Phase VII

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jsmaje
Posts: 616
Joined: Tue Aug 15, 2006 8:39 am
Location: Manchester UK

Phase VII

Post by jsmaje »

Other than the funky make-over of the web site appearance, what has materially changed? I could find no mention of further progress with tile examination, extraction and analysis techniques, new calibrations, manner of scoring, or anything else to excite me (other than news that some papers have been accepted).
Have I missed something important?

John
nitram819
Posts: 90
Joined: Mon Mar 02, 2009 8:38 am
Location: Quebec, Canada

Re: Phase VII

Post by nitram819 »

Hi John,

I noticed that there are new movies available which is nice for anyone who wants to be the first to find a track. Also when I accessed the 'Ranks' section and viewed the skill scoring from previous phases, I noticed that the scores were different than what I remember (new scoring algorithm?).

Another thing that I noticed; you might have seen this website before but I did not. I found the link while browsing the 'Processing' section. All track candidates, Tiles and even Foils appear to be listed there, and you can see pictures of them all. There are other documents attached to them as well but I am unable to open them for whatever reason (page cannot be displayed)

http://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/stardust/catalog/index.cfm


Cheers,

Martin
SmithES
Posts: 186
Joined: Sun Apr 17, 2011 5:25 am

Re: Phase VII

Post by SmithES »

Hey, Guys, I'm back and have now viewed more than 100 movies, so my stats are listed on my site. I am proud to be a part of Stardust@Home project. The recent release by Andrew Westphal was exciting, and as far as I am concerned, "Earth Shattering!" Wheee! We did it!
I have a question: Will the names of all of the active Dusters be available as before? I hope so, because I checked the list daily to see who was actively dusting. I understand that Skill Score will no longer be published, but if there is no daily list of at least the names of Duster's--- how will I know others are dusting? I will feel very lonely! Could you list everyone's Power Scores, for instance?
Thank you for posting my comments, along with a photo, on the Dust page! If others access it, they should make sure they read the explanation beneath the photo!
ERSTRS, SmithES---just plain old Evelyn.
caprarom
Posts: 337
Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2007 7:12 am
Location: Riverview, MI

Re: Phase VII

Post by caprarom »

Welcome back, Evelyn. It was fun seeing your photo again. I agree with you that the current dusting environment makes one feel more isolated from the community. It would be nice to be able to access a complete listing of dusters - or at least the top 100 power scores, preferably without having to log back in afterwards to continue dusting as I seem to do now when viewing the top ten. Happy dusting to you! Mike C.
jsmaje
Posts: 616
Joined: Tue Aug 15, 2006 8:39 am
Location: Manchester UK

Re: Phase VII

Post by jsmaje »

Hi Martin, Evelyn & Mike,

Thanks for that link to the excellent NASA curator site.
And yes - where’s the full list of current dusters? Also, why does the ’My Events’ page show the number of power movies missed without mention of those found? Not exactly encouraging.
I too find navigating the site unpredictable, often having to log in again. There seems to be some confusion regarding links between the Front page and VM Home page / Forum. I also find their wildly different graphic scales jarring, having to keep using Ctrl/mouse wheel when going from one to the other. And for a serious scientific project, the sliding/animated images are just unnecessary and irritating to an old fogey like me.
Re skill scores, if optional to view, how does one do this? But more importantly, does it any longer matter to the team?

So far out of 20 PMs, 14 found but 6 missed: not a spectacular start. So what right do I have to moan?!
John
DanZ
Site Admin
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Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Phase VII

Post by DanZ »

jsmaje wrote:Other than the funky make-over of the web site appearance, what has materially changed? I could find no mention of further progress with tile examination, extraction and analysis techniques, new calibrations, manner of scoring, or anything else to excite me (other than news that some papers have been accepted).
Have I missed something important? John
Hi John,

Sorry you did not like Phase VII at first glance. But we do plan to keep the improvements (and fixes!) coming. In fact, thanks to all of you here that have noticed a few glitches already. I will make sure the team addresses them.

I also want to point out a few other things as I know them:

1. Tile I1021 is all new and I1097 is an improved (90% in focus) rescan, compared with the previous Phase I release. Thus, there are a total of about 7000 new movies.
2. We've opened up searching to all tiles movies searched less than 35 times to redouble efforts to find tracks.
3. Although the current candidates page lists only the latest midnight track finds, we'll be adding other candidate tables soon.
4. We are working on new tile availability viewing tools as well.
5. We're trying to concentrate more on helping you all become better at dusting and feeling proud of your work. We also want to double our efforts to make the science and lab work more transparent. These types of improvements will roll out slowly, but are happening.
6. The "From the desk of" feature will also address occasional duster questions for the team - care to submit one?
7. Most important, you have to realize the significance of the Science and other publications to the team. It's the culmination of years of work, not only by the team, but of course by our volunteers too. Thus, in many respects, Phase VII is really more about celebrating and recognizing the value of our accomplishments. I hope you can find it in your heart to celebrate with us!

