SUncleSamA: Introduction

[SUncleSamA]

I'm from the government and I'm here to help you.

Excerpt from the book "How NOT to make friends and influence others" :)

Hopefully that will be my last attempt at humor here. My purpose here is to help kick start you, give you a shove in the right direction and to help you over hurdles. Now that the team's daily output has dropped to 5th in the world I believe there is a role for me here. Think of me as a consultant, a catalyst, an enabler, a motivator, etc. But also a concerned comrade.

Don't try too hard to guess who or whom I am. First I'll respond like the Navy and confirm nothing and second it could ruin my role here. Be satisfied for now to know I've been cruising around the boards for a few years and have an interest in seeing SUSA do well.

You are a great bunch of crunchers and members for SUSA, your hearts and motivation are in the right place but I get the feeling you are too nice sometimes so the team looks like it functions rudderless and without defined purpose. You are in need of type A person(s). I hope to be a type A- person for you. I don't plan on conversing. I will just make declarative suggestions. Your job will be to take action because I won't. I'm the consultant if you remember. I'm also fairly thick skinned so go ahead and criticize me if you see fit.

So now let's roll.

[Crazybob]

Welcome to our boards. It's too bad that you are only here as a consultant. We could use some of the governments computers to take back our lead. We will take any advice you have to offer. If it is sound, we will react to it. Hope to hear from you soon.

[STMahlberg]

I'm from the government and I'm here to help you.

So now let's roll.

Okay... I'm going to play Devils Advocate here... Or rather, I should say, I'm just going to be me. First, I don't trust the government, and they rarely help anyone but themselves. So the first line of your sales pitch just made me mistrust you.

I have read your other posts and although you have many points that are valid and I certainly agree with several... you still have the problem because of the introduction... I don't trust you.

You say you have been cruising the boards for a couple years and wish to see S.USA succeed, I can give you kudos for that, yet you come in with this Drill Sargent attitude and call yourself a "consultant". As far as I am concerned you are a noob barking orders. Now I don't only not trust you, now I don't like you.

You say we can guess who you are but that would ruin your role... Why do you need a role? If you are known to us, why not just suggest all of this yourself instead of under the guise of an unknown quasi consultant?

You claim that we are rudderless... and discuss points then take no action. I will only make this comment about that. I would rather be rudderless than deliberately steered into the path of a torpedo.

You are an unknown, hiding your identity, and telling us what we need to do. You have made 3 posts that I have seen and out of that... I don't trust you, nor like you and as far as I know you are the enemy.

Those are some really big hurtles that you need to overcome as far as I am concerned.

[trigggl]

I think it's Tera. He hasn't been around since 1969.

[c303a]

First, I don't trust the government, and they rarely help anyone but themselves.


I happen to agree with you completely. Government and trust should not be uttered in the same sentence.

[Fire$torm]

Too bad we don't have the server logs from the old board. If we had them then a query could be run to check his current ip against the database to find any matches. THEN it could be determined if this individual was genuine or a lame poser.

[STMahlberg]

Too bad we don't have the server logs from the old board. If we had them then a query could be run to check his current ip against the database to find any matches. THEN it could be determined if this individual was genuine or a lame poser.


... I think the Idea of a committee is great, this is the problem. Working people do not have the time required to be in a committee...

I would like to believe that SUncleSamA is legitimate, I just don't like the Cloak and Dagger or demanding style. He has good points but I have to agree with Dandasarge also... everyone here is busy with work and life.

The fact remains, crunching is a hobby and I want to enjoy my hobbies; I don't want them to become another job.

The one thing we have all enjoyed having on S.USA is the ability to do our own thing. We also have our focus projects like, BlackOps, MM's, and MW... and yes we do discuss some things to death and then take no action at times. That can be a little frustrating because I know I would like someone to say, Project X... GO! And I believe that this can be done without making demands of anyone.

So SUncleSamA whoever you are... just come back as yourself.

Just my 2 cents. :)

[Teratoma]

I think it's Tera. He hasn't been around since 1969.

Hey!. I resemble that remark! b-( Just because you don't see me doesn't mean I am not here.

[Teratoma]

If it helps anyone, SUncleSamA's profile states his/her referer as Crunch3r. The originating IP is located in Maryland and registered to a company in NJ.

[DrBob]

I'm from the government and I'm here to help you.Oh NO!
As much as my health insurance premium and co-pays went up this year I'm not sure I can afford any more of the Government's "help". :eek:

[trigggl]

Hey!. I resemble that remark! b-( Just because you don't see me doesn't mean I am not here.

