FormulaBoinc Forum

Hi all

I've added some projects to the Marathon listing for 2024, in the hope that they can be supported, (and assuming they have tasks).

These include:
CPDN / Climate Prediction
iThena
SPT@home
WUProp@home

These may not be suitable in a Sprint (esp WUProp) but there is no reason why existing supporters of these projects should not see some small reward for their participation by having their stats included on the Marathon.

The FB admin section does allow me to add other projects to the list but I have excluded some as they do not have any available tasks at present or they are offline. I will continue to monitor the BOINC projects stats, to see if any of these excluded projects start up again or have at least some tasks.

regards
Tim

WUProp : I really don't think it would be a good idea (I think long ago Seb had mentioned it could not be in the FB, but I'm not sure though) + It's a nci project

ithena : clearly not for the measurement project (nci), maybe for the computational project ? but I don't think it delivers regular work - current AF RAC is 386

CPDN : very low task production in general, most of the time there are 0 available and only a small amount on-going - current AF RAC is 95 !

SPT : this is a "non project", some kind of Russian joke... working, not working, ended, not ended... not even recorded by all boinc statistical sites AFAIK.

JeromeC wrote: ↑Sat Dec 30, 2023 1:50 pm WUProp : I really don't think it would be a good idea (I think long ago Seb had mentioned it could not be in the FB, but I'm not sure though) + It's a nci project

ithena : clearly not for the measurement project (nci), maybe for the computational project ? but I don't think it delivers regular work - current AF RAC is 386

CPDN : very low task production in general, most of the time there are 0 available and only a small amount on-going - current AF RAC is 95 !

SPT : this is a "non project", some kind of Russian joke... working, not working, ended, not ended... not even recorded by all boinc statistical sites AFAIK.

Hi

Thanks for the feedback. Much appreciated.

I agree with what you say, but if these projects are making some tasks available then it makes sense (IMHO) to allow these projects to be included in the Marathon as teams could earn FB points from them, as some sort of reward for at least helping each of these minor projects.

And of course there is always a chance that the FB points earned could become more relevant with teams spread across 3 different leagues (as I had already prepared the ground work for this).

regards
Tim

In any case you'd have to talk to the admins of each of these projects (once all is in condition to restart a FB, of course) to get their opinion and agreement.

And you'll need a lot of good luck for the Russian project

JeromeC wrote: ↑Mon Jan 01, 2024 10:57 pm In any case you'd have to talk to the admins of each of these projects (once all is in condition to restart a FB, of course) to get their opinion and agreement.

And you'll need a lot of good luck for the Russian project

Yup - I take this on board, as we know that some projects cannot support huge numbers of active crunchers...although these new (to FB) projects would most likely NOT be suitable for a Sprint !

regards
Tim

JeromeC wrote: ↑Sat Dec 30, 2023 1:50 pm WUProp : I really don't think it would be a good idea (I think long ago Seb had mentioned it could not be in the FB, but I'm not sure though) + It's a nci project

ithena : clearly not for the measurement project (nci), maybe for the computational project ? but I don't think it delivers regular work - current AF RAC is 386

CPDN : very low task production in general, most of the time there are 0 available and only a small amount on-going - current AF RAC is 95 !

SPT : this is a "non project", some kind of Russian joke... working, not working, ended, not ended... not even recorded by all boinc statistical sites AFAIK.

These projects really doesn't make sense for formular boinc. For Example WUProp will end that people will start lots of VMs to run multiple tasks at once. This will not produce any usefull results for the project.

CPDN: a project that has most of the time not enough WUs is very frustrating for the marathon.

I think there are reasons that they weren't at formular boinc before

Stiwi wrote: ↑Wed Jan 10, 2024 12:29 am
These projects really doesn't make sense for formular boinc. For Example WUProp will end that people will start lots of VMs to run multiple tasks at once. This will not produce any usefull results for the project.

CPDN: a project that has most of the time not enough WUs is very frustrating for the marathon.

I think there are reasons that they weren't at formular boinc before

Hi

Yes, you raise some very good points, which is why I made the open suggestion in the first place.

But the interest in BOINC is rapidly fading away...as many people move from desktop PCs to using tablets and laptops, neither of which are entirely suitable for BOINC and of course energy prices worldwide are surging so people are less willing to run PCs 24/7, just for BOINC.

So, just allowing people to earn a few FB points on other projects might be enough to stimulate more interest in lots of projects.

I just suggested these as options that should be considered...and no one is holding a gun to anyone's head to MAKE them support these other projects...it is all voluntary !

regards
Tim

UBT - Timbo wrote: ↑Wed Jan 10, 2024 11:55 am But the interest in BOINC is rapidly fading away...as many people move from desktop PCs to using tablets and laptops, neither of which are entirely suitable for BOINC and of course energy prices worldwide are surging so people are less willing to run PCs 24/7, just for BOINC.

Well, I think that's only part of the problem.
In my opinion, the major issue is that the number of active & useful BOINC projects declines.

Michael.

Michael H.W. Weber wrote: ↑Wed Jan 10, 2024 6:08 pm Well, I think that's only part of the problem.
In my opinion, the major issue is that the number of active & useful BOINC projects declines.

Michael.

Hi Michael

Yes, you are indeed quite right in this regard.

But the problem for the projects can be summed up as follows:
1) David P Anderson is no longer "leading" the BOINC marketing and hence no one is a figurehead to drive through how BOINC can evolve and adapt to suit both projects and volunteers.

2) The project admins themselves are not banding together (as far as I can see) and hence they are not jointly marketing BOINC in any significant way such as to generate more public interest in helping the projects.

3) BOINC Manager, as a program, has failed to evolve. You cannot:
edit any special configurations required for some projects (eg via app_config.xml files),
schedule tasks to run in a time specific way (to suit the owner of the host),
adjust specific parameters of how BM runs and BM therefore uses it's own internal logic to run tasks when IT feels like it, rather than allowing user to prioritise specific tasks or specific projects),
remote access other hosts from within BM - something that BOINCTasks can do !!,
easily control CPU or GPU resources to be split between various projects by allocating a percentage of CPUs towards specific projects (so say allowing on a 16 core machine for 6 cores to be used with one project, and 8 on another project),
etc etc

I could go on, but the above is enough to go on for now !!

4) And yes, some great projects have come and gone (SETI, Enigma, to name just 2 and there are many others) and no other ground-shaking, high profile projects have been developed to take advantage of the huge resources available from all of the volunteers hosts.

Ultimately, BOINC needs to improve its marketing and generate more interest in both the public as well as getting research projects to use BOINC for their own benefit and if that doesn't happen, then people will lose interest and stop running it.

Maybe some team founders need to get together and start badgering the relevant people and get them to pull their weight and get things moving again?

regards
Tim

Facts are that virtually nobody knows BOINC, that's correct.
Another problem is that those who do, often can't develop apps that use it - even though they have plenty of computational tasks to do on a daily basis. One example are typically biology labs with lots of microscopy imaging, genome sequencing and the like.

We do have three active Rechenkraft.net BOINC project infrastructures at hand (RNA World, YAFU & Yoyo@home) but still lack manpower to develop novel apps since due to the lack of funding we need to do everything on a spare time basis.

In case people read this who are interested in developing novel BOINC apps & projects, please contact us. We have plenty of cool ideas.

Michael.