FreeHAL Project

Post by **Labbie** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 1:43 am

I wonder if the German version of the email was more detailed because the major offenders are German?

Post by **debs3759** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 1:45 am

I just checked my spam folder to see if anything just arrived, and still no sign of anything from them. I check my spam every few hours(if not more often!) and have seen nothing from FreeHAL (unless the title said they are trying to sell me VIAGRA or some kind of penis enlarger (a very useful tool for a woman dedicated to remaining single!).

I guess he really is choosing who needs the emails, but would love to know his logic and how me makes such choices.

I certainly understand why a lot of people left the project (although still have no problem with him personally).

Post by **Knightmare** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 2:08 am

I got one of the short version emails too.

Post by **Gavin Shaw** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 2:09 am

Actually I used Worldlingo. Probably works just as well / bad as any other...

And I know it is not that good, but I think we can get the main points. As for why I got it? I have no idea...

Post by **Sarge_II** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 3:07 am

My remaining German understanding is limited as well, but sometimes I can piece some things together so I know what to look for in the translation, and can progressively correct some errors. Last time I spent a while at that, it went through many progressions and was exhausting.

Anyway, thanks Gavin for indicating you'd received a similar e-mail. I believe it was auto-generated within an hour or so of my changing my settings. Since it was not even at 25, but below, the auto-generation was unnecessary.

Debs, when I made the change, it didn't download anything for a bit. Then, I got my 20. I looked a few times, and saw only them running, but neither of 2 MW WUs. Now, I have 12 MW WUs, 2 are running, and no FreeHal because it can't report the 22 I've finished or d/l more.

Post by **Sarge_II** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 3:08 am

Labbie wrote:I wonder if the German version of the email was more detailed because the major offenders are German?

I'm pretty sure Tobias is German or in a Germanic language speaking country.

Post by **debs3759** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 10:49 am

I had to close down BOINC in every host before it could successfully contact the servers this morning, once I saw the servers back online. Not sure why it could not update without a reset.

Post by **Labbie** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 10:10 pm

This could be why Debs...

Hello Labbie,

We changed the IP of our server. This may cause your BOINC-running computer not to download or upload FreeHAL work units properly.So if something doesn not work, please try to reset the project in the BOINC manager or reboot the computer.

Best regards,

Tobias

Even I got an email from Tobias, and I have never even completed a WU there, but I am registered.

Post by **debs3759** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 1:18 am

Yeah, I got an email about it almost 9 hours after I posted that here. If he is one thing, then that is consistently slow at letting people know what he is doing :)

I know for sure that I never got any other emails about anything, so obviously either I am not worthy of the attention or (more likely) I just didn't press the right buttons

I know I am not the only person to work out I had to restart, but my logic in figuring it out was probably not the same as others who figured it out. I just figured that if you can fix Windoze with a restart, then why not BOINC as I run it under Windows

Post by **Gavin Shaw** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 11:57 am

09 Apr 2009 AEST:

BOINC@Poland published a statement of their point of view: FreeHAL@home statement
Due to the recent happenings [1] in FreeHAL@home, BOINC@Poland would like to present team's point of view in the following statement:

BOINC@Poland have never encouraged cheating. Our policy was always to play fair. BOINC@Poland members did use modified BOINC clients, that let them run more than one instance of FreeHAL@home application. In our opinion this does not constitute cheating. The project's application was not modified, returned results were valid, and amount of credits requested per work unit was not changed. We also did not break FreeHAL@home project rules, as at that time, no rules forbidding such actions existed. We do agree that this may be regarded as an unfair advantage over other FreeHAL@home members. Note however, that same can be said of using optimised project applications. Also, running more tasks at once requires more system resources.

As far as we can tell, we did not violate GNU GPL license on which BOINC client is distributed. All users that decided to run the modified client knew, that it was a derivative work based on official BOINC client, and as such is distributed as GNU GPL. The details of modified source code were released as soon as it was demanded.

Even if GNU GPL was violated, this does not make running modified clients illegal. GNU GPL covers the obligations of person distributing modified application. It does not cover on what conditions software can be used. We understand however, that project's staff can forbid using such clients on their discretion.

