News archive

Back to Normal
After Comcast replaced some cable, put new ends on all the cables and replaced the splitters. They say the network should be OK now. I guess time will tell... 17 Jul 2010 19:48:01 UTC · Comment

Back to Comcast...
Collatz is now back on the old ISP which means the IP changed again and everyone gets to restart their BOINC client in order to upload or download work. Sorry about that. Why? After spending several hours both online and on the phone, it was determined that the new ISP and I defined "unlimited use" differently. Their definition is "about 5GB per month" which Collatz exceeded easily this past week, whereas my definition of unlimited use is... unlimited use. Silly me. The search for a stable, low cost ISP begins again... 26 Jun 2010 3:12:38 UTC · Comment

Internet Provider Testing
The power is back on, and the network is now up as well. For the next week or so, Collatz will be testing an alternate Internet provider. That means that the IP address has changed so you will need to restart your BOINC client in order to upload your results and get more work. I would appreciate any feedback as to how well the new connection is working or not working, whichever the case may be. 21 Jun 2010 23:37:46 UTC · Comment

Network Back Online
Once again, the network is operational again. For now. It seems the signal strength from Comcast/Xfinity is about as good as BP's fixes for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. 17 Jun 2010 2:04:39 UTC · Comment

Power Up/Down/Up/Down/Up/Down/Up
The storms that passed through the central USA cause three separate power failures today in my area and the UPS did not have time to recharge between them. So, I had to power everything off during the last outage. I was in the process of getting the backup generator up and running when the power came back on. Now that the UPS is charged back up and the Collatz database checked out OK, everything is back online. 31 May 2010 20:11:16 UTC · Comment

Network Back Online
We experience a network outage that started yesterday at 3:00 PM CST and lasted until this 8:00 AM CST this morning. Not being able to do anything online last night and not having cable, I went to see Iron Man 2 last night. Just as the big fight seen started at the end, the theater lost all power. Let's hope today fares better. 30 May 2010 13:32:44 UTC · Comment

Windows CUDA 2.04 Opt App Now Available
The Windows CUDA 2.04 application is now available on the Optimized Applications page and a thread has been created on the message board to report any issues, suggestions, etc. 20 May 2010 18:45:55 UTC · Comment

Let's all sing "Das Deutschlandlied"
Congratulations to SETI.Germany in the first BOINC Pentathlon. They had a very tight race with Electronic Sports League (ESL) here in Collatz but managed to pass ESL in the last few hours of the competition giving them the win in the Mathematics discipline. That win also led to SETI.Germany taking #1 overall in the first BOINC Pentathlon. I also have to say, "WOW!" Who thought ESL would do so well and lead the competition until the last couple days? Congratulations to ESL as well on finishing #2. During the competition, more than 10 petaFLOPS of computing power was active in Collatz! Thanks to all who participated. 18 May 2010 12:04:27 UTC · Comment

Let's Get Ready to RUMBLE!!!!!
The competition is officially underway as of 7:00 CDT and will continue for the next 5 days. For more information about the competition's projects, statistics, etc. check out the BOINC Pentathlon pages on SETI.Germany's web site. 12 May 2010 0:46:16 UTC · Comment

BOINC Pentathlon
SETI.Germany has announced that Collatz will represent the mathematics discipline in the BOINC Pentathlon. The Collatz leg of the challenge runs from May 12, 2010 00:00 UTC to May 17, 2010 00:00 UTC. Good luck everyone! [EDIT: Dates were incorrect.] 6 May 2010 14:05:19 UTC · Comment

Pre-Vacation Server Upgrade
The server has been doing pretty well the last couple months, but since I'm going on vacation for a week, I decided the server could use a RAM infusion just in case Mr. Murphy decides to impose his laws on me when I'm without any Internet access for a few days. The entire BOINC database is now cached in memory, so I don't expect any performance problems even in both MilkyWay and DNETC are down for maintenance at the same time although I probably jinxed myself saying that. 30 Apr 2010 20:05:41 UTC · Comment

Server Upgrade Completed
The server was upgrade to the latest stable version. Please double check your preferences. The update seems to have removed any home/work/school preferences and may have changed the defaults as well due to the addition of the "use ATI" and "use nVidia" options. 2 Apr 2010 15:44:39 UTC · Comment

Planned Server Maintenance
The Collatz project will be down at times over the Easter weekend to upgrade the BOINC software. The upgrade will start on the morning of April 1st. (No, this is not an April Fool's joke.) If all goes well, it should be back up within a few hours. 27 Mar 2010 18:07:00 UTC · Comment

