Seti Minor

SetiMinor

This is just one more SETI monitoring program. It does have a few features that make it unique:

• Ability to monitor several SETI clients over networks.
• Monitoring is multi-threaded.
• Monitoring can be in Real time or CPU time.
• Several graphs to show the progress of SETI clients.
• Graphs comparing speed of SETI clients.
• Graphs showing percent each SETI client participates.
• Graphs to show history of SETI client progress.
• Total WU for each SETI client plus grand total of WU/hour.
• Multi-threaded search engine to find SETI clients over network.

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Multi-Threaded Sampling

This program was an exercise in writing multi-tasking software. The SETI clients on my network provided some processes to monitor using a multi-threaded application. On the interval, the program starts new processes to fetch or sample the current progress of the SETI clients running on the network. The sample process is multi-threaded. Each SETI client is has a separate process gathering thread when this event happens.

This has a couple of benefits. The sample process is not processor intensive so many can happen at once. Since each SETI client has it's own fetch process to read a sample, the rest don't have to wait for one connection that is slow or may be unreachable for a while. With all the fetch processes happening simultaneously, the graphs show a comparison of the SETI clients at that moment. You can set the interval between sample fetch events.

Multi-Threaded Search

You can also search your network for SETI clients using a multi-threaded search engine with a throttle. If you are looking for the SETI clients on your network, a lot of the processing (disk activity) will be happening on other computers. In addition, the disk operations are usually the slowest operation on the computer, so the processor can keep up with several at one time. There is a limit however and the search engine provides a throttle so that you can limit the number of search threads so that they don't overwhelm your computer. The search is displayed dynamically on the screen as it happens.

The General Layout

The program has several tabs along the top. Clicking on a tab changes what is displayed. The information can be viewed several different ways. It also can be monitored using CPU or Real time. CPU time is the time the SETI client records. This is the same as what is displayed on the SETI screen. Real time is in real time. That is, the program displays the amount of processing done in real time. If the SETI client stalls, the clock still ticks on. This give a true picture of how much processing is actually happening in real time. The different pages are explained below.

Along the bottom are three buttons that are available all the time. The CPU Time button toggles the monitoring between Real time and the CPU time. The ReSample button cause the program to read the SETI client state files immediately. This may or may not change what is displayed, as the SETI clients only record the current state every minute or so.

The Exit button on the right exits the program. This is the same as clicking on the close button on the upper right of the window. The window can also be resized.

The status bar along the bottom has four sections. The first section displays the number of SETI clients currently monitored. The second section displays a progress bar. When the progress bar reaches the right side it triggers a read (sample) of the SETI client state files. The sample rate can be changed on the Options page. The third section displays the number of sample that the program has read.. The final panel displays the total number of WU being completed every hour by all the SETI clients combined. This is dynamically updated and is always in real time.

The tabs, the three buttons along the bottom and the status bare are always displayed.

Just one more note. There is lots of information displayed in the hints. To see a hint, hover the cursor over an item for a second or two.