WCG Christmas Race 2014

Gilthanis

[H]ard|DCer of the Year - 2014
Joined
Jan 29, 2006
Messages
8,718
WCG Christmas Race 2014: Dec 4-24

Every year in December the World Community Grid team from Rechenkraft.net hosts a Christmas Race for a fun holiday challenge between WCG teams. This year it was created by the team called Special: Off-Topic. The challenge is run through the WCG grid website and through their own stat updates so bunkering is permitted and does happen. Our team has no official stance on bunkering so is up to you to decide whether or not to do it. If you do not know what bunkering is, please read this thread. http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1829159 This year's race is a Points Challenge meaning that a team's score will be the total points from the teams completed work units, just as you would expect.

Team [H] has participated in the race since 2008 and has always had great support from the DC subforum.

Here is the challenge link for the 2014 Challenge. https://secure.worldcommunitygrid.org/team/challenge/viewTeamChallenge.do?challengeId=6972 Keep in mind that personal points are updated twice a day but team points and challenge points are only updated once a day.

Here are some links for further information:
WCG Homepage http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/index.jsp
You can register a WCG account here http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/reg/viewRegister.do?recruiterId=338542
Current Projects and Research http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/research/viewAllProjects.do
BOINC software download http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download_all.php
FreeDC HardOCP Stats Page http://stats.free-dc.org/stats.php?page=team&proj=bwcg&team=1411
Our Team's page at WCG https://secure.worldcommunitygrid.org/team/viewTeamInfo.do?teamId=BP5XNJBR9N1 Please note that we have a few unofficial teams. Please use this link to verify you are attached to the correct one. If you still aren't sure, please ask in the forums or via PM and we will be glad to get you set up.
BOINC install guides: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1768558 Optimized Ubuntu client for multi socket rigs http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1805578

I hope that [H]orde members (if we are still calling them that) will consider participating, even if its only a couple cores. BOINC can run well on even old hardware or even ARM devices. There will be some tips, and configuration information in the post below soon. Thanks to everyone who participates! Post below if you are planning on helping out, or if you have any questions.
 
Last edited:
Ok, Switching cores 24+8 from rosetta to WCG, Are there any WCG Gpu projects?
 
I would like to point out that the new project that launched last night Outsmart Ebola Together may still have a few hiccups and very little crunching/performance data is available as of yet. If you don't want to risk issues with new projects woes, then you should opt out until more time has past for it. The other projects at WCG are pretty well stable. ARM devices still have some issues with the work units, but even those have come a long way. The new project is BETA testing ARM today or tomorrow, so keep all of that in mind as you switch over and plan your strategies.
 
Well... we started out in 2nd place. Lets tear this up!
 
Hey,
I'm in under my Base Camper ID, yodap@bc. Happy Holiday Crunching:)
 
Last edited:
We have dropped to third and will need a rather large push to compete with the two teams ahead of us.
 
Always glad to see an old name pop up. Thanks for joining. :)
 
Great job everyone! Looks like we are sticking right with France. Even a small increase in production could get us close to second by the end of the Race!!
Crunch On!
 
Sorry guys, my production is going to drop off (tcrbiker) completely for a few days. Selling off some hardware as well as re configuring and moving the remaining hardware around.
 
I ramped up my WCG production today to help the team get to #2. :D
 
You just need to be part of our team. The team is already signed up.
 
Have you joined our team already at the WCG page?

Our Team's page at WCG https://secure.worldcommunitygrid.or...Id=BP5XNJBR9N1 Please note that we have a few unofficial teams. Please use this link to verify you are attached to the correct one. If you still aren't sure, please ask in the forums or via PM and we will be glad to get you set up.

edit: Nevermind, I see you on the teams roster. You should be contributing.
 
Yes, just follow the link above and it will take you right to the page. You can join from that page too.
 
Yes I am [H]ardOCP for life! It just does not show up in any of my pages so I didn't think I was part of the challenge. But from what you are saying it goes off of the [H]ardOCP points, to which I contribute via the two projects in which I have enrolled.

