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Profile kinhull
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Message 466914 - Posted: 27 Nov 2006, 16:13:48 UTC
Last modified: 27 Nov 2006, 16:57:02 UTC

Continued from the OLD Team ACC Thread

Join Team ACC - Arthur C Clarke Fans,

See this BOINC GUI created by team member Shane:


Comments and suggestions welcome at the ALL NEW Team ACC Forum.

Does NOT require registration to read or view.


Live long and crunch y'all 8D
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Message 466918 - Posted: 27 Nov 2006, 16:22:36 UTC
Last modified: 27 Nov 2006, 16:23:57 UTC

Here's a Yahoo group that is fairly active posting wise, that invariably has intelligent posts in it, and not just narrowly ACC related:

Yahoo ACC List


You should check out the posts by list member Bill Wheaton (he used to play Wesley Crusher in Star Trek, despite this he is actually very knowledgeable about space and science!).
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Excellent recommendation, Kinhull. Awaiting approval.

Meanwhile:

http://www.jokeindex.com/cat.asp?Cat=15


Sci Fi jokes! Hooray!

Just what the doctor ordered as I get over my winter sniffles!
Scientists Decode the First Message From an Alien Civilization:

Simply send 6 x 10 to the 50 atoms of Hydrogen to the Star System at the top of the list, cross off that star system, then put your Star System at the bottom of the list and send it to 100 other Star Systems. Within one-tenth of a Galactic Rotation you will receive enough hydrogen to power your civilization until entropy reaches its maximum! IT REALLY WORKS!

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Though it's not ACC, this is an interesting interview of Spider Robinson about finishing Robert Heinlein's last novel.

http://www.scifi.com/sfw/interviews/sfw13876.html


Thanks for that marz, a very good article.

I was quite interested by this quote:
For some reason, the readers who are voting with their feet are migrating from science fiction into fantasy. Basically, they've all decided they'd rather not be exposed to any story that their grandfather would not have recognized.

I don't know why that is. Just as we're entering the future, just as technology is proving itself, just when we've managed to keep 6 billion people alive where we had trouble feeding 2 billion, just as the commercial space program is taking off, suddenly everybody goes, "Let's stampede backward into the past."

It's dismaying, but a number of my colleagues, sensing the way the wind is blowing, have migrated away from science fiction toward writing about elves and magic and the supernatural, and they're making good money. I hope that the wheel will turn again one day—because we don't live in the past, and we do live in the future....


I wasn't aware of a downturn in sci-fi booksales, in favour of fantasy. If there is, I would simply put it down to the (excellent) Lord Of The Rings and Harry Potter mania. A good movie based on a good book will always sell more books.

I don't think Spider Robinson has anything to worry about, despite what the creationists might like, we are living in a scientific and technological age (at least those of us living in 'the West'). Artists are always going to write about the contemporary state of society and on occasion extrapolate this into the future, and at the moment there is no real alternative to science and the scientific method.

I've yet to read any Spider Robinson novels, though I have seen plenty available, I notice however that your link provides a further link to excerpts of the first eight chapters of the Robinson/Heinlein book Variable Star. Now that is a good a place as any to start!

Have you (or anyone else reading this) read any Spider Robinson books? What kind of stories does he write?

Anyway, thanks for the links marz.


Live long and crunch y'all 8D
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Message 466946 - Posted: 27 Nov 2006, 17:14:19 UTC
Last modified: 27 Nov 2006, 17:16:34 UTC

So there I was, browsing wikipedia, looking at Human Origins, Evolution, the Rosetta Stone, Nostratic Languages, etc, and I find this nice little gif:



So what has this to do with Seti I hear nobody asking... Potentially lots...



Live long and crunch y'all 8D
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Message 469251 - Posted: 30 Nov 2006, 23:11:21 UTC

Hi all,

I've made a skin (based on the one created by Shane Phillips, thanks Shane!)

I'm having a problem with getting rid of the screensaver/slideshow section when the GUI is running. I want to be able to see the picture I create in that section. Any ideas on what I should do?

If you look at Shanes GUI you can see the pic in the middle from a scene in 2001, I can no longer view that scene - I just get the screensaver/slideshow.

