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Cipher13 · Oct 29, 2001, 06:10 AM

Okay, I'm sure you've all heard of distributed computing before; such schemes as the SETI@Home and Distributed.net RC5 projects are quite well known.

What you may not know is that MacNN has its own team - aptly named Team MacNN.

While we're always looking for new members to crunch RC5, SETI@Home, Folding@Home and so forth, right now such support is even more important.

Team MacNN has challenged Phlump, of Team Ars to a race crunching RC5. As it stands we are heavily outgunned; the race begins on the first of November and will run until the 31st of December.

Visit the Team MacNN Competition page for more details.

So, anybody with some spare CPU cycles jump on board; especially the RC5 team. Lets kick some ass.

EDIT: Fixed date. December. Where the hell did I get March from?

[ 10-29-2001: Message edited by: Cipher13 ]

Matsu · Oct 29, 2001, 08:14 AM

I'd love to, but my POS computer seems to struggle with even my own work. I think leaving it on at all times to crunch numbers may very well crap the power supply out for good. When I get my book, you can have all my extranious PC cycles untill the thing finally dies.

So if anyone would like to donate an iBook or PowerBook of 99 and up vintage, I'll glady run a CPU for Team MacNN 24/7.

Any takers???

gumby5647 · Oct 29, 2001, 12:59 PM

Love to....but i run SETI.

hey, maybe with all these people running RC5 i can move up some spots!

IceEnclosure · Oct 29, 2001, 01:09 PM

I'll give it a go...

I have both the OSX and the OS9 distributed client, while I don't run them all the time, I do run them when I'm not using my computer heavily... perhaps I can step it up this month...

Cipher, IM me later today... I visited the team macnn page, but I'm stoopid, and I don't know how to join

mindwaves · Oct 29, 2001, 01:20 PM

Right now, I am running Ubero so maybe every once in a while, I might run RC 5.

chris v · Oct 29, 2001, 01:37 PM

Also, all those of you already on the team, there's a bunch of you who don't crunch very often, or ran the client for a few days, then quit. Time to come back into the fold!

I've only got 3 machines, but I let them run the client 24/7. If everyone who's already signed up for RC5 Team MacNN would let their machines crunch all night instead of sleeping them, or shutting them down, our numbers would go up appreciably.

Let 'er rip!

CV

AppleCello · Oct 29, 2001, 01:43 PM

Im on it!

ericdelangen · Oct 29, 2001, 10:36 PM

ok, so I signed up for RC5, but it won't let me join any team for some reason. It asks for a password but I never got one, so I just type in my e-mail address which is my id and then it tells me that there's no record of that id. This doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, so if someone can let me know what I'm doing wrong I'd be grateful.

xyber233 · Oct 29, 2001, 10:57 PM

I would but.....I have a 56k connection

. When I get cable I will.

Scotttheking · Oct 29, 2001, 11:01 PM

The stats only run once per day. They run at midnight UTC. Which is 5:00PM AZ time. Translate from there.
The next morning, the run will be done. So if you started crunching now, your email will show up Wednesday morning.
The rest of the instructions are on the install page. Keep following them.
Anymore questions, just ask.

--Scott

Scotttheking · Oct 29, 2001, 11:06 PM

Originally posted by xyber233:
I would but.....I have a 56k connection

. When I get cable I will.

That's fine. It doesn't use much bandwith, and it queues units. You can set it to connect only when the modem is already dialed. I too only have a 56k at home, and RC5 doesn't get in the way at all. If you are willing to do it, I'll help you set it up.

--Scott

reader50 · Oct 29, 2001, 11:07 PM

xyber233,

Most of the time, distributed clients just crunch cached data. The speed of your net connection is a minor factor. My 56K connection downloads a SETI unit in 30 seconds or so, and needs only one per day on average.

applenut1 · Oct 29, 2001, 11:16 PM

I'm on Team BeOS. sorry

Spectre666 · Oct 29, 2001, 11:39 PM

Originally posted by xyber233:
I would but.....I have a 56k connection

. When I get cable I will.

I'm in the same situation, I would love to run it, but I only connect at 28.8!! The day I get a better connection though, I will be all over it.

Scotttheking · Oct 29, 2001, 11:53 PM

RC5 is fine with modems.
It will buffer a day or more of work, and the packets are really small.

Cipher13 · Oct 30, 2001, 09:02 PM

Okay folks... 23 hours to go until the big showdown starts!

Every G4, G3, 604, 603, Athlon and Pentium will help the cause...

You don't wanna let Ars win, do ya?

applenut1 · Oct 30, 2001, 09:54 PM

Originally posted by Cipher13:
Okay folks... 23 hours to go until the big showdown starts!

Every G4, G3, 604, 603, Athlon and Pentium will help the cause...

You don't wanna let Ars win, do ya?

