2015 Formula Boinc Challenge

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Thu Apr 09, 2015 11:22 am

Here's our page on Formula Boinc if anyone is interested

http://formula-boinc.org/index.py?lang= ... &year=2015

At least this year we are in the more realistic league 2.
Probably quite a few projects we could improve on if we set our minds to it.

Silver · Post by **Silver** » Thu Apr 09, 2015 10:15 pm

Like you said Alez, league 2 at least gives us a chance, maybe we should try and get organised to try and claim a few point with a team effort on a few projects then?
I know Scole is always up for a battle :bounce:

Post by **scole of TSBT** » Thu Apr 09, 2015 11:25 pm

How does it work?

Silver · Post by **Silver** » Fri Apr 10, 2015 12:42 am

This explains it http://formula-boinc.org/index.py?lang=en&year=2015
Basically for the projects on the list the ten highest scoring teams are awarded points, points are totalled for all the projects to give a team score.
There are different leagues, which are supposed to reflect the teams capabilities. We were in the 1st league last year, I think based on our gpu performance in which we punch well above our weight, therefore we didn't make much headway in the cpu comps.
We can either ignore it and see where we come at the end or pay a bit of attention and see what projects we've got a chance to gain places/points in and make an effort to crunch them.

Post by **scole of TSBT** » Fri Apr 10, 2015 12:47 am

Are points awarded periodically? If so, what interval? Or are points awarded once at the end of 2015?

Silver · Post by **Silver** » Fri Apr 10, 2015 7:17 am

points/running total are updated daily with the result for the year based on the totals as of 23:59 utc 30th November.

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Fri Apr 10, 2015 1:27 pm

As Paul said, it's a year long competition with points being awarded for each top 10 finish at the end of the year. Definitely a formula that favours bigger teams but at least this year we have a fighting chance of not finishing last

Post by **scole of TSBT** » Fri Apr 10, 2015 1:34 pm

What should crunch?

Convector-3rd, could take 2nd or maybe 1st
Edges-6th
SAT-13th
SRBase-7th
The dDM-Project-7th
Universe@Home test project-2nd (take it from BlackOps?

)
VirtualLHC@home-7th
Yoyo-11th ?

Those are just some that looked like we could gain ground the easiest, at a quick glance.

I was on Universe@Home test with a few cores, but they still have the 0.04 units in the queue which all seem to fail to finish. If you get them, abort them.

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Fri Apr 10, 2015 2:26 pm

It's a year long thing so we can do any of them to try and stay in touch with the leaders and make pushes through out the year. Places only count at the year end so unlikely we could grab places now and then forget about it. If we wish to do this it's going to take planning, commitment and the help of others on the team as we will have to keep pushing multiple projects not just the 3 or 4 of us on a project for a week like the normal competitions.
We will need to look at the lower projects too and try to increase them. Should be great for WUProp hours and TSBT positions within the world.

At the moment I'm pushing Poem, Einstein, dDM, Leinden, malaria enigma and FiND. plus a few others trickling along, or at least trying with my complete lack of control or communication with IT at home.

Post by **scole of TSBT** » Fri Apr 10, 2015 4:54 pm

Have to finish the WCG but will push those projects too. Except for dDM, still won't allow new accounts. Decided to heat up the GPUs and Woo Hoo! Getting AMD and Nvidia Arecibo GPU WUs! Less than 500 hours from magenta. Thought it was going to die in blue, but might make it.

Post by **Megacruncher** » Sat Apr 11, 2015 1:58 am

League 2?
Couldn't they at least have called it The Championship?

Post by **scole of TSBT** » Wed Apr 15, 2015 6:23 pm

I pushed a few of Alez's suggestions but started pushing some of the other projects like Asteroids, CAS, EDGeS, LHC, Szataki, Yafu just to move them along a little. Not sure it was worth it on some. Getting Yafu to 13th wasn't that hard, but to it to 10th isn't going to happen without a team push and I'm not suggesting that either. I think there's other projects worth the push. Not sure bouncing around the projects is the best strategy though. Anyone want to offer a strategy for how to choose projects to focus on?

I've been trying to look at different projects, see what it will take to get TSBT in either the top 10 or move up if already in the top 10. Then check the team stats for those projects to see how much more we have to crunch compared to the other teams in order to keep our position or move ahead. I need one of those computers like they have on the Enterprise where all they have to do is say "Computer, calculate how many points TSBT must crunch for each Formula BOINC Challenge project in order to reach positions 1-10 and estimate the daily points that must continue to be crunched to hold those positions." . This is how our sales team thinks we develop software.

