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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Support
Forum: Suggestions / Feedback
Thread: Badge for participation |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 215
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KWSN-A Shrubbery
Senior Cruncher Joined: Jan 8, 2006 Post Count: 476 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Still prefer dirt, or plastic. I could live with rock.
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KLiK
Master Cruncher Croatia Joined: Nov 13, 2006 Post Count: 3108 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Collecting badges
----------------------------------------(a disclosure) This text is written in a way so that anyone (even novice people) reading it can make highest badges he/she wants. So lets start at the beginning: - badges are rewarded for CPU time...so more CPUs or cores on CPU you have - more WU will you process in same time...also, older & newer processors with HT can use "virtual cores" & double the amount of cores CPU has... example: single CPU does 99% work in 24h...or about 23h 45min 36sec... dual-core CPU (with same architecture & speed [MHz]) does 99% work in 24h, but with 2 cores...it makes double time of 47h 31min 12sec... dual-core CPU with HT does 4 WU simultaneously, so it doubles that time to total of 95h 2min 24sec... etc. so all you have to do to make highest badges is have a processor with highest amount of cores in it! right?! well, no so...there is also another option, which WCG & every other grid computing expert will like to HIDE from you: - if you don't care about other things (like points, number of returned results, RACs, etc.), then you can also do something else to get you most badges you want to have...& you wouldn't believe it when it's written, but it's: buy yourself the "slowest in MHz version of CPU with maximum amount of cores & preferably HT technology"! why is that? well, as it turn out, with that processor you are going to take as much WU as it can to work on them & speed is not important...just make sure that you want to finish those WUs before deadline! why would that suit you? well, as it turns out...some science are allocated as previous are delivered back...even in FAHB project, but also in other projects when a large amount of information can't fit WCG (or any other) servers...so the more slowly you progress your WUs, the more slowly will science progress also...& the end date for science is prolonged & prolonged... do you have to buy slow processors? well, no...you can also throttle down your processor with some programs, which some of us older guys here have been suggesting to run on laptops...but you can also slow down your CPU in Power options in Windows...making it slower also for the WCG & prolonging a project...& if you implement that tactics compared to 105.000+ CPU days average on WCG, you can gave a great or less great impact on the grid itself - depending, of course, on the number of CPU days that your grid makes here (or in any other BOINC project)... how is that information relevant? well, you don't have to spend TOO MUCH money on fastest processor, when there is a minimum version laying cheaply on the table for a few $...  for example: in my case I've got recently a X3360 for one board that I've got which costs about $65 + shipping, but I could have easily go for X3350 which is about $20 cheaper & same architecture with 12MB of L2 cache... hopefully, this text has saved you some bucks (if you're not in points & number of returned results, RACs, etc. & want only badges)...but a math is clear, cheaper is better for you if you want to have more badges here! hey, but any school is costly...I'm just sharing with what I've got from it!  |
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noderaser
Senior Cruncher United States Joined: Jun 6, 2006 Post Count: 297 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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That strategy only works with WCG, which is the only project I know of that awards their badges based on computing time... Most are based on total credit or recent average credit, where your "slow but lots of cores" strategy wouldn't help.
----------------------------------------Furthermore, one user isn't likely to slow the completion of a (sub)project, since there are still plenty of people who sink money into clusters of the latest and greatest. |
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KLiK
Master Cruncher Croatia Joined: Nov 13, 2006 Post Count: 3108 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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That strategy only works with WCG, which is the only project I know of that awards their badges based on computing time... Most are based on total credit or recent average credit, where your "slow but lots of cores" strategy wouldn't help. Furthermore, one user isn't likely to slow the completion of a (sub)project, since there are still plenty of people who sink money into clusters of the latest and greatest. well, most people here have just average CPU chips in their builds...while some make a big clusters...some might take strategy made in this "disclosure"?! time will tell... |
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CandymanWCG
Senior Cruncher Romania Joined: Dec 20, 2010 Post Count: 421 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Thank you for all the suggestions, KLiK, but I'm afraid you have badly misunderstood this thread (and I can't blame you, since it was a bit hijacked by the whole "badges for 10,20,50,100 years" discussion). If you take the time to go back to the first pages of this thread, you will see that this is not about people not caring about the projects themselves or about the benefits of it all and it is not (really) about badge hunting either.
