The Scottish Boinc Team

Can anyone start a competition? I mean not just all you old-timers that started crunching in the mid-nineteenth century?

Assuming that a humble 2008 newbie such as yours truly is allowed to sponsor a comp then I propose the following.


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QUESTION
What will the TSBT team total be on Christmas morning?

Your guess should be to the nearest 10,000. Yes, nearest ten thousand. For example 169,820,000 would be an acceptable entry (it might even be the winning one for that matter).

You can change your mind and amend your entry up to the closing date (see below).
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FABULOUS PRIZE
An Amazon voucher for £25 or US dollar equivalent
(not specifying an exact number of dollars as sterling is collapsing day by day and might be worth next to nothing come Christmas)


RULES (shamelessly stolen from previous comps but can be amended by me in case of any loopholes that emerge)
Total according to Boincstats, as decided by me.
Only the total showing when I get round to looking will count, i.e. I'll try to look just after midnight but if I'm otherwise engaged it might be after I wake up on Christmas morning, and that will be the final winning result.
You must be an active crunching TSBT member.
I'll announce the closing date in a couple of weeks' time and summarise entries approximately weekly from now on.

not just all you old-timers that started crunching in the mid-nineteenth century?

You must mean Willie then?

I'll take a shot at a nice round 170,000,000.

Sorry TSBT Byelaw 287 s.26(g)(ix) clearly states "Nae Noobie competitions". Wait a minute it actually says "Nae Nudie competitions" [always a wise precaution with old-timers about] so thats alright then.

168,570,000 is my guess. For now.

170,000,001 and the 001 will clinch the winning number :)

I kinda scared to do this after the last two competitions, but:-

168,250,000

Ian

169,169,000

Thanks folks for kicking this comp into play so quickly.

The score as I sip a Sunday evening Laphroaig is:

Nightlord 170,000,000

Willie the Megacruncher 168,570,000

FTO-Par 170,000,001*

ianmbaker2 168,250,000

FlyingfocRS 169,169,000

*FTO-Par: Entries must be to the nearest 10k, and Nightlord has 170,000,000, do you want to have 170,010,000? In theory if someone else picks 170,010,00 then you will more or less be squeezed out.

I'm going to jump in with a round 169 million

mmm ... I'm so hopeless at this but anyhows ..

===> 169,876,000 <===

and b.t.w. the exact score will be

169,876,543

remember you saw it here first!

Hm, the 10k brackets didn't last long did they?

utopia-i 169 876 000
FlyingfocRS 169 169 000
FTO-Par170 000 001

169560000

Hm, the 10k brackets didn't last long did they?]

How true.

I think a wee bit of intervention is called for, really mostly to protect the interests of those who did read all the rules. :)

Here therefore is the complete list so far. Three entries have been rounded to the nearest available 10k. If yours was one and you want to change it then just resubmit. Hope this is OK folks (it's the fairest thing to do I think).

Nightlord 170,000,000

Willie the Megacruncher 168,570,000

FTO-Par 170,010,000

ianmbaker2 168,250,000

FlyingfocRS 169,170,000

MacDitch 169,000,000

utopia-i 169,880,000

Reeltime 169,560,000

Even with entries every 10k there are still 100 slots available in each 1 million band. I was hoping to make it more worthwhile guessing ahead in order to get your slot booked, if you see what I mean. Maybe it would have been more competitive if I'd said entries every 100k, but then again maybe war would have broken out.

Who's next?

May I just congratulate Mr Thinhead on his excellent refereeing of an otherwise somewhat unruly competition.

Order out of chaos: Always a good thing.

May I just congratulate Mr Thinhead on his excellent refereeing of an otherwise somewhat unruly competition.

Order out of chaos: Always a good thing.

Suck-up!

More entrants please. Especially if you have joined this year and haven't participated in the forums much.

Otherwise the bag of gold (oops, Amazon voucher) might go to one of the old timers who have already entered (AKA The Usual Suspects).

Seriously everyone, I joined TSBT only about 9 months ago. I'm running this comp as my way of celebrating passing 500k. If you think that you must have been crunching since 1948 in order to have a guess then you are mistaken.

Let's see a few more entries from newbies like me. :)

Okies, 170,010,000

The state of play:

Nightlord 170,000,000

Willie the Megacruncher 168,570,000

FTO-Par 170,010,000

ianmbaker2 168,250,000

FlyingfocRS 169,170,000

MacDitch 169,000,000

utopia-i 169,880,000

Reeltime 169,560,000

Matelot 170,020,000

Matelot: I have rounded you up to 170,020,000 because FTO-Par already has 170,010,000. Hope this is OK or you can resubmit if you want.

