hi, just downloaded the BOINC software and i guess its doing its thing as i can see from the pop out view and screensaver mode. My question i guess is how am i actually helping or contributing to this project? I dont understand what my computer here has to do with picking up a signal, dont they just go back to the SETI headquaters anyways?

Start by reading http://seticlassic.ssl.berkeley.edu/about_seti/about_seti_at_home_1.html

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Thanks. That was really helpful. Guess i should have read that first huh? lol. I only did this because i saw it on a tv show Alien Encounters where they are acting as if we make REAL contact with an extraterestrial civilazation. They showed the person using this software so i thought it'd be cool to try it too. Well, much luck to SETI. They can " barrow " my computer then. lol.

Alien Encounters have a partnership with the SETI Institute, which has no affiliation to SETI@home, and to my knowledge has never advertised for SETI@home, though many people think they are one and the same.

well thats how i got here and looks EXACTLY like the same screensaver program that was on the show...either way this is cool

Alien Encounters have a partnership with the SETI Institute, which has no affiliation to SETI@home, and to my knowledge has never advertised for SETI@home, though many people think they are one and the same.

I wouldn't call it an "ad", but this is the show I think all these folks refer to. The show's producers are the ones tying the Institute and S@H together. Sort of a fictionalized non-fiction version of the movie "Contact". And, IMO HUGELY misleading in terms of S@H's function.

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