BOINC Pentathlon - Complete

PinkPenguin · Post by **PinkPenguin** » Wed May 01, 2013 7:36 pm

BOINC Pentathlon Starts on 5th May

First project is SIMAP from 5/5 to 18/5

See: http://www.seti-germany.de/blog/categor ... entathlon/

Each work unit needs is sent out to at least two crunchers and minimum quorum is 2 so it takes awhile for results to come in. It might be a good idea to start a couple of days early... 8)

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Wed May 01, 2013 9:18 pm

Never done this project before so that's me attached.

Post by **Megacruncher** » Wed May 01, 2013 11:58 pm

Connected & downloading!

This is the "Marathon" project of the Pentathlon which means it runs for the whole duration of the competition (unless we run out of WU - v likely).

Anyhoo, I'm at 851K for the project and this is an ideal opportunity to aim for millionaire status. :)

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Thu May 02, 2013 6:39 pm

First discipline is Simap
runs 5/5 - 18/5 00:00 UTC

Second discipline is WCG - the clean energy project phase 2.
runs 7/5 - 12/5 00:00 UTC

Third disipline is Einstein for GPU
runs 8/5 - 13/5 00:00 UTC

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Fri May 03, 2013 9:25 am

Einstein is the 3rd Discipline for GPU

Primegrid would have been better for me. Currently away so if not back wont be able to do this as need to modify the configs on the puters. ( I might be able to get it on 1 GPU from out here )
And I can't get any CEP 2 units downloaded even with this selected as my only project on WCG. So looks like I'm on SIMAP duties for the comp so far.

How many intend taking part?

PinkPenguin · Post by **PinkPenguin** » Fri May 03, 2013 6:32 pm

I might be able to do one ore two einstein GPU WUs but I don't really have a GPU worth mentioning...

CEP2 and SIMAP are ok for me so I will do those as best I can... which is kinda laid back... 8)

Post by **Megacruncher** » Fri May 03, 2013 11:48 pm

Einstein for GPU is alright. It doesn't pay very well but I was bracing myself for a burst of increased activity on E@H to help keep it top 100 so it's inclusion in this is a real bonus and a considerable incentive.

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Sun May 05, 2013 11:11 am

I still havn't managed to download a single clean energy project unit and simap units are very patchy with lots of server issues and time outs whilst downloading

although we are finally on the scoreboard. :)

Post by **Megacruncher** » Mon May 06, 2013 2:07 am

alezevo1 wrote:I still havn't managed to download a single clean energy project unit and simap units are very patchy with lots of server issues and time outs whilst downloading although we are finally on the scoreboard. :)

We've been on and off the scoreboard. The deal is that the top 25 teams score. We are 26th. I'm going to stick with Simap and just ignore the WCG bit of the race. Hopefully as the others chase clean energy we can move a few places in Simap.

I will of course be giving GPU Einstein laldy!

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Mon May 06, 2013 8:53 am

Trying to shift more cores over to Simap to boost our effort. Can't get CEP2 units for love nor money so will give that one a miss too. Einstein - well not being able to re-jig the config files from here, I believe I have got 1 gpu on it, possibility 2. Not exactly brilliant but for now the best I can do. Will try and build up some form of a pending queue that hopefully we will get back during the comp.
Think our goal here has to be to simply beat UBT , anything else a bonus :)

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Mon May 06, 2013 5:04 pm

With a bit of jiggery pockery I think i've managed to get 3 GPU's onto Einstein, so hopefully 2x660 and 1x650 joining the fray. Pending over 100 now so that's a start.

Post by **Megacruncher** » Tue May 07, 2013 1:05 am

alezevo1 wrote:Think our goal here has to be to simply beat UBT , anything else a bonus :)

Aye, weel, we are doing that.

We are still out of the points for the SIMAP bit - in 27th with 44K. We might get back into contention. On the otherhand UBT are in 29th on 25K and are unlikely to get back into contention on this one! :wav:

PinkPenguin · Post by **PinkPenguin** » Tue May 07, 2013 7:02 am

...OK, all cores to SIMAP (can get CEP2 Wus but not likely to be much use without the big hitters)...

