Posts by edjcox

1) Message boards : Cafe SETI : RIP Stephen Hawking (Message 1924676)
Posted 15 Mar 2018 by Profile edjcox
Post:
Sad to see Stephen have to leave before the arrival he kept predicting and hoping to happen.

Now you know that they are already here and been examining and scouting for decades.

The view SETI as a myopic scientist trying to examine the Biota of the Ocean through a soda straw. Very limited point of view..

Rest now, I'll catch up with you later..
2) Message boards : News : Arecibo Status (Message 1901019)
Posted 14 Nov 2017 by Profile edjcox
Post:
Those of you interested can also visit the Observatory's Facebook page which has some interesting information on status. Also you can try a Skype call if you know anyone there.
https://www.facebook.com/Arecibo.Observatory/

Should allay your fears a bit


Excerpt from NAT GEO

Scientists and ham radio operators have confirmed that the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico—arguably the world’s most iconic radio telescope, which has a dish stretching a thousand feet across—has come through Hurricane Maria mostly intact, but with some significant damage.

More importantly, the observatory’s staff sheltering on-site are safe, and the facility is in good enough condition to potentially serve as a local center for the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, reports Arecibo deputy director Joan Schmelz.

Because of its deep water well and generator, the observatory has been a place for those in nearby towns to gather, shower, and cook after past hurricanes. It also has an on-site helicopter landing pad, so making sure the facility is safe in general is not just of scientific importance, but is also relevant for local relief efforts.


News about the facility has been primarily coming from Arecibo telescope operator Ángel Vazquez, who managed to get to the site and start communicating via short-wave radio in the early evening of September 21.

According to initial reports, the hurricane damaged a smaller, 12-meter dish and it caused substantial damage to the main dish, including about 20 surface tiles that were knocked loose. (Find out why this hurricane season has been so catastrophic.)


Also because of the storm, a 96-foot line feed antenna—which helps focus, receive, and transmit radio waves—broke in half and fell about 500 feet into the huge dish below, puncturing it in several places, says Pennsylvania State University’s Jim Breakall, who talked with Vazquez.

A fixture of the observatory since 1966, that line feed weighs about ten thousand pounds and is easily visible in images of the telescope as the pointy thing hanging off the platform. It was once used to detect mountains on the surface of Venus, and it is still crucial for studies of the part of Earth's atmosphere called the ionosphere, says former observatory director Frank Drake, who is also my dad.

“It allows the Arecibo telescope to achieve the most sensitivity of any radar telescope in the world,” Drake says, noting that it’s not clear how much time or money could be needed for repairs. “The end result is that the telescope will not be fully operative for some time at all wavelengths.”

RADIO QUIET
On September 20, Hurricane Maria came ashore as a Category 4 storm and traversed Puerto Rico, flooding towns, toppling bridges, demolishing buildings and blasting the island with winds exceeding 150 miles an hour.

Even now, nearly 48 hours after Maria went through, reports from many parts of the island are devastatingly sparse. Electricity is nonexistent, phone lines are mostly down, and roads are blocked, complicating both communications and rescue operations.

As it exited the island, Maria’s eye passed within miles of the seaside town of Arecibo—and the giant radio telescope, which is nestled in a sinkhole to the south, set among a bubbling landscape of forested mountains.

Arecibo’s staff had begun hurricane preparations at least a day before, but around 11 p.m. on September 19, power and on-site communications went out. A website keeping track of wind speeds went offline, and though staff promised to continue communicating over cell phones for as long as possible, by 8 a.m. the next day, power and phone lines had gone out, too.

Then, there was nothing but eerie silence for more than 24 hours.

Vazquez, who sheltered at home as the storm passed through, was at last able to make it to the observatory via one access road, check in with the staff there, and relay information to anxious colleagues on the mainland.

“Great news! [Princeton University professor] Joe Taylor talked to Angel Vazquez, who made contact with the observatory via ham radio. Everybody there is safe and sound,” Schmelz reported.

However, it’s not yet clear how staff who weathered the storm in town are doing, or what conditions are like for local communities. Reports suggest that the road up to the facility is covered in debris and is largely inaccessible.

Still, according to the National Science Foundation, which funds the majority of the telescope’s operations, the observatory is well stocked with food, well water, and fuel for generators. As of Thursday night, there are enough supplies for the staff hunkered down there to survive for at least a week, although Vazquez reports that it’s not clear how long the generators will be working.

