Bits (Jun 11 2008)

Message boards : Technical News : Bits (Jun 11 2008)

Author	Message
Matt Lebofsky Volunteer moderator Project administrator Project developer Project scientist Send message Joined: 1 Mar 99 Posts: 1375 Credit: 74,079 RAC: 0	Message 766361 - Posted: 11 Jun 2008, 21:25:25 UTC
	Some general BOINC code got updated on our servers this morning, which broke a couple things (some pages went blank, and the php "magic quotes" got messed up causing all kinds of backslashes to appear everywhere). I whined to Dave and he fixed it, which is usually how these particular problems sort themselves out. The problem with the web code is that it is being completely or partially used by all kinds of BOINC projects, so a "fix" for one project may end up unexpectedly being a "bug" for another, which is why this kind of thing happens from time to time. We try to keep SETI@home as up to date with the BOINC source tree as possible, even if that means we're on the "bleeding edge." Of course this is all web code, so problems like these are cosmetic and relatively minor in the grand scheme of things. We do more thorough alpha/beta testing of the important back-end functions - you know, the ones that update millions of database records every day. Other than that today has seen more OS installs/RAID manipulations on various donated servers that have been anxiously waiting their call to duty (I got beyond the issues I was having yesterday). Slowly but surely we'll get these up and running. I also got a bunch of data drives from Arecibo - it's been a while we got a batch of fresh data up here, so I'm now lost in data pipeline management mode. - Matt ____________ -- BOINC/SETI@home network/web/science/development person -- "Any idiot can have a good idea. What is hard is to do it." - Jeanne-Claude
	ID: 766361 ·

Dr. C.E.T.I. Send message Joined: 29 Feb 00 Posts: 15969 Credit: 626,061 RAC: 252	Message 766460 - Posted: 11 Jun 2008, 23:43:07 UTC
	. . . Each of You @ Berkeley deserve a great big kudo's and Thanks for keepin' up w/ the Updates Matt . . . ____________ BOINC Wiki . . . Science Status Page . . .
	ID: 766460 ·

Gary Charpentier Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 25 Dec 00 Posts: 10334 Credit: 5,112,013 RAC: 6,541	Message 766498 - Posted: 12 Jun 2008, 0:04:33 UTC - in response to Message 766361.
	Some general BOINC code got updated on our servers this morning, which broke a couple things (some pages went blank, and the php "magic quotes" got messed up causing all kinds of backslashes to appear everywhere). I whined to Dave and he fixed it, which is usually how these particular problems sort themselves out. The problem with the web code is that it is being completely or partially used by all kinds of BOINC projects, so a "fix" for one project may end up unexpectedly being a "bug" for another, which is why this kind of thing happens from time to time. We try to keep SETI@home as up to date with the BOINC source tree as possible, even if that means we're on the "bleeding edge." Of course this is all web code, so problems like these are cosmetic and relatively minor in the grand scheme of things. We do more thorough alpha/beta testing of the important back-end functions - you know, the ones that update millions of database records every day. Other than that today has seen more OS installs/RAID manipulations on various donated servers that have been anxiously waiting their call to duty (I got beyond the issues I was having yesterday). Slowly but surely we'll get these up and running. I also got a bunch of data drives from Arecibo - it's been a while we got a batch of fresh data up here, so I'm now lost in data pipeline management mode. - Matt FYI it isn't all fixed yet. The link off the home page to the Tech News loads up a blank page. Gary ____________
	ID: 766498 ·

David John Wright Send message Joined: 11 Oct 04 Posts: 5 Credit: 93,034 RAC: 0	Message 766653 - Posted: 12 Jun 2008, 4:23:49 UTC Last modified: 12 Jun 2008, 4:26:41 UTC
	After all this time and all the massive amounts of info our computers are feeding back to you, do you think radio waves are not the way to contact E.T. After all the billons of computer data, what have you found? nothing I'm no scientist but I believe in E.T life- surely they would contact us. So why no contact. I feel we are too robotic in our thinking, these are highly intelligent beings i.e complex crop circles I feel show a link with our megalithic circles and ley lines. If E.T wanted us to communicate the scientific way 'seti' would be there along time ago. Our ancestors knew more so lets look more towards Paganism, dreams, higher conciousness, earth energies etc David
	ID: 766653 ·