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Thu Apr 16, 2015 10:48 am

Sounds like software worth developing

Guess all we can do is keep plugging away in the long term whilst maintaining the good showing we have so far.
As a long term goal , guess the best hope we have is that we pick up more crunchers that run projects other than the usual suspects as Formula Boinc is a format that favours the big teams of many crunchers spread across the spectrum of boinc projects rather than a small group such as us.
Keep at it, end of November is still a long way away, much water to go under the bridge before then.

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Mon Apr 20, 2015 12:42 pm

Going to be a struggle adding new projects whilst maintaining or improving what we have. Think Poem is one where we can pick up more points and hopefully the push on Asteroids will bear fruit. Think a few others like LHC will be a struggle and we will need to be careful not to let them slip if chasing other projects. Going to try boosting a few projects as already mentioned then we will need to decide which ones we can realistically hold or gain and stick to them.

Post by **scole of TSBT** » Mon Apr 20, 2015 2:43 pm

I'm going to push Yafu until we earn at least 1 point, but will trim effort down to just couple cores after that. Only because the other teams don't seem to be doing much on it. On Poem with all GPUs since no asteroids currently available. I'm open for a push on one or more others though.

Post by **scole of TSBT** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 3:47 pm

Well lookie at who has slipped back into 12th and threatening BlackOps. I know, there's a lot time until November.

Silver · Post by **Silver** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 8:58 pm

keep up the good work Scole

Post by **Megacruncher** » Thu Apr 30, 2015 12:51 am

Here is our Formula Boinc history in all it's glorious modesty.

2007 Nil points!
2008 27th

Mainly due to good showings in GPUGrid, Suduko, and BBC Climate Change
2009 30th Down to Collatz & Milkyway
2010 Nil points!
2011 See above.
2012 Three ducks in a row! Go TSBT!

2013 87th Three 10th places get us back on the board.
2014 28th (=last) in League 1

At least there is no pressure on us to keep up standards!
FB don't recognise Bitcoin Utopia. If they did then we would be near the bottom of League 1 instead of well up league 2.

Post by **scole of TSBT** » Thu Apr 30, 2015 2:15 am

Any suggestions for a project or two you'd like to see a push on?

Post by **Megacruncher** » Thu Apr 30, 2015 7:37 pm

scole250 wrote:Any suggestions for a project or two you'd like to see a push on?

We've just got the one point for asteroids which we can surely improve on.

I wouldn't like our agenda to be set by FB which we've never really taken that seriously. And it is only league 2 - it's not like we get promoted if we win.

Post by **scole of TSBT** » Thu Apr 30, 2015 8:25 pm

Alrighty then. I'll race you to a Cobalt badge!

Switch your badge format to 3-4 rows and show those badges! :mrgreen:

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Sat May 02, 2015 12:02 pm

Should be able to pick up more on asteroids plus we are close to grabbing uk #1 place back. Other projects will appear at the half way point so we should get points from DENIS when it is included though I am only just managing to hold #1 spot on that so if a few more decided to run the project before we loose the place.
Account creation should now be available in dDM through the manager but not through the website.

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Sat May 09, 2015 4:55 pm

Going to help seti.usa on the boinc pentathlon on Einstein for a few days days then will try and gain us a few more points on that. Trying to stay on poem to.

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Sun May 17, 2015 3:24 pm

Boinc Pentathlon pretty much over. Still doing LHC for seti.usa but that will be over in 2 days. Hitting Einstein now for us and hopefully get some points there. Keeping on Poem and then after will try and push Collatz as I think we have a reasonable chance of picking up points there as we are GPU heavy :)
Asteroids still looking good. For once we are doing quite well in this but November is still a long way away , but as Mega pointed out we are already way better than we have ever managed before. All we need now is more boots on the ground

Post by **scole of TSBT** » Mon May 18, 2015 12:53 am

I'll be back in 24 hours. I do have all my Nvidia GPUs on asteroids though. Will be hitting enigma after that for the team challenge and it's worth pushing for FB too. After that, need to catch Megacruncher on asteroids.

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Mon May 25, 2015 2:14 pm

We now have 123 points !! and back in 12th place.
Got some more points on Poem, struggling with Einstein but basically maintaining the gap above us so the next time we have a push or competition on it, we should gain a few points.