“As soon as the roads are physically passable, a team will try to get up to the observatory,” the NSF statement says.

STELLAR SCIENCE
Built in 1963, the Arecibo Observatory has become a cultural icon, known both for its size and for its science. For most of its 54-year existence, Arecibo was the largest radio telescope in the world, but in 2016, a Chinese telescope called FAST—with a dish measuring 1,600 feet across—surpassed Arecibo in size, although it’s not yet fully operational.

The observatory was originally designed for national defense during the Cold War, when the U.S. wanted to see if it could detect Soviet satellites (and maybe missiles and bombs) based on how they alter the portion of Earth’s atmosphere called the ionosphere. Later, the telescope became instrumental in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) programs and in other aspects of radio astronomy.
3) Message boards : Number crunching : SETI@home v8.22 Windows GPU applications support thread (Message 1900817)
Posted 13 Nov 2017 by Profile edjcox
Post:
Need some help

I run SETI and Einstein

Lately BOINC seems to run Einstein all the time and SETI is not run regularly at all.

There used to be a way to set the preferences that allowed one to select the percentage of processing per project ie Einstein 50% SETI 50%..
No sure what happened but I cant find that anymore. Perhaps Im getting old but I thought the preferences balanced project useage out unless you set on or the other as heavier weighted.

I know I sound stupid but help would be appreciated.

Thanks
4) Message boards : News : Arecibo Status (Message 1899973)
Posted 9 Nov 2017 by Profile edjcox
Post:
Looking at the sparse communications and totally outdated info on the message boards I get the impression that communication is a low priority even though the entire effort is wrapped up in trying to intercept and identify ET communication that may be out there.

I really ffel a restructure is in order that will put someone on the job of communicating with SETI home users and who will dump old posts into an archive away from the main boards

So there it is.
5) Message boards : News : Arecibo Status (Message 1893120)
Posted 4 Oct 2017 by Profile edjcox
Post:
The workers and families weathered the Hurricane in the structures at the array. The antenna was damaged with a boom falling from the supported antenna structure to the panels below mangling the boom and damaging several reflector panels. The Onion enclosure remains secure although it is feared that antennas within will need realignment as they did in previous high wind event hurricanes. The suspension rigging was not damaged and is being examined to insure site and worker safety.

Costs are not yet determined as damages still need assessment and replacement repair price breakouts calculated.

Arecibo remains difficult to access due to many downed trees, road washouts, and mudslides. Power is running on generators with conservation of diesel being exercised.

The above was gleaned from a news report and interview with the Director of the site.
6) Message boards : Nebula : Anomalies (Message 1872845)
Posted 14 Jun 2017 by Profile edjcox
Post:
Have you considered utilizing optical processing for signal analysis via Bragg cell technology?

Would allow extremely fast analysis.
7) Message boards : News : Free Speech and SETI@home (Message 1864464)
Posted 29 Apr 2017 by Profile edjcox
Post:
May I suggest

Delete the entire lot.
The actions of the irresponsible that elected to use the campus as their war zone I no concern of SETI in any way.

Get rid of it all and ignore it. It will die in the darkness where it belongs.

Have used my CPU's and resources to do this work for a long time. While I do not agree with the methodology the machines still have something to do and who knows we might trip over something.

The above said, I will return to the bliss of white noise analysis looking for the pink if it's there.

Ed
8) Message boards : Technical News : Data Dump (May 17 2016) (Message 1835355)
Posted 11 Dec 2016 by Profile edjcox
Post:
So here we are December. Last Tech update May.

Having worked in R&D all my life I'll say this. You guys would not work for me as you do not keep most of those crunching your data informed as to what is happening. You ask for more funding from us but don't really tell us where your funds are going and how they are utilized.

If you want to solicit funds then make those contributing excited about the project by telling us where your heading and what the project has accomplished. This should occur every two weeks or so. I have had every PC of mine working this since 1999. Somehow I don't feel the work accomplished anything. You certainly havn't improved the effort much. It seems so random and hit an miss. You have a orb of space to look at yet there seems to be no attack plan just scan whatever comes about at the GS site and hope maybe a strip of sky might have the remnants of an intelligible signal in it originating from out there.. No way of checking the sky again until another random strip coincidentally crosses the same area.