Having said that, we would like to apologize to all BOINC community members, who felt cheated by our actions. We feel that calling us cheaters on front page was a bit too harsh and too quick action on project administrator's side. Had he contacted us either via FreeHAL forums, BOINC@Poland's forums, or directly to team founder, we would gladly comply to his requests. Thankfully Tobias agreed to put a link to this statement, as a chance for us, to explain our position. We are very grateful for that. Thank you, Tobias. The lesson we have learned from this as a team, is that we will now try to have closer contact with admins of projects, where we use any kind of optimisations. Hopefully this will prevent such unpleasant situations in the future.
On behalf of BOINC@Poland team, Mchl (founder)

Post by **Sarge_II** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 3:30 pm

The Polish to English translation worked better than German to English, eh?

Post by **Gavin Shaw** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 2:16 am

14 Apr 2009 AEST:

Got this email on the weekend.

Here is the translated statement I sent to all FreeHAL users (including you) 4 days ago in german.
http://doc.freehal.org/en/Statement_07.04.09

Dear Crunchers

In the last few days there were lots of discussions going on about FreeHAL@home, especially about my reaction to the current happenings.
Therefore I want to delineate my point of view.

11 days ago from now (on March 27, 2009) I introduced the new rules. They have been discussed before with some members and were translated to English. I published them as project news so they were also spread via RSS feed to several BOINC (statistical) sites.

The new rules disallow to request more than 25 workunits at once. Now 10 days after introducing the rules, most crunchers obeyed the rules except approximately 50 crunchers. I think this is a reasonable period of time. Because on one hand the statistic sites are very important to and widely used by the BOINC community (so the chance of getting aware of the news was given). And on the other hand no one should join any alpha project like FreeHAL if one is only interested in crunching without keeping him/herself informed about the changes going on at the project.

I am aware of the fact that some of the users who didn"t follow the rules did not do this because of some kind of protest or on purpose. That"s the reason I sent emails to the people concerned. Yet it"s not tolerable for the project management to ignore irregularities since some other users disregarded the rules deliberately. So I wrote on several message boards (including the FreeHAL forum) that the credits of these users would be lowered by 30% every day until they accepted the rules - and I will persist in my opinion.
Being an alpha project FreeHAL needs crunchers who support the idea of the project more than earning credits. Credits are good for motivation and for competition but they shouldn"t become an end in itself.

Truly I don"t need crunchers who don"t want to accept the rules, who absolutely refuse to see it that I am even allowed to lay down rules or who are insulting me because I did lay down fair rules. The expression "choosing crunchers" I used in a forum was a bit exaggerated but I really want to develop the project instead of smoothing problems on a personal level. I think it"s kind of remarkable anyway that I"m playing an active part in problem solution for the users. Other projects lay down rules for their projects and then they consider it finished. So I refuse to tolerate protests that I"m not interested in fairness. I apologize for statements where I adopted the wrong tone on April 6. In my opinion BOINC is just a tool to get the computations done for the project and if I am taking care of problems between people I expect that everyone is accepting and adhering to the rules.

Regards,
Tobias

As a kind of comment, I can say now (4 days after writing) that all users except two accepted the rules and adjusted their settings, if this wasn't already done.

Post by **Gavin Shaw** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 11:24 am

17 Apr 2009 AEST:

All members of FreeHAL@home need to reattach to FreeHAL@home in the BOINC Manager because we changed our code signing key.

Post by **debs3759** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 12:45 pm

Gavin Shaw wrote:17 Apr 2009 AEST:

All members of FreeHAL@home need to reattach to FreeHAL@home in the BOINC Manager because we changed our code signing key.

I did that, then went over to FreeHAL as normal to see what is happening today. I see no reference to that news item anywhere. Where does it come from?

Post by **Labbie** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 1:33 pm

debs3759 wrote:
Gavin Shaw wrote:17 Apr 2009 AEST:

All members of FreeHAL@home need to reattach to FreeHAL@home in the BOINC Manager because we changed our code signing key.
I did that, then went over to FreeHAL as normal to see what is happening today. I see no reference to that news item anywhere. Where does it come from?

I received an email that contained that info.

But mine also has this info in it...

Hallo Labbie,

Alle Teilnehmer bei FreeHAL@home sollten sich im BOINC Manager ab- und wieder anmelden. Das ist noetig, weil wir den Code-Signing-Key auf dem Server geaendert haben.

Regards,

Tobias

I must be special.

