This is really addressed to the whole BOINC development team, but I suppose to David in particular.
I wonder if it would be possible for you to post, hopefully in the not-too-distant future, a summary of where we're up to with the whole 'CreditNew' bundle (which of course includes important functional code like per-app quotas and DCF, as well as the credit stuff). http://boinc.berkeley.edu/trac/wiki/SoftwareDevelopment still has it as a "proposal" We know that a publicly announced Beta test started on the SETI Beta site on 1st. April 2010. The only reference to the outcome of this test that I've seen, apart from my own reports, is changeset 21727. And it appears, although without announcement, that the whole bundle went live on the Main SETI project from Monday 7 June, when it became apparent that the new NVidia-supplied CUDA Fermi application needed to be added to the installed versions list. There's some very wise advice on "Recruiting and retaining volunteers" in the Wiki, and I'm fond of quoting it: "Take an active role in your web site's message boards. Read them frequently, and respond quickly to any negative threads that arise. Make a periodic posting giving 'insider info' on your project." In the absence of project staff or developers able and willing to carry out that role, and with the SETI forum moderators otherwise engaged, it falls to ordinary volunteers to attempt to answer the myriad of questions that arise on the message boards - in the first ten days after deployment, I wrote almost 200 posts, almost all technical in nature, some lengthy, and others requiring research and testing on my own computers before I had an answer I felt confident in passing on. That's OK: I'm a volunteer, I knew what I was letting myself in for, and I'm not complaining. It keeps the brain from atrophying. But the advice given to other volunteers and the general public on the message boards would be more comprehensive, and more accurate, if there could be some ongoing background briefing from the centre. Even if those were only terse, technical sitreps, volunteers could have a go at expanding them into more generally accessible language for the wider readership. I'm raising this now because the unfinished, provisional BOINC code is beginning to spill over and have a detrimental effect on other projects. Take CPDN, for example. Around 18 November last year, according to Milo, David asked for the server code at CPDN to be updated "to enable his script to compare the old and new style of credit calculation to run." This turned out to be a larger and more difficult job than anticipated, involving much customisation, but it's been completed now. Obviously, because the requested test included 'CreditNew' issues, Milo didn't take the 'Server Stable' branch, but the trunk revision (as would other projects needing support for recent developments in GPU and multithreading technology). According to the latest information in my possession, the Main CPDN project is currently at Changeset 21675 - and it shows. Even experienced moderators (and CPDN has some of the best in the business, with in-depth project knowledge even predating the conversion to BOINC) cannot explain "(reached daily quota of 3 tasks)" messages, when no tasks have been downloaded for the host, and day, in question. I'd like to think that Milo and other project administrators could find out when it'll be safe, and necessary, to update their prohects again to avoid glitches like this, without having to rely on seond-hand reports from the maelstrom of rumour and speculation that is the SETI message board. _______________________________________________ boinc_dev mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ssl.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/boinc_dev To unsubscribe, visit the above URL and (near bottom of page) enter your email address.
