SETI at home News

Reese reeza at flex.com
Sat Dec 16 00:07:44 PST 2000


Oh boy-oh boy-oh boy,,,

Read further for inserted comment.

Sorry for the bandwidth Doug, there's one statement (and my comment) down below that prompted this reply/forward to your list.

Anyone who replies, snip out all but the relevant text you reply to.

At 11:32 PM 12/15/00 -0800, SETI at home wrote:

>Dear SETI at home user:

>

>Thanks for your participation in SETI at home. I'm happy to say that

>the project is going extremely well, thanks to the continued support of

>our millions of users. This newsletter covers the following:

>

> - Project status

> - Release of version 3 software

> - New sponsorship from One Cosmos and The Planetary Society

> - New SETI at home gear is here

>

>Dr. David P. Anderson

>Project Director, SETI at home

>http://setiathome.berkeley.edu

>

>PS: to be removed from our mailing list, see the bottom of this message.

>--------------------------

>PROJECT STATUS

>

>Halfway through our second year of operation, SETI at home has processed

>over 7000 hours of digitally-recorded signals from the Arecibo radio

>telescope, using the power of millions of Internet-connected computers.

>As this processing continues, SETI at home's own computers are

>doing the next phase, in which we separate man-made radio signals from

>those originating outside our solar system. Our goal is to detect

>signals from other civilizations.

>

>By using the Internet to form the world's most powerful computer,

>SETI at home has inspired other scientific computing projects,

>and is often credited (along with Napster) with defining a

>new generation of computer system design, called "peer-to-peer".

>

>Because of the strong continued interest in SETI at home, the project will

>continue for at least a year beyond its original ending time. Plans are

>not finalized, but we hope to expand our search to the

>southern-hemisphere sky, and to search new frequency bands.

>

>We will also try to make SETI at home more fun and interesting by adding

>new content and features to our web site. Our small but hard-working

>staff (5 part-time members) has had little time to work on this area,

>but we're expanding our efforts.

>

>--------------------------

>RELEASE OF VERSION 3 SOFTWARE

>

>After almost a year of testing and debugging, we recently released a

>major new version of our screensaver program. The new version does

>much better signal analysis; it looks for two new types of signals

>(pulses and triplets) and it covers a wider range of drift rates.

>As a result, it takes more time to process each work unit.

Note that line, "it takes more time to process each work unit."

I've been running the SETI @ stuff for a while, and I'm here to say that a 340 kb packet takes over 18 hours to process on a k6-3 400 mHz with 256 meg of RAM computer and lots of personal tweaking and optimization - and that is while running the program full-time.

I haven't fiddled with their software, but geez, is this an engraved invitation to find out why the existing stuph is so damned slow, and to find out why v3.? will be even slower?

I remind (or inform) the members of this list, the SETI @ program was swamped when they first came online, they couldn't make enough new packets available for all the computer processes awaiting them - and so I ask: Does this announcement sound like an effort to utilize all those computer processes to greater extent, or an effort to slow down the process, and waste processes,,,

Well? What do you think?

>The old version of SETI at home should automatically notify you when

>it's time to upgrade to the new version. You can download and

>install it from our web site:

>http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/download.html

>

>--------------------------

>NEW SPONSORSHIP FROM ONE COSMOS NETWORK AND THE PLANETARY SOCIETY

>

>We're proud to announce an alliance of SETI at home with One Cosmos Network

>and The Planetary Society. This alliance will give us the financial

>support necessary to continue and expand SETI at home, as well as

>enabling us to provide a richer Web experience.

>

>Founded by Internet executive Joe Firmage and Ann Druyan, Carl Sagan's

>wife and collaborator of 20 years, One Cosmos Network is dedicated to

>carrying on Sagan's effort to humanize science and bring it to people

>everywhere. Toward this end, One Cosmos is constructing an Internet

>portal, OneCosmos.net, and a production studio, Cosmos Studios, which

>will create compelling science-based entertainment for television and film.

>Their first release is an updated, digitally remastered Collector's Edition

>of the Emmy and Peabody Award winning 13-hour television series, "Cosmos."

>The series is currently available for purchase in DVD or VHS format,

>with "The Music of Cosmos" available separately in a double-CD format;

>find them at http://OneCosmos.net.

>

>The Planetary Society is the founding sponsor of SETI at home, and its

>membership is open to anyone who shares the goals of exploring our

>solar system and searching for extraterrestrial life. In fact, the

>Society supports six different SETI efforts, along with many other

>projects in space exploration. We encourage you to join

>The Planetary Society and help advance their many worthy programs at

>http://planetary.org/html/member/JoinUs.html

>

>We are also extremely grateful to our other sponsors, including

>the University of California Digital Media Innovation Program,

>Sun Microsystems, Fuji Film Computer Products, Quantum, and

>the SETI Institute.

>

>Thanks also to the hundreds of individuals who have made

>contributions to SETI at home. Their names are listed at

>http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/donorlist.html

>

>SETI at home is free for everyone, but if you can consider

>making a tax-deductible donation to SETI at home, please visit

>http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/donor.html.

>

>--------------------------

>NEW SETI at HOME GEAR IS HERE

>

>While our goal is to detect life in outer space, we can't do that

>without the support of our fellow Earthlings. Last year, we introduced

>several SETI at home products in our online store. The response was so

>great that this year we've expanded the product line. There are great

>new sweatshirts, mugs, T-shirts, jackets, desk clocks, lapel pins,

>patches, and even a heat-sensitive mouse pad. Want more? How about

>your very own, very elegant, blown-glass globe? Or (our personal

>favorite) a stylus, red and black pens, and mechanical pencil packed

>into one very cool gravity-fed tool. You'll find them all online at

>http://www.exploratoriumstore.com/setihome.html.

>

>The profits from each sale help fund the SETI at home project.

>

>--------------------------

>To be removed from our mailing list, please visit:

>http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/account_area.html



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