What are these credits I'm earning ?
I seem to have earned 198 in 4 days, but what I really want is a count of SETI WUs processed, and a history like I used to get from SETIGate.
I can't find anything in the Help.

I fail to see what benefit I get from using BOINC,
and the problems are almost overwhelming. I'm on the point of giving up after 5 years of happy crunching.

What are these credits I'm earning ?
I seem to have earned 198 in 4 days, but what I really want is a count of SETI WUs processed, and a history like I used to get from SETIGate.
I can't find anything in the Help.

I fail to see what benefit I get from using BOINC,
and the problems are almost overwhelming. I'm on the point of giving up after 5 years of happy crunching.

The BIONC Wiki has an exhaustive and interesting discussion of the BIONC credit system, and the reasons for its adoption.

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Need help? Check out Paul D. Buck and friends' excellent BOINC-Wiki!
'We are the BOINC. Prepare to be assimilated.'

What are these credits I'm earning ?
I seem to have earned 198 in 4 days, but what I really want is a count of SETI WUs processed, and a history like I used to get from SETIGate.
I can't find anything in the Help.

There are third party tools (I use BOINC View) that will let you capture this type of information. However, BOINC is fundamentally a multi-project system and so a cross-project credit system was developed. This is the cobblestones. Fundamentally, it is a more direct reflection of actual work done.

In classic I could "test" the work units I received and "reject" those I did not want to do so I could concentrate on "fast" ones to the exclusion of the point of SETI@Home, but I would get great credit counts. The new system is not without problem either, but, it is more applicable for measurement than a work unit count. This is especially true since the work across projects have execution times of minutes to months (CPDN).

Even within a project the run times can be seconds to hours (LHC@Home).

I fail to see what benefit I get from using BOINC,
and the problems are almost overwhelming. I'm on the point of giving up after 5 years of happy crunching.

The prime benefit from the SETI@Home project perspective is more behind the scenes at the moment. The old system was difficult to administer and Matt was always pulling his hair out. For some of the other difficulties, some of this seems to stem from the fact that there is so much more operational information about the back end available, well, it looks like BOINC does not work as well as Classic did. Not true, but, it can look that way.

Longer term, SETI@Home has additional applications in the wings that will be doing more analysis (enhanced application), improved Arecibo receiver, AstroPulse, Parkes obseervations (southern hemisphere) all of which can be added without additional adminstrative overhead on the project's part.

All in all, it is going to save the project money ...

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Thanks for that.
I now have BOINCView installed - it looks good.
I presume it will collect stats for completed work from here on.

I couldn't get my old SETI account details to migrate, so I started a new BOINC account. Is there any way to merge the old credit into the new ?

I couldn't get my old SETI account details to migrate, so I started a new BOINC account. Is there any way to merge the old credit into the new ?

Yes - over on the SETI boards, in Number Crunching, look for "couldn't remember my password" (stickied near the top) or look for the thread "I lost all my old credits", which WAS at the top, but is now moving down... Basically, there is a form you can fill out on the SETI site.

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I fail to see what benefit I get from using BOINC,
and the problems are almost overwhelming. I'm on the point of giving up after 5 years of happy crunching.

Dave,

I can really sympathize with this comment, particularly if you are trying to run just Seti. Because of the impending closure of classic, the BOINC version of Seti is severely overloaded and is frustrating the attemps of many new BOINCers to get going. This situation is probably going to get worse before it gets better.

One way to avoid the heartache is to have a reliable backup project going so that Seti's outages do not really affect you. A really good choice is Einstein which is very reliable and has a very worthwhile scientific goal. You can check EAH out here. If you ask questions on the message boards there you will get polite and helpful answers.

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Cheers,
Gary.

Another approach to getting a different project is climateprediction. Those workunits take a very long time - well over 1,000 hours however fast your machine. So it is not sensible if you don't want to dedicate much machine time to the project, though you can spend a year, or even more, completing it. But the advantage is that you will not run out of work, so that you will always have something your computer can be doing even if your internet connection, or the project server, is down. Credits don't have to wait for you to complete the workunit, or validation, or any of the other things that worry SETI users, and are granted on the regular 'trickles' your computer sends to the server.

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