Post by **debs3759** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 2:17 pm

LOL, I think they must be the only project who give out news by email instead of via the normal channels (ie front page and/or forums)

I guess I'm gonna have to start checking my emails alongside forum messages and project pages before I reply to anyone or anything. I hope my memory is good enough to remember all the relevant info

Post by **Gavin Shaw** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 2:19 pm

As Labbie said it was in an email. And yes, mine had the German part as well, but I didn't think it was necessary to post it here when the English would be enough.

And I reattached to FreeHal and still haven't gotten any work. It has been two weeks? now since I have gotten anything from them...

Post by **debs3759** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 2:27 pm

I have been getting a short burst of work every couple of days. Managing to keep us in the top 15 as a team (currently 12th for RAC and 14th for credit) and myself in top 40 RAC (currently 32dn) and top 50 credit (currently 48th).

It's a scandal how I make sure that I don't miss out when work is released (that is another way of writing "script", isn't it?)

Post by **Dark Angel** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 8:41 am

"I have been getting a Short burst of work every Couple of days. Managing to keep us in the top 15 as a team (cuRrently 12th for RAC and 14th for credit) and myself In toP 40 RAC (currenTly 32dn) and top 50 credit (currently 48th).

It's a Scandal how I makE surE that I don'T miss out wheN wOrk is released (that is another Way of writing "script", isn't it?)"

Post by **debs3759** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 12:59 pm

LMAO

And from the statistics pages, it is obvious who else has some form of script going :)

Some folk seem always to have an even better flow of work than me, and I am sure none of them have a psychic port of BOINC :)

Post by **Gavin Shaw** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 1:00 pm

Well I have managed to get some work from them tonight. But I only get 3 units at a time, not 25...

But at least I have some to do on top of Rosetta (as MW is hard to get)...

Post by **Chris S** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 6:55 pm

They seem to have quite a bit at the moment.....

Post by **Gavin Shaw** » Thu May 07, 2009 1:10 am

Okay, this is about a month old, but I just found it over at BoincStats in their forums.

---------------------------------------------------------------
FreeHAL@Home, a brief story about server security.

As we're writing this post, we're worried about security of the server where the project is based, as well as admin's attitude towards this issue.

Couple of days ago one of the team members (SereK) found a breach on the project's website - a file with data needed to successfully log in to SQL database was available for everyone and it allowed everyone to browse through basically all of the database, not only the one used by this project. We informed the admin about the problem and - after it was solved - we released a statement on our website about the fact feeling that we have done the right thing.

Everything seems fine so far, right? SereK surprised us only two days later, claiming, that the breach still exists and the file is still available, this time through different domain directing to the same WWW server. We informed the admin again, and the file access was blocked (however, what's important, the password was not changed).

Another conversation with the breach finder triggered déjà vu feelings - this *.xml file is still available for the world and still contains the current password. If somebody wants, he could still get basically any part of the database access he wants, all he's got to do is find the proper domain... Which is not that difficult, all you have to do is go to boinc wiki on Berkley University website. As far as we know, currently you can retrieve both old and new password from FreeHAL servers.

At the time of writing this post, in the database of the project there were nearly four thousand users (of which part of them have no credit thus they aren't visible on the stats websites) with their emails and passwords. We are not calling for any kind of action like boycotting the project. Everyone should think about this, what he wants to do next with this information. We are not looking for popularity or a million hits on our website. We just don't want to wait for the admin to fix another error... We tried discreetly, but it didn't seem to work. Maybe a little bit of a fuss will force FreeHAL's creators to actually take care of security issues.

http://boinc.fatumtech.net/images/freehal-sql.png

FatumTech BOINC Team
http://boinc.fatumtech.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------

From the forum post lately, there are still some security issues with the DB and xml file and associated parts.

Post by **motionSymmetry** » Thu May 14, 2009 1:02 am

ahem, that brings up a distrubing, and disturbing, possibility

given that BAM requires the same password on all projects to work, at least the last time i used it, that would mean for everybody who signed up to freehal using BAM, *all* their projects would be vulnerable to incursion....

dangit

Post by **Gavin Shaw** » Thu May 14, 2009 1:09 am

14 May 2009 AEST:

Can't report back some of my work. Server indicates that the feeder is not running when Boinc tries to connect. However, their server status pages says everything is running...