Well. Its in your court. Get it together and talk to the other half of your team. Us...
9) Message boards : Technical News : Data Dump (May 17 2016) (Message 1831691)
Posted 21 Nov 2016 by Profile edjcox
Post:
I guess this whole thing boils down to the guys at SETI ignoring the public that is crunching their data for them. I expect more akin to what I get at Einstein at home. Regular updates and Kudo's for accomplishments shared with the crunching public.

So now I see an request for donors. Let me understand that the NSF contributes nothing to SETI at Home? Is there a misunderstanding at the NSF as to where SETI money goes?

Anyone have any insight into this?

Someone should clean up this site. Archive old stuff and get rid of it unless one goes into the archives. Just not cleanly run.
10) Message boards : News : Arecibo still threatened with closure. (Message 1795308)
Posted 11 Jun 2016 by Profile edjcox
Post:
I think it time SETI begins to use steerable arrays that can dwell and stare, Arecibo literally receives stripes in the sky of RF and as the world turns no given object is in view for any length of time.

In light of all the astronomical work being done on finding and categorizing Exoplanets SETI ought to engage in a campaign where these are our emphasis. Improving the odds of detection could be helped a lot by looking where the likelihood of inhabited planets might be. Greenbank as well as the new Chinese telescope are good resources for that focus.

They are likely closing Arecibo due to that and its older technology...
11) Message boards : Science (non-SETI) : Do black holes contain singularities? (Message 1784013)
Posted 1 May 2016 by Profile edjcox
Post:
Sure, what is Hawking Radiation ?

How do you measure it, define it, sense it?

I believe that Stephen Hawking needs to go to an event horizon and show us his so called radiation.. There isn't such a thing....

I believe that the only thing that escapes the event horizon is neutrinos and gamma radiation that are energetic enough to escape at a 90degree angle, these are formed in the soup at and above the horizon. Once beyond the event everything escapes no more and is then in a soup of no time, no mass, no dimension and frankly out of our existence as spatial, time locked, relativistic beings. Gone zilch nada back to the Alpha of pre existence

Stephen needs to prove his Radiation exists and quantify it... He's simply unable to do so except as a postulate..
12) Message boards : Science (non-SETI) : Do black holes contain singularities? (Message 1783913)
Posted 1 May 2016 by Profile edjcox
Post:
Yes.

A black hole is a singularity.

It is the common destination of all matter passing through the event horizon of a Black Hole beyond which matters coherency ceases to exist, all quantum particles, subparticles, etc go back into a state of non relativistic time and combine back into the state of the universe prior to transparency when the big bang creating our known relativistic universe of dimension, space and time. A singularity is where space, time, and dimension cease. Infinite density and zero time and zero dimension....

The contention is that amalgamations of sufficient mass is needed in order to create a singularity and ultimately this is the fate of all matter in our universe. So all those Galactic clusters and whirlpools and the interim states of matter such as stars are all just on their way down the rabbit holes of black holes to zero time, zero dimension, with very little able to spew out from the gravitational loci but and occasional cosmic ray and neutrino that gathered sufficient energy before the event horizon....
13) Message boards : News : Breakthrough Listen data now flowing. (Message 1780270)
Posted 19 Apr 2016 by Profile edjcox
Post:
Welcome Darren

Take some time and read the posts especially from Project staff like Eric.. Your Boinc Manager will handle things pretty well until you get a grip on things and fine tune

Hang in there chances now with the new data sets and sources are better than ever..
14) Message boards : SETI@home Science : Have the Chinese been approached about FAST? (Message 1745764)
Posted 30 Nov 2015 by Profile edjcox
Post:
Really is a great opportunity to acquire additional data. Five hundred meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) in Pingtang County, China
15) Message boards : News : Eric Korpela discusses alien contact. (Message 1729733)
Posted 28 Sep 2015 by Profile edjcox
Post:
We have instances of Gravitational lensing that show distant galaxies and areas of space in multiple images. What's is even more interesting is that when examined in detail the images of the same far off distant galaxies exhibit time dilation, that is to say the same galaxy appears in the lensed images at different points in time dependent upon the lensing and the distance the light has traveled. In other words (Lightyear of origin will vary) so we have in essence a means of viewing an object in different times.. Not quite time travel but certainly temporal variance...

So if one could exceed the speed of light one would still have to cope with the gravity wells of massive objects as one sped on ones way. Like a rippled billiard table fabric the traveler would encounter swerves dips and bends along the path and guiding ones travels would become most difficult there for choosing a destination also trouble wrought.