Gary Charpentier Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 25 Dec 00 Posts: 10334 Credit: 5,112,013 RAC: 6,541	Message 766694 - Posted: 12 Jun 2008, 5:08:23 UTC - in response to Message 766653.
	After all this time and all the massive amounts of info our computers are feeding back to you, do you think radio waves are not the way to contact E.T. After all the billons of computer data, what have you found? nothing I'm no scientist but I believe in E.T life- surely they would contact us. So why no contact. I feel we are too robotic in our thinking, these are highly intelligent beings i.e complex crop circles I feel show a link with our megalithic circles and ley lines. If E.T wanted us to communicate the scientific way 'seti' would be there along time ago. Our ancestors knew more so lets look more towards Paganism, dreams, higher conciousness, earth energies etc David They may well use radio, just something like spread spectrum which we don't have the means to detect today at inter-stellar never mind inter-galactic distances. They may be more paranoid than we are and are making sure their signals can't get to us. Then there is the all important time factor. As we look out into space we look back in time, so ET will have had less time to evolve than we did and may not be smarter than we are. Of course there is the radio lifetime of a civilization. We know ours is about 100 years so far. We don't know, and considering global warming, it is possible that ET may have had to go back to an agrarian civilization to keep going. We after all already had the dark ages so we know going backwards is possible. I know that ET is out there. I just don't know if he is a bacteria or something with a brain. Speaking of things like finding ET, has anyone done a paper on the expected search time to find ET given various factors in Drake's equation, transmitter power, receiver sensitivity, and so on? Gary ____________
	ID: 766694 ·

suf Send message Joined: 22 May 99 Posts: 39 Credit: 960,732 RAC: 0	Message 766993 - Posted: 12 Jun 2008, 19:01:00 UTC - in response to Message 766694.
	After all this time and all the massive amounts of info our computers are feeding back to you, do you think radio waves are not the way to contact E.T. After all the billons of computer data, what have you found? nothing I'm no scientist but I believe in E.T life- surely they would contact us. So why no contact. I feel we are too robotic in our thinking, these are highly intelligent beings i.e complex crop circles I feel show a link with our megalithic circles and ley lines. If E.T wanted us to communicate the scientific way 'seti' would be there along time ago. Our ancestors knew more so lets look more towards Paganism, dreams, higher conciousness, earth energies etc David They may well use radio, just something like spread spectrum which we don't have the means to detect today at inter-stellar never mind inter-galactic distances. They may be more paranoid than we are and are making sure their signals can't get to us. Then there is the all important time factor. As we look out into space we look back in time, so ET will have had less time to evolve than we did and may not be smarter than we are. Of course there is the radio lifetime of a civilization. We know ours is about 100 years so far. We don't know, and considering global warming, it is possible that ET may have had to go back to an agrarian civilization to keep going. We after all already had the dark ages so we know going backwards is possible. I know that ET is out there. I just don't know if he is a bacteria or something with a brain. Speaking of things like finding ET, has anyone done a paper on the expected search time to find ET given various factors in Drake's equation, transmitter power, receiver sensitivity, and so on? Gary Someone has said (approximately): "The best proof that there is intelligent life out there is the fact that they have NOT contacted us..." ____________
	ID: 766993 ·

Keith T. Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 23 Aug 99 Posts: 738 Credit: 230,190 RAC: 3	Message 767011 - Posted: 12 Jun 2008, 19:55:02 UTC Last modified: 12 Jun 2008, 20:09:31 UTC
	The server time sync seems to be slightly out by > 1 minute. My system clock has just been synchronised and I will post this message @ 19:55:00 UTC. [EDIT] The web server seems to be in sync now, but the download server and scheduler may be out of time sync. [/EDIT]
	ID: 767011 ·

Matt Lebofsky Volunteer moderator Project administrator Project developer Project scientist Send message Joined: 1 Mar 99 Posts: 1375 Credit: 74,079 RAC: 0	Message 767021 - Posted: 12 Jun 2008, 20:09:28 UTC - in response to Message 767011.
	Duly noted: the scheduling server was off by a couple minutes - fixed that. - Matt The server time sync seems to be slightly out by > 1 minute. My system clock has just been synchronised and I will post this message @ 19:55:00 UTC. [EDIT] The web server seems to be in sync, but the download server and sheduler may be out of time sync. [/EDIT] ____________ -- BOINC/SETI@home network/web/science/development person -- "Any idiot can have a good idea. What is hard is to do it." - Jeanne-Claude
	ID: 767021 ·