I'm definitely no genius when it comes to this but is there even remotely a chance we could beat Ars?

Scotttheking · Oct 30, 2001, 11:00 PM

Originally posted by applenut1:


I'm definitely no genius when it comes to this but is there even remotely a chance we could beat Ars?

We aren't racing ars.
Just one guy in ars.

G4ME · Oct 30, 2001, 11:56 PM

I personally will devote my dual 500 in console mode for days on end trying to get more than 2,500 on average

cacarr1 · Oct 31, 2001, 12:27 AM

Tried to sign up but couldn't...after entering my personal info...there is no 'submit' button or anything similar. Anyone else having similar problems? Pleae let me know as I would like to help the cause!

Scotttheking · Oct 31, 2001, 12:44 AM

Originally posted by cacarr1:
Tried to sign up but couldn't...after entering my personal info...there is no 'submit' button or anything similar. Anyone else having similar problems? Pleae let me know as I would like to help the cause!

Where is this at?
Did you just start cruching tonight?
If so, you need to wait a day or two before you can join the team.
I'll post a more detailed instruction in the next day or so.

Welcome, welcome.

Keep joining people

Cipher13 · Oct 31, 2001, 01:11 AM

Originally posted by G4ME:
I personally will devote my dual 500 in console mode for days on end trying to get more than 2,500 on average

Excellent; thats a helluvan RC5 cruncher

But even if you don't have something as monstrous as that, every little bit helps.

cacarr1 · Oct 31, 2001, 02:44 AM

I tried to sign up for the ubero client. I went to their homepage.

Cipher13 · Oct 31, 2001, 03:50 AM

Originally posted by cacarr1:
I tried to sign up for the ubero client. I went to their homepage.

Currently, the main focal points of Team MacNN are SETI@Home and Distributed.net's RC5. The current competition is an RC5 one.

I don't think Ubero has teams yet does it?

Give RC5 a go... we need all the power we can get

reader50 · Oct 31, 2001, 01:51 PM

There has been good news on all fronts, the details have been posted to the Team MacNN pages.

However, we are still well short of the power we will need to beat all of the bad guys.

Demonhood · Oct 31, 2001, 03:05 PM

I started running the RC5 client way back in '97, then I forgot about it sometime in '99. Looks like my team is still doing well though.

Anyhow, I'll create a new account and send some blocks to Team MacNN. DP500 should chug em out pretty well (altho the faceless app doesn't seem to work, weird). Maybe I'll snag some lab machines and make them my minions as well. muhahahahahahaha.

Scotttheking · Oct 31, 2001, 04:52 PM

Demonhood, there is a bug in the OS9 client where it won't detect altivec. You need to use an older client. I'm just checking in before class, I'll be online later and I'll post the link. I know it is in the install instructions, don't know where exactly, and don't have time to look.

Cipher or Reader, if you see this before I get back, could you post the exact link for him?

Thx,

Scott

reader50 · Oct 31, 2001, 05:18 PM

The earlier RC5 client for G4's is here. This is only needed for G4's running OS 9, the OS X client is not affected by the altivec bug.

This older client is not rated for the PPC 7450, it may or may not make full use of a PPC 7450.

Demonhood · Oct 31, 2001, 09:54 PM

thanx, that seems to work.

IceEnclosure · Oct 31, 2001, 10:15 PM

I'm consistently getting 4.x Mkeys/second in OSX....
and only 2.X Mkeys/sec in OS9 with version 462..

If I can recall, the priority levels are the same, and they're both in the background when running..

Is this because of the multitasking abilities of OSX? I'm sure if I let it run in OS9 without using the machine, it'll be more, yea?

Cipher13 · Nov 1, 2001, 02:23 AM

I get 3 max in OSX, 2.5 usually; 3.52 max in OS9, 3 usually.

I find OS9 much better at it.

Scotttheking · Nov 2, 2001, 09:39 AM

The results for the first day are in.
We did half of what he did.
Come on people, join, join, join.

IceEnclosure · Nov 2, 2001, 10:11 AM

crapola... i must be retarded...

running it through the terminal, I leave the computer all night, and go home...

after 55 minutes, it stopped... well crap.

I followed the instructions on the team page, and apparently it's supposed to start up again? it didn't... i'll go read again

edit>> okay, i am retarded.. i'm not runnin' cronniX crontab whatever tha fug.. but if i just run RC5, a bunch of copies of it just start up... and that sucks... so what the heck mann?? somebody IM me..

wahhhhhh!!!

[ 11-02-2001: Message edited by: IceEnclosure ]

Scotttheking · Nov 2, 2001, 01:47 PM

I'll try making better instructions later today.

cpatubo · Nov 2, 2001, 05:02 PM

I'm in as of today. Got my Ti on it, maybe the 350 tower later... and If I'm feeling evil, many machines at my office (considering we have over 25 macs here)...

