GSIS

Back to Goro's Part(Japanese Only)

(SETI@Support download page)

(to Japanese Page)

Overview | What's new in Ver 0.21 | Download | Install | Hot to use | FAQ | Developed with | Thanks to..

NOTE: I have informed that GSIS does not work with SETI@home client Ver3.08. I personally don't use OS 9 anymore, so it will take time to fix the problem.

Overview of GSIS-ver0.3(revised October 7th, 2000) and 0.23(revised June 12th,2000) by Goro Otsubo

GSIS is data crunching and logging program for SETI@home client. Since it is written in Applescript, GSIS can be used only on Macintosh.

GSIS has following functions.

*It can download more than one work units from the SETI server

*As long as there are work units which have not been analyzed, it can continue analysis by changing work units. GSIS can log the data also.

SETI Unit Manager (SUM) is a similar program written in Applescript, and has a lot more functions. However, compared to SUM, GSIS has two major characteristics.

First of all, it is free. You don't have to donate work units to other account than yours. Second of all, you can see the source code of GSIS.In Japanese SETI@home mailing list, we discussed about the merit and demerit of using SUM, and came to the conclusion that we can develop our own program which has similar function and absolutely free.

GSIS is free, but please use it at your own risk. I, Goro Otsubo, can not be held responsible, in any way , for lost work units or for any incidental, indirect, or consequential damages.

If you have any comments or suggestion, please send e-mail to

"GSIS" stands for "Goro's SIS". Goro is my first name. SIS stands for "SETI Intercept System". Or you can read it as "SIS Is not SUM".

GSIS is still Beta phase. It may have a lot of bugs. So please, please be careful when using this program

Important :

If you are using SETI@home Ver2.X client, please use GSIS 0.23

If you are using SETI@home Ver3.x client, please use GSIS 0.3 

What's new in Ver 0.3(Released October 12th,2000) - Version History

• Now you don't have to input your account in case that you add folder in GSISFolder
• Decreased the access to hard disk. If you use RAM disk and do setting properly, you will be able to stop the spin of HD.  
  

Down Load

• Ver0.3 - Comaptible SETI@home client Ver3.x :Macintosh Version -BinHex Format | MacBinary Format (Compressed with Stuff it)
• Ver0.23 - Comaptible SETI@home client Ver2.x :Macintosh Version -BinHex Format | MacBinary Format (Compressed with Stuff it)
  
• Akua Sweets (Site for Akua Sweet )

Install

*Un Compress downloaded file. You will find there two files. GfillSeti and GrunSeti.

*Down load Akua Sweet. Put downloaded file into System folder. Answer "OK" to the dialog. ( I am not sure how system will ask you in English. Maybe it will ask you "Can I put this file in scription folder" or something)

*Set up SETI@home as follows...

Other than the items highlighted by red circle, you can set values as you like. Just make sure highlighted itesm are set like shown above. Now you are ready to use GSIS.

How to use

• Download-First Time
  • Note:While downloading work units using GSIS, please quit SETI@Support. It may misjudge the status of analysis.
  • Double click "GfillSeti"
  • It will ask you "How many extra work units do you want to store ? " Input number ( Default is 3), then click OK
  • Be patient, it will take a while GSIS set up necessary folders. After GSIS finishes setting, SETI@home client will be launched.
  • SETI@home client will start downloading.
  • If something is wrong, and you are asked "First time user" or "Returning User". Maybe you already have account for SETI@home. So, select "Returning User" and input your account name (e-mail address).Usually this is not necessary.
    
  • This process will be repeated n times. (whhere n = no of extra work units you have input. )
  • After downloading work units, GfillSeti will quit. Now you are ready to analyze.
    
• Analysis
  • Double click "GrunSeti"
  • You will see that SETI@home client starts up in screen saver mode. (If it does not, please check preference of SETI@home and make sure it is set like described above)
  • Just let the "GrunSeti" running. As soon as analysis of work unit is finished, it will change to other work unit stotred and continue analysis.
    
• Download - Again
  • Launch "GfillSeti" whenever you want to down load work units by double clicking it. ("GfillSeti" will not be launched automatically even if the analysis of all the work units is finished) This time, you don't have to input your account information again.
  • IMPORTANT : If you want to interrupt downloading the data,
    1)Quit SETI@home Client
    2)Make sure "GfillSeti" is the frontmost application. Then press "Command" key until the dialog "GfillSeti quitting.." appears (maybe you need to press the Command key for a couple of seconds).
    If you type "Command + Q", sometimes program freezes. In that case type "Command + Option + Escape" , then click "Cancel" on the dialog. You should hold down "Command" key to quit the program.
    