100 Countries Contributing
According to the BOINCstats site, Collatz now has contributors from over 100 countries. There might even be more since some have never bothered to set the country. Still, others have chosen "None" which I guess means they either have been exciled or don't recognize the government in power. Regardless, thanks to all for your support. To see if you are one of the first to join from your country, you can see the list which has been posted to the message board here. 7 Mar 2010 20:24:00 UTC · Comment

CUDA Driver Downgrade Recommended by nVidia
nVidia suggests downgrading from 196.75 drivers to 196.21 drivers because of a problem some are having where the fan speed slows down to the point where the GPU overheats and could possibly be damaged. 6 Mar 2010 0:09:00 UTC · Comment

Possible Network Outages Over the Next Several Days
Comcast left a voicemail yesterday evening stating that they would be upgrading equipment in my area over the next several nights and that brief outages should be expected. I'm guessing this is for the Xfinity upgrade they have been advertising on TV lately, but since they don't share any details (a.k.a. CYA), that is just a guess. At least they called first this time. The network was down for about a half hour early this morning. That doesn't explain why it was down at about 10:00 A.M. CST yesterday for a half hour, though. Let's all hope that the upgrades result in more stability since faster broadband with Xfinity won't matter much if the lines are down. 3 Mar 2010 14:13:00 UTC · Comment

Daily Stats Added
Since the high steps seldom gets surpassed and since everyone likes to know how well they are doing, I've added some daily stats which is updated every 5 minutes or so. It shows the top steps each day along with the top steps from recent days. The new stats page can be found here. Also, congrats to PoorBoy and c0d1g0 on the new high of 2,589 steps! 23 Feb 2010 14:34:00 UTC · Comment

Comcast Woes
Comcast is cutting over to all digital in the next couple days for their TV signals and evidently, the technicians don't know the difference between TV and Internet connections as both have been down for the last 5 hours. Upload and grab work when you can because given their track record it will take them a week or more to figure out what the actual problem is. 13 Feb 2010 17:09:00 UTC · Comment

Windows ATI v2.09 Application
The Windows ATI v2.09 application has been made the standard appliciation. This version brings a slight performance inmprovement over v2.06 for HD 3xxx and HD 4xxx series cards and a larger performance improvement for HD 5xxx series cards. Note: This is the same version that has been available for the last two weeks as an optimized application. 17 Jan 2010 15:35:00 UTC · Comment

MAC OS X CUDA Application Testing
With the help of a few volunteer testers (Paul and Zombie) and a special version of BOINC just for MAC OS X CUDA (thanks to Charlie), the first successful MAC OS X CUDA workunits were completed this morning. We are still working out some of the installation issues in attempts to make it as easy as possible, but the good news is IT WORKS! 9 Jan 2010 17:05:00 UTC · Comment

Windows ATI v2.09 Optimized Apps Available
Version 2.09 of the ATI application for Windows has been made available on the power/optimized applications page. This version should run a little faster on all ATI cards. Install now, or just be patient. Version 2.09 is slated to become the standard application for Windows ATI within the next week if no issues are found by those running it as a optimized application. 5 Jan 2010 15:18:00 UTC · Comment

Windows ATI v2.08 Optimized Apps Released
Version 2.08 of the ATI application for Windows has been made available. This version allows running an HD 5xxx card along side older series cards (HD 2xxx thru 4xxx) in the same machine. This version is currently available only as an optimized application. As was true with v2.07, there is no speed benefit to installing this for ATI HD 2xxx, 3xxx, or 4xxx series GPUs. 2 Jan 2010 17:00:00 UTC · Comment

Windows ATI v2.07 Optimized Apps Released
Version 2.07 of the ATI application for Windows has been made available on the power applications page. This version takes advantage of some new performance features of the RV8xx chipset used in HD 5xxx series ATI GPUs which should allow them to run faster than with the v2.06 application. While older (HD 2xxx thru HD 4xxx) GPUs will not see any speed improvement, this version will also work with those GPUs. Please take care when installing to download the appropriate versions for your operating system and Catalyst drivers. Please refer to the readme included in each zip file for more information. (Thanks Gipsel!) 30 Dec 2009 4:58:00 UTC · Comment

64-bit MAC OS X Application Released
A MAC OS X application is now available for those running a 64-bit version of OSX 10.5 or higher. 29 Dec 2009 5:13:00 UTC · Comment

