Gauntlets

[Leviathann]

Do we run them anymore?

[black_civic55]

problem i've seen is that only the people who run the projects join in the gauntlet. I'm not one to speak cause i quit on last one.:(

If we could get people from other projects to join in then it would make a huge boost to output for that week or two that the gauntlet is run.

[CaptainMooseInc]

The FaD gauntlet was huge and we had some incredible output for that one....

-Jeff

[Leviathann]

Well I say we run a gauntlet for the projects we are slacking in most and work our way up from there (from worst ranked to best ranked project) so we can put Free-DC on the DC map, as it were. It can be like a DC Decathlon (or whatever the term would be) and when it's all said and done we can all go back to our own projects until the next annual (Gauntathalon). I say we could do this about once a year if it were supported by most if not the entire team. What do you all think?

[black_civic55]

im always down for the little help i can give

[Thor]

Sounds like a fun idea:D

although you have to keep in mind that certain restrictions apply, like company firewalls which block certain projects or huge RAM requirements although I don't any project with RAM requirements like DF.
Also certain personal restrictions: I would never crunch Climate Prediction because I think the wus are way too big. I don't even want to go into the BOINC problems certain people have...

I would suggsest the following:

Free-DC Gautanthlon, once a year, every project for 1 week but only the 5 weekest projects, otherwise it would take too long.

Everbody swichtes over whatever he can/wants to (because we are at Free-DC)

Maybe BOK can provide some special stats, so that we have a Gauntathlon winner...

What do you guys think?


Thor:cool:

[Leviathann]

although you have to keep in mind that certain restrictions apply, like company firewalls which block certain projects or huge RAM requirements although I don't any project with RAM requirements like DF.

Not exactly sure what you mean here. Unless you mean people who use their work comps for DC projects in which case either they can't use those comps or can't participate, no big deal really, not everyone will want/be able to participate. But I've never heard of a firewall blocking a project and I have the most stubborn router in the world.

[Thor]

Then have a look at the EON Forum: Willy1 can't use his farm on EON , because the company firewall isn't open for ports that EON uses...

Already sent an emal to the developers with the suggestion to change it...

The other thing I mean is that for some members certain technical limitations apply for some projects e.g. the ones which need a permanent internet connection...

Thor

[Leviathann]

I see what you mean. But I thought most of the projects we do don't need a permanent internet connection, but I could be wrong. I've only tried 3-4 of them.

[Leviathann]

So what project do we start with first?

[guru]

OGR-P2

[Leviathann]

Everyone else agree?

[gopher_yarrowzoo]

guru your only suggesting that cos your about to do a huge big gorrila sized DUMPage on that or you've got machine(s) that you can rapid switch to it to basically bitchslap everyone else out the way...

[guru]

I say that because that's what I am running right now. NO dumpage, just easy to run. I would do RC5 but it's not very fast on P4's

guru

[Thor]

Maybe someone of the moderators should move the thread and add a poll on which project to start with....

That way maybe some more people would add their 2cents....


Thor

[alpha]

Originally posted by Thor
Maybe someone of the moderators should move the thread and add a poll on which project to start with....

The only trouble with this approach is that the "popular" projects always get the benefits of gauntlets. I think it would be better to apply some kind of systematic approach to picking gauntlet projects, e.g. "we haven't had a gauntlet on project X lately".

This way we don't keep having gauntlets on the same old projects.

[Thor]

@ Alpha

This is just meant for projects where Free-DC is behind...

So e.g. for the 5 projects where we have the lowest rank...


It is not about the popular, big projects...


Thor

[alpha]

Thor, if it goes to a poll and people vote based on which project they think needs advancement, rather than their favourite project then perhaps it would work out a little better. However, with a poll there is always some user-bias due to project requirements and details (OS, permanent internet connection, firewall/proxy support, native service etc.). IMHO the same few projects always come out on top (though this seems to vary due to current popularity).

Looking at http://stats.free-dc.org some projects we are quite behind in have not had a gauntlet for a long time (Climate Prediction, F@H). However, we all know that Climate Prediction is probably not going to get a gauntlet because of BOINC. This is the kind of thing I'm trying to get across.

Oh and for the record, I have had NO problems with BOINC whatsoever, but I'm not suggesting that I would vote for a Climate Prediction gauntlet. :)

[CaptainMooseInc]

I would not participate in ANY BOINC project.

-Jeff

[Thor]

@ Alpha
I guess CP is already out for a gountlet because of the size of the wus... I thinke even on a fast computer it takes a week to finish...


@all

This is how it would be if we would just go by teamrank:

[list=1]
United Devices - Rank 702 (win only)
Seti - Rank 136 (it is dead for us , isn't it?)
RC5-72 - Rank 118 (anything special?)
Folding@Home - Rank 60 (I like it ;-) )
OGR25 - Rank 51
[/list=1]

This is the Top 5 of our lowest ranks...


