My take...
I like being part of this SETI program thing..
Do i understand it all? Not even close. I'm a machinist by trade.
Do I care? very much. I SO DO HOPE there is some thing found before 'my time is up'
And about RACs? Well.. the more people can do the better. I check mine every day as if this was some sort of contest to see who can get 'there' first but in the end, I really don't care who does the most, the least or falls in the middle. All I want, is to see SOMETHING done with all the validized work units.

One thing 'I think' seti needs desperatly is some kind of charting of the sky showing where the 'hot spots' are coming from.. what angles, azimuth and such. I have seen this lots of times in the forums. "where's the science". I feel like the numbers returned from my computers are basically being stored away in a database for.. what? Future analisist?
I may sound a little down but Im not.. I just think there would be many more that would join and stay if there was some graphical reporting on the data gathered.
Over all, the seti pages are a bit boring to me. there are not many COLORS.. mostly all black text on white back grounds. Don't get me wrong here.. I would hate this place looking like iwon's site or pogo's but some more 'life' would make it a bit more upbeat and appeal to more.
Those are MY thoughts and I know some are very happy with things the way they are but when I shop for a new car.. there better d*** well be some style.

I was doing crunching back in 2001 and left. Why you may ask? Because I didn't know if anything was being done with the work I did.. not enough info.. no charts showing anything useful to a total novic like me. I know better now but I still think the place needs INFO that people can look at so its more interesting than having just the forums.
If I had access to the data, I'd do something on my own just out of curiosity as to where these 'hot spots' are... but I don't and I won't ever have access.

For those of you thinking this is a waste of watts, think of the explores of our planet that lost their lives just for the sake of defining what Earth is about. All you have to do, is crunch work units and by just doing that, you are participating in what will surely be remembered as something remarkable after we (as in, the people of SETI) do find an alien signal.

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Not Ready Reading BRAIN. Abort/Retry/Fail?

Newer BOINC clients do not support Windows 9x or NT. I expect something similar on the Mac side of things.

Windows 98 is still supported, even by 6.x. Windows 95 and NT4 support was dropped a while ago.

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Newer BOINC clients do not support Windows 9x or NT. I expect something similar on the Mac side of things.

Windows 98 is still supported, even by 6.x. Windows 95 and NT4 support was dropped a while ago.

I have two machines crunching. Neither of them will run the current 6.0 alpha version.

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I have two machines crunching. Neither of them will run the current 6.0 alpha version.

Well, I mean nobody is intentionally dropping Win98 support. I hear the latest 6.x has serious problems installing on Windows XP!

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I have two machines crunching. Neither of them will run the current 6.0 alpha version.

Well, I mean nobody is intentionally dropping Win98 support. I hear the latest 6.x has serious problems installing on Windows XP!

I don't run Win98 as the host OS on any of my machines. Win9x support doesn't help me.

At some point, I have to upgrade operating systems, stay with what is running on those machines, or stop crunching.

OS upgrades can be expensive in terms of downtime. My machines are not dedicated crunchers, they exist primarily for me to do my work.

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Newer BOINC clients do not support Windows 9x or NT. I expect something similar on the Mac side of things.

Windows 98 is still supported, even by 6.x. Windows 95 and NT4 support was dropped a while ago.

My main point here is that every time you raise the bar, you move the dividing line between "those who can run the current minimum version" and "those who can't."

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Choosing Linux would terminally fix that issue (e.g. a Dual Boot solution if remaining Software must remain Win32)...

Works like a champ

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SETI is a very cool project to be participating in…no doubt!

MikeO, if you where here back in 01, you should remember all the stats SETI had. The list was long and the excitement great.

The feeling was (to me and many others) “I crunched a WU that might be a potential candidate“…wow. A potential candidate for those not around (back then) was something that turned up in the WU you returned, and it might be ET.

Now just silence. No stats from SETI.

Please donate and keep crunching is the SETI motto now.

I read a while back that SETI wanted to hire a new guy and it would cost about 50K a year…WHY?

Berkeley is a college. Want some help and short of funds, offer 4 credits (that’s 4 college credits) to people who will do the work for free!

Here are only a couple course objectives that could be considered:

1. Create a stat table that show potential signal candidates for WU’s returned by participants.

Want someone to come in on weekends and stay over night in case things break down? Here is another course objective:

2. Monitor activity nightly for potential contact while developing a Version 15.0 BOINC application.

I’m just throwing out a couple here but the possibilities are endless. (I’ve mentioned many before)

3. Here are 2 for MikeO:
A. Create colors that enhance and attract new participants to SETI.
B. Create sky charts showing………

If anyone thinks these course objectives are in any way laughable and not college type courses, pick up a State College course list in your area.

Here is one course Berkeley is offering: “The Found Object”. The objective of this course is: “Explore the possibilities of making art from used, discarded, discovered, demolished and recovered objects and material“. Heck, I just threw some mashed potatoes on a flier from WalMart that was in my trash- can…looks like an “A” to me!