The board says your last visit was Dec 1969.
http://setiusa.free-dc.org/vbforum/memberlist.php?ltr=T&pp=30&sort=username&order=asc

[SUncleSamA]

Don't evaluate the messenger, evaluate the message. I also don't gain anything here, just the team. Everything is also quite above board and explained in the original post.

[Teratoma]

The board says your last visit was Dec 1969.
http://setiusa.free-dc.org/vbforum/memberlist.php?ltr=T&pp=30&sort=username&order=asc

Awesome. How many stars do I get? 41?


Don't evaluate the messenger, evaluate the message. I also don't gain anything here, just the team. Everything is also quite above board and explained in the original post.

Sorry, but I prefer to have a little more knowledge of my saviours. Got any thoughts about May 21st of this year?

[joker]

Don't evaluate the messenger, evaluate the message.

Who made you the messenger? How was it decided that you carried "the one true message" for this team? Was that by a committee of 13 people? Please show me the forum where this all happened and where you were "voted" as the messenger. I suspect that it does not exist. In the end I surmise that what you are saying is just your own opinion. "Do what you want with your scalp but don't be telling us what to do with ours."

[STMahlberg]

Don't evaluate the messenger, evaluate the message. I also don't gain anything here, just the team. Everything is also quite above board and explained in the original post.


Who made you the messenger? How was it decided that you carried "the one true message" for this team? Was that by a committee of 13 people? Please show me the forum where this all happened and where you were "voted" as the messenger. I suspect that it does not exist. In the end I surmise that what you are saying is just your own opinion. "Do what you want with your scalp but don't be telling us what to do with ours."

@Joker - I understand what you are saying here but at the same time the message of "direction" is something I think all of us feel at times that we lack as a team. The problem as we have experienced in the past, is how to obtain that without issues which is the big question.

@SUncleSamA - I have to give you considerable credit... you have taken a lot of flak since your original post and you come back cool and level-headed. I know that I have been a part of that barrage; I don't assume to speak for anyone else but as far as I am concerned, my issue was not the "messenger" or even the message... it was the tone.

I am glad to see you posting, asking questions... so with that, and on that level, I for one welcome you as a team member.

[trigggl]

...Got any thoughts about May 21st of this year?

Yes, it's 16 days after my grandson's birthday, or were you talking about the coming of the "end times"? That already happened at Pentecost, but that's a different discussion. I don't know if there will be a rapture or not, but the end times have been here for 2000 years.

I'm more concerned with March 3rd.

[DrPop]

Huh. That was literally the first expression that popped into my head when I read your first post. Interesting.

After reading this thread so far, I'm going to take an entirely different tack. If you are from the Gov., then I'm happy you are here. You will see a group of individuals on this team who represent the USA. Gladly throwing our limited resources into a project and hobby for which we help others to better the world, with little hope of tangible reward for ourselves.

And yet, it is the very thing -individuality - that makes us truly "American", that hurts us in team performance. Every person is entitled to such a degree of autonomy, as to render the word "team" a very poor fit for our group. At times, we behave as a coalition of individual crunchers at best.

So, let me recap by saying I welcome your presence, and would like to know what the Gov. can do to help. If this were a pet project of a ranking senator, for example, we would suddenly find ourselves with grant money for a nice Cray of blade server. Not that I feel those things should happen, it's just the truth. If the Gov. would be willing to let BOINC run at night on millions of Gov. owned computers, that would truly be a beneficial use of public funds that went into "public property", that is currently useless a good portion of its life, as it sits there every night.

If you have a few friends in certain places, perhaps they could encourage different universities and foundations to crunch a few high credit projects for us during their night shifts or downtime? Currently, our Gov. controls the greater part of high speed computing in the world, although this is rapidly being challenged by the Chinese.
One other possibility I can think of, is some sort of marketing campaign. We all know that it just takes a little media exposure, and suddenly, the most obscure things become the latest fad - literally over night. Due to its high level of purpose and philanthropic nature, BOINC could be just that, and what better team to represent our country than SETI.USA?

I will leave you with this: what exactly would you have us do differently? I am willing to listen...and maybe others are as well, for the good of THE TEAM.

[SUncleSamA]

First I'd like to thank you for your support. Your trust (sorry if that word is too strong, maybe I should have said interest) is not misplaced.