----------------------------------------All that myself (and others) are saying is that it would be nice to have some form of recognition even for the sciences where an user was not able to achieve the threshold of Bronze, but they have, indeed managed to return at least 1 valid WU for it. I'll give myself as an example: I returned about 23 hours worth of computing for Discovering Dengue Drogues - Together - Phase 2, but because I joined the fight too late and didn't have enough resources at hand, I was unable to reach the 14 days mark in order to get my Bronze badge. Of course, there are more frustrating situations than this. I'm sure there are a lot of crunchers out there with one or more complete researches at more than 13 days of computing time and nothing to show for on their profile, so to speak. It's not a life or death thing, but, like I said, it would be nice to have. I hope this helps better understand the "issue" at hand. Cheers! Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world! - Albert Einstein   |
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KLiK
Master Cruncher Croatia Joined: Nov 13, 2006 Post Count: 3108 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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well, all I can say for that is "upgrade your specs"! maybe in your advantage & my suggestion?!
----------------------------------------or maybe the other way... I've just sold a "vintage SB AWE32" for a $89, which will go to another XEON quad-core for my small grid...so will make +2d per day on CPU h...  |
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CandymanWCG
Senior Cruncher Romania Joined: Dec 20, 2010 Post Count: 421 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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KLiK, sorry, but you're still not getting it. It's not necessarily about "I don't have the hardware to make it to 14 days before a project ends". At ~50Gflops per day, I would say I'm not too shabby and that is without throwing in my i7 8-threads in the mix.
---------------------------------------- This is about the projects which have ended before getting any badge for one reason (like being a newbie and not knowing how to throw everything you have on a soon ending project) or another (the project was halted or ended very fast). So while you're suggestions are welcomed, as I said before, they are completely missing the point. I can't say it more clearly than that. Cheers! Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world! - Albert Einstein |
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KLiK
Master Cruncher Croatia Joined: Nov 13, 2006 Post Count: 3108 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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KLiK, sorry, but you're still not getting it. It's not necessarily about "I don't have the hardware to make it to 14 days before a project ends". At ~50Gflops per day, I would say I'm not too shabby and that is without throwing in my i7 8-threads in the mix. This is about the projects which have ended before getting any badge for one reason (like being a newbie and not knowing how to throw everything you have on a soon ending project) or another (the project was halted or ended very fast). So while you're suggestions are welcomed, as I said before, they are completely missing the point. I can't say it more clearly than that. Cheers! maybe we can suggest a WCG to make a "ghost badge" (see through), for all those who participated in research (at least 1 WU returned), but didn't get to bronze...with some plain pale colors or greyish... I'm not good in web design...so maybe someone can make them in a few suggestions...& then we let WCG to decide if they are up to it?! EDIT: I also lack DDDT2 badge...but that project was quickly over! from the start I didn't participate, but now - my country is on a frontier of getting Dengue & West Nile fever from mosquitos...  ---------------------------------------- [Edit 2 times, last edit by KLiK at Nov 2, 2015 5:53:48 PM] |
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Skivelitis2
Advanced Cruncher USA Joined: Mar 21, 2015 Post Count: 113 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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I think a cumulative badge across all projects would help solve the problem. If you fall a few days short at one sub-project, the run time still accumulates towards your overall badge.
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theodolite
Advanced Cruncher Joined: Apr 11, 2014 Post Count: 119 Status: Offline |
There is no problem. Do 14 days and get a badge. Simple. Quit whining.
You don't get a badge for taking one college course. You dont get an award for working one day. No awards for reading one book. No free airline tickets for one tank of gas. No free drinks for ordering one beer. |
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