Merry Christmas
If the winter weather cooperates, I'll be visiting family over the holidays. Unlike the shepherds of old who kept watch over their flocks by night, I'll only be checking the server every day or two. Either way, peace on earth and good will towards crunchers! 23 Dec 2009 5:58:00 UTC · Comment

MAC OS X Application Now Available
Version 2.01 is now available for Mac OS 10.4 or later running on Intel processors. 22 Dec 2009 0:06:00 UTC · Comment

Linux GPU Updates
The optimized applications page now has updated ATI and CUDA applications which run at normal priority. 29 Nov 2009 18:18:00 UTC · Comment

Server Migration Complete
The server migration has been completed. The backup/restore took a little longer than expected as did figuring out some of the permissions on the various directories but the BOINC WIKI pages came to the rescue again. 27 Nov 2009 20:50:00 UTC · Comment

Planned Maintenance for Friday, November 27
The Collatz project will be down for a few hours on Friday, November 27th in order to complete the migration to the new server. 25 Nov 2009 14:28:00 UTC · Comment

Backlog Cleared/Database Server Upgraded
The validator/transitioner backlog has been cleared. The database has been migrated to the new server which should reduce the I/O strain that caused the backlog in the first place. 23 Nov 2009 2:38:00 UTC · Comment

Vacation Time
For the next 10 days, there will be limited support and monitoring of the Collatz project while I am on vacation. I'll try and check it once or twice a day if Internet access is available. 12 Nov 2009 14:05:00 UTC · Comment

ATI Application Now Available for 64-bit Linux
Thanks to Crunch3r, Collatz now has an ATI application for the 64-bit linux platform. The application is available on the Optimized Applications page. It must be manually installed at this time. Please refer to the readme included in with the download for installation and testing instructions. 5 Nov 2009 17:35:00 UTC · Comment

Workunit Size Increased 50 Perccent
The size of the workunits was increased by 50% which should help those with high end GPUs cache more hours of work by increasing the runtime by 50%. It should also reduce the load on the server which has been needing constant attention lately to keep it running. Increasing the size of the workunit will also increase the total steps and therefore the credit in proportional to the increased size. 5 Nov 2009 6:26:00 UTC · Comment

Mandatory ATI Upgrade to v2.06
The ATI v2.06 application was released two weeks ago, but there are still users submitting results with ATI v2.05 applications which are known to cause the validator to crash. On Friday, November 6th, I will be intalling a new validator that will mark any ATI v2.05 results returned after Thursday, November 5th as invalid. Credit will not be granted. The result will be discarded and re-issued to another user. 2 Nov 2009 20:23:00 UTC · Comment

Linux 32-bit CUDA Application Added
The CUDA app for Linux 32-bit has been added to the Optimized Applications page and the app_info.xml for the 64-bit Linux CUDA app has also been corrected. (Thanks Crunch3r!) 26 Oct 2009 18:41:00 UTC · Comment

Over 1 Million Workunits Served
Give yourselves a pat on the back! Collatz participants from 72 countries have now completed more than one million Collatz workunits, returned more than 3.5 million results and, according to BOINCstats, earned over a billion BOINC credits. Thanks for contributing! 20 Oct 2009 21:37:00 UTC · Comment

Back Online; ATI 2.05 Applications Deprecated
The project is back online after the outage this weekend. If you are using an ATI GPU and have not converted to v2.06 yet, you may want to do so now. Any WU that crashes the validator will be deleted. No credit awarded. After having manually fixed several hundred in the last 24 hours, I am tired of fixing. If you are using the standard ATI apps, the ATI 2.06 app has probably already downloaded and your have nothing to do. If you are running an app_info.xml and have not yet upgraded, you may want to do so as soon as possible. If the 2.05 results continue to crash the validator, I will change the validator to reject any new 2.05 results so that the project does not crash again next weekend. 20 Oct 2009 2:42:00 UTC · Comment

ATI v2.06 Optimized App Now Available
An ATI v2.06 app has been made available in the optimized/power apps page. This version should reduce or maybe even eliminate the validator crashes as it uses the v2.xx encoding of the output file. Within the next couple days, this will become the standard (stock) ATI app as well. 14 Oct 2009 20:21:00 UTC · Comment

ATI v2.05B Apps Released
The v2.05B apps have been installed as the standard ATI apps. They are also available from the Message Board at this thread and will be moved to the optimized applications page as well later on today. 7 Oct 2009 14:41:00 UTC · Comment

ATI v2.05 Apps Released
Gipsel has provided an updated ATI appplication which is now available on the Power (Optimized) Applications page. For the list of specific changes, refer to the change log section of the readme.txt. 6 Oct 2009 13:43:00 UTC · Comment

