Yesterday BOINC told me I'd best abort a rosetta task because it was days overdue. I then noticed almost all my rosetta tasks were overdue, as well as some SETI's. So I aborted them all, thinking new ones would come. Back at my Mac today, I see that my task list was repopulated with a bunch of (perhaps the same) already-outdated Rosettas (all) and SETI's (some). Since this is two projects, I suspect it's BOINC rather than the projects. A shame, because I'm just throwing away computer time.

Bug, or local problem? What to do?

Using 6.2.18/Mac PB G4/OS 10.5.4

gbdoc

SETI tasks aren't resent, so they must be new ones.

What exactly was the deadline date/time shown against the tasks in question (just a sample will do!): how does it compare with the deadline shown for the same task on the SETI website for your host.

And, simplest of all, but easy to overlook: is the system clock accurate on your Mac? If it's a G4, it maybe quite elderly - the clock back-up battery could have failed.

SETI tasks aren't resent, so they must be new ones.

What exactly was the deadline date/time shown against the tasks in question (just a sample will do!): how does it compare with the deadline shown for the same task on the SETI website for your host.

And, simplest of all, but easy to overlook: is the system clock accurate on your Mac? If it's a G4, it maybe quite elderly - the clock back-up battery could have failed.

1. They might well have been new, because I was only looking at the due date rather than the task name.

2. Yesterday and today (today = 09/11/2008) all rosettas were dated 09/06/2008 or 1 day later, and not a single one was as new as the day before "today". There were three overdue SETI's dated the day before "today", but the list was about 7 or so "underdue" tasks longer.

2a. The above overdue dates refer to what I see under "Report Deadline" on my Mac. I have never seen the "deadline shown for the same task on the SETI website for your host", and am not sure I understand correctly. Do you mean that somewhere on the SETI website (http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/) the tasks and deadlines are listed? I never knew that.

3. My Mac's date is correct - battery's fine, plus I'm automatically set via an Apple time server and always on-line.

I just thought to reset both projects, and am waiting for any results as I write this. Aha! Good. I DL'd several rosettas, all dated 09/21/2008. Nothing has come from SETI yet, but I hope for something similar.