[Gloucs] Seti@home tweaks??

[Paul Cooke]

On Friday 03 December 2004 17:24, David wrote:
> > sheesh... the Linux client download is an .exe!!!!!!!
> >
> > |To launch: To use this program, make sure that you can execute it (chmod
> > | +x FAH5-Linux.exe) and then run it ./FAH5-Linux.exe
> >
> > whatever is the world coming to???
>
> I didn't notice that!  But it works!

It doesn't matter what the file extension is if the file has got the right 
magic numbers. Unlike ms-windows, Linux isn't brain dead when it comes to 
determining what a file is and what the associations are. It's only when you 
come to handle files created on ms-windows by programs that are exclusively 
windows centric (tied to using the three letter code and nothing else) that 
Linux really needs the correct file extension.

For more details, do

man file

and 

man magic

>
> I didn't worry about fans running full pelt (as my desktop fan is not
> speed-controlled - it always sounds like a darn jumbo jet under my
> desk).
>
> I did not measure the extra power draw, but guessing with the
> processor drawing an extra 100W, running foldingathome or seti at home
> could cost around £ 50 a year at home, that you could consider your
> donation to the project.  Being mean-spirited, I am not running it
> now.
>
> At a large company with wholesale electicity tariffs it could be a lot
> less (though remember that 100W of air conditioning costs at least
> three times 100W of electricity.)
>
> Foldingathome only loads the processor, makes some demand on memory,
> and hardly any on moving parts (hard discs),

it will affect hard disks if it is writing to disk every now and then... 
that's because the disk won't be able to spin down and go into a powersave 
mode.

> I cannot imagine it 
> affecting the life of hardware before the motherboard is obsolete
> anyway, provided the server was built with good temperature control.
> Perhaps a hardware expert can analyse more deeply.
>

ah, you're running into the other end of the classic "Bathtub" failure rate 
curve...

Gone through burn-in, normal life and now approaching high failure rate

<http://www.weibull.com/hotwire/issue21/hottopics21.htm>
and
<http://www.weibull.com/hotwire/issue22/hottopics22.htm>

(you'll find Konqueror loads that in and then goes blank on the default 
Browser ID string... use Firefox or else change Konq's browser ID string...)

those pages will probably baffle you with numbers... but the curve is shown on 
them and you'll see what I mean...

basically, Linux is great for extending the life of old hardware, but don't 
expect it to go on forever... as the hardware itself will fail and the 
probabilities of having a major failure increase rapidly towards the end.


> Running e-donkey kazaa or even BitTorrent at work without permission
> might be worth a few very strong words from the boss.  But a company
> that says much more than 'turn it off' regarding seti at home is a
> company that thinks sysadmins with long hair are a bad thing.
>
> Having said that, business servers often play vital roles.  The
> configuration of production servers should be documented, and extra
> processes running without change control should be a matter for
> re-training or worse.  *With* change control, a cron job to take it
> down when max responsiveness of the server is needed, and a trial run,
> it really should be great publicity, as the OP said.
>
> David
>