malariacontrol.net

[russkris]

Africa@home will go public soon btw. :-)

The project URL will be http://www.malariacontrol.net/
Volker
account creation disabled at the moment so hopeflly the source is correct..

[Toutouf]

An article about Malaria Control on The Economist :
http://www.economist.com/science/displayStory.cfm?story_id=7159442

I love the good reason to run it :
Those volunteers will be able to bask in the knowledge that they are helping to create a cheaper and longer-lasting way of dealing with one of the world's biggest killers. That should be some compensation for not being the first to contact little green men. :D

[russkris]

Ok I am looking for testers to post about the up's and downs of the project..

So, How does it function, what errors have you come across.
What is the responce from the Project Admin(via forum/email)?

[vaio]

I'll run some Rusty............will let you know if I have any issues with it.
Rather this than all these math projects :D

O.K....Just re-attached to it.

[russkris]

Thanks Vaio....

Go Crunchers Inc. :thumbsup:

[umccullough]

Team Haiku will throw a couple machines on it :)

[russkris]

Go.. Haiku... Thanks dude

[cswchan]

I'll restart it on one of my computers... ran it a few months ago... the run time @ that time was a little too long & the return date was a little too short for you to run it & other projects which was why I stopped it...

[vaio]

Hi Charles :)

Rusty, guys..........please check out loosely related thread here (http://www.team-ninja.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=40656)

Would appreciate your feedback. :)

[mike047]

I have run this project for about a month. I have had no issues with lack of work or bad work. I have no large back log of pending credits. Credit reward is average to above average. I don't frequent their message board so cannot offer an opinion on the admin/project leader. It works, so I am Happy.

[cswchan]

Only problem I have found so far is that it is not willing to take it's share of CPU cycles... when I have Pi, Muon, DNet, EON running, Malaria is sitting @ 0%. When I shut down or pause various progs., the other projects increase in CPU cycles while Malaria continues sitting @ 0%. If I shut everything else down, it will then spring to life... don't know if this is an issue with the new Boinc agent or Malaria...

Boinc 5.8.8
WinXP Pro SP-2, 1G ram P-4 1.8G
:confused:

[Biggles]

I've never had a problem with MC either, and haven't since I first ran it ages ago. Seems pretty stable now. The biggest problem had been the limited account creation, but I think they have a new server now.

In response to the last poster, this is normal, and indeed correct, behaviour for a DC program. They should run at the most idle setting, but this is rarely set properly. The other programs will either have higher priority settings for the thread or for the process - both can be set. It should really be set to idle for both, however some DC projects have one or the other set above idle and this is why a single project manages to hog the CPU.

If the priority settings are equal, then processes will share the CPU, at least in Windows. If you run two instances of the same program, then they should get an almost perfect 50-50 split.

[cswchan]

I am currently running ABC, Proteins & Malaria on that 1 computer alomg with DNet & Eon. Whenever it's time for either ABC or Proteins to run under Boinc, they DO take their share of the CPU cycles... it's only Malaria it seems that won't take ANY CPU cycles...

:confused:

[umccullough]

If the priority settings are equal, then processes will share the CPU, at least in Windows. If you run two instances of the same program, then they should get an almost perfect 50-50 split.

Many DC projects have their own priority-checking logic - and detect idle time. So even if they're equal priority, they will often give it up to other processes that are currently running unless those processes yield often.

MalariaControl may well have bad logic here and not grabbing CPU when other low tasks are running as well.

Check your account settings on malariacontrol.net - maybe you have it set to only use cycles when the machine has been idle for a certain amount of time - change it to "always run" instead if that's the case.

[cswchan]

I just tripple check all the settings on all my Boinc projects & everything is identical on all of them... ABC & Proteins uses their 33% after the 60 minutes but Malaria just sits there... maybe that's the reason why my original post said that it would never complete a WU on time...

:confused:

[russkris]

So you are running 4 projects on a P4 1.8...

WOW....!

[cswchan]

Currently only Malaria that uses any CPU cycles... the other 2 don't use any CPU cycles... MJ12 & Dimes... well... MJ12 only uses CPU cycles when it's archiving... ABC & Proteins only run for 1 hr each on a rotational basis with Malaria...

:confused:

[cswchan]

Just attached Malaria to another computer... AMD 3400+ 1G ram... same results as with the 1.8G P-4... sits there while everything else runs...

:confused:

[russkris]

ever thought of just running 1 project to one machine?


:lol:

[umccullough]

cswchan,

This sounds like a perfect opportunity to post to their message board and see what the response is like :)

Let us know if they are able to effectively assist you in troubleshooting the problem!

