I will probably leave SETI eventually because on a recent TV show they said and I'm paraphrasing here that Seti@Home probably won't ever be successful because once radio signals get about a lightyear out they dissipate into the ether.

I'm too lazy too change any of my clients right now and search for a project that would better benefit humanity so I will just hang out here for a while.

They were talking about signals like TV broadcasts. Not systems that use directional antenna.
If a UHF transmitter is connected to a 60 foot diameter parabolic reflector antenna the signal is focused into a beam less that 1 degree wide and it would effectively increase the transmitters output by about 40,000 times, but only within the beam.
Just the same as a torch or car headlight.

Or a Laser beam for that matter.

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

If you look at the Top 100 multi-project BOINC participants on BOINC URL, you will see that many do not crunch for SETI........maybe someone should ask them why.

OK ... according to that list i'm in the top 100 and seem to be qualified to reply ...BOINC TOP LIST

88. Crunch3r is contributing 260 GFLOPS.
Country: Germany; Team: SETI.USA


1. credits suck
2. continuing server issues
3. see jeffusa's post

Well you are listed in the credits for making #1 not true any more...Thanks.

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Official Abuser of Boinc Buttons...
And no good credit hound!

Hmmm.. it's been 298 days since I posted anything on here. Anyway, I'm still crunching away. Just installed the latest Windows version of Boinc. Yeah, I haven't checked what the newest version was in quite awhile. Think I was running 5.10.30.

I look at my stats and the messages every so often and that's about it. I'll probably keep on crunching until the plug is pulled on the project.

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There is information about what is going on with the science within the project. It is both here on this site though the organization is not that great and there have been few updates. There is also material in the UBW, some of it copies of this site and some original material.

The issue is back to where do we collect official documentation and how should it be organized. Years after I proposed concentrating the information we now have 3 main wikis and hosts of FAQs ...

Since the main gateway into the documentation does not point to a set of useful links, well, ...

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I will probably leave SETI eventually because on a recent TV show they said and I'm paraphrasing here that Seti@Home probably won't ever be successful because once radio signals get about a lightyear out they dissipate into the ether.

Of course if you don't look, then you're even less likely to find anything.

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Grant
Darwin NT

I will probably leave SETI eventually because on a recent TV show they said and I'm paraphrasing here that Seti@Home probably won't ever be successful because once radio signals get about a lightyear out they dissipate into the ether.

I hesitate to contradict such an authoritative source of scientific information as the TV ;) but somebody was apparently confused: ether theories were abandoned by most physicists about a century ago. The range of EM radiation in vacuo is believed to be essentially unlimited. As the distance between source & receiver increases, signals get weaker WRT background noise but don’t entirely disappear unless absorbed by intervening matter. Radio- & microwave-frequency radiation is routinely detected from far beyond our Galaxy, at ranges of millions, even billions, of light-years; indeed, many deep-space objects are only (or mainly) known from their emissions in these bands.

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One reason why people are coming back, is the recent windows port of the AK code. I know I've fired it up for a run on 1 computer.

I will probably leave SETI eventually because on a recent TV show they said and I'm paraphrasing here that Seti@Home probably won't ever be successful because once radio signals get about a lightyear out they dissipate into the ether.

I hesitate to contradict such an authoritative source of scientific information as the TV ;) but somebody was apparently confused: ether theories were abandoned by most physicists about a century ago. The range of EM radiation in vacuo is believed to be essentially unlimited. As the distance between source & receiver increases, signals get weaker WRT background noise but don’t entirely disappear unless absorbed by intervening matter. Radio- & microwave-frequency radiation is routinely detected from far beyond our Galaxy, at ranges of millions, even billions, of light-years; indeed, many deep-space objects are only (or mainly) known from their emissions in these bands.

It was a scientific based TV special called "Life After People" on the History channel. http://www.history.com/minisites/life_after_people I found it highly fascinating.

One thing they touched upon is that if human life disappears what would happen to the stuff we have sent into outer space. They said that all of our radio and tv signals would basically disappear after a light year or so. They don't just keep transmitting forever. Mind you I may not be using the correct technical term but that is what they said. This same problem is what will cause us to lose communication with satellites eventually that have left the solar system.

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I will probably leave SETI eventually because on a recent TV show they said and I'm paraphrasing here that Seti@Home probably won't ever be successful because once radio signals get about a lightyear out they dissipate into the ether.

