On Wed, 09 Jun 2004 02:45:56 -0000, gheston@hiwaay.net (Gary Heston)
wrote:

In article <8Daxc.65897$OI5.12243@edtnps84>,
Seti Cruncher <SetiCruncher@"NOSPAM"WildMail.com> wrote:
 [ ... ]

I Understand your concerns Raj, and feel the same way.  However, given the
security issues Auto-updateing may cause, I would like to believe the SETI
designers would include an option that would allow the user to manually
disable the autoupdate if they choose.

Too bad there hasn't been any mention of that, but I know the developers
are _real_ busy. No doubt they'll address little things like that when
the science and basic functionality are working reliably.

Auto Update works well for Windows XP

Ha! Dreamer! 

                                     and in a certain sense the current
SETI@Home project kinda does the same when you allow it to auto send in
results and retrieve fresh WU's, but at least we have the option of
disabling these features and manually handling the process.

Send/receive of WU and results is in no way comparable to changing the
programs' code under remote control over something as unreliable as
the Internet. Anyone running S@h on non-dedicated systems is rightly
concerned about auto-update; nodes in dedicated farms are not as much
of a concern.

I hope the final BOINC build will allow for the same option, or SETI may
lose a number of its crunchers.

Yes. Those of us with farms fed via SETI Queue and similar setups may 
have problems, too, if a comparable queueing method isn't available.


Gary

See my other reply to these issues. Basically the programmers decided
awhile ago to put in an on/off type switch that is on by default that
lets Boinc upgrade the crunching program. If you turn this off then
you will be responsible for doing it yourself and face not receiving
units if you do not upgrade within a, as yet to be determined, time
limit.
I am NOT talking about the units themselves, I am speaking about the
actual program being periodically updated as the programmers find
necessary.