Post by **Gavin Shaw** » Fri May 15, 2009 3:08 am

15 May 2009 AEST:

Okay I got this email.

If I am serious, I have to say that we just don't have enough money to run FreeHAL@home in a proper way.
Our project is some kind of insolvent - sorry, I'm not able to tell you this in a better english. There is no company behind us, so we can't be "insolvent" in the normal meaning of that word.

Half a dozen of members donated so far, and I am really thankful. But this is not enough. It's just too insufficient. I'm not rich, and with these donations I'm able to cover current costs. But I don't know how long I can do that.
That's why I really need your help.

Donations are possible using Paypal:

http://boinc.freehal.org/donations.php

Post by **Knightmare** » Fri May 15, 2009 3:26 am

Yep. I just got the same email.

Dude seriously needs to work on his donation stumping....lol

Post by **Gavin Shaw** » Fri May 15, 2009 3:34 am

And the UOTD isn't exactly a good one by the looks of it...

Post by **Labbie** » Fri May 15, 2009 3:37 am

Gavin Shaw wrote:And the UOTD isn't exactly a good one by the looks of it...

Yeah, you should at least have some credit before you can get UOTD.

But then, maybe that person made a large donation.

Post by **MzSnowleopard** » Fri May 15, 2009 3:39 am

looks like a spammer

Post by **sdl735** » Fri May 15, 2009 5:55 pm

On a lighter note.... 100K today

Post by **MzSnowleopard** » Sat May 16, 2009 3:27 am

kewl SD

Post by **Knightmare** » Sat May 16, 2009 3:37 am

Well done.

Post by **Gavin Shaw** » Sun Jun 07, 2009 9:46 am

07 Jun 2009 AEST:

I just got this when requesting more work...

7/06/2009 7:45:11 PM|FreeHAL@home|Message from server: First: It's not you fault that you can't get new workunits. It's mine.
7/06/2009 7:45:11 PM|FreeHAL@home|Message from server: We can't do it like this. In May, we had between 10000 and 30000 work units which were crunched at the same time.
7/06/2009 7:45:11 PM|FreeHAL@home|Message from server: Now, we have are almost 200,000. And the project server is not able to handle this.
7/06/2009 7:45:11 PM|FreeHAL@home|Message from server: Okay, you can say I failed as a manager. And you are right.
7/06/2009 7:45:11 PM|FreeHAL@home|Message from server: Now I decided to stop distributing work units for today to give server a chance.
7/06/2009 7:45:11 PM|FreeHAL@home|Message from server: Then, we have to find a solution. There are two possibilities:
7/06/2009 7:45:11 PM|FreeHAL@home|Message from server: 1.) We could lower the count of max work units at the same time to ~5 to ~10.
7/06/2009 7:45:11 PM|FreeHAL@home|Message from server: => less output, less credits, less server ressources
7/06/2009 7:45:11 PM|FreeHAL@home|Message from server: 2.) Or we need more server ressources, that would mean
7/06/2009 7:45:11 PM|FreeHAL@home|Message from server: either more donations or someone who donates a mirror, but i has to one with much bandwidth.
7/06/2009 7:45:11 PM|FreeHAL@home|Message from server: I ask you to discuss in your teams.
7/06/2009 7:45:11 PM|FreeHAL@home|Message from server: --
7/06/2009 7:45:11 PM|FreeHAL@home|Message from server: I also have to say another thing, even if I risk everything by saying it: I'm no adult. I'm 16.
7/06/2009 7:45:11 PM|FreeHAL@home|Message from server: // Tobias Schulz

Post by **Gavin Shaw** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 11:54 pm

10 Jun 2009 AEST:

Some new messages when requesting work...

10/06/2009 9:50:09 AM|FreeHAL@home|Message from server: -------------------------------------------
10/06/2009 9:50:09 AM|FreeHAL@home|Message from server: 9th June 2009
10/06/2009 9:50:09 AM|FreeHAL@home|Message from server: -------------------------------------------
10/06/2009 9:50:09 AM|FreeHAL@home|Message from server: Although I've got some mirror offers the project still needs more resources,
10/06/2009 9:50:09 AM|FreeHAL@home|Message from server: so I had to lower the work unit limit from 25 to 5 (!) until
10/06/2009 9:50:09 AM|FreeHAL@home|Message from server: I can be sure that the server can handle a higher limit...