[Scotttheking]

Jbcool is back in action, and is running f@h. The Raven has stated that he is moving back to f@h. I'm moving back to f@h. Cobramac is on f@h. Mikkyo is on f@h. Onemacguy is pondering switching.

What do these folks (and a few others who I missed) have in common?
Massive production!

Why not have a race? Let's pick some terms, and raise hell on f@h. Why not make a multi part race, with different categories? Hell, let's throw in a full team production challenge, and do some recruiting while we are at it.

Let the ideas flow.

Edit: Also, sign up for it here, with your guesstimate as to your category.
Here's the rough draft.

Small home user: 1-5 comps, all used as desktops for family members / roommates.
Farmer: Comps are all home based, but can included dedicated DC machines
Corporate: People who have significant production from business machines.
I'm not sure where to group people who have one or two work machines Any other groups?


I'm signing up for the race under the Corporate category.

I also set a challenge of 5K points per day for the whole team.

[jbcool]

Ok we have multiple classes of crunchers.
One box crunchers, less than five, greater than five, private, private/corporate. So we need to make it fair for everyone to race in there class. We want everyone to enjoy the race and feel good about what they contribute. Want it to be a win win type of race.

An example would be I could compete in the >5 , private, private/corporate. I might do good in one race and poor in another.

That way someone in the private class could not get there brother to help "Enola" out without ending up in the private/corprate class.

Just my random thoughts here folks. Throw yours in and help figure this out.

As he kick the soap box out from under his feet and falls on his face.

[The Raven]

We should also make passing MacAddict a goal.

[jbcool]

Originally posted by The Raven:
We should also make passing MacAddict a goal.

I was thinking about setting our sights a little higher like Team MacOS X. That way we can kick the (LWD) Little White Dog.

[billybob128]

ok if it means overtaking other teams im in and leaving seti for now although at the moment i only have one computer to contribute im lookin to grow a big field of computers. hows that done? one spoon of mirical grow in 2 liters of water? with over fertile soil

[Scotttheking]

I like the suggestions. Is someone willing to be in charge of this? It can't be me.

[jbcool]

Originally posted by Scotttheking:
I like the suggestions. Is someone willing to be in charge of this? It can't be me.

Can't be me. I don't have the time or the smarts. Life of a job hopper.

[Scotttheking]

Hopefully someone can do this. It'd be really neat to come back from vacation and see everything ready to go
I've shown my hand in f@h

[jbcool]

Originally posted by Scotttheking:
Hopefully someone can do this. It'd be really neat to come back from vacation and see everything ready to go
I've shown my hand in f@h

And it is such a nice hand. I am having trouble seeing it from this far away. Enjoy the vacation.

[alphamatrix]

I'd participate. Right now my little old iMac is try real hard to submit its first set. I have a plan to get some G4s on my side tho, .
We need someone to set this up!

[gumby5647]

Man, what are you guys smokin? A "home" user should be 2 computers or less. 5, to me, is considered a small farm.

I'll consider participating if you drop the "home" user to 2 computers....

[jbcool]

Originally posted by gumby5647:
Man, what are you guys smokin? A "home" user should be 2 computers or less. 5, to me, is considered a small farm.

I'll consider participating if you drop the "home" user to 2 computers....

That is why this thread is going to get the opinnions / input from all to determine what is going to be best for everyone that wants to be a part of it. Thank you for your input.

[billybob128]

depends on what it involves as to wheather(sp?) i could do it or not teel me more and ill look into it i hav the time at the moment to set it up but no how im not so sure about

[jbcool]

Originally posted by billybob128:
depends on what it involves as to wheather(sp?) i could do it or not teel me more and ill look into it i hav the time at the moment to set it up but no how im not so sure about

Not much to it really just download the software from http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandeg.../download.html and decide if you want to run the GUI or CLI version of the program. The team number is 16. On that same page you can check to see if the username that you want to use is taken. Once you have a username run the software and answer the questions.

