The "Time to Completion" of a task (eg t319_CASP7_ ...) increases instead of decreasing when BOINC is started. Why so? It is most annoying as I use a script to shut down the computer after the period during which the work is supposed to have been done. But if this period is uncertain...

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You best read this post and the one below it.

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"I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant." R.M. Nixon

You best read this post and the one below it.

I have read your posts and I gather that "Time to completion" is just an approximation and that there is no way of exactly knowing how long a WU will take. May be there is an upper limit? If not, I think i will drop out as I do not wish to run my computer for some time and then discover that because of "checkpoints" i have wasted half or more of that time, nor do i wish to have a constantly running computer with all that noise and crawling other applications from 100% CPU usage.

(Nice Nixon quote.)

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I have read your posts and I gather that "Time to completion" is just an approximation and that there is no way of exactly knowing how long a WU will take. May be there is an upper limit? If not, I think i will drop out as I do not wish to run my computer for some time and then discover that because of "checkpoints" i have wasted half or more of that time, nor do i wish to have a constantly running computer with all that noise and crawling other applications from 100% CPU usage.

(Nice Nixon quote.)

First, as a rule your predefinded time of completion (3 hours is the default, you may set it here) is kept in limits of some minutes. As I take from my own units I'd say it tends to be under that limit rather than over. So normally the times to completion are kept and there is no problem with that.

More exact information on that topic, on hung WUs and on checkpoints can be found in this post.

Regarding the quote: it is one of those that really deserves him the title "Tricky Dicky".

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"I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant." R.M. Nixon

Marc, perhaps you could explain more about how you wish to use your computer?

You say you use a script to shut it down after the scheduled amount of time. This implies you've only got one work unit at a time? And no full-time network connection? Do you leave your PC at work and allow your computer to run for 3 more hours each day before shutdown? or what have you got going?

If we could understand what you are trying to achieve, perhaps we could help with some other ideas. How much crunch time are you trying to allow?

Your computers a "hidden". If you'd allow us to see them, perhaps we'd have a more clear picture as well. Here is more information about what it means to show them.

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Add this signature to your EMail:
Running Microsoft's "System Idle Process" will never help cure cancer, AIDS nor Alzheimer's. But running Rosetta@home just might!
https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/

Marc, perhaps you could explain more about how you wish to use your computer?

You say you use a script to shut it down after the scheduled amount of time. This implies you've only got one work unit at a time? And no full-time network connection? Do you leave your PC at work and allow your computer to run for 3 more hours each day before shutdown? or what have you got going?

If we could understand what you are trying to achieve, perhaps we could help with some other ideas. How much crunch time are you trying to allow?

Your computers a "hidden". If you'd allow us to see them, perhaps we'd have a more clear picture as well. Here is more information about what it means to show them.

Hello "Feet1st" (?),

I try to contribute with one "home computer".
Now i do not wish to organize my life only around BOINC!
So:
- my computer is not always on (especially when i am traveling!)
- because of BOINC's load on the computer (noise, hampered applications) i launch BOINC only when i am not using the computer for something else.
- at night or when i go out during the day i launch a script (home written) for a choosen number of hours after which the computer shuts down; this is to prevent the computer running indefinitely should i have an accident and to have a morning without humming, a quiet morning! (i live in an apartment).
- at present i allow 6 hours of "crunch" time.

Again last night, i chose a 6 hour work time only to find that after 6 hours of BOINC, there still was more than 30mn left to complete the WU. So i am going to allow only 4 hours now, if i keep on the project; should i take into account the "Result duration correction factor" below?

Rosetta is a very interesting basic biology project though.

Computer particulars (my computer is hidden because i do not wish to publish its IP address):
Created 7 Jun 2006 10:41:52 UTC (why, i joined in oct. 2005)
Total Credit 255.34 (not true)
Recent average credit 20.20
CPU type GenuineIntel
Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40GHz
Number of CPUs 1
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP
Home Edition, Service Pack 2, (05.01.2600.00)
Memory 1021.73 MB
Cache 976.56 KB
Swap space 2464.58 MB
Total disk space 74.56 GB
Free Disk Space 64.26 GB
Measured floating point speed 1163.64 million ops/sec
Measured integer speed 1969.93 million ops/sec
Average upload rate 1.87 KB/sec
Average download rate Unknown
Average turnaround time 0.74 days
Maximum daily WU quota per CPU 97/day
Results 13
Number of times client has contacted server 285
Last time contacted server 23 Jun 2006 6:15:41 UTC
% of time BOINC client is running 66.6616 %
While BOINC running, % of time work is allowed 99.9551 %
Average CPU efficiency 0.946736
Result duration correction factor 0.630076

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Hi Marc,

sure, organizing your life around BOINC would not be a sensible thing to do (and much less sensible to make it a prerequisite for being able to participate). But once Rosetta is set up and crunches there is no need to do so. BOINC does at first sight look much more complicated than it really is, as most people simply attach and forget about the whole thing as long as no errors occur.