Giving people ONLY credits, (which symbolize nothing scientific), in a Science Based Project is probably the main reason people are leaving, in my brilliant opinion.

Live long and Flounder………….if dats what you choose

I read a while back that SETI wanted to hire a new guy and it would cost about 50K a year…WHY?

Berkeley is a college. Want some help and short of funds, offer 4 credits (that’s 4 college credits) to people who will do the work for free!

Are you certain such a suggestion is within the realm of the projects ability to offer? Wouldn't offering college credits have to be approved by some sort of Administrative professional to be officially recognised? Wouldn't there have to be some sort of approved cirriculum of materials and objectives for the student(s) to learn, and some sort of final exam to prove that something was indeed retained from the class by the student?

Of course, even if they get it approved, that means more work for the likes of Eric in that he has to give tests, administer the final exam, provide feedback to the administrative faculty staff about the student(s) progress, etc.

I'm not certain such a suggestion would ease Eric's work or increase it. I've seen this suggestion nonchalantly suggested before, but it doesn't seem to be thought all the way through.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure its perfectly feasible to do, but there's always a cost. Sure, they save $50,000/yr but then they have to fix the student(s)' inevitable mistakes or mishaps, which can always cost more in the long run. The suggestion always seems to imply that there's tons of expendable labor to be found in college kids, but the cost of learning can be quite high.

The suggestion always seems to imply that there's tons of expendable labor to be found in college kids, but the cost of learning can be quite high.

AFAIK the initial BOINC project website code was written by undergrads, and see that how went...

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It was because I find increasingly difficult to justify running 3-4 computers 24hrs/day when a) there is no feedback to what my contribution has delivered and b) ...

A partial answer is the new feature Matt just released showing some of the results ...

Still more work to be done, but, some information is coming out ...

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MikeO, if you where here back in 01, you should remember all the stats SETI had. The list was long and the excitement great.

The feeling was (to me and many others) “I crunched a WU that might be a potential candidate“…wow. A potential candidate for those not around (back then) was something that turned up in the WU you returned, and it might be ET.

I was here in '01.

The stats were great. There were pretty pictures and there were numbers, and there were counts of this and that, and they did give the illusion that progress was being made.

Maybe that's what we really crave, smoke and mirrors.

The NTPCKR should produce some interesting results. I'm looking forward to that, even if it doesn't actually show "progress."

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SETI is a very cool project to be participating in…no doubt!

MikeO, if you where here back in 01, you should remember all the stats SETI had. The list was long and the excitement great.

The feeling was (to me and many others) “I crunched a WU that might be a potential candidate“…wow. A potential candidate for those not around (back then) was something that turned up in the WU you returned, and it might be ET.

Now just silence. No stats from SETI.

Please donate and keep crunching is the SETI motto now.

I read a while back that SETI wanted to hire a new guy and it would cost about 50K a year…WHY?

Berkeley is a college. Want some help and short of funds, offer 4 credits (that’s 4 college credits) to people who will do the work for free!

Here are only a couple course objectives that could be considered:

1. Create a stat table that show potential signal candidates for WU’s returned by participants.

Want someone to come in on weekends and stay over night in case things break down? Here is another course objective:

2. Monitor activity nightly for potential contact while developing a Version 15.0 BOINC application.

I’m just throwing out a couple here but the possibilities are endless. (I’ve mentioned many before)

3. Here are 2 for MikeO:
A. Create colors that enhance and attract new participants to SETI.
B. Create sky charts showing………

If anyone thinks these course objectives are in any way laughable and not college type courses, pick up a State College course list in your area.

Here is one course Berkeley is offering: “The Found Object”. The objective of this course is: “Explore the possibilities of making art from used, discarded, discovered, demolished and recovered objects and material“. Heck, I just threw some mashed potatoes on a flier from WalMart that was in my trash- can…looks like an “A” to me!

Giving people ONLY credits, (which symbolize nothing scientific), in a Science Based Project is probably the main reason people are leaving, in my brilliant opinion.

Live long and Flounder………….if dats what you choose

I too was very excited at first but I just did not see where any of it was worth tying up my computer. I have a much better additude now that I have been trying to understand more of the 'big picture'. I really liked the screen saver.. simple but very tasteful and I like the current one.. even if I dont run it very often.. it eats processing power.
50k is an amazing amount of pay. I wonder what the duties would be for that kind of earnings. I wonder what skills it takes.
I don't want to add any more load on Eric, Matt and them. I know their time is mostly devoted to splitting the tapes from Arecibo and maintaining 'the closet' I just want to see things a little more upbeat and informative. I don't see adding some one short of them taking on a boat load of responsabilities, requiring 50k/year. Good lord! If thats entry level pay.. I really picked the wrong industry to work in ;)

I have asked in the forums a few times where the file splitter data is coming from that is posted on the server status page to use in my own project and have got NO responses from anyone at seti. heres a link to what I have done with the server stats xml that I can get from the seti server. http://tnmshouse.com/xml_trans.php its done in flash so it may take sometime to load for dialup users. That kind of graphics is what I'm talking about but done with java or the language of choice for who ever would be doing it. The pages need not be as colorful as my project to have great impact on first time visitors.
I agree that the clients should be on the latest version. There should of been an auto update notification in the original software but there is no reason why that could not be done now so in the future.. one or two years, most clients will be getting updates automatically.
Its late and my mind will be thinking about this place as I try to drift off to sleep. I'm sticking with SETI until I cant aford the cost of running the computers 24/7. Im not here for the credits although I look to see if my computers are doing well.. I have stats in my signiture because so many do and it does add some sorta gratification seeing what I have gotten done.