I'm using WinXP Pro, BOINC 5.7.4

Any help appreciated,

Thanks
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Message 469442 - Posted: 1 Dec 2006, 2:25:57 UTC

This sight is a BLAST!!! Just remember that from fantasy comes science fiction and then comes reality. (From University of Calgary team member)Keep crunching.
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Message 470141 - Posted: 1 Dec 2006, 23:20:54 UTC - in response to Message 469442.  

This sight is a BLAST!!! Just remember that from fantasy comes science fiction and then comes reality. (From University of Calgary team member)Keep crunching.


I certainly think you have a point there Al :)

Well here's my effort at a BOINC GUI:


You can access my files for creating this GUI from the Forum here

It seems if the currently running project does not have a screensaver, then the GUI will show the pic you use, otherwise the project's slideshow will be used. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
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Message 470852 - Posted: 2 Dec 2006, 21:51:26 UTC

You can download more BOINC skins from here:

http://www.crunching-family.at/download-center/
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Message 474093 - Posted: 6 Dec 2006, 1:27:43 UTC
Last modified: 6 Dec 2006, 1:29:08 UTC

We are Team ACC - Arthur C Clarke Fans.

Can we kick it? Yes we can!

Join this team. Go on, you know you want to!

HAL: It can only be attributable to human error - 2001:A Space Odyssey
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Message 492321 - Posted: 28 Dec 2006, 18:11:29 UTC - in response to Message 492091.  

BOINC


Thanks marz,

I consider you to be a very knowledgeable person, perhaps you (or someone else reading this) can help me:

I've decided to spend a little bit of time providing some online BOINC help (as seen here)

I've installed Skype, but my online status on the above link always shows me as unknown. Any ideas?

Otherwise I'll have to use the online help myself, to be able to provide online help! (Not a promising start!)


Anyway, hope you have had a good Xmas and have a very good New Year.
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Message 492894 - Posted: 29 Dec 2006, 13:17:46 UTC

Have just noticed the Account Data page has been updated.

It looks much better, listing the BOINC projects that the user is running.

Just click on the user's account name!

Mine for example are here: kinhull
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Message 494516 - Posted: 31 Dec 2006, 10:37:38 UTC - in response to Message 494400.  

Oh, I forgot, Kinhull...be sure to download your Skype buttons for the web, too! And Skype 3.0 is now available.

Hi marz,

I have version 3, but I'll check out the Skype web buttons.

Cheers
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Message 500181 - Posted: 9 Jan 2007, 22:24:42 UTC
Last modified: 9 Jan 2007, 22:40:52 UTC

Check out the following BBC Radio 4 interview with Arthur C Clarke:

ARTHUR C. CLARKE: THE SCIENCE AND THE FICTION

You'll need to download and install Real Player (choose the Free Version)

If you already have Real Player you can use this direct link to THE SCIENCE AND THE FICTION

"Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not. In either case the idea is quite staggering." - Arthur C Clarke
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Message 500198 - Posted: 9 Jan 2007, 23:34:43 UTC
Last modified: 9 Jan 2007, 23:45:19 UTC

A few more BBC Radio 4 broadcasts (and pages of links) that some might find interesting (listen via Real Player).

****************************************************************************

Listen Again

Science Archive

Recent Science Programmes

Melvyn Bragg's In Our Time (History) weekly Radio Show, general Archive Page, containing:

Science Archive

Religion Archive

Philosophy Archive

History Archive

Culture Archive

****************************************************************************

Here's a small selection of my favourite programmes from the show that some here might also find interesting:

The Speed of Light - a cosmic speed limit?

Galaxies - extra-galactic nebulae, black holes, stars and dark matter

Carbon - the basis of life

Artificial Intelligence - the quest for a machine that can think

Dark Energy - the unknown force breaking the universe apart

The Origins of Life - how it all began

Planets - the astronomy of the 21st century

Theories of Everything - still the holy grail of physics?

Supernovas - the life cycle of stars

The Calendar - a history of the Calendar

ET - new life within our solar system

Enjoy
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Message 502046 - Posted: 13 Jan 2007, 8:57:54 UTC
Last modified: 13 Jan 2007, 9:17:55 UTC

The beginnings of an interesting discussion on BOINC and Artificial Intelligence started by team member Simon F.

Please feel free to take part, add comments or observations, ask questions, or just see how the debate progresses:

On the Team ACC Forum: BOINC & AI

On the BOINC Message Boards (The Lounge): BOINC and Artificial Intelligence: Discuss

I just finished reading Gregory Benford's Foundation's Fear set in Asimov's foundation universe.

