Wed, May 30, 2007, 2:03am
SETI@mac — 479th so far
Computers » Mac » Hardware
N
ot knowing what to do with all these cores in my Mac while I'm not on it, and even if I am, I let it churn on some SETI@home work units. BOINC, the master controller that includes any number of distributed tasks like this, is one of the few programs that actually can crank all 8 cores. And yet, it still leaves your machine as usable as if it were not running in the background — except for the extra heat generated out the back of the machine. (I was using BOINC for Einstein@home, but the work units take so much longer and I have a short attention span.)
At any rate, I let it go for about a week to see where it would place me in the computer achievement listings at SETI, and I moved into 480th place (out of ?-knows how many). Then it hopped to 479th about an hour later. The new number is at least a nice prime number. Let see how high she flies. Though truly I hope to be able to make good use out of the cores on my own when I can. Until then, find those LGMs!
Here's a graph of the position in the rankings (click on image for better view):
When it levels out, I'll stop. The ranking position is purely based on your rolling average of recent work units, not the total amount of SETI work units done, so it's fairly easy to accelerate into the top 500. Your ranking also lags several hours behind your registering of recent work units, and it seems to update somewhat haphazardly. Update: it seems to update every 4 hours.
Update 6/1: Ok, I'm stopping my experiment, since it's the middle of summer and I've effectively turned my new Mac into a continually blowing hair dryer. That said, I'll include the final ranking in the graph above so you can get some idea about how long it takes to climb the ranks with it.
At any rate, I let it go for about a week to see where it would place me in the computer achievement listings at SETI, and I moved into 480th place (out of ?-knows how many). Then it hopped to 479th about an hour later. The new number is at least a nice prime number. Let see how high she flies. Though truly I hope to be able to make good use out of the cores on my own when I can. Until then, find those LGMs!
Here's a graph of the position in the rankings (click on image for better view):
When it levels out, I'll stop. The ranking position is purely based on your rolling average of recent work units, not the total amount of SETI work units done, so it's fairly easy to accelerate into the top 500. Your ranking also lags several hours behind your registering of recent work units, and it seems to update somewhat haphazardly. Update: it seems to update every 4 hours.
Update 6/1: Ok, I'm stopping my experiment, since it's the middle of summer and I've effectively turned my new Mac into a continually blowing hair dryer. That said, I'll include the final ranking in the graph above so you can get some idea about how long it takes to climb the ranks with it.