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Not Ready Reading BRAIN. Abort/Retry/Fail?

[snip]

I too was very excited at first but I just did not see where any of it was worth tying up my computer. I have a much better attitude now that I have been trying to understand more of the 'big picture'. I really liked the screen saver.. simple but very tasteful and I like the current one.. even if I don't run it very often.. it eats processing power.
50k is an amazing amount of pay. I wonder what the duties would be for that kind of earnings. I wonder what skills it takes.
I don't want to add any more load on Eric, Matt and them. I know their time is mostly devoted to splitting the tapes from Arecibo and maintaining 'the closet' I just want to see things a little more upbeat and informative. I don't see adding some one short of them taking on a boat load of responsibilities, requiring 50k/year. Good lord! If thats entry level pay.. I really picked the wrong industry to work in ;)

I have asked in the forums a few times where the file splitter data is coming from that is posted on the server status page to use in my own project and have got NO responses from anyone at seti. heres a link to what I have done with the server stats xml that I can get from the seti server. http://tnmshouse.com/xml_trans.php its done in flash so it may take sometime to load for dialup users. That kind of graphics is what I'm talking about but done with java or the language of choice for who ever would be doing it. The pages need not be as colorful as my project to have great impact on first time visitors.
I agree that the clients should be on the latest version. There should of been an auto update notification in the original software but there is no reason why that could not be done now so in the future.. one or two years, most clients will be getting updates automatically.
Its late and my mind will be thinking about this place as I try to drift off to sleep. I'm sticking with SETI until I cant afford the cost of running the computers 24/7. I'm not here for the credits although I look to see if my computers are doing well.. I have stats in my signature because so many do and it does add some sorta gratification seeing what I have gotten done.

Your link(url) is very nice, But some browsers can't see Your flash enabled content as they have no flash plugin as Adobe has not seen to support 64 bit web browsers(Firefox and others) with a working plugin, If Microsoft were to buy Adobe there would be one. Having an alternate page load that is in HTML instead of flash only after detecting no flash plugin would be a good idea until a flash plugin is one day developed by Adobe, That's If Adobe ever does make a 64 bit flash plugin. :(

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

heres a link to what I have done with the server stats xml that I can get from the seti server. http://tnmshouse.com/xml_trans.php its done in flash so it may take sometime to load for dialup users.

Mike your page looks very well, nice work!

John.

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50k is an amazing amount of pay. I wonder what the duties would be for that kind of earnings. I wonder what skills it takes.
...

50K is the cost to the project, not the pay to the employee. Retirement plan, Social Security, Medicare, Berkeley administrative overhead.....

                                                                 Joe

I agree that the clients should be on the latest version. There should of been an auto update notification in the original software but there is no reason why that could not be done now so in the future.. one or two years, most clients will be getting updates automatically.

The big danger is upgrading BOINC from a supported version to an unsupported version on a given platform.

Do it wrong and you lose a cruncher.

There is also a security question: a virus or trojan (a virus or trojan project?) could trick BOINC into upgrading from an unauthorized site, and loading an unauthorized version. Spamming@Home anyone? (Oh, I forgot, we already have that project: the client is called NetSky).

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I read a while back that SETI wanted to hire a new guy and it would cost about 50K a year…WHY?

Because the employee needs a desk, and office space and the office space needs lights and A/C and a computer. The employee gets benefits (healthcare, retirement), and the University needs buy liability insurance to protect the employee if something happens, and to protect itself. There are costs involved in payroll, and HR.

As a rule of thumb, the cost of having an employee is roughly the same as his salary. If the budget is $50k, the salary is around $25k.

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I agree that the clients should be on the latest version. There should of been an auto update notification in the original software but there is no reason why that could not be done now so in the future.. one or two years, most clients will be getting updates automatically.

The big danger is upgrading BOINC from a supported version to an unsupported version on a given platform.

Do it wrong and you lose a cruncher.

There is also a security question: a virus or Trojan (a virus or Trojan project?) could trick BOINC into upgrading from an unauthorized site, and loading an unauthorized version. Spamming@Home anyone? (Oh, I forgot, we already have that project: the client is called NetSky).

Just what We need another virtual army of spammers running 24/7, yuck. Couldn't agree more Ned.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

We have moved a little off topic here....