I'm a bit pressed for time at the moment so I can't give a complete response. I also haven't digested the other thread and responses about the SC. But I have noticed some good, positive team posts about recruiting and members getting involved which was one area I thought needed at least some form of unified approach. If appropriate I'll post some other thoughts tomorrow.

The first post tried explained why the direct tone: taking the role of a type A person and being direct and too the point with the tone of being unwavering and inflexible and not open to discussion.

About the government statement. Read the line immediately following it. Look at the avatar. It was an attention getter opening line. Guess it worked and also didn't work: depends upon ones point of view.

[STMahlberg]

First I'd like to thank you for your support. Your trust (sorry if that word is too strong, maybe I should have said interest) is not misplaced.

I'm a bit pressed for time at the moment so I can't give a complete response. I also haven't digested the other thread and responses about the SC. But I have noticed some good, positive team posts about recruiting and members getting involved which was one area I thought needed at least some form of unified approach. If appropriate I'll post some other thoughts tomorrow.

The first post tried explained why the direct tone: taking the role of a type A person and being direct and too the point with the tone of being unwavering and inflexible and not open to discussion.

About the government statement. Read the line immediately following it. Look at the avatar. It was an attention getter opening line. Guess it worked and also didn't work: depends upon ones point of view.

I saw this and wanted to quickly respond and duplicate something that I said over in the SC forum on the issue of decorum...


This and Fire$torm's original post about Robert's Rules is something that we need to keep in mind when posting. I am guilty as well of not following a decorum, I have attacked the messenger when the message was valid just because I didn't like the delivery...

For my original post in this thread I must apologize. I did attacked you because I didn't like the delivery even though the message is valid.

Once again I apologize for my insolence.

[SUncleSamA]

I'm back!!
Actually I never left.

Been working on getting credit in three projects and being on the boards for three months so I can be a valid contributor of opinions or ideas. End of a deliberate cheap shot. Now back to business.

Also remember the premise of my existance here from my first post.

It's really nice to see the progress here over the last few months. You don't have a steering committee but you do have a core leadership (emphasis on the leadership) to be a guiding light, provide arrows for direction and provide support and motivation. A+

You need to do at least two more things now. Both some what related.

First: you need to declare the team goals. There have been several posts that have tried to enumerate them and have come quite close in my opinion and I think would represent the teams current thinking. If I find the post I'm recalling I'll bring it to the Team Only section (which was also a good thing to have created by the way).

This leads me to the second thing you really need to work on, or start to work on. The front page. It needs to tell people visiting what you are all about now (insert goals here). It also needs to post some charts, graphs, tables, etc. Something that shows progress or current status of the team. BAM, right in their faces. Much like, but better than, what the old site had. Things like current member ship, project status, credits, progress on current goals or challenges, so on and so forth, etc. Think of the type of people who BOINC: they like to help, crunch, compete, achive milestones, and support their country, etc. They want to know the score and see changes in scores: to see the numbers!! It's a motivator, a challenge, a goal to shoot for, a carrot or brass ring held out, etc.

Look at the front page now. What does it tell a new user who arrives? Does it say join us? Come help us? Or is it blah and shows some stupid comments we make?

And for those who mistakenly paint me as some sort of second coming: This is the end of this sermon.

p.s. I joined the Top Gun division because that's all that matters right now. Even if I only can contribute a little at the moment.

[DrPop]

My good Uncle Sam ... he's back! Well, I can't disagree with anything you bring up. Actually at the risk of sounding like your shill, I agree with everything you said in this particular post.

My answer? We're working on it! You can only herd cats so fast, my man. The way I see it, every day that goes by is a missed opportunity and 24Mil credits given up. Going to be that much harder to punch through the wall when we get there.

I've got something cooking on the side that's going to take a while before it really stirs the pot. But it will, just needs a little time on the burner.
And for the record, [Top Gun] is good, and I support crunching the highest credit return projects 100%. But, at this point we need to pull SETI.USA up by its boot straps. We need to do MORE than just crunch for highest credit output. We need a SWAT team to do some demo & rescue work, some Snipers to go ahead of the pack, and a regular old BlackOps Clan working on my [classified] mission.

[Dandasarge]

My good Uncle Sam ... he's back! Well, I can't disagree with anything you bring up. Actually at the risk of sounding like your shill, I agree with everything you said in this particular post.

My answer? We're working on it! You can only herd cats so fast, my man. The way I see it, every day that goes by is a missed opportunity and 24Mil credits given up. Going to be that much harder to punch through the wall when we get there.