ATI v2.04 Apps Released
New v2.04 ATI app for Windows are available on the optimized applications page. If running the 9.2+ drivers, use the *ati.zip versions. If using 8.12 or 9.1 drivers, please use the *amd.zip versions. The new apps are faster and do not require copying and renaming the DLLs. If running BOINC 6.10.10 or higher with 9.2+ drivers installed, the v2.04 app will download automatically. See the readme.txt in each download for information on how you can tune it for your system using the app_info file. 30 Sep 2009 3:11:00 UTC · Comment

Linux x64 CUDA App Now Available
A Linux 64bit CUDA version has been added and is available on the Power (Optimized) Applications page. I've included an app_info.xml file but the app info is untested. Please see the message board if you need assistance installing the Linux CUDA app. 30 Sep 2009 2:20:00 UTC · Comment

Welcome BOINC 6.10.x alpha testers
The server has been upgraded to support the 6.10.10 clients. Issues should be logged to the message board at the BOINC alpha test message board. We will try to respond as fast as possible to resolve any issues found. 29 Sep 2009 4:45:00 UTC · Comment

Linux apps updated
Thanks to Crunch3r, Linux apps should now be fixed to checkpoint correctly and they should now run on Ubuntu as well. The app version is 2.01 for the new Linux apps. 28 Sep 2009 16:39:00 UTC · Comment

Database maintenance complete
I planned on notifying everyone today that the project would be down tomorrow for some planned database maintenance, but since Comcast was kind enough to drop the network line for a couple hours today, I took advantage of the network outage and got the maintenance done at the same time. 26 Sep 2009 21:18:00 UTC · Comment

Disk Space Added
It didn't make it to the weekend without running out of disk space. So, a new drive was added tonight and the database was migrated over to it. I will still need to reconfigure the database this weekend, but at least I don't have to keep tabs on it every several hours any more for fear it will run out of disk space. 24 Sep 2009 2:09:00 UTC · Comment

Back up and running for now...
The site is back up for now. The server is still pretty maxed out due to the mysql only growing and not ever shrinking. I will need to take the entire site down for a day in order to drop and rebuild the database so that it stores each table in its own innodb file as well as add more disk to the server. That is currently planned for next weekend. 21 Sep 2009 0:07:00 UTC · Comment

Down for temporary maintenance
The large number of WUs that are erroring out are causing a disk space problem. Hopefully the site will be back up shortly after the space issue is addressed. 20 Sep 2009 22:31:00 UTC · Comment

CUDA and Firewall/Network Updates/Changes
Version 2.01 of the Collatz CUDA app is now available. It should fix the checkpoint problem where it returns the incorrect total steps after starting back up. Also, due network reconfiguration changes to hopefully help make the server more responsive, the IP address has once again changed which means you may need to stop and restart your BOINC client in order to upload/download/report results. 19 Sep 2009 19:44:00 UTC · Comment

CUDA Application Update
The v2.0 applications require CUDA 2.3 compatible drivers, so make sure you have the nVidia 190.38 or higher drivers installed. Also, if you ran CUDA apps using Collatz v1.10, you will need to reset or detach and reattach before you will be able to complete a CUDA workunit. This is required in order for the BOINC client to download the new cudartl.dll file. If it thinks you already have one (from v1.10 which is CUDA 2.1) it will not download it and, as a result, all CUDA workinits will fail. 17 Sep 2009 19:04:00 UTC · Comment

New applications released, credit adjustment coming soon
Collatz applicaton version 2.0 is being released. Credits will be adjusted within the next day or so. When that happens, any results submitted with the v1.10 applications will receive reduced credit. In the mean time, you may either continue to process the existing workunits knowing you will receive reduced credit or abort them and start new ones using the new application version. Any aborted WUs will be resent using the new application version. 17 Sep 2009 19:57:00 UTC · Comment

So much for using a new database server.
The database has been moved back to the original server due to numerous connection issues. Hopefully, it is back in business for good this time. 9 Sep 2009 18:31:00 UTC · Comment

Database Restored
After numerous attempts to repair the database, I gave up. The database has been restored from backup also taken on the afternoon of Sept. 7th so very little if any data has been lost. The database was also moved to a server with more disk space so that I no longer have to monitor to disk usage daily and can spend more time on more productive endeavors such as v2.0 of the apps and automating the highest steps to date pages. Thanks for your patience. 9 Sep 2009 3:29:00 UTC · Comment