As you exceeded light speed and by happenstance directed ones travel towards the event horizon of a black hole, the time dilation there would be most interesting. Much akin to a massive rubber sheet under tension of dark matters stretch, black holes would be places in the tensored sheet that suddenly released its hold on matter and the dark matter field would begin to collapse normal space time into the event horizon... But along comes our FTL vessel and flys through that, time dilation is the only factor that balances out the equation...Losing dark matters grip on Space time, the collapse into singularity still ewrfu]3q swic-d3- sd';a
16) Message boards : SETI@home Science : Planet Hunters Report Record-Breaking Discovery, Search for other habitable planets (Message 1710700)
Posted 10 Aug 2015 by Profile edjcox
Post:
You have to assume an ET species exists at a concurrent level of technology to ours. There is a possibility that ET's may exist at a level of development 100 years in our past or earlier or 150 years in our future or further ahead in time than that. Either postulated ET species would likely not be detected by us as in the first species Radio TX/RX does not yet exist and in the second the ET Species may gave moved beyond RF wave propagation to something as yet unknown to us or only understood at most basic level. Thus the second species we would be blind to as well. Thus time coincidence in technological development is a crucial element for the search.

For some reason we Earthbound species think that all species are maturing in time coincidence to us... Perhaps its a subtle religious thing.. Yet an ET Civilization able to travel through the vast distances between stars likely is technologically superior to us to include communication methodology and techniques. Likely we would not recognize a "signal" if it employed methods like Quantum entanglement, or Neutrino emissions etc... In order for us to have an appropriate intercept receiver we would need to understand the technology and therin lies the difficulty. We just don't know enough.. Even subtle modulation techniques employed today are quite invisible to 98% of the receivers out there. SETI needs to be highly skilled in receiver and modulation technology.

And then there is the dwell issue. The longer your antenna is able to stare at or dwell on a given source point the more likely it is that you may intercept. SETI has utilized principally AERICIBO RT data. By design this aperature sweeps the sky in swaths and has only limited time to dwell or stare a point source before the earths rotation moves the scan past and away. Thus we are examining only short exposures to signal sources, in a limited band, for a miniscule period and likely not repeated for months or year on end.. All of the above factors delimits the current SETI efforts of the at home examination to less than optimal chance for success.

Recent efforts use pointing RT's at confirmed lucrative target sets all will change that success probability... We are entering into an exciting time..
17) Message boards : News : Big boost for SETI@home from Yuri Milner's Breakthrough Listen Initiative (Message 1704155)
Posted 23 Jul 2015 by Profile edjcox
Post:
This will give the project serious dwell time on a given target set of the sky allowing for software that will use advanced signal processing techniques including accumulation and other techniques that can eliminate a lot of noise and short length random signal events. Dwell makes elimination so much easier. Waterfall processing, bragg cell utilization, etc...

Rather than a constantly sweeping swath of the sky the RT's can sit on a emissions area and properly signal process. and revisits as the project will have the opportunity to drive the RT and sit on target sets repeatedly.

The approach will work in conjunction with other data sets, optical and radio data sets that have more likely ET hotspots than others.. Scanning known stars with planet sets already discovered...

It's a fine time to expand SETI horizons beyond our current stripes approach piggybacking on others usage of the RT. This is going to be good....
18) Message boards : Science (non-SETI) : The Secret Air Force Space Drone Heads Back Into Orbit (Message 1690425)
Posted 12 Jun 2015 by Profile edjcox
Post:
Always fun to speculate.. Let's see if they are testing an EM Horn thruster.
19) Message boards : Science (non-SETI) : Speeding up space travel - EM Drive (Message 1678156)
Posted 11 May 2015 by Profile edjcox
Post:
I think we can take it beyond Ludicrous speed all the way to Plaid....

All you have to do is wait for the specific impulse to build up to something useful although that might take a long long long time. People don't have the time to wait for the speed to build up....

Wonder exactly how long even a short flight to Mars might take waiting for this EM Thruster to build up momentum..
20) Message boards : News : SETI@home World Visualization (Message 1668824)
Posted 23 Apr 2015 by Profile edjcox
Post:
Deceptive fiction...

Neither Greenbamk or LoFar provide data to SETI at this time. To tout this as a visualization of SETI traffic is farcical. Tell us when it actually is occurring. Also the sneaker net to Aericibo should be shown as well.

Ideally this connectivity would exist. It doesn't for now..


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