So my suggestion is to leave Seti out, skip CP (which would be no. 6) and take SOB in where we are No14...

That would make:

[list=1]
UD (unless the Linux world disagrees to leave one out)
RC5-72
Folding@home
OGR25
SOB
[/list=1]

Each one for one week, starting with UD...


Any other ideas, problems , suggestions?


Thor

[black_civic55]

im down for anything, i got a question though bout RC5-72 and OGR

I saw people saying how p4s work better with OGR then RC5-72. When i run the app it does RC5-72 then does OGR. How do you make it so only one of them runs???

[Bok]

I'm afriad I just don't have the time to switch between clients rapidly. I'm doing so much travelling at the moment, I doubt I would even be home at the times we'd change over. For the moment, I'm just sticking with D2OL trying to get past the 500K mark.

Bok

[em99010pepe]

Originally posted by black_civic55
im down for anything, i got a question though bout RC5-72 and OGR

I saw people saying how p4s work better with OGR then RC5-72. When i run the app it does RC5-72 then does OGR. How do you make it so only one of them runs???

Just make the following:

1º - View-Console
2º - Client-Configure
3º - Buffer and Buffer Update Options (OPTION 2)
4º - Load-work precedence (OPTION 9)
5º - Then just put this RC5-72=0,OGR-P2 (ENTER)
6º - Return to main menu (OPTION 0)
7º - Save settings and exit (OPTION 0)

Cheers,

Carlos

[Thor]

@ BOK

Pretty simple, you just stick with D2OL...

I think this is one of the things Free-DC stands for , or?

If you want to an have the time to, you go with the challenge...otherwise you stick with your "home"project...

It is up to everyony how he disides... this is just about how the gaunthatlon should be done...


Thor

[alpha]

Originally posted by Thor
[list=1]
UD (unless the Linux world disagrees to leave one out)
RC5-72
Folding@home
OGR25
SOB
[/list=1]

Each one for one week, starting with UD...


Any other ideas, problems , suggestions?


UD's client software is crap and is Windows only.
RC5-72 is a waste of time.
SoB is suited for P4's, of which I have none.

I wonder why these are some of our lowest ranking projects. :rolleyes:

I'd be happy to contribute to a F@H or OGR gauntlet, though. I'd agree with Bok that one week per project isn't really long enough. The idea of these gauntlets is to raise our ranking, right? I don't think we're going to make much progress in a week. If you plan on cycling each of the projects for a week and then going back to the first and so on, this requires too much work for farmers with lots of land. :)

[black_civic55]

yea i say we can have many gauntlets and whoever wants to join can. you dont have to go out of ur way or rush to get all your computers involved. just let people know if you are in or not.

[Thor]

@ Alpha

Thats why I ask for suggestions ;-)

I have only box and all kinds of different projects installed. I just fire up what I like :-)

If it is too fast for farmers, lets make it 2 weeks, the linux guys skip the first round...

any other suggestions?

Otherwise I will post some "official" rules tonight or tomorrw.... unless somebody else wants to


Greets Thor

[em99010pepe]

I will go for an OGR-P2 gauntlet or a D2OL one.

Waiting......

Carlos

[Leviathann]

It seems Thor has taken over my idea. :confused:

Anyway, we can do this a few ways but here are just a couple.

We can run each project in order for a week for two where linux users can skip the one project they can't run and either come into the gauntathlon after that project or just run a different run for an extra week in place of the one they can't run.

-or-

We can run all our lowest ranked projects at the same time and let everyone choose which of these projects they want to run. Again for one or two weeks.

I'm thinking two weeks would be a little more reasonable as to ease the need for switching projects every few days and it gives us a chance to pump gauntlet amounts of points into the project being run at the time.

Also, if one (or more) of these projects up for running are unpopular between most of the participants here then those projects can be replaced by other low ranked projects.

:cheers:

PS - What's wrong with BOINC?

[alpha]

Originally posted by Leviathann
PS - What's wrong with BOINC?

Please, instead of listening to anybody's comments, try BOINC out for yourself and see if you like it or not. Asking what is wrong with BOINC is like asking what is wrong with carrots. You really need to taste it yourself.

Oh and the gauntlet ideas - I'm not so sure about it. A gauntlet is usually a period of time spent on a specific project. All this "list of projects" and "change every two weeks" talk isn't really following the spirit of preivous gauntlets. It is more like suggesting to people what they should crunch.

Don't get me wrong, its a nice idea trying to come up with something new, but you can count me out.

Plus I think two weeks is still a short time for some of our big hitters. And lets be honest, would our gauntlets be as interesting without them?

[Leviathann]

Ok perhaps we should start a routine, perhaps make it ongoing and change projects every month or so or have a gauntlet every other month or so. Either way I don't mind, I just want something other than 'just dumping'. I've been doing it for well over a year now and for me, as a competitive cruncher, I just crave something extra. I'm sure I'm not the only one with this feeling.