I hesitate to contradict such an authoritative source of scientific information as the TV ;) but somebody was apparently confused: ether theories were abandoned by most physicists about a century ago. The range of EM radiation in vacuo is believed to be essentially unlimited. As the distance between source & receiver increases, signals get weaker WRT background noise but don’t entirely disappear unless absorbed by intervening matter. Radio- & microwave-frequency radiation is routinely detected from far beyond our Galaxy, at ranges of millions, even billions, of light-years; indeed, many deep-space objects are only (or mainly) known from their emissions in these bands.

It was a scientific based TV special called "Life After People" on the History channel. http://www.history.com/minisites/life_after_people I found it highly fascinating.

One thing they touched upon is that if human life disappears what would happen to the stuff we have sent into outer space. They said that all of our radio and tv signals would basically disappear after a light year or so. They don't just keep transmitting forever. Mind you I may not be using the correct technical term but that is what they said. This same problem is what will cause us to lose communication with satellites eventually that have left the solar system.

I hope it wasn't "scientific-based" in the same way Survivor is "reality-based."

The odds of finding something are pretty small. We're looking for something incredibly small over a huge volume.

But, what if we find it? How incredibly remarkable will that be? How much will life change if we have clear proof that we're not alone.

So, I keep crunching.

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I will probably leave SETI eventually because on a recent TV show they said and I'm paraphrasing here that Seti@Home probably won't ever be successful because once radio signals get about a lightyear out they dissipate into the ether.

I hesitate to contradict such an authoritative source of scientific information as the TV ;) but somebody was apparently confused: ether theories were abandoned by most physicists about a century ago. The range of EM radiation in vacuo is believed to be essentially unlimited. As the distance between source & receiver increases, signals get weaker WRT background noise but don’t entirely disappear unless absorbed by intervening matter. Radio- & microwave-frequency radiation is routinely detected from far beyond our Galaxy, at ranges of millions, even billions, of light-years; indeed, many deep-space objects are only (or mainly) known from their emissions in these bands.

It was a scientific based TV special called "Life After People" on the History channel. http://www.history.com/minisites/life_after_people I found it highly fascinating.

One thing they touched upon is that if human life disappears what would happen to the stuff we have sent into outer space. They said that all of our radio and tv signals would basically disappear after a light year or so. They don't just keep transmitting forever. Mind you I may not be using the correct technical term but that is what they said. This same problem is what will cause us to lose communication with satellites eventually that have left the solar system.

I watched that also, I thought it was interesting. But, what I rmeember them saying without people, the orbiting thigs would crash back into the earth....

IMO it was more specultaion then factual.....

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One reason why people are coming back, is the recent windows port of the AK code. I know I've fired it up for a run on 1 computer.

Same here I have 1,329.62 credits pending & my RAC is 118.66. That is the highest ever pending credit I think I've ever had, this is a good thing in my mind. I am willing to dedicate my 2 pc's to this project to help get through some data.

On a recent TV show they said and I'm paraphrasing here that Seti@Home probably won't ever be successful because once radio signals get about a lightyear out they dissipate into the ether.

i would be interested to get Matt's Take on the above post.

Speedy

Has any one considered the constant complaining on the boards to be one of the reasons why people leave the project?

Bringing up stuff is fine but man some of these things are like beating a dead horse.

Like the people complaining about the pending credits increases all the time. I mean who cares, it will get crunched and cleaned up at some point. At the end of the day it will all balance out.

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I really love the way people get stomped and ripped apart for giving their input! :) jeffusa gave his input (which was definitely on topic) as to why he was leaving. I am sure if the TV show made him feel as he does it most likely had a similar impact on other crunchers who may have watched it. It really does not matter whether the show was scientifically accurate or not, you have to consider the impact it had. But no one here gave consideration to that impact because they "know" that it was scientifically inaccurate. After the treatment he just got I am sure jeffusa is now more resolute than ever that he will be quitting.

Jeff, in my opinion you have brought up a legitimate issue. It is one issue that could easily be overcome with a little "education" of the crunching public and I would hope that some one in the admin arena pays heed to it.

I really love the way people get stomped and ripped apart for giving their input! :) jeffusa gave his input (which was definitely on topic) as to why he was leaving.
....
After the treatment he just got I am sure jeffusa is now more resolute than ever that he will be quitting.

Jeff voiced his opinion, others said theirs in response; i can't see where any stomping or ripping apart occured.

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Grant
Darwin NT

Has any one considered the constant complaining on the boards to be one of the reasons why people leave the project?