It got me to thinking about Artificial Intelligence and BOINC. I don't really mean the trained expert systems that are quite widely used nowadays. I mean the concept much discussed in SF of an emergent intelligence in a huge distributed computer system.

Could BOINC provide the IT / processing / network infrastructure to create an experimental environment that could nurture the emergence of machine intelligence?

I couldn't find any discussion of this on the internet in my few searches. Maybe there's an obvious reason why it is a stupid idea...

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......a number of terms get bandied about and sometimes conflated:

Intelligence, Conciousness, Life

Can we have any of the above without one or more of the others?

What requirements would we need to describe something as intelligent, concious or alive?

What kind of BOINC experiments could be set up that might test a few ideas?

Any thoughts?



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Message 502060 - Posted: 13 Jan 2007, 10:28:01 UTC

Team ACC has been hovering around the 740 mark in terms of world team rank for the past week or so. Way to go guys!!!

And over 1.5 million credits overall in BOINC combined, and a RAC of over 6000!!!

Thanks everyone!
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Message 505918 - Posted: 20 Jan 2007, 14:37:35 UTC - in response to Message 505567.  
Last modified: 20 Jan 2007, 14:59:12 UTC

Thanks marz.

And now for something completely different!

I've written a Poem: Ode To SETI@Home

If anyone wants to add comments or even your own poems feel free to add it to the Poetry Corner of the Team ACC Message Board

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Message 507293 - Posted: 23 Jan 2007, 0:01:20 UTC
Last modified: 23 Jan 2007, 0:30:09 UTC

Interested in Evolution?

Then check out this rather nifty Java Applet:

The Weasel Applet


Weasel's 81-character alphabet:
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 0123456789,.?;:'@!£$&%+-*/><

1.) Type a Goal Phrase using any of the characters listed above. The default Goal Phrase is SETI@Home will find ET

2.) Choose a population size, minimum is 2 (Population Size refers to the number of guesses per generation)

3.) Choose how frequently to update the display, after every n generations

4.) Start by clicking on Evolve A Solution, let it run until it completes, otherwise click on Stop Breeding! to stop

A non-technical description of Weasel

This exhibit, which was inspired by a description of a program in Richard Dawkins 's excellent book The Blind Watchmaker , demonstrates the ability of evolutionary techniques to solve enormous problems rapidly.

The applet works like this:

A) You provide a phrase to one part of the program, the Scorer, and another part of the program (the Breeder) tries to make the Scorer happy by breeding possible solutions until it matches the supplied phrase.

B) The Breeder starts by making lots of random guesses and presenting each to the Scorer. The highest-scoring guess is then bred with other guesses (by combining parts of each guess) and some of the guesses are randomly mutated. The Breeder continues to breed and mutate guesses until it finds your original phrase.

C) Along the way, the Scorer only tells the Breeder how close each guess is to the target phrase, not what the target phrase is. The Scorer doesn't even tell the Breeder which parts of its guess are right or wrong. This is vaguely like trying to find a random spot in the galaxy, being told only how "hot" or "cold" you are after each step.

There are many possible phrases of the same length as the phrase "Methinks it is like a weasel" (that's well over 2 million billion billion billion billion billion phrases). An exhaustive search -- systematically trying all possible guesses -- would virtually never complete; the universe would run down first. But even the simple-minded evolutionary programming techniques used in this applet typically find a solution after examining only about sixty thousand alternatives.

The program was never intended to model evolution accurately, but only to demonstrate the power of cumulative selection as compared to random selection.

More info here: Weasel program
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Message 507301 - Posted: 23 Jan 2007, 0:33:02 UTC - in response to Message 506142.  

I like it!

Thanks marz, it has since been added to the Poetry section of the SETI@Home Web Site
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Message 508410 - Posted: 25 Jan 2007, 13:52:40 UTC


@ kinhull . . . present *tiME* - Joined your TeAm - also on Board 08:52 AM EST 01.25.2007
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Message 508542 - Posted: 25 Jan 2007, 19:07:36 UTC - in response to Message 508410.  

@ kinhull . . . present *tiME* - Joined your TeAm - also on Board 08:52 AM EST 01.25.2007


Welcome on board nobody!

I hope that your stay with us, for however long you choose, will be a pleasant one.

So how is your archiving of seti@home going? Is it searchable? What are you keeping in and what are you leaving out?

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