2 Others in the top 20 Hosts with stars the last time I looked.
I have been shamed into a donation.
Don't wan't to upset the Special Relationship between our 2 nations.

LOL

Dave

---

jeebers time flies when you're having fun. didn't realise it but now donated...shiny green thing should be back during the week...donation no 50420

---

I just took a look at the top 20 participants. Besides Mike, few have even one post to the boards. Several have their computers hidden. Of those that show them, half have so many machines that they must have gone to the boss, or are the boss, and signed up every computer at work. They are crunching to find ET, not for a RAC. As to the rest, perhaps they are the ones Mike is talking about, special purpose crunch box owners. But we don't know that they all haven't donated but simply don't want the world to know about it.

You can feed this alien for just 25 cents a day ... Humor works as an advertising strategy.

---

A problem I see with a strictly proportional donation system is that those of us with lesser systems may end up being assigned to donate tiny abouts e.g less-than $/£/€1 which may not be 'worth' it...

Leave it to the individual.

I think even a friendly discussion on the issue will spur on people to give the odd $/£/€10.

Maybe one post in this 'funny' thread.


Luke, it would be well if you would post also the message URL of the message from an other thread which you take for to open a new thread.
Here it is:
[http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=54639&nowrap=true#946999]_message_946999
Nobody take the time for to search a post in an other big thread.
So a copied message can - took out of an other whole thread - misunderstood/misinterpreted.


Richard, O.K., so I can write only for the german europeans..

We (germans) say "Kreditkarte" for a plastic card with many many numbers on it for a bank account with 'repayment rate'.
Also for a plastic card which take one time in month the payed money from the home bank account (maybe without 'repayment rate').
Then we have the "EC Karte". If we pay in a shop - one day, normally up to ~ 5 days later - this money will took from your home bank account.
In Germany the mostly used plastic card is the "EC Karte". This card is the mostly used card in Europe.
AFAIK - IIRC.


Blurf, I didn't meant that people with RAC < 10,000 shouldn't post in the Milestone thread.
I posted this upper mentioned message in the Milestone thread - because of one, two, three.. members which.. yes, I don't know.. why they posted this.. I understood this like this that people with high RAC (and this high RAC come from CUDA graphic cards) shouldn't post in the 'original Milestone thread'.
They should open a new thread for 'CUDA graphic card Milestones'.

This were/are 'only' members which posted their opinions.
But if Siran d'Vel'nahr (the 'owner' of the Milestone thread) would agree with the few other members - then I couldn't/wouldn't post again in this 'original Milestone thread'.
Because my RAC is > 10,000 .



BTW.
Here are people with high RAC and people with small RAC.
AND?
Where is the prob?
If I would crunch only with my first PC (AMD Athlon 600) which have a RAC maybe of 40, then I would be more welcome in this forum, because of nostalgic reasons?
Why damn the technical progress?
The best RAC/wattage ratio you have with a graphic card.
1x OCed GTX260-216 and ~ 13,000 RAC with ~ 130 - 150 wattage additional to the current PC. (One Core-CPU PC ~ 100 - 150 W depend of age = 300 W)
For this you would need 3x CPU-Quads (maybe 3 x 200 W = 600 W) with much many more wattage.


Every RAC is welcome, everbody give this what he can and/or want.

---

Sorry I brought it up again.........
I really shouldn't have, I guess.

You all donate in one form or another, or you wouldn't be reading these forums.

Guess it's my problem, expecting others to live up to my standards. I've always been that way. Expecting others to live up to my expectations. Few can manage it.

Don't be dismayed if you can't.

I'll just lower the bar and let you all jump over it.

Simplest solution.

---

"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

We have many people who crunch with minimal farm capabilities or even a single laptop/desktop. EVERY PERSON'S CRUNCHING IS POSITIVE--you limit that and it'll drive people away-guaranteed.

A thought might be to, next time those funding letters go out, take the credits earned and divide by the cost of the project so each person know how much they should send in based on what they are doing. I don't know if that would work or backfire. Heck maybe a picture of a baby alien and a suggestion of how much a day to feed them ...

I agree. And if you force people to donate will it have to be on a sliding scale (just like our taxes!) - the more work you crunch the more you have to donate. Good luck then keeping Nez. ;)

---

me@rescam.org

I tried to donate some time ago but I did no have a credit card and Paypal was not accepted. I am in the UK so an international money transfer was the only option, I looked at the problems with this and decided it was too complicated. This is an online project, if you want people to donate make it easy. I have been with the project since 1999 but it if it is to complicated to donate you will loose out.

For various reasons I now have a credit card, but if I cannot donate without one I am not interested.

MAKE IT EASY TO DONATE.

---

I tried to donate some time ago but I did no have a credit card and Paypal was not accepted. I am in the UK so an international money transfer was the only option, I looked at the problems with this and decided it was too complicated. This is an online project, if you want people to donate make it easy. I have been with the project since 1999 but it if it is to complicated to donate you will loose out.

For various reasons I now have a credit card, but if I cannot donate without one I am not interested.