Hope this helps a little.

[billybob128]

i meant like been in "charge" but thanks for the link anyway

[DrBoar]

I do not think that numbers of computers are relevant for division into racing groups. The current span for running OS X cleints range from a PCI powermac hacked to run 10.1.5 with a 120 MHz 604 to soon dual 2 GHz G5s that is about a 100 fold difference in computing power

I suggest that we group accoding to total GHz. I would guess that per MHz there is a 5 fold or so difference betwen the 604E and the IBM 970. Quita a bit but far less than a 100 fold.

the samewhat arbitary groups

Students.
The 0.12-0.99 GHz basically old G3s and G4s and the odd 604 thrown in

Knights:
1.0-9.9 GHz "home users" ranging from one to nine dual 533 G4 to two dual G5s and a lot of combinations of "hobby farming"

Lords
10-99 GHz
The hard core farmers. To get into this lofty range with some rooms with B&W G3 you need 35-35 of them.

SysAdmin
100+ GHz


I would end squarly in the "Knight" group dual 1.25 G4 and P III/600 at work a G4/400 7500-G3/350 and 7600/200 at home for a total of 4.05 GHz.

I think about 4 groups is OK to have and I think to have the Student group is a good thing. If you enter with a older G4 or a G3 is not fun to start racing against close to 10 GHz of computing power

[jarling]

My problem is that if I race, I'm going to try to pull as many friends as possible on with me. If I do that, I may wind up in another category mid race. Should we just start at what we are at now? Does it matter?

[jbcool]

Originally posted by jarling:
My problem is that if I race, I'm going to try to pull as many friends as possible on with me. If I do that, I may wind up in another category mid race. Should we just start at what we are at now? Does it matter?

We do hope that you will introduce Team MacNN and DC project to any and all you friends.

In my opinion it would be better to just keep track of how many computers are helping you that way at the end we can see how we did against those that had about the same processing power as we did.

In one of the older races there were like six of us racing and were going pretty even until someones brother added 50 processors to the mix. Well the race then because between the bottom five of which there were actually two more divisions. I think everyone had a good time doing the best that they could to help the team.

The race was to more to try and gather some interest in the DC projects.

[billybob128]

jarling
My problem is that if I race, I'm going to try to pull as many friends as possible on with me. If I do that, I may wind up in another category mid race. Should we just start at what we are at now? Does it matter?

then possibally for this have a review every 6months to a year to put people that have got more comps over time into the right groups?

[iNub]

You forgot those of us that put our x86-based PC's into the mix... That's cool, though. I wasn't expecting that anyway.

[jbcool]

Originally posted by iNub:
You forgot those of us that put our x86-based PC's into the mix... That's cool, though. I wasn't expecting that anyway.

No we didn't forget you. Some of us have a mix of systems and we exclude no one. Just need to try and figure out how to make everthing fair for everyone. I sure someone will end up unhappy no matter how we try to work it. We just trying to get opinions from everyone still.

[iNub]

I wasn't serious.

I'm just happy to be contributing to this project, no matter what team I'm on and what computer it's run on.

[jbcool]

Originally posted by iNub:
I wasn't serious.

I'm just happy to be contributing to this project, no matter what team I'm on and what computer it's run on.

I think that is the way most of the people that are doing this and other DC project feel about it. I started off with one mac, then two, etc... Now it is 8 PC with three pc's and a mac in reserve.
The race is just for people to have a little fun an maybe a few bragging rights. The ones that I always compete agains beat me down into submission. The ones I can catch usually have power that the move to another project to make me play catch up.

[jarling]

Now that I'm back at school with friends' computers (hopefully) at my disposal, I'm ready to get this race underway. Any estimated date as to when we will begin?

[jbcool]

Originally posted by jarling:
Now that I'm back at school with friends' computers (hopefully) at my disposal, I'm ready to get this race underway. Any estimated date as to when we will begin?

No date that I know of yet. I think Scott is normally the one that sets up the competition code. I would like to hear from him when he gets back from vacation.

