Pool settings

zaph

What is going on with Pool Settings in the latest versions? I updates and my old settings are not in the new pool dialog, what is up with that. If I go to the legacy (that used to mean old, not last week) my settings are there but they are not used and when mining is started the pool is panda. It seems that it would be a benefit to the users if the new dialog picked up the old settings.

This does not seem very use friendly.

So for the time being I am not using MacMiner.

PS: Consider usability, white text on a silly light background may be cute but rates really low in usability. Usability, believe it or not, it still meaningful—to me at least. OkieDokie?

FabulousPanda

Sorry about that, We're in the middle of a big change right now! It should pick up your old settings just not in the Preferences window but I'll make sure to hook all that up.

Where is the white text on light background?

zaph

There is white text tight here as I type. The background is cute but is just distracting.

I realize you like cute, useless dialogs that must be clicked wit cute button labels like  "Oki Dokie", Splendid, "Umm OK.", "Waaaaaah!" and "Indeed" but these do not build confidence that MacMiner is a professional level application. An extra unnecessary click with one of these is just annoying to many users.

I realize that you have put a lot of time and effort into MacMiner and it is sad that these things subtract from it's credibility. It's like the old saying: "Don't judge a book by it's cover" but they are,that is the reason for the saying. The same applies to software.

Back to "We're in the middle of a big change right now!".  (Oh, just copy/pasted that and now the text I type is in black but the caret is still white and the contract is still bad.) Years ago when I was first in business I was late on delivering and told my client why and my client said to me: "That is your problem, not mine, I don't care why you were late, just that you were late and that affected me". On a technical side that it what Git branches are all about: handling feature development so as not to effect the base product.

The bottom line: I had to restart my computer, When MacMiner restarted it suggested to upgrade. Implying that I should upgrade. I did and it was a non-working mess. Suggestion: Don't push updates on users that are not complete/ready.

It is not just MacMiner. GraphicConverter had a paid upgrade, it did not pickup the batch commands. I tried to create an account on the Astroid forum and was not able, first using Twitter did not succeed and then creating an account did not succeed because the confirmation email was not sent. When we add up all these little issues it becomes a big storm of things that stop working. I get the fling that mostly companies/developers just don't care about the user. That is not good.

FabulousPanda

I totally understand where you're coming from and I'm sorry for the bugs and confusion caused by the update! The forum is due for a rejigger of the css so I'll take your advice on readability there, as well as your points on the app side of things.

I want to make it clear though that I absolutely put the user first - I'll make sure to test updates more thoroughly before suggesting them as upgrades - I'm a little used to having the community help spot where I've done something improperly during active development but there's no reason for me to push that on the whole user base.

zaph

Good to hear!

If I wasn't interested MacMiner succeeding I wouldn't say anything.

FabulousPanda

I've just updated with mostly bug fixes for the last version, this one isn't perfect yet but definitely an improvement - now if you click save & start in the old prefs it'll set up the new ones too - I'm still planning to make the process smoother but this release is certainly better for users than the last one! Do let me know if you have any other criticisms in future, please

zaph

I am running two instances now, BFL USB and Block Erupter Cube http. The new options are quite good, very nicely done.

FabulousPanda

Thank you! I believe you can run them together - is that for safety's sake?

zaph

Question: I am running two miners but there are differences.

One has the option: -S bfl:all

The other has the option: --http-port 9332

They also have slightly different pool workers

How are these different preferences handled? I notice that with two 17b instances that if I change one the other changes also. But a 17b instance does not interfere with a 16b2 instance. This occurs at least with the manual options, I did not check the pool workers.

zaph

FabulousPanda wrote: "I believe you can run them together - is that for safety's sake?"

No, just because I am ignorant. Can I use one instance? Here is that I have:

Miner: BFL, Connection:USB, options:-S bfl:all, Worker:Zaph_1

Miner: Block Erupter Cube, Connection:Ethernet, options:--http-port 9332, Worker:Zaph_2

I guess what I don't understand is how to setup both in one MacMiner instance.

FabulousPanda

You should just be able to set the options

-S bfl:all --http-port 9332 

in one window, or use the checkbox in FPGA/ASIC for bfl and just use the port setting.

I don't quite understand the worker thing - could whatever that was have been caused by the old settings applying to new but not the other way around?

zaph

OK, I did that and it is working fine and it does make things simplier. Thanks!

The workers thing: I use BTS Guild and setup two "Workers" and I could see the separate results. Now the results are combined but I can look at the Cube status in a browser if I need to.

Still getting a mental model and details in my head.

FabulousPanda

If you're using the FPGA/ASIC window it hooks up to API Output window automatically and should show two different devices, although one is called a proxy not a device type - the BFG window will setup automatically like that too soon, just need to work in correct coin and pool code for it to feed to MobileMiner!

zaph

Great!

I wrote a blog post about setting up an ASICMiner Block Erupter Cube, the URL: http://zaph.com/blog/?page_id=1501 

Please add comments ro email me with corrections or more information.

I used MacMiner in the Mac example.