I think running each WU for 4 hours is a good decision in your case. Each WU will definitely be finished before five or six hours are over and you can simply forget about Rosetta crunching while you are away. But I would not be overly worried about the work lost if a WU is interrupted by turning the PC off, I also turn mine of every night and do not look at the progress before doing so. And: once the CASP challenge is over the times between checkpoints should decrease a lot, as the WUs will contain less sophisticated proteins, so you will not loose much.

You are right: BOINC calculates how long a WU should take based on benchmarks and then compares that with the times observed. Your correction factor of 0.6 is perfectly normal for a system that is in good shape.

And on your worry regarding the IP-address: IP-addresses and computer names are visible only to the account owner, nobody else will see that info if your PC is public. But still, as long as you do not have a question regarding specific WUs, there is no need to change that setting back.

Regards,

Christoph

Yes, thanks for further details Marc. And yes, your IP address is not shown. Take a look at my computers. Click my feet1st profile name and you can view them. THAT is the only info we can see about yours. You see more because you are the owner of them. And thanks for setting aside that time each day to crunch.

It sounds like part of what you are trying to avoid is to start your PC in the morning and still have the last portion of a work unit left to crunch. You can always delay starting BOINC. Or suspend it (snooze it's called in the new version of BOINC.).

In your situation, I would look at it as X hrs per day that I'm crunching... rather than "I'm going to crunch one work unit per day". In fact, if you are on a dial-up modem, you could set your runtime up to 12 or 18 hours, and set your goal as being one per week. It just crunches more models on the same protein, and assures you've got more to crunch when the current model completes.

Your present method has two problems... one being the one you've sited which is that the WU runs longer than expected. The other is when the WU finishes sooner than expected (for example when the models are taking 90min. each to crunch, and another 90min would put you over your runtime preference). Your computer may be on for an extra hour without any work to do. During that time it will be using less power, generating less heat, and generally idleing rather than what you see when it is processing Rosetta work. But still, it's an hour of up-time that's not being used.

So, I'd actually suggest a longer runtime preference. This would assure you are crunching the whole time that you've set aside (except perhaps on the one day per week that it needs to download another WU). And if you are committed to 6 hours per day, that's great. And so far as productivity with that time goes, it would be preferable for you to do 12 hours one day, and zero the next if possible. Or even 24 hours twice a week (Saturday & Sunday?), and not run the rest of the week.

The idea being that the longer you crunch at one sitting, the more you eliminate wasted crunch time that occurs when you turn off your computer while a WU is in progress. But yes, certainly, don't schedule your life around BOINC. The idea is actually to utilize your SPARE, IDLE cycles, and you've already stepped beyond that.

Another idea would be to leave the computer on, and you can schedule the hours of the day that BOINC will run. This is in the General preferences. So, you could tell it to only run for 6 hours every evening from 17:00 to 23:00 for example (be sure to update to the project after changing the general preference, and also set BOINC to run "based on preferences" not "run always"). When BOINC is not running, the computer won't be using as much power and not using the disk (at least not for BOINC), so it isn't like it is wearing out. But, yes, it is still using some power, putting out some heat and sitting idle.

During the say, you could just use the "snooze" to allow BOINC to run while you step out, and snooze it again when you return. As long as the computer stays up and running, and the applications are left in memory, you don't lose any crunch time. This is really how "spare" cycles are used. People just set the General preference to not run while the computer is in use, and leave applications in memory (they actually are pushed out to virtual memory, you shouldn't notice any impact on your applications). That way BOINC picks up an hour or two throughout the day and starts running automatically when you aren't using the computer.

You wrote "not true" beside your total credit. Your profile shows 1571 credits. So, perhaps the other were reported under a different host ID. There are cases where even the same computer can start a new host profile.

I hope you find one of these approaches that works for the way you wish to use your computer. Do not be discouraged by a few wasted cycles. The project is working to further reduce that waste over time. And most of the time you're only losing about 10min out of your 6 hours... so 98% of that time is doing productive work... not bad!

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Add this signature to your EMail:
Running Microsoft's "System Idle Process" will never help cure cancer, AIDS nor Alzheimer's. But running Rosetta@home just might!
https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/