KWSN THE Holy Hand Grenade! Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 20 Dec 05 Posts: 1596 Credit: 4,436,261 RAC: 3,952	Message 767023 - Posted: 12 Jun 2008, 20:13:56 UTC Last modified: 12 Jun 2008, 20:15:21 UTC
	Quick note: the "Tech News" link from the home page is broken! (came thru "community" link instead...) [edit] as of this writing, of course... [/edit] ____________ .
	ID: 767023 ·

Fred J. Verster Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 21 Apr 04 Posts: 3232 Credit: 31,585,541 RAC: 1	Message 767039 - Posted: 12 Jun 2008, 21:02:12 UTC - in response to Message 766694. Last modified: 12 Jun 2008, 21:14:30 UTC
	SNIP Of course there is the radio lifetime of a civilization. We know ours is about 100 years so far. We don't know, and considering global warming, it is possible that ET may have had to go back to an agrarian civilization to keep going. We after all already had the dark ages so we know going backwards is possible. I know that ET is out there. I just don't know if he is a bacteria or something with a brain. Speaking of things like finding ET, has anyone done a paper on the expected search time to find ET given various factors in Drake's equation, transmitter power, receiver sensitivity, and so on? Gary Quite a lot off thinking, f.e. a defenition of E.T. And what do we consider life? And certainly something with a brain!, how could it make itself aware or search thereselfs to other lifeforms.And how will we find it? But that too, is something we expect from E.T.But weknow in fact nothing off 'them'.Only assumption and speculation. We expect 'it' to be intelligent, in a way, that is. If 'they' would live in the stone age, it's not expected to receive any signals. But we don't know how many lightyears* a signal is on it's way, we do know, [i]where the signal came from and then do some math to establish it's distance. If, if . . . . There are theories that state, life comes from large [i]meteor inpact's?! After a number off lightyears, this radio signal dissolves in space . . .* Just like light does, it faints away.(Don't know the exact number) ____________ Knight Who Says Ni N!, OUT numbered.................
	ID: 767039 ·

Matt Lebofsky Volunteer moderator Project administrator Project developer Project scientist Send message Joined: 1 Mar 99 Posts: 1375 Credit: 74,079 RAC: 0	Message 767047 - Posted: 12 Jun 2008, 21:18:27 UTC - in response to Message 767023.
	Also duly noted... and fixed. Quick note: the "Tech News" link from the home page is broken! (came thru "community" link instead...) [edit] as of this writing, of course... [/edit] ____________ -- BOINC/SETI@home network/web/science/development person -- "Any idiot can have a good idea. What is hard is to do it." - Jeanne-Claude
	ID: 767047 ·

KWSN THE Holy Hand Grenade! Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 20 Dec 05 Posts: 1596 Credit: 4,436,261 RAC: 3,952	Message 767054 - Posted: 12 Jun 2008, 21:33:39 UTC - in response to Message 767039. Last modified: 12 Jun 2008, 21:36:59 UTC
	SNIP Of course there is the radio lifetime of a civilization. We know ours is about 100 years so far. We don't know, and considering global warming, it is possible that ET may have had to go back to an agrarian civilization to keep going. We after all already had the dark ages so we know going backwards is possible. I know that ET is out there. I just don't know if he is a bacteria or something with a brain. Speaking of things like finding ET, has anyone done a paper on the expected search time to find ET given various factors in Drake's equation, transmitter power, receiver sensitivity, and so on? Gary [snip] After a number off lightyears, this radio signal dissolves in space . . .* Just like light does, it faints away.(Don't know the exact number) As I mention on another thread: radio signals do NOT "dissolve"!, they disperse! This is why we are able to see stars that are many light years away. Think of radio waves as very long wavelength light waves - if we can see ET's star, we'll be able to receive his/her/its radio signals, assuming there are any. (some civilizations may not broadcast radio - some may be entirely copper based, like Earth's communications b4 Marconi.) ____________ .
	ID: 767054 ·

Fred W Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 13 Jun 99 Posts: 2524 Credit: 11,954,210 RAC: 0	Message 767673 - Posted: 13 Jun 2008, 23:38:27 UTC Last modified: 13 Jun 2008, 23:38:41 UTC
	@Matt, You don't mention anything about having tweaked the validators, but reported WU's are validating instantaneously today whereas there has been a noticeable delay of up to a minute between reporting and validation over recent weeks. Whatever you did, nice one sir. F. ____________
	ID: 767673 ·

Message boards : Technical News : Bits (Jun 11 2008)