Thank you,

Dan
On behalf of the entire Stardust@home team
DanZ
Site Admin
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Re: Phase VII

Post by DanZ »

nitram819 wrote:Hi John, Another thing that I noticed; you might have seen this website before but I did not. I found the link while browsing the 'Processing' section. All track candidates, Tiles and even Foils appear to be listed there, and you can see pictures of them all. There are other documents attached to them as well but I am unable to open them for whatever reason (page cannot be displayed) http://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/stardust/catalog/index.cfm. Cheers, Martin
Hi Martin,

When you go to http://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/stardust/catalog/index.cfm, a page "loads" and when it's done, you get sort of a blank looking screen, but there are four drop down menus at top as follows with all sorts of tables and other data: Catalog Information, Search Catalog, Cometary Samples, Interstellar Samples. If it works on my old computer at home, it should work anywhere, but let me know. Perhaps it doesn't work in Chrome? That's a typical issues for such things. It also requires an updated version of Adobe Flash, which you can get here: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

Dan
DanZ
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Re: Phase VII

Post by DanZ »

jsmaje wrote:why does the ’My Events’ page show the number of power movies missed without mention of those found?
I just went in and it's there. Above "Power Movies Missed" you should also see "Found Power Movies".

Dan
DanZ
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Re: Phase VII

Post by DanZ »

jsmaje wrote:I too find navigating the site unpredictable, often having to log in again
That is annoying John and I've reported the bug. In the meantime, there is a temporary "fix" you can use. If you go to your browser History and select "Stardust@Home - Stardust Search," or go to http://aerogel.ssl.berkeley.edu/ss_virt ... oscope.php, you'll find you're actually still logged in. But this issue indeed will be addressed!

Thanks for reporting it.

Dan
DanZ
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Re: Phase VII

Post by DanZ »

jsmaje wrote:Re skill scores, if optional to view, how does one do this? But more importantly, does it any longer matter to the team?
In the VM, you should see "Your Current Skill:" which will (or should) display an actual score once you've clicked on at least 100 Power Movies. But if that's not the case, let me know. Does it matter to the team? Yes and no. It does help us determine how well dusters are doing in general, and if enough are doing okay, we're happy. But no, we don't worry about each and every skill score. However, and more importantly, does YOUR skill score matter to you? We hope so! :D

Thanks,

Dan
DanZ
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Re: Phase VII

Post by DanZ »

I don't know if you've noticed, but you've all been very newsworthy lately: https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl= ... q=stardust

Feel free to take all bragging rights! :lol:

DZ
SmithES
Posts: 186
Joined: Sun Apr 17, 2011 5:25 am

Re: Phase VII

Post by SmithES »

Dan Z, Could we have the list of active Dusters back on the site? One of the joys of dusting has been the friends I've made along the way. I checked the list daily to see how my friends were doing---I can't believe that I am now disconnected and do not even know if they signed up for Phase VII or not. There has been a closeness between us that will quickly disappear if we no longer know who our fellow-dusters are. SmithES - ERSTRS - Evelyn
SmithES
Posts: 186
Joined: Sun Apr 17, 2011 5:25 am

Re: Phase VII

Post by SmithES »

Dan, Is there any way we can view the movies in which we've missed a track? I've missed tracks in 19 movies, and don't have a clue as to where they are. So, I just keep missing the same tracks over and over. In Phase VI movies with missed tracks were emailed to me. That was so helpful! Can you continue to do that? SmithES, ERSTRS, Evelyn
caprarom
Posts: 337
Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2007 7:12 am
Location: Riverview, MI

Re: Phase VII

Post by caprarom »

John, for those who might want to compare skill scores, I figured we could use the old "Post Your Stats" discussion thread like in the early days. I notice you were the last person to post there as recently as March 2011. I was thinking of posting there later today.

Evelyn, until the team resurrects the email for missed power movies, you can view any missed power movies from your current session on the "My Events" page. (You probably already knew that.) They do not carry over to future sessions, so you have to 'view them while they're hot.'

Oops! I might be wrong (again). I just looked and saw that the two PMs I missed so far this phase, both from a previous session, are still listed there. The wording on the Events page is "Follow this link for a list of power movies you have missed during this cycle." So maybe that will be a more permanent record which would obviate the need for the emails. Time will tell, or Dan can tell us. Aurgh! - While I'm editing, let's make that four missed PMs now - just missed two back-to-back (sigh)!

Mike
SmithES
Posts: 186
Joined: Sun Apr 17, 2011 5:25 am

Re: Phase VII

Post by SmithES »

Thank you, Caprarom! Under "Events" I found the list of all 19 tracks that I've missed since we began Phase VII!
I will stop dusting right now and carefully study each one of them. In addition to the top ten dusters who are listed on the site, I dearly want to know who of my other fellow dusters are back for Phase VII. It's fellows like you who make dusting so much pleasure. Evelyn SmithES, ERSTRS
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