Thanks!
 
ciggwin, where are you looking for your stats? You can find your name on our team roster at WCG. Just click the link for our team and it will give you various options. However, looking for your individual stats just for this challenge aren't posted anywhere. Just the teams overall contribution during the challenge which is also linked above. WCG doesn't break down challenges for us like some of the 3rd party sites some of the other teams have created.
 
Down to less than 5 days to go. I would suggest people to switch to FAAH and CEP2 to limit the number of work units that go into pending validation. However, it is up to you. It is just a suggestion as many of those work units don't need a wingman. (ARM work units excluded from said statement)
 
C'mon, can't anyone put up more PPD than me? :p Yeah, that's right, I'm calling you heavy hitters out! :D Let's do this! :)
 
I hear brilong is moving back to BOINC.... ahem... lol
 
Well tell him to throw his hat in the ring! :D Just discovered that one of the 80-core systems hasn't been running for *days* (just looked... 17 days! :( ); guess that would explain a few things. By a rough estimate I've roped in about 320 E5 SB/IB/HW cores for the weekend; if we're lucky it'll last through Christmas.
 
well shit i guess i'll fire up boinc and help out the last 5 days.. i'm sure my clients 30+ versions old by now since it's been almost 2 years since i've run anything.
 
Is anyone receiving the new Outsmart Ebola Together tasks? I have only received one on one of my rigs, so far. Do they just not have many tasks going out for this project yet?
 
No, right now the whole project is only 6500 tasks per day according to summary. Haven't seen one in one week...
 
I get one here and there. It annoys me that they have this huge PR campaign right now riding on the Ebola scare and they are asking more people to sign up to fight it when they don't have any available work. People are getting confused and discouraged because they aren't doing what they expected.
 
I have not received one of the Ebola projects yet.
I still need to fire up my 8350 today.
 
Exactly, Gilthanis; they hyped this new project pretty hard and then have very little work to give out. It's disappointing. Hopefully they will start sending out more sometime in the near future.
 
I get one here and there. It annoys me that they have this huge PR campaign right now riding on the Ebola scare and they are asking more people to sign up to fight it when they don't have any available work. People are getting confused and discouraged because they aren't doing what they expected.

which in it's self is causing a problem since most of them are just signing up for the ebola projects they get queued way faster than they can spit out the projects. not to mention some of the schools/institutions running higher end systems that are queuing up days worth of projects vs the default 12-16 hours worth.
 
Yep - I figured many people would be requesting that project only, so I left mine to request any. I don't have any problem going after cancer though, and I am getting near 20yrs on MCM :D
 
It isn't so much the institutions as they typically leave it at default settings. They get enough work that they aren't really badge hunting or anything. There are quite a few badge hunters that do it though. And they had some initial troubles with some of the work, so there should be another BETA yet to come before the majority of the work comes. Right now it is little available to send out, so they are doing it at lowest priority and in limited batches...
 
I never understood using large caches, but I guess it's good if you want to scoop up a bunch of work when there are few WU's available, as would be the case with OET. I run so many active projects that large caches don't make sense for me. I don't go more than .5/.5 for my caches on any of my rigs. That might explain why I'm not getting any OET WU's.
 
Last edited:
I typically don't run with a cache either for similar reasons. However, I have seen some scenarios where it does make sense.

1. some projects like SETI go down regular so you want to make sure you have enough work for the drought.
2. bunkering
3. challenge tactic of hording work when it is hard to come by to prevent other teams from doing more
4. Badge hunting (especially when trying to get WCG BETA)
5. poor internet service that cuts in and out regular. Ask Grandpa about that one some time.
6. data limits (laptops/tablets/phones can pull work from other free internet setups.)
7. project ending and you have a goal to meet but limited work units left
8. Project typically has small batches and can't feed all the donors.

I'm sure I could come up with more, but cache settings all depend on the users needs.
 
Back
Top