[cswchan]

Good idea... just did - http://www.malariacontrol.net/forum_thread.php?id=364

[cswchan]

Seems that there IS a problem...

"There is a problem in the BOINC API, which is fixed in the 5.8.8 API. If the application got to much suspends, the application is shown as running but did not get any more CPU time. This Problem occurs since BOINC client 5.4.x, but mostly the problem happens, if CPU throtteling would be used."

http://www.malariacontrol.net/forum_thread.php?id=364

[shauge]

You stated that you used that BOINC version? This problem may not be related to your problem.

Regarding your original problem:
I agree with those who say that this is not a problem/bug.

This is exactly how I wished all DC programs would behave. If there are no free/idle CPU cycles, then the DC programs should not run. All DC programs state that they only use free/idle CPU cycles, but you have proven that amoung the ones you run, only MC actually does this.

The reason, I believe, is that the others run at the so called "idle" priority, but MC in addition do some checking to verify that the CPU is actually idle. So, in your case, when all other DC projects are running the CPU is not idle, and thus MC don't run.

MC is not the only project to do this, but some are better than others. I guess that they all use different algorithms to try to achieve this.

I used to run Eon together with Rieselsieve sieving, then Eon would not get any CPU cycles until the sieving was finished.

[umccullough]

I just wish it was clearly configurable without guessing and hunting for solutions.

I've even see some programs behave differently depending on the order they are started in coordination with other DC projects on the same machine.

[umccullough]

cswchan,

You'll be happy to know that I ran into the same problem with malariacontrol.net as you.

I decided it was time to do some more Pi Segment work, so I started it up on my AMD box here expecting to see 50/50 between BOINC and PiSeg (as I usually get) - and i just noticed this morning that malariacontrol was sitting there with no CPU cycles. PiSeg was getting them all.

This is a bummer because, as you noted, the other BOINC projects properly use their share of the CPU once it's their turn. I'm using BOINC 5.8.8 on this machine also. I'm not sure where the "CPU throttling" settings are located exactly.

Other than this, I haven't had any problems with malariacontrol.net on the 3 machines I'm running it on here. It does, however, still claim to be "beta" in the client.

[cswchan]

That's not good for the project if others try to run non Boinc projects along with Boinc based projects...

:(

[mewbysea]

I have had no problems running Malaria Control within BOINC, and with BOINC and FAH sharing one computer--but it is a Pentium D, so each DC project has its own core to work with.

The boards are pretty active for a relatively small project, and the interaction with the project admins is well above average.

They are still looking to get to about 6000 users for this beta phase -- as of today, they have aout 1200 to go.

[Adywebb]

I have no problems either - running Malaria, WCG, Proteins at Home on Boinc 5.4.11

[russkris]

:welcome: Adywebb, thanks for posting

[Adywebb]

Thanks Rusty - its about time I suppose :rolleyes:

....I'm such as slacker :lol:

[russkris]

ya made it... That all that matters

[Adywebb]

And only taken me 9 months too :lol:

What is the current position regarding getting this project in the vault?

[russkris]

Project admin... argh check out the thread
http://www.malariacontrol.net/forum_thread.php?id=373

I would like to let everyone know that if I do add this project, they will be closing down account creation for a short time in the next couple of weeks...

Not actually sure why

[Adywebb]

I see what you mean Rusty :rolleyes:

I think they are going to disable account creation for a while once they reach 6000 - probably the limit the work can service at the moment.

Its a shame as this is a very worthy project with the potential to improve the lives of so many around the world :sigh:

[mike047]

I see what you mean Rusty :rolleyes:

I think they are going to disable account creation for a while once they reach 6000 - probably the limit the work can service at the moment.

Its a shame as this is a very worthy project with the potential to improve the lives of so many around the world :sigh:


I was glad that I got in in Jan. It is a well run very important project. But, if they only need 6000 members to do the work properly, then it is wise for them to close registrations.

[Adywebb]

Hiya Mike http://www.freesmileys.org/emo/greet013.gif - good to see you :)

Your right of course - just a shame we can't do more for them.

[vaio]

Here's to more health stuff and less math, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz :D
Hi Ady, Mike :)

[vaio]

One more bump for this..........surely it has way more merit for inclusion than Red Library, which is dead.

[russkris]

DLV is going, I just havent got the time yet..

and MC will be locking the doors soon

[mewbysea]

Good News -- Malariacontrol.net has re-opened account creation! :cool:

Get 'em while they're hot!

[russkris]

Thanks for the news mate

[Bill]

Project update Malaria Control is now open to new users. Should it be considered to be added to teh authorized DC-Vault project list ?

[russkris]

- - - - VAULTED - - - -

[mike047]

This is a very worthy project, THANKS