4th Project is YOYO from 12/5 to 17/5

lookes like I might as well go for the bronze badges...

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Tue May 07, 2013 7:23 am

PinkPenguin wrote:...OK, all cores to SIMAP (can get CEP2 Wus but not likely to be much use without the big hitters)...

4th Project is YOYO from 12/5 to 17/5

lookes like I might as well go for the bronze badges...

YoYo ?, YoYo ?, It's a conspiracy...... had hoped it would be something that at least a few of the team did without deliberately changing projects but no, YoYo. Thats another bust then.
What's the last category, any chance it could be FM@H ?

Post by **Megacruncher** » Wed May 08, 2013 12:19 am

On the SIMAP front we don't seem to be making much headway so I've taken the liberty as team founder for the project of emailing all the folks signed up for the project but not not running it or not on these forums urging them that they take part.

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Wed May 08, 2013 7:23 am

Megacruncher wrote:On the SIMAP front we don't seem to be making much headway so I've taken the liberty as team founder for the project of emailing all the folks signed up for the project but not not running it or not on these forums urging them that they take part.

Sounds like an excellent idea, hopefully a couple will join in.
On the downside I've had nothing validate at Einstein since the 1st hour of the comp, on the plus side we have some points on the board and Thomas G , the one man team , from the FM@H competition has joined us. Not sure if only for Einstein comp or for good, but every little helps !!
Hoping that announcement #5 will bring us a decent project we can compete in given our small membership.

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Wed May 08, 2013 11:12 am

over 10 hrs since I had a validated Einstein unit

what is going on

PinkPenguin · Post by **PinkPenguin** » Wed May 08, 2013 8:42 pm

alezevo1 wrote:over 10 hrs since I had a validated Einstein unit what is going on

You'll probably them sitting in a queue of about 1.000 Wus which wing quys and gals are munching away at... Einstein is a bit like that. :)

Post by **Megacruncher** » Thu May 09, 2013 8:01 am

Yep,it looked like you'd chosen the start of the event to cease Einstein!

Anyway the situation has improved since then and at last we are on the Pentathlon score sheet albeit as the lowliest of the 29 scoring teams.

We can improve on that.

An important consideration is that we are now 100th by TC for E@H (yikes).

So long as we can keep the daily results above 250K for the next 4 days we hold onto our Pentathlon points and regain 99th or even 98th before the Koreans catch us.

Post by **Megacruncher** » Thu May 09, 2013 11:56 pm

Here's the Pentathlon Position and Some Strategic Suggestions.

Simap
A few stalwarts have rallied to the cause but we are in 27th place and losing ground by the day. Even with 10 days left it is very hard to see us making it up to 25th and the points.

WCG - CEP2
We are trailing in 29th and with just 50hr left for this project I predict null points. Again.

Einstein
Better news here. We are 25th - meaning 3 points. There doesn't seem to be anyone gaining on us so, with 3 days 2 hours to go, these points are probably safe so long as we keep it up. We could even move up a place or two. :)

YoYo
Starts at 1am on Sunday -12th May- morning and runs for 5 days.
I'm founder for this and will email all members of the team. We have 21 members in total which, given that this is a fairly small project, might leave us in with a chance. :)

Asteroids
Is the final event kicking off at 1am on Tuesday 14th May.
We were very active in this until not long ago and are 40th by TC. MacDitch is Founder for this so would have to rally the troops not on this forum.

Overall & Proposed Strategy

Einstein gives us 3 points which has us 29th= out of 36 teams taking part.

WCG and sadly also SIMAP are probably lost causes.

Ergo:

1. We obviously need to keep blitzing Einstein to lock in the 3 points and see if we can maybe get more.

2. We should abandon SIMAP in favour of YoYo and/or Asteroids.

Any thoughts? Yay or Nay?