I have... But I think it has more to do with the economy... ;)

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

I will probably leave SETI eventually because on a recent TV show they said and I'm paraphrasing here that Seti@Home probably won't ever be successful because once radio signals get about a lightyear out they dissipate into the ether.

I hesitate to contradict such an authoritative source of scientific information as the TV ;) but somebody was apparently confused: ether theories were abandoned by most physicists about a century ago. The range of EM radiation in vacuo is believed to be essentially unlimited. As the distance between source & receiver increases, signals get weaker WRT background noise but don’t entirely disappear unless absorbed by intervening matter. Radio- & microwave-frequency radiation is routinely detected from far beyond our Galaxy, at ranges of millions, even billions, of light-years; indeed, many deep-space objects are only (or mainly) known from their emissions in these bands.

It was a scientific based TV special called "Life After People" on the History channel. http://www.history.com/minisites/life_after_people I found it highly fascinating.

One thing they touched upon is that if human life disappears what would happen to the stuff we have sent into outer space. They said that all of our radio and tv signals would basically disappear after a light year or so. They don't just keep transmitting forever. Mind you I may not be using the correct technical term but that is what they said. This same problem is what will cause us to lose communication with satellites eventually that have left the solar system.

I don't think we are specifically looking for the equivalent of relatively low powered communication signals like TV, Radio and Satellite radio waves since they will disperse quite quickly into the background noise level. SETI is looking for relatively high powered signals that 'stray' our way like directional beams, similar to the 'here we are' signal sent out by Arecibo years ago that had the signal strength to go out 50 light years or so (I think) or high strength military signals like radar etc that 'leak' out. Don't forget Arecibo sends out radio waves to bounce off asteroids etc to probe their structure, these signals also miss the asteroid and keep going out into space. If another culture was doing that, we 'might' pick them up. That is what, in reality, we are looking for - but we'll take whatever we can get!

Live long and BOINC!

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Paul
(S@H1 8888)
And proud of it!

After the treatment he just got I am sure jeffusa is now more resolute than ever that he will be quitting.

I hope he isn't that thin-skinned.

As best I can see, no one said "well, you're wrong because you're stupid" or any of the ad-hominem attacks we often see.

... and he's right, the odds of finding anything at all are very small. I believe that there is other life out there, but I'm not sure there is detectable life.

I still like the idea of looking, as apparently do others.

I don't like ad-hominem attacks.

But the suggestion that we can't discuss issues if we stick to the issue and not attack the people for their viewpoints is even worse in my opinion. If we can't discuss ideas, then we need to look deeply into ourselves and ask why.

I commented on the term "science-based" because it suggests that just maybe the people behind the show were putting together a story based on the science, and not presenting the science -- just like the "reality-based" shows shouldn't be mistaken for reality.

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Looks like one of my class mates decided to make up for a bunch of quitters...
"Octavian RUSU" was doing about a 4000 RAC until a week or so ago and now he has cranked it up and is doing over 125,000 a day. Must be a school or something.



Stats

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Official Abuser of Boinc Buttons...
And no good credit hound!

I'm too laxy to look it up, but when did the credit drop? When I was crunching using the KWSN code (it must be a while back) my 3.2GHz Prescott was getting a RAC near 1000. With the new AK port crunch times have reduced but I forecast (based on credit and wu completion times) that this same machine will only get a RAC near 1000 even though the crunch times are over 25% faster than when I started SETI again a week ago. Here is the BOINCstats chart for my SETI credit. I know there is better credit out there....

Looks like this is another reason why people are leaving / have left SETI@home.

Live long and BOINC!

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Paul
(S@H1 8888)
And proud of it!

I'm too laxy to look it up, but when did the credit drop? When I was crunching using the KWSN code (it must be a while back) my 3.2GHz Prescott was getting a RAC near 1000. With the new AK port crunch times have reduced but I forecast (based on credit and wu completion times) that this same machine will only get a RAC near 1000 even though the crunch times are over 25% faster than when I started SETI again a week ago. Here is the BOINCstats chart for my SETI credit. I know there is better credit out there....

Looks like this is another reason why people are leaving / have left SETI@home.

Live long and BOINC!

They cut the heck out of credit last summer it seems and stole back all Simon had given us...Seems that is about the time he left. The project managers don't seem to mind running people off. They will just send out more E-Mails asking you to return...

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Official Abuser of Boinc Buttons...
And no good credit hound!