Attn: Alexio and ConfusedBW..Important

[ETHunter]

It has been brought to my attention via IM by a member of DSLR that your machines still seem to be submitting work units which show zero cpu time. I was given a link to the TA queue page for Alex which shows around 50 units completed for zero time???

I have no desire for this to turn into a ridiculous situation like before, with that in mind do you think you could let me know if this is a glitch on your queue log, dodgy machine or whatever. I would like to put a lid on this before it makes it to the BB with all the daft specultion that will follow that will undoubtably see some use the word cheating!!

Please do not think that this is the belief or implication. I think it would be good for TA to get this resolved as it could cause problems for the whole team if others start making unfounded accusations..I hope you understand where I am coming from in this and what my intenet is.

I do not want this to turn into a topic of discussion for all as that will likely deteriorate into chaos, I want to close this matter for good so all can concentrate on the task at hand..looking for ET..especially as Stephen Spielberg lost his phone number!!

 

[IBhacknU]

better watch out for the SETI police. They'll take your globe away too! All in the name of science of course

 

[Smoke]

I don't know what the usual protocol is on a situation like this but we should make sure we do the right thing. I asked about this last week and the only response I got was that the machine putting out these obviously flawed WUs was turned off. It does seem to me that the WUs done by that machine(s) should be looked at and ruled either acceptable due to an error of S@H or ruled unacceptable due to machine? error or whatever.

It would seem that the records of the questionable WUs should be submitted to S@H for investigation and ruling. We don't have anyone on the TeAm that is any authority to insist on this but each member needs to be responsible for their own equipment and use. So it seems to me that Ai3x and/or ConfusedBW should contact S@H about this situation and report back to the team the results. Again, this is just MHO.

What say you our more experienced long timers?

 

[networkman]

Wholeheartedly agree with you, Smokeball! The "seti police" are going to look at intent - if a member(s) of our team are aware of the problem but do not contact the S@H folks to notify them of the problem, they[the TA members] may be viewed as having intent to defraud/cheat. And we certainly don't want that.

Now is the time to contact S@H and get this problem exposed, preferably with a confirmation reply from SETI affirming that the problem is being addressed.

I know that Ai3x and/or ConfusedBW are not out to be cheating, but the problem potentially affects our entire TeAm.

 

[aiex]

Ok if u ask your friend engineer u will find i have explained this to him. The sub 1min WU's for the account in the names of AI3x and ConfusedBW should have stopped and if not please PM me!

But there is one accound on OK called alex and they have not stopped for this account. This is because the techhies at our college have not fixed the computer yet. I do not have network rights to uninstall the GUI client so there is not much i can do about it. What i have done though is to great a new account under the name of alex on OK that is a member of no teams, has no ties and i am expecting to get disabled somtime soon. I have also made the peskey client flush through my proxy, as i am only on a 56k modem and it is not on all the time this has reduced the 100+ a day workunits it was doing down to about 7 a day.

If sombody has any other sugestions please write here. Or if there are any other machines u have found that may be doing the same, i personally can't see any. (This is my page on OK and there doesn't seam to be any new sub 6hr even WU's)

Please post if u have any further questions

But please can we let this be the last thread about this, i know it is a problem but it is difficult to sort out and this is about the 4th time that i have had to explain

Ai3x

 

[Sukhoi]

I'm glad you're working on it.

 

[aiex]

The fact is the member Alex is not actually a member of any teams. The machine seams to be down over 1/2 term as my setiq has not recieved a result from it in 1day 21hrs.

Does anybody know the e-mail of anybody at berkeley i should contact? If sombody wants to tell them for me the e-mail of the account in question is aiex@btinternet.com



This is exactly the problem that is stopping me from asimilating more machines. I might just say sod it and not bother with anymore machines

Alex

 

[Smoke]

Alex,

The last thing we want you to do is to stop assimilating more machines. We need all the help you can muster and we really appreciate your work.

I'll have the contact information for you shortly.

