roncli.com blog

For the past several years, I've been running Berkeley's Seti@Home, a grid computing application that searches for extraterrestrial life. It's out there, just trust me.

Anyway, since being put under the BOINC system, I've managed to compile a list of 41 projects that my computers can crunch numbers with. Naturally, my servers all host a BOINC client service, and I'm particularly controlling over which projects get time. Basically, I set it up so that I'm hitting a particular goal as to how many percent of the users in each project I'm doing better than. That current goal is 80%, although projects like Seti@Home are pushing the mid 90's.

The big problem has been controlling all of these servers, which used to be a pain. Then I found BoincView. I've only been using it for a couple of days, but what it does is it gives me a look at all of the computers that are running BOINC at once. I have the same control I can get with the BOINC Manager application that comes with the client, but since it all operates over the network, that means I can take care of all of the tasks I need to do, such as switching project work requests off and on, from one computer.

It's currently in development, so the project continues to get support and more features as it goes along. And the best part is that it's free software! Not a bad replacement for the BOINC Manager either, but if you have multiple computers you run BOINC on, this tool's invaluable.

Labels: BOINC, BoincView, SETI@Home, Software

Monday, May 29, 2006

BOINCing around
Posted: 3:26:00 AM 0 comments

Not so long ago, I got full into using BOINC, the new software that drives the SETI@Home application. As you may recall, I was running a SetiQueue for a couple of years until they shut the classic application down. I was a bit reluctant to get back into it, but after some time, I've bit the bullet.

I've found there's now a ton of applications out there using the BOINC structure to do the type of grid computing that SETI@Home made famous. The result? Me adding almost a dozen and a half different projects to share the free resource time among the six computers that I use (Successor, roncli.com, Reborn, ModPlug, and the two I use at work). SETI@Home has a huge head start because of the fact that I was running it on one computer for quite a long time to see how I liked it. Well, I liked it.

There's a site called BOINC Synergy that displays stats for all BOINC projects, even ones not listed on BOINC's site, including alpha and beta tests and projects that are under development. If you're into BOINC or any type of grid computing, this site's worth checking out. Projects range from search for extraterrestials, to finding a cure for cancer or AIDS, to security cracking challenges, to Chess960 algorithms, to 3D rendering... the possibilities of grid computing seem endless.

Labels: BOINC, BOINC Synergy, Servers, SETI@Home

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Still Catching Up
Posted: 11:58:00 PM 0 comments

After falling behind badly in the first week of my committment to do 2 projects a night, I feel I'm making a lot of progress. That's good, I didn't want to have to scrap the idea entirely and end up with nothing ever getting done.

The progress for Pwned Print is finally coming along nicely with all but one of the 5 tasks I had scheduled for last week being finished. Yesterday, I cleaned up my desktop and my god does it look empty. But it looks really nice and gives me a lot of space to work with. I was able to review my progress on roncli Productions and scope out another week or two's worth of work in it. I've also been able to figure out what I need to do with Backup, and after this I'll probably do the same for Due Process.

Tonight, after doing a little bit of Pwned Print, I finally sat down and figured out how to backup files in SQL Server 2005, and went a step further by scheduling monthly maintenance on the indexes and database size. Then I dove into Linux, compiled and installed BOINC, SETI@Home, and Einstein@Home (not in the plans, but remarkably easy to do), and wrestled with getting that to run. After a bit of a scare (yes, you CAN accidentally type in rm /*/*), everything was running smoothly.

The three things from last week I still haven't done is correcting the NATd and IPFW configuration for Reborn, a single form for Pwned Print, and review what's left to do for Due Process, which I should get to before I head to bed. All in all, a pretty full Monday and Tuesday, and I'm finally making some real progress on these projects.

Labels: BOINC, Coding, Due Process, Einstein@Home, Projects, Pwned Print, roncli Productions, SETI@Home

Catching Up
Posted: 12:07:00 AM 0 comments

Well, on Sunday I managed to finish up the stuff I was working on for the upcoming roncli Productions website. I had a few frustrations with ASP.Net again (as usual), but got by them after a while. I look forward to designing the rest of the sight.

However, I got nothing else done on Sunday, as most of the day was dedicated to fixing my damn NAT. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, the ipfw.rules and natd.config look right, and most things work. However, I can't figure out how to open up ports like I was able to before I last formatted the machine. It will be an open issue for a while.

In the meantime, today I got quite a bit done, including specing out the rest of what will be needed for roncli Productions. I will be, for the second time, writing forums in ASP.Net. This time I won't be building the HTML as I go, I'll actually be using the contrals as they were meant to be used.

I also got two completed forms for Pwned Cars, speced out the rest of what's needed for Backup 2.0, and even got some time to play with BONIC on Linux, as I'm wanting to get SETI@Home running over there. What I had speced out to be 10 hours took me 4 at best.

All this while spending an hour playing tennis after work... and man am I sore. Good thing it's time to sleep, I need it.

Labels: Backup, Coding, Projects, Pwned Cars, roncli Productions, SETI@Home

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Not going well
Posted: 1:35:00 PM 0 comments

Seems the projects aren't going as well as planned.

The messaging system in roncli Productions is nearly complete, though. I did finally get some time to work on that last night, despite wanting it done on Wednesday. However, it's not 100% complete. Further, I never got a chance to fix the NATd and IPFW support on Reborn, and absolutely no progress has been made on Pwned Cars. I also wanted to clean up my desktop and compile and install SETI@Home for both the Reborn and ModPlug servers so that could be running in its idle CPU time. I doubt I'll get to backing up the SQL Server on roncli.com any time soon.

Fortunately, Sunday is a long day, and I've got a lot of time to do a lot of things, and I'm in a good working mood. Let's see what can get done!

Labels: Coding, Projects, roncli Productions, SETI@Home

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Seti@Home Classic is Dead
Posted: 5:43:00 PM 0 comments

Well, Seti@Home finally announced the inevitable: Seti@Home Classic sent out it's final work unit, and is switching solely to BOINC. What sucks is that they aren't allowing Classic users the ability to upload completed work units anymore, so all that queuing done was rendered useless. I've seen the new BOINC version and am not really sure I want to go to it yet. I've done a lot for the Classic version, having run a SetiQueue for over 3 years. It's more a sentimental thing than anything.

Labels: BOINC, SETI@Home, Software

Sunday, February 27, 2005

XML Web Services and SETI
Posted: 5:46:00 AM 0 comments

Now playing: RedHeat Sonic Soundscapes - Outer Circle (Vocal, Dance) (4:50)

Apparantly XML Web Services and SETI@Home don't play nicely together. Here I am thinking I have a big problem in my application, and when I turn off SETI, it's fine.

What's worse is that this is in D3DSN, an application I distribute. So if I'm having this problem, other people are going to have this problem.

Why can't Microsoft write something that plays nice with other things? Greedy corporate bastards.

Labels: Coding, D3DSN, Descent 3, Gaming, SETI@Home, XML Web Services