EDIT: I see we are in the 700's for UD. Maybe we should just run a month long gauntlet in that.

[black_civic55]

ok well after reading all these ideas it seems as if some are down for gauntlets and others arent. Some only want to do certain projects. What about suggesting a team of sorts. Say a few of us on here have a sub group/forum and we have our own little gauntlets to help spark some of the stats while everyone else does what they feel.

I right now am between projects and don't know where to go so I wouldn't mind helping others out.

[Leviathann]

You have my attention. Tell me more.

[black_civic55]

ok this is very sloppy because obviously it was just an idea i pulled out my arse.

You and I wouldnt mind running a gauntlet on projects to help teams out stats wise. Some others wouldn't mind helping either. The main problem is people with the farms and the constant switching. However for me and maybe some others its not very hard to switch projects because we don't have much fire power.

Instead of using the "gauntlet" term, we could create a sub forum which is still part of the Free- DC family, and people could be part of that. In this forum we would come together and attack certain projects that need our help the most. haha kinda like super heroes. So those who want to be part of it can come into the forum and see what we are currently doing and help out if they wish. If not then they do not have to. We can freely choose what we want to help out but we do it as a team.

Sorry if any confusion. Just ask what is confusing and I'll try to explain better.

[PCZ]

black_civic55

You need to get a few people on board and choose a Sub Team name.
Also you need to work out how to decide on the projects the Sub Team is going to support.

[black_civic55]

PCZ

o yea that'll all be figured out. thats just an idea thrown out there right now. whoever like it and wants to jump on it just say so.

I also don't really know if we need a name. Our name would just be for the sub forum because i don't want to lose the Free-DC thing. I don't want it to seem like a branch off. The members know who they are and thats all that i think should matter. But a forum just so we all could congregate and gather our ideas and such.

[Scoofy12]

I'm in for a gauntlet, i'll do FAD, OGR or D2OL (if it will run, i previously had some issues with the java SDK i use) for sure, probably not RC5, and nothing that wont run on linux... dont know about the others.

edit: i meant FAH... i'm already doing FAD, so i'll keep doing that if we want another FAD gauntlet:)

[Thor]

@ Leviathann

Sorry, I didn't mean to tkae your idea, just got carried away with it:blush:

@black_civic55

I like your idea !

@ All

Why not just start another Subforum "Free-Dc Gauntlet Team" where we decide ehat project , what time, and whatever;)

And everybody who wants to, just drops in and does the project which is in the focus at that moment...

For me switching is easy..and all the big farmers could maybe switch a few machines if they like to...


Thor

[black_civic55]

Thor

Thats a perfect name for the forum. And yup as you said and i said there are no commitments. Just drop in and see whats running. If you wanna join you can. All the other little details will come over time. Anyone else have ideas we can add?

[Thor]

Well, I would vote for a 2 to 4 week stretch for one projekt....

And I would prefer projekts where we are behind..
(althoughI think it is impossible for us to catch up to the top100 teams in UD and therfore might prefer other projekts..)

Thor

P.S. maybe Bok could add some kind of stats later one (if he has the time)....

Something like a row for each project... Places calculated by dividing the place in each gauntlet-project by the number of projects... this means he who has the lowest number altogether is no 1 in the gauntlet team...(hopfully somebody understands what I mean...and my idea is correct :confused: )


Thor

[black_civic55]

yea stats could be tough but if it can be done then i'm all for it.

i dunno what anyone else thinks but i think we should go away from the term gauntlet. In all reality with this group there can still be other gauntlets. What if it was called like Free-DC Stat Boosters or sumin like that?

I say we pick a target ranking instead of time limit. Something obviously reasonable though.

I'm fine with UD but if other rankings aren't attainable then whatever.

[Thor]

Free-DC StatsBoosters?

The target rank idea sounds good!

I would be in! with UD the only problem is that most of our big guns can't join because it is Win only...


Thor

[black_civic55]

haha the statboosters was just an idea.

whenever i think of gauntlet though i think of the whole project being split into teams to see who gets the high score while at the same time boosting output.

we are almost, i guess you would say, be on call

a certain project could request our help or we could do it on our own. I just feel gauntlet team is the wrong name to use for us.

[IronBits]

Ya'll made enough racket around here, so I give you
Free-DC Gauntleteers! :D
http://www.free-dc.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=80

If you don't like the name, we can change it...

[black_civic55]

haha no it will do. thanks a bunch!!! :cheers:

[Leviathann]

Damn, what'd I miss while I slept?

Well, I suppose too much progress has been made for me to stop it now.

But anyway, I think everything sounds alright. Like civic said, all the details will be worked out as we go. I say we figure out project details as we go i.e. time limit, target score goal, etc...

But as our first project I say we deffinately try and get our UD score up!