We'll get this taken care of and you won't have to worry about it anymore. We all know the story and no one thinks you are doing anything wrong.

Dealing with all of this stuff gets to be hard work. I've got my own problems with Team Smokeball so anyone who thinks the WUs gained by the miniteams or individuals with access to many machines is a walk in the park...they have another think coming.

I'll be back with the info.

 

[ETHunter]

The page in the queue I was given is this one.

You can contact Eric J. Korpela at korpela@ssl.berkeley.edu

I realise that this is NOT anything untoward, however I do urge you guys to sirt this as others may not take it as a an unfortunate error (for want of a better description)

I will do all I can to ensure that no posts regarding this appear on DSLR, the member that brought it to my attention has agreed for now to stay quiet on the matter for the time being, however how long I can keep a lid on this I am not sure.

I brought this up to help those involved resolve this BEFORE it becomes an issue, not to make accusations or start some kind on flame on the subject..I sincerely hope that everyone realised that?

 

[Smoke]

Thank you ETHunter for giving us that address.

 

[Confused]

thanks ETHunter for the address, i am talking to Alex on MSN now, and he's writing the email as i type

the account is not a member of any teams, and so therefore we will if needbe by Berkeley get that account terminated, and the WUs that it has done can be put back into circulation for the good of the project

ConfusedBW

 

[aiex]

E-mail sent, lets hope we can get this 1 sorted out once and for all!

Alex

 

[ETHunter]

Great Job Guys..Wish I could vote you up like on DSLR, but you get a thumbs up from me anyway!

 

[aiex]

lets just hope it gets sorted

Aiex

 

[aiex]

Just got this back:


Sub 1 minute workunit times are usually an indication that the CPU
is overheating and generating incorrect results. Usually dust inside
the case causes this, but it could just be a faulty processor.

You may want to tell anyone running any other software on the system
that it's likely to generate incorrect floating point calculations.
That may get the attention of network admins.

I've disabled the account aiex@btinternet.com. Let me know if
you ever want it reactivated.

Eric



So that should be an end to it all.

 

[Smoke]

Way to go Alex!

You da' man!

 

[LadyStarDust]

Glad you got that straightened out so you don't have to deal with the accusations anymore.

 

[Wiz]

Like someone else said they look more at the intent than at the numbers (unless the numbers get huge, which kinda shows intent anyway).

I still would like an answer to the "knights who say nee" and other top groups and their thousands and thousands of sub 1 minute WU's.
IMHO those groups should have been penalized.
I reserve the right to be totally clueless of course, and this was a long time ago (although sorely remembered by some of us geezers. :|)

 

[ETHunter]

Great Job Aeix, That is good advice from Eric.

Lets hope you can get this problem sorted so that machine can be a reliable cruncher in the future.

 

[Smoke]

After reading the comments by WIZ I have another question. What happens to the the work units that were obviously not processed properly? I know they are sent back out many different times so the data in them is not lost but I'm referring to the implications of what WIZ just posted. Did I understand that someone can have a machine "overheated", "overclocked", or "whatever" that is putting out WUs every minute and those WUs still count toward their individual totals and their team's totals? And that this has happened in the past? And that it has amounted to thousands?

???

 

[Baldy18]

Why in the first place didn't you just point the faulty client to OK's proxy but give it the wrong port number so that it could never get units again? Seems to me that would have stopped the flow of bad wu's completely until the problem got solved.

 

[aiex]

yea but then there's the slight problem of the screen saver flashing up seti at home needs your attention and users don't like that. most of them don't like seti at the best of times

Ai3x

 

[DarkMajiq]

Glad that's all sorted out now, let's hope that you can get those computers that were producing the faulty WUs fixed.

 

[LadyStarDust]

Seems that all is resolved now in both forums....ETH's post at the DSLReports Seti Forum

 

[Orange Kid]

I guess I've fallen asleep on this one.
The Q for Alex has been disabled.......this should prevent the machine from getting any wu's.
All the wu's in the Q for Alex have been moved to Ai3x's Q
Hope this will help end the errant machines run