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Dan's Experimental Effort Distribution System - DEEDS

Click the logo to download the DEEDS client, then follow the simple setup instructions on this page.

Contents

More About DEEDS

How the DEEDS system works and what effect it'll have on you

Installing the DEEDS Client

How to install and configure the DEEDS client

Using DEEDS Client

Navigating the DEEDS Client's user interface

The DEEDS Website

Brief overview of the DEEDS website

Known Issues with DEEDS

Issues and bugs which may effect DEEDS

More About DEEDS

The DEEDS Client will never interfere with your applications - it runs with lowest priority.

DEEDS will run when your computer would otherwise be idle; it will fetch experiment data and code from the secure website and perform processing on that data. Once the processing is done, the DEEDS client will automatically upload the results of the experiment to the website to be collated.

Figure 1: Data files are fetched from the DEEDS servers to many different clients (green). Clients process the data then upload their results back to the DEEDS server (blue)

Installing the DEEDS Client

1. Before you start, make sure you're registered on the Logical Genetics Forums and know your username and password. Also, if you haven't done so already, choose a snappy name for your computer. You'll need this information later on...
2. Download the DEEDS installer from this URL: http://logicalgenetics.com/deeds/installer/DEEDSInstall.exe
3. Run the installer, glance at the terms and conditions and answer the other install questions - I recommend the default settings.
4. The DEEDS client should start automatically after installation and each time you log in to your computer. If for some reason it doesn't start automatically you can start it manually by going to Start -> Programs -> DEEDS -> DEEDS.
5. The first time the client runs you'll be asked to fill in your Logical Genetics Forums username and password and a nickname for your computer. This nickname can be something like "companyname.person.computername", "TrogdorTheBurninator", or "Stan" - whatever takes your fancy or best suits your needs. Please avoid using spaces or punctuation except . , _ (dot, comma, underscore).
6. Click OK and you should be up and running. The Logical Genetics logo should be visible in your system tray. You can get information on the client's activities by right clicking on the logo and selecting "Details" from the popup menu. You can stop DEEDS at any time by right clicking the logo and selecting "Quit".

Figure 2: Filling in the DEEDS settings - remember to use your Logical Genetics Forums username and password

Using DEEDS Client

To be honest, you should never need to use the DEEDS user interface. It should tick away nicely in the system tray and never bother you! However, if you'd like to see what DEEDS is up to, you can open the client interface by right clicking the system tray icon (figure 3) and selecting "Details".

Figure 3: The DEEDS client application will run silently in your system tray. To quit the client or open the user interface, right click the icon

The message window in the centre of the form shows you what DEEDS is up to. Messages are shown in reverse order - the most recent message is at the top. The latest 200 messages from the client are shown.

You can pause and restart the client by clicking the cogwheel tool button on the tool bar (upper right). If the icon appears grey then DEEDS is currently running (press button to pause), if it appears red then DEEDS is paused (press button to start).

You can edit your DEEDS settings by clicking the second tool button. This is handy if you decide to change your password on the Logical Genetics website.

Clicking the "X" at the top right of the DEEDS window will not stop the application, just close the window. If you want to close DEEDS - to install a new version for example - then right click the system tray icon and select "Quit".

Figure 4: The DEEDS user interface gives information on what DEEDS is up to

The DEEDS Website

The DEEDS website gives statistics on all the DEEDS clients which are currently registered. Information on experiment progress and a league table of the top performing clients are available. Currently the website offers only basic statistics, but it future it will offer more in-depth information.

The Logical Genetics Forums are the best place to get help using DEEDS. Post a new topic in General Conversation or Artificial Intelligence and someone will help you - probably within a few hours.

You can also find out which experiment your computer is currently running and what the aims of that experiment are.

Known Issues with DEEDS

Heat

DEEDS uses all of the spare CPU cycles (processing power) of your computer. A normal Windows PC, when idle, will sit in a truly idle state. The processor will sit and do nothing until an application needs to use it, so the CPU usage will stay quite low. DEEDS uses this idle time to perform some very complicated processing on some pretty huge data sets. Though it will never interfere with applications you are using, DEEDS will push your CPU usage up to 100%.

When your CPU is working it will get hot. Heat generated by the CPU is dissipated to a greater or lesser degree by cooling fans, but it's worth noting that some computers, especially laptops, are not designed to run at high temperatures. While running DEEDS for first few hours, keep half an eye on your PC and make sure it's not getting too hot!

Power

Another side effect of continued maximum CPU usage is increased power usage. There's not much that can be done about this really, but rest assured that it isn't going to send your electricity bill through the roof. Your computer probably draws about 300W to 500W (for really beefy machines) and, of course, the increased processor usage caused by DEEDS only increases this by a small proportion. The power used by your computer is very little compared to other household devices like washing machines, fridges and your kettle (typically 6kW). So install energy saving light bulbs, never boil more water than you need, don't leave things on standby all night and put your computer to good use!

If you're worried about the environment, perhaps you can get some peace of mind knowing that the aim of my PhD work, at least in part, is to maximise efficiency in very large and power hungry machinery in Supermarkets. Hopefully the savings in efficiency will cancel DEEDS investment in power.

Bugs

DEEDS is a continually growing and evolving piece of software and, although we do everything in our power to ensure that it doesn't contain bugs, it might contain bugs!

If you notice anything strange happening with the DEEDS client or website then please send us an e-mail to let us know what happened. We'll then do our best to fix the problem and release a new version. Also, if there are any features you'd like us to add to DEEDS then let us know and we'll see what we can do...

deeds@logicalgenetics.com