Janos (retired) · Post by **Janos (retired)** » Fri May 10, 2013 4:15 am

I wish I could help. I was really looking forward to this comp, why did work have to get in the way?

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Fri May 10, 2013 7:11 pm

Can't seem to make a dent in the deficit in Simap. Have 600 units pending but unless a lot more people start crunching or the teams above us stop crunching then I have to agree it's a lost cause.
I will probably burn off the units I have just now then switch to YoYo. If I can get off this rig then I will switch Caro over to Einstein but that's an if at the moment.

PinkPenguin · Post by **PinkPenguin** » Fri May 10, 2013 8:54 pm

Looks like work will get in the way next week. So I have abandoned SIMAP and will switch to YoYo... 8)

Post by **Megacruncher** » Sun May 12, 2013 10:04 am

So far it is all going quite well.

Einstein With 15 hrs to go we are 225K ahead of the Christians who presumably will be resting 2day

we look certain to hold onto 25th place and 3 points. :)

yoYo Our campaign as got off to good start with us in 20th place. A little more help would be good and we will certainly have to keep it up but it is nice to be in the running for a reasonable number of points - at present 18.

Overall We are now in 26th place with 21 points. UBT are 29th! 8)

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Sun May 12, 2013 9:12 pm

Well thats me back. Credit incoming on Einstein but will be too late for Pentathlon but might grab us a place or 2 on the Einstein challenge...
Will also try and shift a few more cores over to Yoyo

Post by **Megacruncher** » Sun May 12, 2013 11:38 pm

As far as Einstein goes the Pentathlon die is well & truly cast: 25th place & 3 points it will surely be.

With YoYo however it is different: We have everything to play for. We are drifting down the table a little and the more cores the better. I'm up north just now but when I get home Tomorrow I think I might even suspend my fmah efforts in favour of it.

Post by **Megacruncher** » Tue May 14, 2013 10:52 pm

Pentathlon Progress Update

SIMAP is pretty much a lost cause having been abandoned as a matter of strategy.

WCG-CEP the race is run and we were never in it.

Einstein - event over & 3 points in the bag! 8) Woo-Hoo! :wav:

YoYo- 3 days in and we are in 23rd place with 9 points. It would require a rather disastrous 51 hours to have us finish any lower than 23rd and a frankly heroic 51hrs to have us finish any higher.

Asteroids We didn't plan for but started off rather well being in the points until this evening when we slipped to 26th.

Overall We are 29th equal with UBT!

Suggested Strategy It will be fairly easy to defend our position on YoYo but a tall order to improve on it, & we are in with a chance on asteroids. Therefore to maximise our points and prospects of finishing ahead of UBT I suggest an orderly transfer of resources from YoYo to Asteroids so that by 1am on Friday morning we are giving Asteroids our all.

Silver · Post by **Silver** » Tue May 14, 2013 11:18 pm

Still on YoYo but started into a bit of the asteroid.

Hope to be able to keep us in with a shout!!

Post by **Megacruncher** » Tue May 14, 2013 11:43 pm

thanks
A wee bit YoYo then full blast asteroid has to be the way to go!
I"ll reassess the situation tomorrow night & if the situation is safe enough we could even think about bailing out of YoYo altogether and giving Asteroids everything.

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Tue May 14, 2013 11:52 pm

I'm going to be heading off again tomorrow, so I will leave the main crunchers on Yoyo which should allow you guys to transfer more cores to Asteroids. Will switch the laptop over later as things progress.

Post by **Megacruncher** » Wed May 15, 2013 11:52 pm

Megacruncher wrote:thanks
A wee bit YoYo then full blast asteroid has to be the way to go!
I"ll reassess the situation tomorrow night & if the situation is safe enough we could even think about bailing out of YoYo altogether and giving Asteroids everything.

Oopsie! I didn't foresee Crystal Dream more than tripling their previous daily YoYo output to push us down into 24th!

To be fair, not only was this unpredictable but it was totally unstoppable - CD actually rose 3 places.

