I'm sure this question has been asked many times before, but:

How exactly are variable credits computed, based on your machine's speed etc.? I can't find any documentation for this on the BOINC website...

Deep insite answers are greatly appreciated! ;)

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> I'm sure this question has been asked many times before, but:
>
> How exactly are variable credits computed, based on your machine's speed etc.?
> I can't find any documentation for this on the BOINC website...
>
> Deep insite answers are greatly appreciated! ;)

Look in the glossary or the BOINC FAQ ... Click on the picture to start ...

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Thanks for the link, Paul!

But one problem: I get only the headlines and no topic texts.

(Wish I could attach a screen dump to show you what I mean, but I can't do that in this forum).

Updated info: I tried this later in MS Internet Explorer, and it works there (I use Opera 7.54 as Internet Browser).

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CREDITS by PAUL

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Semper Eadem
So long Paul, it has been a hell of a ride.

Park your ego's, fire up the computers, Science YES, Credits No.

> Thanks for the link, Paul!
>
> But one problem: I get only the headlines and no topic texts.
>
> (Wish I could attach a screen dump to show you what I mean, but I can't do
> that in this forum).
>
> Updated info: I tried this later in MS Internet Explorer, and it works there
> (I use Opera 7.54 as Internet Browser).

I have never tried Opera, as soon as I get some blank CDs to make a recovery set I will try that and see if I can get it to work or not.

I know the pages work in Netscape and IE for the PC, and Safari, Netwcape and IE for the Mac ...

:(

I see someone made a link to the letter "C" page so that should get you started if nothing else...

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Paul, just as a suggestion, you might want to also start checking out your pages in Mozilla/FireFox, as this browser is starting to increase in popularity....

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> Paul, just as a suggestion, you might want to also start checking out your
> pages in Mozilla/FireFox, as this browser is starting to increase in
> popularity....

Yeah, I should :)

I don't have enough to do ... :)

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I do not understand credits.I am getting lots of wu's that are claiming say 40 credits getting 0 instead.Still have loads of wu's still pending after 3 results have been sent in.I also notice pc's which took alot less time to crunch a wu get alot more credit than me which I took alot more CPU time .Why do I get less credit?

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......In Space No One Can Hear You Scream......

> I do not understand credits.I am getting lots of wu's that are claiming say 40
> credits getting 0 instead.Still have loads of wu's still pending after 3
> results have been sent in.I also notice pc's which took alot less time to
> crunch a wu get alot more credit than me which I took alot more CPU time .Why
> do I get less credit?
>
Credits granted have nothing to do with
calculation nor cobblestones that your
computer has done

Its just pure luck.

1-machine Linux OS let say : 1 credits claimed
2-machine Linux Os let say : 5 credits claimed
3-machine Linux OS let say : 7 credits claimed

1-machine Linux OS let say : 3 credits claimed
2-machine win OS let say : 23 credits claimed
3-machine win OS let say : 50 credits claimed

1-machine win OS let say : 24 credits claimed
2-machine win OS let say : 48 credits claimed
3-machine win OS let say : 50 credits claimed

independed of what machine you own

in the first case you get 5 credit
in the second case you get 23 credits
in the third case you get 48 credits

you always get the second BEST score

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"The FUTURE is only a PARTICLE away from the PRESENT and the PAST."

> I do not understand credits.I am getting lots of wu's that are claiming say 40
> credits getting 0 instead.Still have loads of wu's still pending after 3
> results have been sent in.I also notice pc's which took alot less time to
> crunch a wu get alot more credit than me which I took alot more CPU time .Why
> do I get less credit?

Along with that explanation, there are some differences across the various Operating Systems as to the amount of credit requested and this changes the equations from the ideal. It is not likely to be addressed until after the cross-platform GUI is close to its final configuration.

I know you have heard this before, but truth be told, we are in early days with this technology (BOINC). Issues with the programs and the support software are addressed as fast as they can be, though this is never as fast as we would like.

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So it's just small probs with Boinc that need ironing out in the future.It is worth waiting for in my eyes.Just wanted to understand it all abit better.Thanks, Rach

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......In Space No One Can Hear You Scream......

> So it's just small probs with Boinc that need ironing out in the future.It is
> worth waiting for in my eyes.Just wanted to understand it all abit
> better.Thanks, Rach

Cool! :)

Though some don't like to acknowledge it, or like to call me a "cheerleader" (I term I don't mind as I am "bullish" on the potentials of BOINC), the truth is that there are problems and none of us deny that. However, the successes are just as common, and have just as much impact as do the failures. Like the Southwest comercials on TV, you want a lot of attention, make a mistake!

The credit system has had a lot of thought put into it. And it works, for the most part. It has problems, partially compounded by the diverse needs of the various projects.

