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gringogreg
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SETI @ Home

06/12/2014 2:21 PM

A few weeks ago I ran across this web site setiathome.berkeley.edu and got hooked. Perhaps many of us are familiar with this project and some are participating in it. But for those who are not, briefly this project entails using the spare processing power of your home or work computer to analyse the huge volume of signal data amassed by the Arecibo radio telescope for any indication of a transmission from an alien civilization.

What do you get out of it: nothing except a really neat screen saver where you can watch a graphic representation of the analysis as it is taking place (if you have nothing better to do) and the knowledge that you have contributed to what may become the most important discovery in the history of mankind: We are not alone!

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lyn
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#1

Re: SETI @ Home

06/12/2014 4:26 PM

I've been trying to find intelligent life here on earth for quite some time now.

Maybe I'm just looking in the wrong place for it?

I dabbled in Zooniverse - Planet Hunters for a little while, but it actually requires conscience attention by the user. I just don't have the time for it, but it, too was interesting.

Contrary to popular belief and mis-information in the movie, "Contact" SETI used The Allen Telescope Array | SETI Institute, and not the:

The Very Large Array, Socorro, New Mexico. I've driven through the VLA many times on highway 60 and it is an imposing site, and sight.

Does it affect your daily use at all?
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gringogreg
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#2
In reply to #1

Re: SETI @ Home

06/12/2014 5:02 PM
Re: SETI @ Home
No, the analysis runs in the background, when my computer is otherwise idle or under worked. I have to do nothing, and I have not noticed any effect on my computer's performance since it has been running.

Actually this is just one part of a set of projects called "BIONIC" that uses the latent capability of individual computers to perform analysis of data in many areas of serious scientific investigation.

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gringogreg
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#10
In reply to #2

Re: SETI @ Home

06/13/2014 6:32 PM

A bit of dyslexia on my part: As was pointed out the program is "BOINC"

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passingtongreen
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#3

Re: SETI @ Home

06/12/2014 5:59 PM

I had such appreciation for Carl Sagan that I automatically signed up: and then got out because I cannot think of much that is so pointless. If we do discover someone capable of conversation, the time and distance will be so great that our sun will have become a red giant before we complete the telling of our stories to each other.

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lyn
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#4
In reply to #3

Re: SETI @ Home

06/12/2014 6:04 PM

Ala On the Beach (1959 film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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gringogreg
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#12
In reply to #4

Re: SETI @ Home

06/13/2014 6:55 PM

You are referring too the telegraph key hooked to a window shade blowing in the wind in an otherwise dead city. That is a definite possibility. Perhaps when our nearest neighbor receives the first episodes of I Love Lucy our species will be long gone.

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gringogreg
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#5
In reply to #3

Re: SETI @ Home

06/12/2014 6:25 PM

Just to know is enough, what ever may or may not come of it. Either we are or we are not alone.

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Crabtree
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#8
In reply to #5

Re: SETI @ Home

06/13/2014 3:07 AM

"We"?

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europium mkII
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#6

Re: SETI @ Home

06/12/2014 6:51 PM

I signed up for SETI@home in '99. At that time the app ran as a screensaver.

My connectivity where I live now is extremely limited and unreliable, and so I've disabled the S@H app. Does it still run in the background as a screensaver?

Btw, Lyn is correct: S@H uses the Allen Array. Another, much larger array is in the works; the 'Square Kilometer Array,' I believe. Check me on this.
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cuba_pete
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#7
In reply to #6

Re: SETI @ Home

06/12/2014 9:40 PM

Still screensaver-ish...it goes blank after a few minutes to save cycles. The graphic display is still the same, though. I joined back at inception, too.
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gringogreg
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#11
In reply to #6

Re: SETI @ Home

06/13/2014 6:45 PM

All the data packs that I have been receiving so far have listed Arecibo as the source. This data is from 2008 - 2009. I need to do further reading about the whole program. Are they employing the Allen Array to investigate promising "hits" from the Arecibo data?

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Rixter
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#9

Re: SETI @ Home

06/13/2014 8:27 AM

Related thread:

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/91419#newcomments
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Crabtree (1); cuba_pete (1); europium mkII (1); gringogreg (5); lyn (2); passingtongreen (1); Rixter (1)

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