I've got something cooking on the side that's going to take a while before it really stirs the pot. But it will, just needs a little time on the burner.
And for the record, [Top Gun] is good, and I support crunching the highest credit return projects 100%. But, at this point we need to pull SETI.USA up by its boot straps. We need to do MORE than just crunch for highest credit output. We need a SWAT team to do some demo & rescue work, some Snipers to go ahead of the pack, and a regular old BlackOps Clan working on my [classified] mission.

I also agree but it was a pretty state the obvious kinda post. To Sam you find me a 1/2 decent domain name and I'll buy it. I've punched in more then 1000 names all coming up as owned. its got to be short remember-able and SETI.USA related. If you read my post you will find at least 5 about the dang URL. I believe it a key in recruitment.

[joker]

@SUncleSamA. You hand out advice....fine. I am no longer going to comment on that (maybe). But here is some advice from me: You want to help the team? Buy yourself a couple more computers and throw some crunching GPU's in them. I have spent $1000s of dollars this year to upgrade my computers so they can crunch better for the team. As one might say, put your money where your mouth is.

http://stats.free-dc.org/stats.php?page=userbycpid&cpid=94c207f4b0548cfeb84a45477271b554

[NJCaNS]

I also agree but it was a pretty state the obvious kinda post. To Sam you find me a 1/2 decent domain name and I'll buy it. I've punched in more then 1000 names all coming up as owned. its got to be short remember-able and SETI.USA related. If you read my post you will find at least 5 about the dang URL. I believe it a key in recruitment.We are (or are considering) changing the team URL??!!
What happened to getting the old one re-assigned to this board?

[DrPop]

OK, wow...don't want to open up a giant can of worms here. The URL is being pursued, that's all I know. If you'd like to PM me about it, I'll try to pass on any relevant info to you.

[zombie67]

Questions:


If I find the post I'm recalling I'll bring it to the Team Only section (which was also a good thing to have created by the way).

Er, how? I mean, how and still be anonymous? I thought we validated people with access to that? If anonymous people have access to a private forum, it's not private by definition.


p.s. I joined the Top Gun division because that's all that matters right now. Even if I only can contribute a little at the moment.

To join a division, you have to change your BOINC userid on >50% of the projects to something with "[BlackOps]". Again, hard to do and still remain anonymous.

Of course, these are all rhetorical questions any way. You are a regular member acting as a new-commer.

[Dandasarge]

We are (or are considering) changing the team URL??!!
What happened to getting the old one re-assigned to this board?

I'm up for any url, the more the better. I dont think we as a team are changing anything. People are working on the old one. with word of waiting up to 2 more years. I have started looking for a new one that could be used. at one time we had 8-10 urls. now we can't seem to get one.

[zombie67]

My good Uncle Sam ... he's back! Well, I can't disagree with anything you bring up. Actually at the risk of sounding like your shill, I agree with everything you said in this particular post.

My answer? We're working on it! You can only herd cats so fast, my man. The way I see it, every day that goes by is a missed opportunity and 24Mil credits given up. Going to be that much harder to punch through the wall when we get there.

I've got something cooking on the side that's going to take a while before it really stirs the pot. But it will, just needs a little time on the burner.
And for the record, [Top Gun] is good, and I support crunching the highest credit return projects 100%. But, at this point we need to pull SETI.USA up by its boot straps. We need to do MORE than just crunch for highest credit output. We need a SWAT team to do some demo & rescue work, some Snipers to go ahead of the pack, and a regular old BlackOps Clan working on my [classified] mission.

Here's the rub. If one believes that the goal is to be #1 is total credits, then anything that is not "crunching the highest credit return projects" is actually a LOSS, and is detrimental to the goal. If we "do MORE than just crunch for highest credit output" and support "a SWAT team to do some demo & rescue work", then we have worked AGAINST the goal of being #1 in total credits. If the top project pays 100 c/h, any project that pays (say) 70 c/h is cheating the team of 30 c/h. The goal of #1 total credits does not allow for compromise.

[joker]

Just a little question. What sites show MM stats VS total credits in the overall position and ranking spots?

[joker]

And I am still waiting for that sam guy to respond.

[zombie67]

Just a little question. What sites show MM stats VS total credits in the overall position and ranking spots?

