick.

Goodluck

 

[xtreme2k]

Seti does take higher than idle priority for sure.

If you run Seti AND RC5/Prime together. You will see Seti taking 100% cpu usage while RC5/Prime gets nothing. If you run Prime and RC5 together, you will see each of them getting 50% of the idle time. Just that already shows Seti does NOT run at idle priority at all. Whoever said Seti runs at idle is completely bullshitting you. Yes it runs close to idle, but not idle.

These distributed projects are for fun and leisure, and work is work. I agree with your decision and support it.

 

[kmmatney]

Sorry about the situation, but I guess you have to make priorities.

We write software applications at my company that are significantly affected by all DC projects. The problem is that our programs do a lot of screen updating, so we need to free up the windows kernel. However every time the kernel is freed up, SETI starts on a claculation, slowing down our app. On the machine effected by this, can still quite happily run ECCp as a screen saver, assuring that no one will be affected. Won't solve the overheating problem... On one other machine I have ECCp running though the scheduled tasks manager from 7:00 PM to 6:00 A.M.

DC projects are not worth losing your job over, but there may be acceptable work arounds.

 

[JWMiddleton]

Sorry for your SETI troubles Ben! Do what you've gotta do and good luck!!

 

[Ben98SentraSE]

I may decide to do something like ECCp later, but right now (and probably for a long time) I don't have time to play around with that stuff. As the only person in the IT department I keep pretty busy. I might consider another client at a later time.

 

[Polo]

Sorry to hear that sort of news but work is more important than SETI.
At work I only run the SETI screen saver and I have never seen any problem for the moment...
I run some CLI version on the machine I can easily access : those in my office...
We don't use Outlook but Notes and I've not seen any problem...

I hope to see you on the forum from time to time ?

 

[Logix]

When in doubt, removing Seti from your work computers is the best thing to do. Sorry to see it happen, but you've gotta do what you gotta do. It makes me sad thinking of all those soon-to-be idle cpu cycles, but if this increases your computers' productivity/stability, then that takes priority.

I have Outlook XP and Seti, and don't have any problems... maybe it's just me?

 

[Robor]

Ben98SentraSE: I completely understand your position and decision. I'm in pretty much the same position where I work (only network/hardware IT guy there) and I'm running the SETI client on pretty much anything above a P2-300, even the servers. They are file/print sharing only so it's not like there's any apps to interfere with them. I've been running it like this for a few years now and it wasn't until recently that I discovered the Win2K/Outlook2K problem with pauses in Outlook. I considered setting up a schedule on each PC to start the service in the afternoon and stop it in the morning but I haven't had time. To be honest, none of my users has ever complained about the pausing. I notice it sometimes but not all the time. Just today I had it happen a few times and I thought to myself that it hadn't happened in a while.

Still, after nearly 3 years of running SETI@Home this is the only "bug" I've found. I mean, yes, it does push the CPU harder than necessary but so does running a 3D screensaver. I've found many more problems with programs like "DeskFlag" (caused cursor problems) and 3rd party screensavers (various problems). On the plus side, I've found that SetiWatch can be useful to spot a problem PC on the network. An extremely low MFlops usually indicates a PC that's got a program hung, usually IExplorer or something that didn't close right. When I saw one of those I could always go to the user and ask them if their system was responding slower than normal and they'd always answer, "yes, how did you know?". Also, it can be used to spot a system that is not on the network. No, I'm not trying to justify it, just pointing out some good points.

Hope you stick around the forums Ben, 40 WU's or 1 WU.

 

[Wolfie]

Ben-
I am sorry to hear that you have to stop. I had to stop mine for the very same reason. I didn't know it was a win2k and office 2k issue untill I read this thread. Now I know why my puter was freazing up and it wouldn't be stable for more then a day. Even at stock speeds. I run RC5 and it runs great even oc'd. So I am back at that for the time being.

Wolfie