Possible problem with Entropia Tracker on Arkadia?

Just a heads up that Tracker doesnt seem to be picking up globals on arkadia in the last couple of days (since a client update). I run the tracker client while I hunt and I had 3 globals in the last two days including my second ever mining global. I confirmed that my client had logged them but they didnt appear in relevant pages on the website. Similarly globals for other people did not appear.

I dunno, perhaps its that my client isnt sending the data?

 

Are you sure your theme setting on the website is on Entropia or Arkadia? Otherwise I couldn´t see the Arkadia related stuff. So the settings on the page confused me for a bit since I thought they are only related to the background pictures. lool

 

TBH I've not actually noticed anything different with the update, will look at it again but it seems to have registered my sparkles this week (not many but they are all there ok).
XeroX the settings you describe are on the website and are just the background theme for viewing the site, shouldn't have anything to do with globals recorded anywhere.

 

I was sad that there was no record of my globals on arkadia, so i started running tracker.

Now, tracker misses my own globals a lot. I have also noticed that frequently when i global, tracker will stop recording ny globals and "freeze up"

This has already happened to me once since tracker updated itself yesterday. The website is missing 2 of five globals i got while i was actually running the client myself yesterday. Each time it happened i had to restart tracker for it to report any globals at all.

Been thinking about looking for a feedback or error report form on the tracker site, but, too lazy so far I do have one screenshot of this happening but not the rest.

 

Ah sorry for the confusion with the topic. I was not writing about recording globals but about viewing them. When you set the wrong theme its not possible to select Arkadian mobs for viewing in the hunting section for instance. So I thought the globals might only appear at other parts of the website in the right setting too. Just try setting it to Arkadia while you are on Arkadia... maybe it will work better... maybe not.

 

Xerox, I look at my own page and i see globals up to a point - and they are arkadian globals (Huons FTW!). THen I go to the huons page. I saw one global for someone else during the period in question but not the ones logged by my own tracker client.

 

I just had a look at the settings page at EntropiaTracker and it says:

It needs 3 for the data to be confirmed and recorded, so the sooner someone else turns tracker on and leaves their computer on at Arkadia, the better!

If anyone doesn't know what this means, and wants to know more, check out Entropia Tracker here: http://www.entropiatracker.com/index.asp

It's really helpful, so grab it and set it up to run automatically whenever you log in!

 

ok that makes sense. thanks tim

 

Tracker seems to have some more problems, not only with Arkadia. Have had 17 Globals and 1 HOF on Longtooth from 10. August to 13. August, but tracker shows only 8 of them.

I know starfinder is doing a great job and he spend much time and brain in coding, but -for me- I must say I don't use Tracker data as a reference for what is going on any longer since some month.

Edit: Bug above is fixed now

 

Had a PM from him about my last globle and there were still a known bug so not everything looks as it should was the reply I got afternoon today. Not sure what bug tho, but missed one argo globle I had during my filling of Calypsos Elite hofs, and my last Arkadia globle was also missed

 

It seems the ET website is getting an overhaul, just add /new to the url to see a sneak preview. Not sure if that is somehow part of the current problems.

 

Somewhat part of the problem.
The issue was the way the clients reported where they were located.
This "kinda worked" for planets with a huge feeding population - and it completely worked for planets with a small feeding population.

This is why you always saw "Unknown location: 78" on the setting page. Those 78 were actually trying to feed from Calypso, but ET dident understand that.
In changing that bug - cosmetic bug, since the bug only happens after 20 unique clients are feeding to ET - I sadly introduced a rather serious bug.
It was a combination of the minimum required amount of unique clients to report a global, and a database transaction log issue.
I changed the "minimum required" to 2 client, so "smaller planets" had a chance of getting the globals inserted even if only 2 were running the client. And the transaction closed before a client had "fully reported" a global.
Thus the following scenario could occur.

Client 1 sees a global
Client 2 sees the same global
Client 1 sends the global to server
Client 2 sends the global to the server
Client 3 sees the same global
Client 3 sends the global to the server

Client 1's global is looked for in the database - not found.
Client 2's global is looked for in the database - not found
Client 1's global is inserted
Client 2's global is inserted
Client 3's global is looked for in the database - Found as client's 1 original global
Client 3's global is used to update the "seen by" on Client's 1 global.

