Well it's my "day off." Basically the deal is I charge SETI for working only 4 days out of 5 per week, but I still end up working about 35-40 hours/week anyway due to all the babysitting I do from home. I figure the cut in pay is worth the flexibility in my already hectic lifestyle.

I already write a lot (maybe too much) in the tech news forums, but now with Kevin gone I'm going to help Eric from keeping this forum from going stale. Eric and I have been begging the others to chime in but it's like pulling teeth. I guess I'm comfortable running at the mouth in public, as I perform regularly on stage, sometimes in front of 1000+ people.

The irony of me being a "mouthpiece" is that I'm the least academic of the staff (only have on BS and one BA). And, frankly, despite the wonderful flexibility, great workmates, fun science, and the fact I've been here at the lab for 12+ years, I don't consider SETI "my project." In the big picture I do what I'm told, though of course I control a lot of the day-to-day business as I'm right the on the battle front and understand the real-world details. While I do make suggestions about project planning and management, I expect at times there will be some disagreement, and my ideas will be shot down.

At least I have total control in my other career in music. I would have also gone into film if there was actually a chance to make money. I do have friends in the industry and helped on some music videos, short films, and was an extra in one major motion picture: "Oakland Underground" - even though I spent all night in a hot warehouse playing loud drums for the big scary "satanic party" sequence I don't appear on screen. In any case, it's a funny movie about my current beloved home city and I think it is *finally* appearing on DVD soon. More recently I was an extra in a short film which is an amusing take on some bible verses - I'm the first of many to get violently mauled by bears. Read it yourself: Kings II 2:23. See for yourself:

23 From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. "Go on up, you baldhead!" they said. "Go on up, you baldhead!" 24 He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths. 25 And he went on to Mount Carmel and from there returned to Samaria.

Next time you make fun of somebody's hair loss remember that god was willing to send a couple bears down to kill 42 children who did the same. Anyway in this short flick you just see me get smacked down. I was lucky: others get dismembered, blood spurting everywhere, etc. Good fun. I also worked on the score. Someday this will appear on YouTube, I'm sure.

Anyway.. I find musicians in general to be more skilled at their profession than, well, pretty much any other profession which makes more money. But that's capitalism for ya (not a complaint - just an observation). Luckily I have the computer geek gene to fall back on to make ends meet. The average annual household income in the bay area is thousands of dollars less than the average cost of living, so.. you do the math. Hopefully the economy will correct itself soon without too much widespread pain and anguish.

Okay.. back to work.

- Matt

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-- BOINC/SETI@home network/web/science/development person
-- "Any idiot can have a good idea. What is hard is to do it." - Jeanne-Claude

Hi Matt,

I always enjoy getting home from work and reading your "Rants".
Everybody at the project; Keep up the GREAT Work.

Mike F,

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See for yourself:

II Kings 2:23-25 (kjv)
And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name OF THE LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them. And he went from thence to mount Carmel, and from thence he returned to Samaria.

Galatians 6:7 (kjv)
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.


Sounds like they reapethed what they sowethed... ;)

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It may not be 1984 but George Orwell sure did see the future . . .

Does mauling actually mean killing? Maybe those kids were just injured. But, perhaps nearby, the Bible might indicate or imply death, I don't know.

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...I already write a lot (maybe too much) in the tech news forums, but now with Kevin gone I'm going to help Eric from keeping this forum from going stale. Eric and I have been begging the others to chime in but it's like pulling teeth...
- Matt

Thanks for keeping us in the loop as best you can. To bad the people you work for don't understand the importance of communication. One of the keys to project management is keeping your stake holders informed, and I’m starting to feel that the people who run this project now take for gannet the people who do the crunching.
Like you all, computers are one of my hobbies; but it doesn't change the fact that it costs about 150 bucks a month in electricity to keep our rigs crunching for you 24/7. Not to mention the hardware costs, I would have much fewer systems then I have now if it wasn't for distributed computing.
I'm done ranting, thanks again for the hard work.

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Thanks for Being a 'Mouthpiece' for Berkeley - iT's good to hear News Updates from You Matt . . .

(just a little bit 'less "scary" than being in front of a live audience eh . . .)

Whats goin on here? It shows "25 minutes ago" but shows only 9 September as the last message. Somethings amiss.

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I like your rant. lol

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Founder of BOINC team Objectivists. Oh the humanity! Rational people crunching data!
I did NOT authorize this belly writing!

Whats goin on here? It shows "25 minutes ago" but shows only 9 September as the last message. Somethings amiss.

Not necessarily; if the mods delete spam or move an off-topic post elsewhere, the thread will show recent activity without any new messages.

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Thanks, Odysseus. So I can conclude that there are no missing messages in the affected threads to read.

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