SOB question

[Overkiller]

Hey,

i know that there is a service installer out there somewhere by MATHGUY....

but w/ that service installer can i queue up say like 10 proth tests (10 sets of k's and n's) and let the machine run it ....the reason i ask is not for my systems but for 2 of my friends systems who are on dialup and would not log on or really care to once a WU has been finished. This way the systems will just run(10 proth tests is still a hefty amount) for a while and whenever there is an opening it can send the results..just curious..

also (this is even more doubtful) can u set the installer to always queue up x amount of tests?

thanks!

{TitoTacos} <--SOB name

 

[amcdonald]

i'm not sure on your question, but a proth test can take days depending on the system.

 

[MathGuy]

Hi, Overkiller - this has been thought about some, but not implemented (yet). The main reason is that there is no way with the current client to have it send a proth result without obtaining a new one at the same time. The result is that your queue never really "empties" and you would run into problems with the proth tests in the queue expiring.

If you have an idea as to the details of making this happen, I'd be open to hearing about it. It's a natural addition to the service handler, since it's already monitoring the clients anyway.

Here's what can easily happen:

1. Watch the state of the client(s).
2. Stop a client and save the state of its Proth test
3. Start a client and force it to obtain a new Proth test
4. Start a client and have it work on a saved Proth test
5. Watch for a valid network connection
6. Force connection of the default dial-up connection

If you can tell me what you'd like to have happen when, I'll be glad to take a shot at doing it...

 

[Ken g6]

Well, I can think of a couple of things I'd like. I'm sorry this got so long - it's kind of complicated, but it would be really nice to have these features.

First, let's assume that a client can complete a proth test in 10 days or less. Then we could have a queue of two tests: one in progress and one next. When one finishes, switch to the other and allow the user to fetch & flush the first. Assuming the test was done within 9 days, and the user connects every day, there is no way a test could time out.

Then there are a couple of things that would be nice in regard to sending in blocks and dial-up. When I'm working on a big test on a slow machine (not uncommon in this project) I don't want to have to wait around for hours until I can report progress. I assume you can find out how many exponentiations there are between blocks, and between savings of progress to the disk. If so, could you have a button that tells the service handler to monitor the client and save the last progress update before the next block is finished? Or at least some progress state within five minutes or so of a block completion? Once it does this, when I go online I could press another button, stop the client, start it on the saved state just before the block report, report the block, and then return the client to its normal state.

Now consider combining this with a queue. When the user presses a button, the client could be switched off to finding a pre-block state for each test in the queue. Preferably this should start with the test closest to timing out, and perhaps the user could also select which tests to queue up like this. Then, when I dial up I can update all N tests in about 5*N minutes. 30 minutes online a week for 6 tests isn't bad.

Thanks for reading through all this!

 

[MathGuy]

Let me give this a bit of a think and I'll get back to you with either a prototype or more questions...this is a busy time of the year for us professor types as well as the students!

 

[YellowRose]

Being able to download more then 1 test will make things easier for those on dialup. After one test is completed it could move
on to the next one in the que thus keeping the machine processing. A flashing icon can notify the owner its time to dial up since
there are finished tests to turn in or a script can do it .
Coupled with the service install and you have a winner.