• Change Setting
  • GSIS will make a folder named "GSISFolder" in {in case of OS8, in preference folder} { in case of OS9, in application support folder}. In it, there will be folders named "unit0", "unit1", , "_temp" and file named "GSIS.prefs".
  • "_temp" folder is used to move files between folders. So please don't rename it nor rename it.
  • If you want to add number of work units to store, just make new folder in "GSISFolder".( I recommend to copy "user_info.sah" and "version.sah" to new folder. If you do this, you don't have to input your account inforomation next time you try to download work unit) You can name the new folders as you like as long as..
    1)Name does not start with "_" (i.e. folder named "_unit0" will be ignored)
    2)Name does not start with "fill_" (like "fill_75_unit0"). If you make folder named like this, it will be used to download and store work units, but will not used for analysis by GrunSeti. This function is useful when one of your Macintosh is connected to internet, and other Macintosh is connected to it via LAN.
    
  • If you open "GSIS.prefs" by double clicking it (and assume you have Simpletext on your Mac), you will see the contents of "GSIS.prefs" as follows.
    AutoEmpty 0
    AutoLog 1
    #
    If you make value of first line to 1 (i.e. "AutoEmpty 1"), GSIS will automatically empty the trash whenever it deletes the temporary file. This function may be useful when you run SETI@home client from RAM disk. Default value is 0.
    The value of second line will turn on/off if it will take log of work units. Default value is 1, and log data of work units will be stored in file named "sis_past_data.txt". It has compatible file format as "SETI@Support". When you use SETI@Support for this purpose, you may turn off "Log Data" function of SETI@Support. Otherwise unnecessary data will be logged by SETI@Support.

FAQ

• Q:I typed "Command + Q" to quit the program and it looked like freezed. I quit the program by restarting or forced the program to quit.
  After that, the work unit whic I was analyzing went somewhere. What happened ?
  
  A:You should have pressed "Command" key until the dialog appears to quit the program. Let me exlain what happened there.
  GfillSeti does following actions when downloading data.
  1) Move work unit in "SETI@home Data" folder to "_temp" folder.
  2) Move analyzed work unit to "SETI@home Data" folder from one of the folder in "GSISFolder".
  3) Send result, download new work unit.
  4) Move new work unit to the folder from which analyzed work unit has moved.
  5) Repeat 2) to 4) until there is no more analyzed work unit.
  6) Move work unit from "_temp" folder to "SETI@home Data" folder.
  If you find files in "_temp" folder and no files in "SETI@home Data" folder, just move files from "_temp" folder to "SETI@home Data" folder. If you find files in "SETI@home Data" folder, move them to the empty folder in "GSISFolder", then move files in "_temp" folder to "SETI@home Data" folder. In this way, you can usually restore data structure.
  
• Q:Can I launch the SETI@home client in application mode to analyze the data and control by GSIS ?
  A: No you can't. At least in current version.
  
• Q:Can GSIS be set to automatically download work units ? Like when numer of work units become smaller than certain numer, or once in certain amout of time ?
  A:Curernt version of GSIS does not have this function. You can use other utilities (like iDo Script Scheduler- you can download from Apple's web site for free) to schedule downloading.
  
• Q:"Analysis Started" time in "sis_past_data.txt" seems to be incorrect.
  A: This time is actually the time when work unit is downloaded rather than the time analysis actually started. I still haven't figured out the way to record the time analysis actually started. Furthermore, this time is recorded in local time zone, but SETI@Support inerpret it as GMT. Therefore, this value is somewhat incorrect.

Developed with..

* PB2400+G3@320MHz Mac OS8.6-J , Power Mac 7500 + G3@466MHz Mac OS 9.0.4-J

Thanks to ..

• All the people in SETI@home Japanese Mailing List. Without the discussion in this mailing list, GSIS would neve have been developed. Mr. Yutaka Kobayashi posted routine which launches SETI@home from menubar. It is quite useful, and much better than the routine which I originally wrote.
• Christian Vick, for Seti Unit Manager(SUM) If this program were free and source code were readable, I would never have developed GSIS.
• BOMBO/Kubota for SETI Stat This program is written in AppleScript. It displays information of data which is being analyzed.I learned a lot from this applescript.
• Gregory Lemperle-Kerr for Akua Sweeets. I know I couldn't develop GSIS without this great OSAX.