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Mon Jun 01, 2015 7:29 pm

Gaining points in citizen science ( 6 so far ) yet we seem to be going backwards ???? Where are we loosing the points ???

Edit : and now it seems we are back going forward again in 12th with 127 points, 6 points behind PNT.

Post by **scole of TSBT** » Thu Jun 04, 2015 1:06 am

Got cool here today with all the clouds and rain. Had the GPUs idle during the heat but will fire them up on einstein until it gets hot again.

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Thu Jun 04, 2015 1:59 am

Sweet as we are starting to fall behind a bit on Einstein but my AMD's are doing sterling work on Poem.

Post by **scole of TSBT** » Sun Jun 14, 2015 10:10 pm

Temps in the mid-upper 90s yesterday, today and coming week. Upstairs HVAC can barely keep up. Had to shut down GPUs running einstein. Will still run asteroids on the nvidias until the challenge is over.

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 1:41 am

We are back in 12th , finally put some clear air between us and freeDC and we are gaining .... dare I say we could have a top 10 finish ???? Especially if a few more fancy joining in to keep projects topped up.

Post by **scole of TSBT** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 2:00 am

Have had a Tahiti at work crunching Einstein. Some cooler weather forecast for the weekend and should be able to put the other 3 back on Einstein until it gets too hot again.

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Tue Jun 30, 2015 7:06 pm

6 points on BURP has seen us move into a clear 10th place ( all be it by only 1 point ) and only 3 points away from 9th. I think by far and away our highest ever position in FB.

Post by **scole of TSBT** » Mon Jul 06, 2015 10:54 pm

We're now in 6th on Einstein for 8 points and have moved up to 8th overall.

Silver · Post by **Silver** » Mon Jul 06, 2015 11:30 pm

and who said we didn't get anywhere in this comp

Keep up the sterling work chaps!

Post by **scole of TSBT** » Sun Aug 16, 2015 12:31 am

Back in 8th

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Mon Aug 17, 2015 8:00 pm

scole250 wrote:Back in 8th

Thanks to your efforts on Yafu 8)

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Tue Aug 18, 2015 4:02 pm

If others wish to join in on holding top place on Yafu then see this post on how to run it better.

Silver · Post by **Silver** » Wed Aug 19, 2015 1:18 pm

Its still on my to do list, I've been selfish recently and trying to get some wu prop hours chalked up on various projects and fairly fruitlessly attempting to upgrade a badge or two.
Need more cores, and someone to pay for them

Silver · Post by **Silver** » Wed Aug 19, 2015 10:20 pm

I'm now running yafu, once I'd eventually worked out how to sign up

Post by **scole of TSBT** » Wed Aug 19, 2015 10:36 pm

My pay on Yafu has tanked. I had one system getting the best pay and it all but dried up. I'm running out all the remaining WUs off my systems and will start back with one and see if I can't figure out how get that Yafu luvin' back.

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Thu Aug 20, 2015 4:07 am

credit new or screw. random credit generator that no-one understands. nuff said , mutter, mutter......

Post by **scole of TSBT** » Thu Aug 20, 2015 2:06 pm

Kudos to Buster Gunn, MarkRBright and Skywalker TSBT for taking TSBT to 4th on SRBase. We just gain another 2 points on that today. :cheers:

Post by **scole of TSBT** » Mon Aug 31, 2015 4:24 pm

Added Formula BOINC strategy thread here...http://www.dunadd.co.uk/seti/forum/view ... 172&t=2712

Post by **scole of TSBT** » Wed Sep 02, 2015 9:01 pm

Well if UBT didn't just sneak into 8th on Enigma and stole 2 points from us

Silver · Post by **Silver** » Wed Sep 02, 2015 11:32 pm

What!

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Thu Sep 03, 2015 12:58 am

Better crack the whip at those droids of yours :bonedemon:

Alez · Post by **Alez** » Mon Oct 05, 2015 2:25 am

Still 8th, we grabbed another place in NFS thanks to our friends and up to 2nd in Universe which now puts us at 179 points. Our best ever showing by far. Keep it up all.

Post by **Bryan** » Mon Oct 05, 2015 5:22 am

You guys are running the opti app on Enigma aren't you? That's assuming you are running it on a PC.

Silver · Post by **Silver** » Mon Oct 05, 2015 8:39 am

Bryan wrote:You guys are running the opti app on Enigma aren't you? That's assuming you are running it on a PC.

It's pretty much ARM powered Odroids that I use on Enigma Bryan so not an option for me