The Ksetiwatch window simply consists of a series of tabs where the information about running SETI@home locations is sorted in a more or less logical manner. Since Ksetiwatch is able to monitor as many SETI@home clients as you like, all information is organized in lists which are updated in regular intervals. The list entries can easily be sorted in ascending or descending order by clicking on the respective header.
By default Ksetiwatch logs completed work units automatically. Of course, for successful logging Ksetiwatch has to run in the background when the SETI@home client finishes a work unit.
![]() | In case you have upgraded the SETI@home client to version 3.x, Ksetiwatch automatically modifies the log file (SETILog.csv) such that the new pulse and triplet data can be logged as well. The old log file will be stored to SETILog.old. Please note that this feature is untested with network directories, so if the log files mean a lot to you, please make a back-up. |
Ksetiwatch makes use of KDE's session management. This means that it's not necessary to close the program when logging out of KDE, or to restart it when starting a new KDE session. Optionally, Ksetiwatch will even start the SETI@home client(s) for you at start-up.
The contents of the tabs and the options you have will now be described in detail.
This tab displays the current status of your SETI@home clients. It shows the progress of data crunching, the processing efficiency, and the top scores of the actual work unit. In detail:
Location. The name you have chosen for the SETI@home client.
Status. The status of the SETI@home client. This can be one of the following: running (blue icon), stopped (red stop sign), finished (green check mark), or loading (yellow lightning).
Chirp Rate. The chirp rate at which the client is currently processing.
% Done. This entry shows the progress of the SETI@home client in percent.
CPU Time. The time the client has been busy processing the current work unit.
Time Left. The estimated time to complete the work unit.
%/CPU hour. This gives you an impression of the rate at which the client is progressing in one hour of CPU time.
MFlops/s. According to the SETI@home web site each work unit requires between 3.2*10^12 and 4.2*10^12 floating point operations (the exact value depends on the actual Angle Range). This entry shows how many Flops your computer is processing per second.
Spike. The highest spike found do far.
Strongest Gaussian. The strongest Gaussian with respect to its score value found so far. The score value is determined by (power/fit).
Strongest Pulse. The strongest pulse with respect to its score value found so far.
Strongest Triplet. The strongest triplet with respect to its score value found so far. Note that score and power values are identical for triplets, so the display of power has been omitted.
In addition, the Analysis tab is the place where to control the list of SETI@home clients you wish to monitor. This is done via a popup menu which appears when you click the right mouse button over the list of SETI@home locations. The right-click popup menu consists of the following functions:
Adds a new SETI@home location to the list. This is done via a dialog box where you have to enter all the information Ksetiwatch needs to monitor the client. See here for details.
Right-clicking on an existing entry and choosing this function allows you to edit the settings for the selected SETI@home location. Like before, a dialog box will appear.
Deletes the selected SETI@home location from the list. All SETI@home files as well as the list of logged work units will be retained, of course.
Tries to start the SETI@home client. Note that you need to have the permission to execute the client in the respective SETI@home location. This function possibly won't work for clients in mounted network shares (Samba or NFS shares).
Tries to stop the SETI@home client. The same as above applies here.
If a high signal (Gaussian, pulse, or triplet) has been found you can display them in a separate window. See here for details. This function only works for SETI@home clients 2.0 or higher.
At the bottom of this tab there are a few more things. If you want to manually refresh the list entries you can click the Refresh button. Keep in mind that clicking the button might not necessarily have an effect, since newer versions of the SETI@home client update their files only once a minute. Furthermore, there is a combo box allowing you to decide which clients are to be shown in the list. For instance, you can selectively display only the clients which are running, or those clients that have completed a work unit. This is especially useful for people who manage a long list of SETI@home clients. Finally, two buttons are provided for accessing this help and the Ksetiwatch homepage.
If you have enabled the `Minimize-to-Panel' feature (see Section 3.5), the small icon in the KDE panel can inform you about the status and the progress of a selected SETI@home client. Just choose the location you wish to monitor this way by a single mousebutton click. You can even monitor two different locations in the KDE panel by starting a second instance of Ksetiwatch!