MM is a Free-DC thing.

http://stats.free-dc.org/stats.php?page=teambycpid&team=SETI.USA

top middle-right is our ranking

[DrPop]

Here's the rub. If one believes that the goal is to be #1...If we "do MORE than just crunch for highest credit output" and support "a SWAT team to do some demo & rescue work"...then we have worked AGAINST the goal of being #1 in total credits.

EDIT: Looks like I took the bait from this Sam guy, and let y'all know how I really feel about this topic. I need to stress that this post was written from me as "DrPop your team mate", and not to be taken with authority as from "DrPop your Admin". This is strictly my opinion; I realize we each have our own, and if ours differ, well, that's OK. Makes our team dynamic that way.

It seems we're coming at this from 2 different perspectives. Neither is necessarily right or wrong, they're just different angles. I'm all for crunching the highest paying projects. Even put my race in MW with my daughter on hold for the last 2 months because the team needed what little RAC I could eek out while I'm building up my new rig (which is finally coming together, BTW) from DNETC. Except for challenges (which are short lived bursts of fun and yes, some credit loss - arguably made up for by face time in recruiting those seeing our name out in front of them when we win), I only crunch the good credits. I do that for the team.

What I was referring to with the SWAT and RECON stuff was not crunching. If we do get enough guys here that wan to be #1 overall again, it's now to the point where ALL of our entire team could crunch only the good credit stuff, and we'd still be bleeding points every day to SIC. I was thinking more along the lines of BlackOps activities regarding recruiting, assimilating, and otherwise throwing off the competition's edge on us. I was not referring to crunching there. More like "para crunching" activities.
Hope that makes sense.

While I firmly believe our #2 goal on this team should be "#1 overall in BOINC", I even more strongly feel that our #1 goal should be "having fun with our hobby!".
To me, that's really all about the interaction here on the boards, meeting new people, having a great time, and seeing our collective TEAM's pile of stones grow until it's bigger than every other team's; and feeling good about it because it's something no one could do on their own - it's a group effort, and we did it together, as a team.

However, if that's not fun to you, then I guess the next best thing is to go out and collect your own little individual piles of stones to compare to everyone else's individual little piles of stones...aka "MM crunching" :D. Because at the end of the day, all those stone go into the USA pot, and believe me, we need as many as we can get right now! I mean sure, I'll always poke a little fun at the guy that wants to get his MM in the lowest paying project on earth, but really, it's whatever someone considers fun. At the end of the day, we just need enough "I want to be #1" guys and gals on our team to make a difference. The rest can just hang out and have fun...and enjoy being part of a "World Class" Team.
I find that attitude is important, because right now, we ARE "SETI.USA". As we slip further and further down the BOINC World Ranking, you will watch the attitude suffer, and we will simply become an "also ran" team...just one of the regular run of the mill Booshwa.

That is NOT the future I'd like for our wonderful team. We deserve to be at the top, we have quite a few members who put in major amounts of time and money on hardware, software, and electricity to get us where we are today - yourself included! - and I'll gladly and publicly fight for that, until I have exhausted every avenue at my disposal. We need to keep the Big Dog attitude. We need to fight for our Country's name at the top of the list. We need to keep our motto running strong. Together we CAN accomplish something amazing. Has everyone forgotten where this team came from, and where it has been? WE WILL get there again - but it all starts with attitude. Desire. The Dream. Think big. Like Michael Jordin. And then win.

Back to this thread...sure wish this Sam guy would get a couple of GTX 465 cards and modify them ala Joker style, and we'd have us another 1Mil+ cruncher on our hands. Only cost you ~$300 to become one of the big dogs there Sam...what say you? :confused:

Final EDIT: After much contemplation, I figured out what's driving me nuts. It's the thought that some member of a team wouldn't want their team to be #1. See, I just don't really think that's true. Deep down inside, doesn't every member of every team in the world - from basketball to computer games, from rugby to soccer - don't they all want their team to be the at the top? Hmm...if you see that differently than I do, please PM me, because I'd really like some private discussion about that, and maybe it will help me do all that I can this year to make SETI.USA "the" team to join in BOINC. I really want this to be the most happenin' place in the universe, LoL! :D

[NJCaNS]

+1 DrPop. =D>

I think. :-? Even though I believe I was indirectly dinged a bit in there. :D

[joker]

Comic re-leaf time......with all the credits you put out Zombie........do whatever you want!! :p

[DrPop]

...with all the credits you put out Zombie........do whatever you want!! :p

True that...I could only hope to achieve as much with a complete rebuild of my rigs, LOL!^:)^