So, 3 clients actually had created 2 entries in the database - where one entry had a count of 1 and the other entry had a count of 2.

Now, with some 100'ish clients reporting the same global within the same second... Then issues will happen.. And this is why you have seen the "my global got registered 10 times".

The issue has been fixed now - the transaction locks are in the right place, and the "cosmetic bug" has been fixed. You no longer will see "985 clients are feeding from an unknown location" on the site.


Im very very very sorry for this bug, but as ive said in the past. Im just one guy maintaining: 1½ websites with more than 200 rather complex files, various webservices (both for the client and for the various API's thats available for other programmers to interact with ET), a database thats HUGE (biggest ive ever worked with - even in my professional career) and a complex client everyone should be able to run (nVidia cards, ATi cards and so on).

Again, im very sorry. But unless I can quit my day time job - this means about 30.000 as many paypal deposits as there is now per month. Then im afraid I can only spend 4-5 hours coding this stuff each day.

I hope this has not scared you away from Entropia Tracker, I always try to check the code before releasing updates and I only thing there has been a serious bug like this 3'ish times since 2008 - about once per year. And its not like MindArk is making it easy for me - changing the format of the chat.log and what not.. lol..

I hope this answers any questions.
Kind regards Starfinder

 

Hi. The 'cosmetic' bug included also a timer change? It seems that it snapshots faster now, i dont need a 1sec to grab the swirlies anymore...

For the error... I think noone will ever blame you!

 

Starfinder, have done an excellent work with Entropia Tracker. Entropia Universe would be much less interesting without all this information that ET allows us to access.

Members of my society, Argentrópicos, benefit from the Entropia Tracker information we can include on our website (www.argentropia.com.ar) through APIs acceso to the information of ET, so we are always ready to spread and work with Stanfinder.

Thanks again for your work!!

 

Starfinder, thanks so much for the update and the information. Given your situation and the fact that it seems like you're doing your best, it doesn't feel like you have anything to apologise for. You're only human, and the commitment you maintain to keeping ET running and in top order says more about it and you than the occasional mistake does.

On the contrary, it would be great if there was a way to lighten your burden and secure the future of ET somehow in a way that doesn't completely depend on you having to pour so much time into it.

 

I second what he said

And btw i cant imagine how it is to manage such a great service as u do Starfinder, some small errors i se as no prob at all tbh.
I wish that MA could suport u somehow with money or something, u say ONLY 4-5 hours coding per day :O that is a serious full time job imo and u do work somewhere else to :O its amacing realy m8 shrugs lol

 

There must be a good reason for this 'need of min 3 people feeding data on a specific planet', even though I fail to understand it.
Can’t ET use also the clients running on Calypso to cross-check the uploads being made by a client on Arkadia?
I’m sure Calypso clients can also detect the globals occurring on other planets, right?
If you can use the clients from other planets, then perhaps you could even increase the number of clients needed to acknowledge/accept a global upload to 10-20 or even more.

Anyways, I’m sure Starfinder will find a way around this. Kudos for all the hard work developing ET!

 

Only HOFs, not globals. You can't see globals from other planets in chat when you are located on Calypso. Works also the other way. No Calypso globals to see when you are on Arkadia. Only HOFs.

 

I must have been on holidays for too long :slaps forehead:

Anyway, according to ET, yesterday evening there were 4 clients running on Arkadia (I being one of them) and even then, ET missed some of my globals..

 

Never trust your users!

Imagine this evil person - if I were to accept "one client is enough".
Person plays EU...
ET is in focus...
He thinks he's sneeky, so he adds a line to the chat.log him self - giving him an uber.
However, ET will see that he is tabbed out - so it wont read it..
Dammit he thinks - then he remembers that he has an old laptop.
Boots up the laptop... Share the "Entropia Universe folder" on his gaming PC...
Then he stays ingame, while he on the laptop opens the chat.log .. and inserts the global...

Now.. since he never left EU (on the gaming PC).. ET will think the global is real, and send it to ET...
If only one client was allowed, then it would be inserted and showed...

With two clients.. he could call up one of his m8's and get him to insert it the same time...
"Ready... insert... NOW"

.. with 3 clients or more.. this becomes kinda hard - still possible, no system is fool proof.. but its hard like this...

Hence.. 3 clients or more is needed...
Never trust your users...
(Even tho I love you all.. lol)