Scotttheking · Nov 4, 2001, 02:06 AM

We aren't ahead yet.
Keep joining people.

AlbertWu · Nov 4, 2001, 02:37 AM

i got 4 mkeys per second when it was in the foreground in os 9

applenut1 · Nov 4, 2001, 01:30 PM

Originally posted by AlbertWu:
i got 4 mkeys per second when it was in the foreground in os 9

what machine?

The highest I get with my PowerMac G4/400 under OS X is 3,555,000k/keys second. is that about right?

I'm going to add my 9500 180/MP, Performa 6360 tonight and then Tuesday I'll add my new Powerbook.

Sometime this week I'll try to set it up at my mother's school. She has a couple hundred macs.. I may be able to get it on the ones in the library

[/LIST]

nealconner · Nov 4, 2001, 03:00 PM

What does RC5 crunch anyway?

Cipher13 · Nov 4, 2001, 04:22 PM

Originally posted by applenut1:


what machine?

The highest I get with my PowerMac G4/400 under OS X is 3,555,000k/keys second. is that about right?

I'm going to add my 9500 180/MP, Performa 6360 tonight and then Tuesday I'll add my new Powerbook.

Sometime this week I'll try to set it up at my mother's school. She has a couple hundred macs.. I may be able to get it on the ones in the library

[/LIST]

That's on a 550 TiBook, no?

I get 3.52 Mkeys/sec max, so your number is right on target.

AlbertWu · Nov 4, 2001, 04:46 PM

ya. TiBook 550

Getting around 4.31 mkeys/sec

reader50 · Nov 4, 2001, 08:30 PM

Originally posted by nealconner:
What does RC5 crunch anyway?

It's a secret message intercepted from Chinese Intelligence, and it is critical that we break it sooner rather than later ...

... er, I mean it's a sample message provided by RSA security labs.

It would be so much cooler if they had provided an uncracked intelligence message for the project.

Cipher13 · Nov 5, 2001, 06:25 PM

I agree

We're still being outproduced... everybody, try and recruit as many people (worksmates, whatever) as you can - assimilate office computers, and so forth

Or... find us one of these.....

[ 11-05-2001: Message edited by: Cipher13 ]

GK · Nov 5, 2001, 07:30 PM

One might also try some 'creative' recruiting, e.g. running faceless clients on school/university computers in libraries and labs.

cpatubo · Nov 5, 2001, 09:19 PM

Originally posted by GK:
One might also try some 'creative' recruiting, e.g. running faceless clients on school/university computers in libraries and labs.

Shh... I'm slowly doing this at my office. Let's see if they notice.

(doubtful)

Doesn't help that I'm home sick today... bah...

Spectre666 · Nov 5, 2001, 09:37 PM

Alright, I have some questions. I downloaded the client last night and followed all the instructions. I ran it, then my power went out (damn it) and of course shut off my Mac while I was in the middle of running the client and doing other things.

Then, after the power kicked back on later, I started it again, ran it for a while, watching my cpu monitor peaking out constantly, which was pretty cool...but then, what do you know, I got disconnected because I'm on a sh*tty dial up connection (which is why I've hesitated to participate in any of these distributed computing deals).

Now, I'm running it again, and I hope all goes well. However, I don't know anything about Unix, and I don't really understand what is going on with this thing.

After my Mac shutting off, and then being disconnected later, does this thing "pick up" where it left off? Or does it start completely over?

alphamatrix · Nov 6, 2001, 12:11 AM

My 500Mhz iMac got 4 Mkeys per second when I was at school.

[ 11-05-2001: Message edited by: alphamatrix ]

Cipher13 · Nov 6, 2001, 09:33 AM

Originally posted by alphamatrix:
My 500Mhz iMac got 4 Mkeys per second when I was at school.

[ 11-05-2001: Message edited by: alphamatrix ]

Your iMac got 4Mkeys? Um... HOW? Do you have a G4 upgrade in it?

Cipher13 · Nov 6, 2001, 09:34 AM

Originally posted by Spectre666:
Alright, I have some questions. I downloaded the client last night and followed all the instructions. I ran it, then my power went out (damn it) and of course shut off my Mac while I was in the middle of running the client and doing other things.

Then, after the power kicked back on later, I started it again, ran it for a while, watching my cpu monitor peaking out constantly, which was pretty cool...but then, what do you know, I got disconnected because I'm on a sh*tty dial up connection (which is why I've hesitated to participate in any of these distributed computing deals).

Now, I'm running it again, and I hope all goes well. However, I don't know anything about Unix, and I don't really understand what is going on with this thing.

After my Mac shutting off, and then being disconnected later, does this thing "pick up" where it left off? Or does it start completely over?

Yes, it does. It'll always start where it left off - whether recieving, sending or crunching packets.

Gotta love it