MAKE IT EASY TO DONATE.

Bernie,

Since I know you didn't read this earlier in the thread.

SETI@Home gets a whole bunch of services from the University of California. Things like office space, personnel functions, etc. and part of that bundle is accounting, and the Campus Donations office.

They can take the whole bundle, or none of it.

So, if Campus Donations has said "no" then they either have to leave the U.C. (which would be a mistake) or they have to go along with it.

NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU CAPITALIZE, SETI@HOME CAN'T CHANGE IT.

I outlined earlier some ideas that people have used to donate, that worked. I remember one person in the U.K. found a relatively inexpensive "money card" that had a Mastercard or Visa number. Seem to remember it was easy to "fund" so he could use it for more than one donation.

-- Ned

---

Please keep it topic. Mayans don't have the ability to donate yet, and apparently, neither do 99.99% of us, according to November donations.

---

- Luke.

Please keep it topic. Mayans don't have the ability to donate yet, and apparently, neither do 99.99% of us, according to November donations.

Actually, the descendants of the Mayan empire still live in Mexico, and Mexico has credit cards, so it'd be no problem for them.

Which is my point: I think a lot of us think we can't donate, when it is in fact possible.

It just takes a little creativity.

Might be good for someone to add a note to the donations page that "credit cards" in this context include "prepaid" cards and debit cards issued by Visa and Mastercard.

---

That was me Ned. Had problems with paypal & Western Union (Charges too high)

You mentioned Prepaid cards & I managed to secure a good one with very reasonable charges. It was Virgin Money Mastercard....

---

I'd prefer to give $10 to help starving or less well off people in other parts of the world....I'll donate cpu cycles and pay electricity bills to support this project.

I think that is enough.

But anyone else is more than free to do whatever they like in regards to the project.

And yes I'm serious.

Donated USD 25 in May using UK Ba****** Bank Connect card. All the 25 goes to UC Berkeley and total cost to me was commision of 48 pence. Cannot believe other UK banks would cost much more. Competion is high.

Jim

---

Oh, and I even managed to stop Berkeley wasting money sending tax credits lol

---

IMHO S@H will not survive for more than 2 years, donations or no donations. The only way S@H will survive is if we find something. For that you need the mega-crunchers like those at the top of the "top hosts" lists. The 486's etc, cute as they are, just won't cut it.

Nice bit of inspiration there ;).

A group of rich investors/speculators tried to beat the lottery once. They bought almost as many tickets as the jackpot was worth. It didn't work and they lost more than they made on the deal.

Finding ET is just luck of the draw. Who gets the magic WU? Sure the big crunchers have the better chance but there's no guarantee it won't be some new guy that hits it just right on his first try.

---

PROUD MEMBER OF Team Starfire World BOINC

IMHO S@H will not survive for more than 2 years, donations or no donations.

Considering it's been going for 10years, the only reasons it would finish up in 2 years is
1 we find something out there or
2 it runs out of funding.

---

Grant
Darwin NT

IMHO S@H will not survive for more than 2 years, donations or no donations. The only way S@H will survive is if we find something. For that you need the mega-crunchers like those at the top of the "top hosts" lists. The 486's etc, cute as they are, just won't cut it.

Finding ET is mostly dependent on NTPCKR. Without extra Staff NTPCKR development often falls to lower priority due to whichever server issues (Which also pops up due to lack of Staff).

Some things most do not realize is Seti drives developement for Linux and MySQL. For Enterprise Class servers that run under heavy load, certain things have to happen. There have been times in Matt's posts to the Tech News, statements were made "it" (the current problem) was sent to either developement group.
Then on occasions Intel drops some hardware (experimental/preproduction) on the loading dock to stress (mork).

As for the Mega Cunchers creating more results to sift through improving the chances that the WoW Signal is in the Master Science Database. Who is to say that the Wow Signal was not processed by a 486 CPU...

Life expectancy of Seti? Apathy is the big killer, it is not that it can be proven that ET Does or Does Not Exist. It is finding enough people who believe that can provide what is needed to keep Seti Alive. People crunching is only one element.

What is needed?
Software Developers - Boinc (server) and Science Applications (Seti)
Hardware - look that the Server names on the Status Page
Workstations - Scientist and Developers have to have someplace to work
Floor Space - modestly provided by UCB
Electricity - I am glad I do not see that electric bill every month
Internet - Paid out the Budget
A Source of Data to process
A way to analyze the Data that is processed.

* So for Donations or Grants UCB takes a modest percentage for the floor space and electricity. Salary is complex mixed issue.

Then Users to process the Data (everyone of us)
- One user with "a computer" connected to the Internet that has a few CPU cycles to spare. So as the software is designed, it will run on a "minimum and a maximum platform.

So as the last few years have passed, it has been on a few users that have found a way to contribute both their time, computer(s) and a bit of cash that allows the doors to stay open. No one is forcing anyone to contribute. Most that could/would be hoped that those that can afford to donate can.

Regards

---

Please consider a Donation to the Seti Project.