If you mouse around in the Glossary I wrote and look up the terms, there is a lot of explanation of how all of the pieces are put together. I had hopped before I left on my trip I would have been able to do more writing, but, sigh, I did not ... Now I am out in the boonies (so to speak) I cannot change my site to make additions (which is probably not a bad thing in that I am supposed to be relaxing, well, I am supposed to be trying to see if I can travel, and if so, how ... in the getting here, we now know (or think we do) that I can do 2 days in a car before I need a day off ... but I digress) so I cannot work on the parts that will help you more (result pages, etc.).

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> Credits granted have nothing to do with
> calculation nor cobblestones that your
> computer has done
>
> Its just pure luck.
> independed of what machine you own
> you always get the second BEST score

I've avoided looking into the credit system because I'm mainly in this for the science. It's always nice to see your credits increase. It provides feedback on the work that you are contributing to the project. Now that I have taken a look at it, I've come to the opinion that it's completely wacky. Having your credit for a given WU depend on the speed of other machines working on the same WU is absurd. You may as well just skip to a single call to a random number generator and leave it at that!

I *do* like the visibility on the status of my returned results. Knowing if my results are valid and providing good science is much more important to me. It’s a pity that there isn’t a total “Validated WU’s” counter somewhere on the account page.

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just had another 4 wu's say 0 credit.All invalid.Something seems wrong here.5 out of 8 wu's I have crunched today say 0 credit.

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......In Space No One Can Hear You Scream......

Hi

Same here have 6 of ten WUs with missing file here.
Most of them will never give credits.

greetz Mike

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With each crime and every kindness we birth our future.

> I *do* like the visibility on the status of my returned results. Knowing if
> my results are valid and providing good science is much more important to me.
> It’s a pity that there isn’t a total “Validated WU’s” counter somewhere on the
> account page.

I have suggested that also ... but, once again it is a low priority task. I too would like to see a valid, invalid, etc. counter set for each project so that I can see if I am having problems with results and if this is done on a "by computer" and a "by account" basis you can use it to track down problems.

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> just had another 4 wu's say 0 credit.All invalid.Something seems wrong here.5
> out of 8 wu's I have crunched today say 0 credit.
>
Certainly seems like something is wrong. One possibility is your computer's floating point unit giving occasional wrong answers. You might want to look for some programs that can test your computer to see if that is the case.

This is not quite as easy as at sounds. Failures, if any, are likely to be sporadic and dependent on additional factors like CPU temperature. Further, there are different sets of floating point instructions available (math coprocessor, 3DNow, SSE2) and failures might be related to only one of them.

I don't know where you can find a variety of such programs. You can get some here http://freespace.virgin.net/roy.longbottom/ .

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------- Tom Gutman

> > just had another 4 wu's say 0 credit.All invalid.Something seems wrong
> here.5
> > out of 8 wu's I have crunched today say 0 credit.
> >
> Certainly seems like something is wrong. One possibility is your computer's
> floating point unit giving occasional wrong answers. You might want to look
> for some programs that can test your computer to see if that is the case.
>
> This is not quite as easy as at sounds. Failures, if any, are likely to be
> sporadic and dependent on additional factors like CPU temperature. Further,
> there are different sets of floating point instructions available (math
> coprocessor, 3DNow, SSE2) and failures might be related to only one of them.
>
> I don't know where you can find a variety of such programs. You can get some
> here http://freespace.virgin.net/roy.longbottom/ .
>
You should also check out your ram. Bad ram can cause sporadic problems also, or it could also be the memory timings in your bios need changing.

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98SE XP2500+ @ 2.1 GHz Boinc v5.8.8

And God said"Let there be light."But then the program crashed because he was trying to access the 'light' property of a NULL universe pointer.

> > > just had another 4 wu's say 0 credit.All invalid.Something seems
> wrong
> > here.5
> > > out of 8 wu's I have crunched today say 0 credit.
> > >
> > Certainly seems like something is wrong. One possibility is your
> computer's
> > floating point unit giving occasional wrong answers. You might want to
> look
> > for some programs that can test your computer to see if that is the
> case.
> >
> > This is not quite as easy as at sounds. Failures, if any, are likely to
> be
> > sporadic and dependent on additional factors like CPU temperature.
> Further,
> > there are different sets of floating point instructions available (math
> > coprocessor, 3DNow, SSE2) and failures might be related to only one of
> them.
> >
> > I don't know where you can find a variety of such programs. You can get
> some
> > here http://freespace.virgin.net/roy.longbottom/ .
> >
> You should also check out your ram. Bad ram can cause sporadic problems also,
> or it could also be the memory timings in your bios need changing.

Seems it was seti@home and it's work units.After resetting things are working ok again.

Rach.

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......In Space No One Can Hear You Scream......