f/fgeorge wrote:

On Sun, 6 Feb 2005 10:56:25 -0500, "QoJ" <justabitch@dodgeit.com>
wrote:

Okay several things with the credits: they are different than with
Classic, no more one work unit done, one credit granted. This led to
the possibility of rampant cheating and other unscruplous acts.
Credits in Boinc are granted by a consensus of at least 3 results
being returned by different computers all crunching the same unit.
Meaning, in part, that NO credits are granted until AT LEAST 3 of
those that got the unit return it. IF any of those 3 do not return
that unit within the 2 week deadline then the unit is issued to more
computers until at least 3 results are returned that are within
"statistical limits". NO two computers will come back with EXACTLY the
same number so a range is what the computer(the validator) is looking
for. An example...computer A returns the unit and asks for 23.67
credits, computer B asks for 31.26 credits, computer C asks for 28.45
credits. A credit of 28.45 would be granted to all 3 participants, the
middle of the 3 numbers returned. If however computer C came back with
78.35 credits, that is out of whack and the unit would be re-issued
and the awarding of credits would have to wait to see what that
computer D comes back with. A unit can be re-issued up to a maximum of
15 times before it is considered too whacky to be crunched and it is
flagged for inspection by Berkeley.
Lately Berkeley has been sending the units out initially to 4
computers. If all 4 are returned before the validator gets to the
unit, then as long as the numbers are within the limits, an average of
the 4 units is the amount of credit that is granted.

The validator is a computer that looks at the results and either
grants the credits or tells the other computers to resend the unit for
further crunching. Lately the whole system has been REAL slow and the
granting of credits is WAAAAAY behind. They are trying to move the
database over to a much faster computer but are having problems. This
has caused the validator, and other things, to be behind.
All units have a 2 week deadline from the date they are downloaded by
your computer. If they are not returned by the "report deadline", a
tab under work in the program, then the unit is re-issued to otehr
computers and you will get no credit for the unit, EVEN IF YOU CRUNCH
IT! There is ONE EXCEPTION to that....if you return the unit BEFORE
any of the computers that the unit is re-issued to, then your computer
will get credit, assuming the amount is within the limits.

Each unit has a different amount of credit granted depending on many
many factors. PC type computer generally request more credit than Mac
type computers. Linux will request more that Windows computers. That
is all due to the benchmark numbers that are done when you first run
the program and about weekly thereafter. This is being "worked on" by
the programmers and the numbers are getting closer with each new
release of the program. The "official" version of the Boinc software
is 4.19 for Seti crunching although older versions till work.
DO NOT be confused by the version numbers, Boinc is ver 4.19, the
underlying Seti part is 4.08. If you were to crunch Einstein@home that
version of Boinc is still 4.19 but the underlying Einstein@home is ver
4.72. Boinc is a master program akin to Windows, you then can run
multiple programs within it.

Ok that I understand......but I want my credits NOW!!!!!!!!!  ;)  thanks for
explaing this I understand....now is there a way for me to see the 3 other
results that are crunching my project?