Database Problems Due to Power Failure
Due to a complete power failure which lasted longer than the battery backup and since I wasn't around to start the generator, Collatz experienced a total crash. After power was restored, the server daemons fail when connecting to the database. An update message will be posted once it comes back online. 7 Sep 2009 21:55:00 UTC · Comment

A moment of silence please...
After a long, difficult life, we had to say goodbye to an old faithful friend. Mr. Micron, also known as IPCOP_1 had a fatal breakdown this afternoon. After several efforts to revive him, we had to call it at 14:33 CST. We will miss him dearly as he had been part of the family for almost 15 years. He is survived by his three 3c905 NIC cards, VGA controller, and KVM cable. Let us pray that the new replacement will continue on in his tradition of service. Unfortunately, Comcast gave the new replacement a new IP address which has been known to cause problems with BOINC having cached the old address, so you may need to restart your BOINC client in order to report your results. 5 Sep 2009 1:25:00 UTC · Comment

Steps Exceed 2100
Congrats to mia7077 and 3D@P2D who have found a number with 2,134 steps. 25 Aug 2009 20:24:00 UTC · Comment

Highest Steps to Date
The number with the most steps so far is 2,361,183,863,442,119,416,993 with 2,059 steps which has been confimed by the server. The two individuals who found the above number are Top Viking and Merlyn. Congrats! 17 Aug 2009 15:50:00 UTC · Comment

Highest Steps to Date
The number with the most steps so far is 2,361,183,616,125,217,830,191 with 2,010 steps which has been confimed by the server. The two individuals who found the above number are Cappy@[SETI.USA] and mia777. Congrats! 13 Aug 2009 0:06:00 UTC · Comment

And now, for something completely different....
Version 1.10 of the app has been released for Win32, Win64, Linux and CUDA. ATI (CAL) apps are also available for Win32 and Win64. Any results submitted from previous versions will NOT be granted credit as the output of the new version is no longer compatible with the previous version. So, if you have any workunits from prior to v1.10, you can go ahead and abort them. 28 Jul 2009 2:48:00 UTC · Comment

Project Down Due to Unauthorized Applications
Due to at least one unauthorized application being run, the work generator has been shut down. It will not be turned back on until the validator has been changed to ensure fully tested applications are being run and I checked previously returned results to double check their validity. 12 Jul 2009 16:59:00 UTC · Comment

Come one and all!
The invite code has been turned off so anyone can join. Email notifications are now working also. 11 Jul 2009 1:02:00 UTC · Comment

ATI v1.08 Released for Win32 and Win x64
Version 1.08 of the application has been released for ATI GPUs and are available in the Optimized Applications page. Details have been posted on the message board. 10 Jul 2009 18:04:00 UTC · Comment

New Validator Deployed
The CPU results were not matching the CUDA results by a very small difference. The validator has been modified to ignore the difference as the results were valid. Keep an eye on any results that show Completed but validation inconclusive. I may have to credit them manually. 3 Jul 2009 5:40:00 UTC · Comment

Addition Applications
Thanks to Crunch3r, the project now has MAC OSX and Linux x86_64 applications. 1 Jul 2009 18:36:00 UTC · Comment

App Version 1.07 Released
App version 1.07 released for win32, win64, win cuda, and linux. Several optimized apps were also released for win32 SSE and SSE2. The ATI app is slightly faster than the previous version but the CUDA app still has it beat. The WUs generated for app version 1.05 were cancelled but credit was awarded for those in a pending or inconclusive state since the output was correct but but validator had a bug. 29 Jun 2009 14:09:00 UTC · Comment

App Version 1.05 Released
App version 1.05 released for win32, win64, win cuda, and linux. Validation issues also solved due to new release. All previous workunits were cancelled. Credit was give to any in pending status. 22 Jun 2009 18:59:00 UTC · Comment

Initial testing started (by invite only)
Project URL changed to boinc.thesonntags.com/collatz and accounts are now set to invite only. 18 Jun 2009 0:00:00 UTC · Comment

32 and 64 bit CUDA apps and 64 bit ATI apps released
Workunits have been increased in size in order to support GPU processing without overloading the server. Run time on a PIII 800Mhz is 7 days. Run time on an nVidia 9800 GTX+ is about 12 minutes. 17 Jun 2009 23:52:00 UTC · Comment

First Wokunits Generated
The first 50 workunits were generated this afternoon. Hopefully more will come. 11 Jun 2009 20:15:00 UTC · Comment

UOTD Enabled
The user of the day daemon is now running and the forums are set up. 10 Jun 2009 11:50:00 UTC · Comment