:: 05-Jan-2000 04:42 (Wednesday) ::

The following clients have been updated/added:

– dnetc-dos-x86.exe Dos v2.8004.452

2.8004.452 chg: all: .ini option spin off from the generic [parameters]
section into subsections is now complete. phew! Nothing
left except “id”.

This upload was mostly to correct incorrect versoin upload of v2.8004.451

Enjoy!
Moose

:: 05-Jan-2000 03:06 (Wednesday) ::

Well, we’ve finally got the load on statsbox under control again
*knocks on wood*

The problem seemed to be with the participant search script again.
(This is what caused the massive slowdown last time too). The
problem is that in order to allow the most flexible search
possible, the script would search for the string entered anywhere
in the email field. (“*string*”). Unfortunately, Sybase can’t
optimize this query, and it was killing the box. (The data-servers
were using over 80% CPU almost constantly… when the psearch
scripts were down, usage was rarely over 60%).

So, the script has been redone a bit. First, if there’s an @ in
the search term (such as when looking up a complete email
address), the script will attempt to do a “string*” search first,
which Sybase can optimize. If that fails (or if there’s no @),
the script will do a “*string*” search like before, but it will
only retrieve a list of IDs, which it will then use to look up
participant info for the specific project. This is a somewhat in-
efficient way to do things, but it’s brought the load under
control. The only functional difference will be if you try to do
a partial search using a string with @ in it. You’ll end up searching
on “string*” instead of “*string*” like the script used to.

I have a feeling we’re going to be needing faster CPUs in the near
future… anyone want to buy the PII-300s we’re using for a
keepsake? }:8)

One other note… if you typically do a search on your email, you
might want to bookmark your summary page instead… it will come
up faster if you don’t go through the psearch script.

Sorry for the downtime and errors while I was debugging. Everything
seems to be working now.

:: 04-Jan-2000 08:21 (Tuesday) ::

For those who are wondering, I shut down statsbox web access temporarily
to build some additional indexes. We’re seeing a very heavy load right
now, and this should help. I’ll also modify the statproc routines to
build this index nightly in the future.

:: 04-Jan-2000 03:40 (Tuesday) ::

The following clients have been updated/added:

– dnetc-macos-ppc.sit Mac OS PPC/OS8.x+ v2.8004.451
– dnetc-macos-68k.sit Mac OS m68k/OS8.x+ v2.8004.451

Enjoy!
moose

:: 04-Jan-2000 03:38 (Tuesday) ::

ftp://ftp.distributed.net/pub/dcti/current-client/dnetc-macos-ppc.sit
ftp://ftp.distributed.net/pub/dcti/current-client/dnetc-macos-68k.sit

Okay, they’re out. I made the fatal mistake of announcing that they were
in the pipeline prior to their actually being in the pipeline; a horde
of anxious users flooded Moose with some emails that he didn’t have to
receive. I won’t make that mistake again…

I yanked the ‘start & hide’ applescript from the 68k distribution just
before upload because of a few reports of it being faulty. Various
applescripts will become separately available as support for that
technology in the client increases.

You’ll also find that the 68k client hogs your CPU. This is (obviously)
a timing issue, and we’ll work on it in future releases.

I’ll keep you posted.

:: 04-Jan-2000 02:45 (Tuesday) ::

The following clients have been updated/added:

– dnetc-win32-x86-setup.exe Windows 95/98/NT/2000 Installer v2.8004.451
– dnetc-bsdi2-x86-aout.tar.gz BSD/OS 2.x/3.x x86 aout v2.8004.451

Happy Cracking
moose

:: 04-Jan-2000 02:10 (Tuesday) ::

Build 451 of the Mac OS client will be hitting an FTP site near you in
the very near future. A quick version of the release notes follows.

We’ve gone 68K! The 68K client is identical in function to its faster
PowerPC brethen (as well as every other distributed.net client). The 68K
client can participate in the CSC contest. Don ‘Dakidd’ Bruder is the
brain & fingers behind latest addition to our family of clients.

The current CSC G4 core has been sped up by 70% in build 451, without
using Velocity Engine enhancements. Our CSC bitslicer is chasing tail at
college; he’s obviously not having much success, or else he would be on
the Net more. (Or is that backwards?)

Misc bugfixes: random blocks are generated again, and the timestaping is
now correct. G4s choose the proper core, and ‘Benchmark All’ benchmarks
all the available cores. As always, send all new bugs to bugzilla.

:: 03-Jan-2000 08:47 (Monday) ::

As we near the 100% mark of CSC keyspace completion, I think it’s
time to explain what that CSC statistics mean, and how they are
determined.

It is perhaps a common misconception that each CSC work unit
completed is unique. With a short contest like CSC, we have
implemented special keymaster code to use complex tests to verify
the authenticity and validity of each work unit submitted. Malicious
users could conceivably run a tampered version of the distributed.net
client to gain an unfair advantage in statistics and rankings. In
order to test an experimental method of attempting to uncover and
disqualify these users, it was decided that certain CSC work units
would periodically reassigned to suspect users and random clients
to ensure that our work is not compromised. As an unfortunate
result, work is duplicated.

It is distributed.net policy to give users credit for all legitimate
work completed, regardless of whether it’s virgin work or reassigned
work. Accordingly, the completed percentage showed on the statistics
server represents both virgin and reissued work units, so it’s
possible that we go well beyond 100% completion.

Please remember that from the viewpoint of the network, submitting
duplicated work units is different from submitting blocks that have
been redistributed for secondary revalidation. Duplicated work is
defined as either re-uploading the same results or uploading stale
blocks that have already been recycled and redistributed. Meanwhile,
work units that have been redistributed for reverification will
have different sequence numbers and are credited as distinct pieces
of work. Please keep this information in mind when parsing our
statistics.

Thanks.

Daniel “dbaker” Baker and Jeff “bovine” Lawson
distributed.net project leaders

:: 02-Jan-2000 18:19 (Sunday) ::

The following clients have been updated/added:

– dnetc-win32-x86.zip Windows 95/98/NT/2000 x86 v2.8004.451
– dnetc-win32-alpha.zip Windows NT Alpha v2.8004.451
– dnetc-win16-x86.zip Windows 3.1 v2.8004.451
– dnetc-dos-x86.exe DOS v2.8004.451
– dnetc-freebsd-x86-elf.tar.gz Freebsd X86 [Elf/MT]

The files will not show up on the mirrors for another 15 minutes or
so, so please be patient. Also, I will not be updating the
clients.html page till a bit later today. I have to run out the door.
You can either directly download them from the FTP server, or use the
existing links.

Here is the update to the Changes.txt file:

2.8000
——

2.8004.451 fix: OS/2: Fixed crash in -config by using different API calls
fix: OS/2: included the forgotten CSC-MMX core.
fix: win32 Alpha: network connect()
fix: all: 2 digit date in log-by-mail
fix: MacOS: buffer transfer to non-Mac works again
fix: solaris x86: multithreading works correctly now (uses
native threads bound to LWPs instead of pthreads)

Enjoy!
Moose

:: 02-Jan-2000 12:46 (Sunday) ::

The first major release of the new Java Log Visualizer has been made
available on the addons page with accompanying source. This new Java
application (not applet) should be usable on any platform with a
reasonable Java 1.1 implementation. You can find the new version at
http://www.distributed.net/download/addon.html