Why SETI?

[jensend]

I don't want to offend anybody and I may have missed an earlier discussion on this topic, but I'm curious- why are so many Matrox users dedicating their spare CPU cycles to SETI? I believe SETI has enough participants now that they have more CPU cycles to work with than can be utilized by the data SETI receives, so many people end up replicating others' work. SETI's output also would probably end up being useless to the world even in the infinitely unlikely event of successful detection of other intelligence in the universe. Other distributed projects exist that are of serious importance to science and have other practical applications. <a href="http://www.distributed.net">Distributed.Net</a> has two OGR (Optimal Golomb Ruler) projects that have various scientific, mathematical, and practical applications, and <a href="http://foldingathome.stanford.edu/">Stanford's Pande Group</a> is working on the extremely important and pressing problems of protein folding, which is (in my opinion) much more deserving of CPU cycles than SETI. Both of these would allow the competition over stats to continue, and a mass migration by MURC SETI users would allow the group to continue to have a high placing in stats in these other more practical areas. Why have your computer analyzing radio data which has quite possibly already been analyzed by someone else, contributing in no way to science or the future of humanity, when you could help scientists to make use of the genome project, allowing for revolutionary new medicines and the curing of genetic diseases as well as thousands of other uses?

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[Liquid Snake]

SETI had the problem of sending the same WUs to different people in the beginning because they couldn't handle the demand. They shouldn't have that problem now.

[Rattledagger]

Well, one reason why there's so many using seti@home from murc, is because it's the only distributed project that's got a link on the front-page.
As for more than one crunching the same wu, this is science. If you've done any lab-work, you should know that it's much better to do atleast two parallels than only one test. Depending on that you're testing, the second test should be the same, or you will take the average of the two tests. If the difference is bigger than expected, you will do more tests.

You will maybe say that this isn't a reason for seti@home to crunch the same wu twice, but it's a very easy test against changed results (cheating), bad hardware (often due to overclocking), network-problems, and test if different clients get the same result.

As for your two other projects, one is best known for cracking keys, while the other doesn't work correctly on dual-cpu.

[Pace]

Yea, I think Rattledagger's got it spot on.

Though did anyone else notice the sinister aspect of this thread? And no, I don't mean the topic!

Paul.

[Guru]

I think it's Assimilator trying to make us stop crunshing WU's!

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Join the MURC SETI team! | SETI @ MURC

Don't get even — get odd!

[Pace]

Guru: hint, look at the thread number :[

Paul.

[Guyver]

OK Church Lady!!! ROTFLMAO

[Guru]

We all enjoy the thrills and spills of space battles, the mysteries of space being a frontier yet to be fully explored. Our fantasies are played out with ET on countless occasions. Yet there is a space battle being fought right here on Earth and it involves the search for the elusive extra terrestrial who is known affectionately as ET.

The search for ET involves scanning the skies continually using the largest telescope in the world, searching for alien signals that indicate intelligent alien life. The data obtained is far too complicated for any single computer, therefore the data is split into sizeable chunks of 340Kbs, downloaded to home computers worldwide, and "crunched" at home or workplace.

[We all of us have powerful machines, but is yours earning it's keep?]

The project that handles this data is known as SETI@Home, SETI standing for "Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence". There are currently almost 2,500,000 users of SETI@Home, SETI@MURC being one of the teams. We are currently No. 33 in the World Rankings chart, and climbing steadily upwards. Take a look for yourselves here: <A HREF="http://128.32.18.165/stats/team/team_type_0.html" TARGET=_blank>

</A>

Therefore SETI@MURC invites members of this board to join the team, regardless of country of origin, to aid us in our relentless drive upwards to the Number One Top Spot.

Joining SETI@MURC ensures you a Mighty Fine Stomp up the SETI@MURC SETI Ladder, where a great deal of fun is to be had by all. Fellow members go on a Stomping Spree, whereby all members compete against one another, leapfrogging and racing each other up the SETI Ladder. A friendly warning to the unfortunate "victim" is always given on the Notice Board and is watched with interest by all members to see who will emerge the final victor. Verbal expletives of a friendly nature is always rife by the participants at this stage and extremely amusing. Help the SETI@MURC Team to prove to the world that team is a force to be reckoned with, and that we know our stuff better than anyone else by reaching the Top Spot and annihilating all opposition before us. A Team to be feared and admired by all.

It matters not whether you contribute 1 SETI Work Unit a day or 100, since this is a Team effort with a weekly stats target, to which everyone contributes his little something, for the good of the team. And it's fun trying to reach the target goal, sometimes achieving it with only a half hour to spare with the last Work Unit. It's exhilharating to watch SETI@MURC climb the World Rankings Ladder, knowing that the Team in front of us is in for a Mighty Fine Stomp by team SETI@MURC. Give the rest of the world something to think about, methinks.

Apart from which you're making history with a science project whilst searching for Mr. ET. He's hiding somewhere, but will one day be found. Then you can have a Jolly Good Gloat down the pub and tell everyone in a loud voice how you helped make a contribution. With SETI@MURC at the top of the World Ranking Ladder, name in the newspapers and an interview on the telly, you'll have good cause to brag and reminisce about your duels in the SETI@MURC Stomping Grounds.

Imagine being left out of all this glory, being unable to join in the Great Gloating Spree. Join SETI@MURC, give a minimum of 3 to 4.5hrs idle processing time and contribute to the success that SETI@MURC deserve to be. Your contribution, however small, will be an asset.




<A HREF="http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/stats/team/team_25678.html" TARGET=_blank>
</A>

To view the Team OcUK SETI ladder, click here: <A HREF="http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/stats/team/team_25678.html" TARGET=_blank> </A>

To view the Team Rankings Ladder click here: <A HREF="http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/stats/team/team_type_4.html" TARGET=_blank>
</A>

To download the SETI software click here: <A HREF="http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/download.html" TARGET=_blank>
</A>

To view the SETI@MURC Forum, click here


Thanx MindYerBeak for this one!

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Join the MURC SETI team! | SETI @ MURC

Don't get even — get odd!

[This message has been edited by Guru (edited 27 November 2000).]

[Greebe]

jensend, have you made this post on all the other sites crunching Seti? I'd like to see how Team Art Bell would react! LOL

Seriously tho, I started doing the seti thing back before there was any client software. Some of us do what inspiration leads them to, others follow when it becomes a fad.


I can see very positive results by doing Stanfords stuff (and many others), but I'll never touch it. This would end up in the hands of some corporation for them to charge us billions $$$ (might as well have said Trillions!) for the final cure. That type of logic makes me feel all warm 'n fuzzy inside, NOT!

[SteveC]

I wanna answer this one!

Why SETI?

Because we are all part of this: http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/...RecordID=53519


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Cheers,
Steve

"Life is what we make of it, yet most of us just fake"

[Guru]

HEHE I think I'll go advertise a litle in the other forums!

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Join the MURC SETI team! | SETI @ MURC

Don't get even — get odd!

[Guru]

Originally posted by Pace:
Guru: hint, look at the thread number :[

Paul.

BTW look at the total number of topics!

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Join the MURC SETI team! | SETI @ MURC

Don't get even — get odd!