Not too sure if I am dreaming after the Xmas celebrations but my RAC seems to be changing , not up but down , unless my eyes have been playing tricks . Is there a log I could check ?

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Not too sure if I am dreaming after the Xmas celebrations but my RAC seems to be changing , not up but down , unless my eyes have been playing tricks . Is there a log I could check ?

Not unless you keep one yourself.

The most useful log I know is the log of your results generated by BoincStats, but that log does not show RAC.

Your BOINCstats page is at

http://boincstats.com/stats/user_graph.php?pr=rosetta&id=9316

and looking at that you seem to have had some ups and downs in your reported daily credit - for some reason your returned WU have been bunching. This is not unusual, but it does mean that RAC can jitter rather a lot.

Even if your daily returns were absolutely level, differences in timing can make the RAC flutter by up to 10%

Finally note that the RAC shown on your BOINCstats banner is calculated differently than the one on the Rosetta pages, on top of which the banner can be up to 25hours out of date as well -- for example compare the stats next to my name on this posting with the Rosetta values in my banner.

At best RAC is a rough and ready guide.

Hope that helps,

River~~

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Thanks River~~ for that explanation . I have been keeping a close check on my RAC thats how I noticed the difference . I can't quite get my head around how anyone with a Total credit rating a lot smaller , can be ahead in the team listings because their RAC is higher :)

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I can't quite get my head around how anyone with a Total credit rating a lot smaller, can be on top in the team listings because their RAC is higher :)

Most "rankings" pages have the option of being sorted on RAC or on total credit. In my opinion, the _default_ should be total credit, but in some cases it isn't.

The only use for sorting those on RAC is for the rare case where someone is more concerned with "overtake" than with current placement.

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The only use for sorting those on RAC is for the rare case where someone is more concerned with "overtake" than with current placement.

I'd much rather see total credit stats, but there IS a good reason to show rank in RAC rather than total credit. With such a dynamic community where teams and members regularly switch priorities, RAC shows who is currently contributing the most to the project rather than who has run the most calculations. RAC ranking gives more credit to those who are currently doing more work.

Again, I'm not a big fan of RAC ranking either, but it's not entirely worthless.

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RAC shows who is currently contributing the most to the project rather than who has run the most calculations.

I can be useful, except it is an inaccurate figure. Someone can build up am RAC that's 10 times anyone else's on a project, then stop crunching. It will take time before that RAC drops to reflect what is "currently" happening. The opposite is also true - it takes a while to build up the RAC.

But I guess it depends on one's interpretation of "current" :-)

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*** Join BOINC@Australia today ***

Thanks River~~ for that explanation . I have been keeping a close check on my RAC thats how I noticed the difference . I can't quite get my head around how anyone with a Total credit rating a lot smaller , can be ahead in the team listings because their RAC is higher :)

The best analogy we have is speedometer vs. odometer ... RAC vs. Total Credit.

There is more on RAC than you possibly want to know in the WIki ... including discussions why you can have 10 total credits and 2,000 RAC ...

The RAC on Willy's site, and the others tends to be more "accurate" because it is calculated at set times. On the project the RAC is updated each time credit is granted. So, TIMING is very important as RAC uses a non-linear calculation with regard to time (a decay function).

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Yeah thanks everyone for replying , I like to keep it simple , and if I get a score after a reasonable time , and someone comes along and tops it on the list because they have a bigger computer , or more computers or run their computers 24/7 , I can handle that .But I dont agree with RAC putting someone ahead on a list . It seems there is only one stats page that supports it that way , so I will look at the other ones :) . Anyway the most important thing is we are doing it for advances in humanity I guess

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Yeah thanks everyone for replying , I like to keep it simple , and if I get a score after a reasonable time , and someone comes along and tops it on the list because they have a bigger computer , or more computers or run their computers 24/7 , I can handle that .But I dont agree with RAC putting someone ahead on a list . It seems there is only one stats page that supports it that way , so I will look at the other ones :) . Anyway the most important thing is we are doing it for advances in humanity I guess

The only differences with the stat sites is WHEN they do the update to RAC. Some do it when the XML file is dated/timestamped, some do it at the same time of day, and I am sure there are other ways. This is why, you can see differences in the RAC for the two signatures I attach, even when the total numbers are identical (meaning the site have updated to the same XML file out).

If my speed is 2,000 miles an hour, but you measure me over 25 feet, well, I am going 2,000 miles an hour,but my total distance traveled is not very impressive.

TYPICALLY, these issues are only common when the participant starts up. Once the account has some history the RAC will settle down and become "real". I personally only use it as an indication of how much of my resource is being applied to each project.

And in that line it looks like I am still giveing Predictor@Home some time, but, I stopped them more than 2 weeks ago. BUt, with work in the validation queue it is not likely my RAC will drop much till a month has passed.

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...TYPICALLY, these issues are only common when the participant starts up...

and when you change project. I cut my contribution to CPDN drastically when they made the wu too big for my elderly boxes. I was on 1000 to 1100 RAC, and moved maybe three-quarters over to Rosetta between 15th and 20th Dec.

Today my total RAC for Rosetta and CPDN is over 1500 - but that is an illusion caused by Rosetta giving me RAC faster than CPDN takes it away.

That is why BOINCstats does not / should not calculate overall RAC by simply adding the project RAC's - as you will notice yourself if you &/or Rebels Haven decide to add another BOINC project.