CLOSING DATE
I know you have all been eagerly waiting for this.

All entries must be in or revised by midnight on SUNDAY 21 DECEMBER.

You can enter or revise your entry up until then. Your entry cannot be the same as an existing entry.

Good luck! 8)

Revised my guess slightly:

• ianmbaker2 . . . 168,250,000
• Megacruncher. . 168,570,000
• FlyingfocRS . . . 169,170,000
• Reeltime . . . . . 169,560,000
• MacDitch . . . . . 169,700,000
• utopia-i . . . . . . 169,880,000
• Nightlord . . . . . 170,000,000
• FTO-Par. . . . . . 170,010,000
• Matelot . . . . . . 170,020,000

Ok here goes then:

• ianmbaker2 . . . 168,250,000
• Megacruncher. . 168,570,000
• FlyingfocRS . . . 169,170,000
• Reeltime . . . . . 169,560,000
• MacDitch . . . . . 169,700,000
• utopia-i . . . . . . 169,880,000
• rowpie... . . . . . 169,950,000
• Nightlord . . . . . 170,000,000
• FTO-Par. . . . . . 170,010,000
• Matelot . . . . . . 170,020,000

OK folks, you are now officially on the last lap.

Just 5 days to go to enter or revise your entry.

Deadline is midnight on Sunday coming (21 December).

Just another 24 hrs before entries close. How much I revise my guess by will depend on the extent to which GPUGrid gets its act together.

That's a good point Willie!

I think it's better now than a couple of days ago, most of my boxes are back up and running, but I suspect the impact will drop us back a few hours in this comp.

So I'm going to ease back to 169500 and hope GPU remains stable for the next few days....

Just over 12 hours to go.

Here is the latest list including Nightlord's recent change:

MacDitch . . . . . . . 168,000,000
ianmbaker2 . . . . . 168,250,000
Megacruncher. . . . 168,570,000
FlyingfocRS . . . . . 169,170,000
Nightlord . . . . . . . 169,500,000
Reeltime . . . . . . . 169,560,000
utopia-i . . . . . . . . 169,880,000
rowpie... . . . . . . . 169,950,000
FTO-Par. . . . . . . . 170,010,000
Matelot . . . . . . . . 170,020,000

Boa sorte!

Previously reckless optimism worked well in these competitions. However, as ever, I'm in it to win it, so realism must prevail, the problems at GPU grid and the temporary loss of Buster's input has lowered our RAC a bit. So I'm going to lower my guess to 167,870,000

Thanks everyone who entered.

Megacruncher. . . . 167,870,000
MacDitch . . . . . . . 168,000,000
ianmbaker2 . . . . . 168,250,000
FlyingfocRS . . . . . 169,170,000
Nightlord . . . . . . . 169,500,000
Reeltime . . . . . . . 169,560,000
utopia-i . . . . . . . . 169,880,000
rowpie... . . . . . . . 169,950,000
FTO-Par. . . . . . . . 170,010,000
Matelot . . . . . . . . 170,020,000

Here is the deal: as mentioned before I will try to look for the winning score just after midnight tomorow. The actual time I get around to looking depends on much wrapping of presents has to be done.

I'll try to post the winner some time on Christmas Day.

Call me a smug bastard (and I am :) ) but surely I have won. Without an unprecedented 1.4 daily upload or greater I am the man. Ole. Ole. Ole! etc!
Any sidebets to the contary?

Well, I'm certainly willing to concede defeat. Even Rowpie's new Ninja MegaBox isn't going to give the boost it needs to get the total up. So unless there is a hiddden cache waiting to be downloaded...

All Hail The Hero.

Ian

gratz mega... although all that proves is that the rest of us expect more from the team than you

Hmm, I think I've just got a superior ability for tracking short term fluctuations. I must thank my P1-4 Primary school teacher Mrs Esselmont, who taught me basic arithmetic!

As regards expectations I doubt if this time last year any of us would have dared predict that we would enter Xmas Day 2008 with a total of 167,066,082: It's a grand time when just under 500,000 counts as a bad day!

Yes, Willie the Megacruncher is indeed the winner.

Merry Chrismas Willie. :)

I'll PM you later regarding an email address for the prize.