Hopefully there won't be any more nasty surprises. At present we are 116K ahead of the 25th placed team. There are 26 hours to go & none of the teams below us has ever crunched more than 25K for YoYo inany of the previous days of the event.

As regards Asteroids we are down in 28th place. We have enough time to get into the points if we really go for it. I've got to say that the WU seem a little slow to validate - I've crunched 31 Asteroid units today and only got credit for 6 - so don't leave it to the last minute.

THE STRATEGY IS GIVE ASTEROIDS ALL YOU'VE GOT!

Silver · Post by **Silver** » Thu May 16, 2013 12:10 am

I was quite hopefull when I went to check the stats too

Finishing off YoYo i'm part through and then focusing on asteroid - fingers crossed

Post by **Megacruncher** » Thu May 16, 2013 12:15 am

It's a bummer but I think that the only possible way of recovering is via Asteroids.

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Thu May 16, 2013 8:13 am

Seems that there is major issues getting any work units to validate at asteroids. Far too many inactive or slow wing-mannies out there.

Post by **Megacruncher** » Thu May 16, 2013 10:01 pm

We are beginning to pick up momentum and if some of our pending credit (I've got over 12K owed to me) comes thru in the next 28 hours we could get a few asteroid points.

Overall UBT are still beating us by 12 points to 9. They are well behind us in Asteroids and we are in with a chance of catching them up or maybe even overtaking them. We can but try.

Silver · Post by **Silver** » Thu May 16, 2013 10:29 pm

Pardon my ignorance but how do you work out what pending credit you/the team have?
I can find a list of my completed tasks awaiting validation but there isn't a number of credits against it.
Am I in the right place or barking up completely the wrong tree??

Post by **Megacruncher** » Fri May 17, 2013 1:02 am

Silver wrote:Pardon my ignorance but how do you work out what pending credit you/the team have?
I can find a list of my completed tasks awaiting validation but there isn't a number of credits against it.
Am I in the right place or barking up completely the wrong tree??

You can work it out because each task for Asteroids@H ends up being worth 120 credits. So as of now I can be fairly sure that my 112 tasks awaiting validation will end up worth 13440 credits. Other projects are less predictable.

Silver · Post by **Silver** » Fri May 17, 2013 5:51 pm

Thanks, that makes sense.
I've got over 10k credits pending then.
Are we feeling lucky though!?

Post by **Megacruncher** » Fri May 17, 2013 10:40 pm

You've got 10k I'm up to 18k. If the validator were to shift up a gear then we could really begin to make progress. So too might others of course.

Post by **Megacruncher** » Sun May 19, 2013 1:08 am

It's all over. We had an awesome final day for Asteroids - 51K, 5days like that would have netted us 6 points- but just too many of our work units remained invalidated and although we moved from 28th to 27th we were well clear of the points.

Thus we end 30th out of 36 entrants. Not that bad considering the rather elite field we were competing against. It's just a pity that UBT finished in 28th = just 3 points ahead of us.

Still, nice effort and a gallant finish.

Back to mainly DisTRGen and FM@H for me.

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Sun May 19, 2013 9:00 am

UBT beat us on 3 of the 5 challenges. On 2 of those ( Simap and CEP ) they were only 1 place above us. They had a strong showing in Einstein which netted them their points. we gained points in 2 different projects.
Had myself and Janos been able to properly participate in the Einstein challenge then things would have been different....... next time

Asteroids was always going to be tough given the problems getting units to validate. I will have units validating for weeks yet as most of my wingmen have average returns of 7-8 days yet have 200 + units cached ????

All in all for such a small team of active participants in challenges we did very well. We also had a few people join in the challenges for the first time or the first time in a while and if we can maintain a group of us participating like this then we have a core group to build on for future glory.

All in all, not bad. Roll on the next challenges and next year we will be back 8)

FM@H, pogs, primegrid for me until the next challenges and once I get home #1 in Albert as our revenge !!!!!!