Good to hear that you might be able to get your friends to help you.

Maybe there isn't a fair way to do this.

[jbcool]

Ok lets try and get some order to this so we have something Scott can work with when he comes back from vacation.

#1 Who wants to be in the race? We need to get a list together.
#2 What machines you think will be running in the race?
#3 Your opinions of what might be a fair way to divide the competition into different power classes or do we need to even worry about that?

I think anyone that is contributing is a winner. I like to compete with those that have about the same processing power even when a race is not on.

All opinions are welcome.

[Scotttheking]

I still need someone to be in charge. If we can get this started at the beginning of Sept it would be really great.
We could put the recruiting off until f@h works with the G5, but I'd like to see the rest get started soon.

[billybob128]

i have already said tell me a bit of wat to do and then i will learn the rest and try do get it good + i have a week of doin absolutly nothin before school so if you want ill help

i still say it should be done on power and not the number of computers cause someone with 5 G5's will beat a person with 5G3's

[jbcool]

Originally posted by Scotttheking:
I still need someone to be in charge. If we can get this started at the beginning of Sept it would be really great.
We could put the recruiting off until f@h works with the G5, but I'd like to see the rest get started soon.

Scott what are the responsibilities of the person in charge?

[Scotttheking]

Originally posted by jbcool:
Scott what are the responsibilities of the person in charge?

Keep track of who is in the race.
Keep track of stats for the race.
Determine all final rules.

For recruiting:
Manage all the writeups and forum threads, as well as the submission to the macnn front page.
Watch the forum and answer any questions (well, this is really for everyone)


And everything else I forgot.


billybob128, don't take this as an insult, but I don't feel you could do the job. Your English skills are severely lacking, and that's probably the biggest skill needed for this task.
Sorry.

[billybob128]

nah no problem i agree my english is very bad + looks like a bigger job than i thought

[OneMacGuy]

Originally posted by Scotttheking:
Keep track of who is in the race.
Keep track of stats for the race.
Determine all final rules.

For recruiting:
Manage all the writeups and forum threads, as well as the submission to the macnn front page.
Watch the forum and answer any questions (well, this is really for everyone)


And everything else I forgot.


billybob128, don't take this as an insult, but I don't feel you could do the job. Your English skills are severely lacking, and that's probably the biggest skill needed for this task.
Sorry.

I might have an idea for how we can run the competition. How about we designate groups by present power rating? If you are running Folding@Home:

(sample numbers, you guys pick real ones)
Group 1. 1-9 Ghz (Home user with 1 - 5 computers)
Group 2. 10-20 (25?) Ghz (Small farm admin)
Group 3. above 20 (26?) Ghz (Probably a corporate admin or an individual with too much money tied up in farm equipment and electric bills)

We might need one more group in there....

If you exceed the power rating of your group during the race, great! That is what starting a race is all about. If several people want to band together and challenge a higher rated person or group, that could probably be accommodated also.

Just some ideas to get this thread floating again. I think some of the earlier suggestions were getting a little too complicated to administer, this should be fairly easy.

I hesitate to add this last part, but I might be willing to manage it. I am not sure how to do some of your requirements, a little more detail in the requirements might be helpful to decide, but MAYBE.

I got in late in the last race, but it was fun while it lasted. I could have beaten you Scott if I had gotten earlier!

We do need to generate some more interest, this forum is about dead these days!

[Scotttheking]

OneMacGuy / jbcool:
What needs doing:

Plan out the race, the categories, etc.
Plan the recruiting, what forums will be posted in, etc.
Get the thread posts written.
Get a post written for the macnn front page.

Monitor the race, tracking stats and the like. I believe the teamstats site can be used to generate the stats. If not, you get to keep track.

I can't think of anything else.
Just think of yourself as the project manager in charge of a race and recruiting.
I'd appreciate it if you can do it.

I remember making this post, I wonder what happened to it the first time

[Scotttheking]

^