And now do You think that deadlines are too long?

We are running out of new work, only resends because of time outs. And most of those time outs are from hosts that did connect S@H and received tasks, but then those hosts "never" again contacted S@H.

Sent 07 Oct 2014, last contact 08 Oct 2014
Sent 24 Sep 2014, last contact 26 Sep 2014
Sent 09 Nov 2014, last contact 25 Nov 2014

Just an sample what units I have done since these problems at S@H started.

I just got new task (resend), deadline is 23 Jan 2015, 2:07:15 UTC. What if that task went to the host that will never again contact S@H. Over month and half to workunit to be sent again.

There is over 700.000 tasks "Results out in the field". How many of them are from hosts that did contact S@H once and then no response.

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"Please keep Your signature under four lines so Internet traffic doesn't go up too much"

- In 1992 when I had my first e-mail address -

Be careful what you ask for because you might get it. My second project is World Community Grid and they have shorter deadlines of around 1 to 2 weeks. Because the projects want quick turn around on their records, they do something funny with the resends and give them very short deadlines. This results in the resends being sent to computers that have a record of returning records fast. Because I only hold two days of work, my system is a fast turn around system. I don't mind the resends except for the fact they cause WCG to take over your system until they are all processed. It should all balance out in the end and SETI should get a fair amount of time latter on but I have seen my older system locked to WCG for long periods of time processing the resends.
SETI isn't worried about getting data back fast so they set longer deadlines. This is good because the whole idea of BOINC is to use available time on your system. If you only want to pay for a few hours of power when you are using your system, that's how it should work. My system is up 24/7 because it supports a server and the extra 100 watts or so that BIONC burns is the same as one old style light bulb. I can afford that.

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And now do You think that deadlines are too long?

We are running out of new work, only resends because of time outs. And most of those time outs are from hosts that did connect S@H and received tasks, but then those hosts "never" again contacted S@H.

Sent 07 Oct 2014, last contact 08 Oct 2014
Sent 24 Sep 2014, last contact 26 Sep 2014
Sent 09 Nov 2014, last contact 25 Nov 2014

Just an sample what units I have done since these problems at S@H started.

I just got new task (resend), deadline is 23 Jan 2015, 2:07:15 UTC. What if that task went to the host that will never again contact S@H. Over month and half to workunit to be sent again.

There is over 700.000 tasks "Results out in the field". How many of them are from hosts that did contact S@H once and then no response.

The majority of tasks I see that have or will timeout are from machines that ran for some time and then vanished. Rather from machines that only connected once, downloaded their initial 33 tasks, and then were never heard from again.

If the nature of the data being processed was time sensitive then their deadlines would be shorter, but the project doesn't have that kind of need. So they have set their deadlines to allow for more people to participate.
I would like to have a server side option for "This host isn't running any longer. Abort all of its work."

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[

The long deadline for SETI MB7 tasks is just in line with the spirit of SETI project.
And we have some good citate on this appearing on Lunatics time to time:
"Never discourage anyone...who continually makes progress, no matter how slow." (Plato).

So long deadlines bothers only those who look into pendings too often. Just would recommend to look in other places instead. This could be not only more entertaining but more usefull too ;)