Posts by Jason Safoutin
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11)
Message boards :
News :
2 Billion Results
(Message 1169623)
Posted 10 Nov 2011 by  Jason Safoutin
Post: This morning we reached 2 Billion BOINC results processed by SETI@home! Or to be more accurate, 2 to the power of 31 results (2,147,483,648). This explains why we're a little slow to recover from today's outage: we need to update code to accept larger numbers. Been too busy to check forums lately, so figured I would comment from the beginning. This really is great news. It means more people are participating in this project and that makes me happy. Congrats to everyone on every end of the project. this is a huge milestone. |
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12)
Message boards :
Number crunching :
Upload server down?
(Message 1153901)
Posted 19 Sep 2011 by Jason Safoutin
Post: No upload for 12 hours here in UK. I'm sure the lads know and will fix it. No real panic anywhere that I can see. Indeed...seems to just be something to do with uploads. Everything else seems to be working fine. I would not be surprised if they just need to reboot something. 10:25am EDT on Monday here. They should be in the lab within an hour or two roughly. |
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13)
Message boards :
SETI@home Science :
Need help with the math
(Message 1153761)
Posted 19 Sep 2011 by Jason Safoutin
Post: Well I am not one for the math, but to calculate a logical assumption, there are more than a few dozen variables that exist based on how far and how long a signal can travel through "space." there are obstructions, interferences etc, How long is the signal broadcast for, will it last for seconds, minutes days, years etc...I mean the list goes on. So to get an idea of the math for something like that, you would sort of need to pick on and make a best guess... |
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14)
Message boards :
SETI@home Science :
SETI... What do we look for?
(Message 1153760)
Posted 19 Sep 2011 by Jason Safoutin
Post: So all we are doing is using our computers to help try and find something coming from space... but we never know if we found anythign or not. I find this interesting but I think once we run this we should be able to see the information for the projects we helped with. I think that would maybe attract more people and broden the chances of finding something. IDK maybe not... I know I would like to see anything that is found from my computer. Thanks for your feedback. There was a lot of discussion about this when SETI@home CLassic switched to the BOINC platform. A lot of people felt they lost what was one of the better things about analyzing workunits, the screensaver. I used to watch the screensaver all the time in the Classic version. Not so much anymore unless BoincLogX tells me there might be some interesting data. I agree that there should be some way of seeing the data that is analyzed. I would like to see what Arecibo picks up even if earth made material. I guess it is more so a lack of funding ad the equipment and ability to produce such a task. I am not sure what the data looks like once it's analyzed or what exactly the guys at SETI@home look for in detecting signals, alien or not. Also there is the 'Near-Time Persistency Checker' which lists the "Current Best Candidates by Score" on analyzed workunits. This does not mean these signals are ET, but merely they are the best candidates to look at again and look for repeating patterns. This list is technically something Arecibo should look at again in the future and compare the data. The list changes as better candidates arise. There are star charts and etc. Good at math and you can plot rough locations. But as such, it doesn't say what computers crunched that data. Screensaver info: http://www.boinc-wiki.info/Screen_Saver_&_Graphics_Display_-_SETI@Home |
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15)
Message boards :
SETI@home Science :
SETI... What do we look for?
(Message 1153628)
Posted 18 Sep 2011 by Jason Safoutin
Post: To be honest, I like the information that was displayed with the SETI@home classic software. I forget exactly what was displayed, but it was in my opinion as informative as it could be about the task you analyzed, but the same results were that you still wouldn't know if your computer(s) ever detected anything unless you were told. You still get a bit of information from these tasks with third party programs aka SetiMapView or BoincLogX etc. SETI@home, to my knowledge has not detected anything yet. Einstein@home has discovered a few pulsars: http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=61049 |
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Message boards :
SETI@home Science :
NASA to Announce Kepler Discovery
(Message 1153624)
Posted 18 Sep 2011 by Jason Safoutin
Post: Joe, Thank you for the reply. I am eager to see more results, one way or the other. It would be great to send a probe that would report back in my lifetime if we find a promising target near in. I think if we want to find definitive life on other planets/moons other than earth, we need to send probes to the likes of Jupiter's moon Europa, Saturn's Enceladus and Titan...any of these three are the best candidates for bacterial life or even mammals. If Europa or Enceladus have liquid water under their surfaces, there could be an entire ecosystem on these moons. We already know Cassini discovered "organic" material as well as water spewing from geysers on Enceladus, so that moon would be my first choice. As much as I love Mars and hope we find something big there, NASA has several other better candidates for mammal life right under their noses, but avoid landing on these moons. If life is what they are seeking, they are looking in the wrong places so to speak. |
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Message boards :
SETI@home Science :
NASA to Announce Kepler Discovery
(Message 1152857)
Posted 16 Sep 2011 by Jason Safoutin
Post: I watched it...well the first few minutes of it. I then realized how disappointed I was in the entire thing. I guess this has to be expected of NASA as of lately though. I mean the discovery is cool, but the Lucas Arts/films guy or whoever seemed to be there just so they could use the Star Wars names and etc. Cool discovery, but one of NASA's worst press conferences on the books. I guess that's true and will agree to an extent because when they do announce life on other planets, what could really trump that? But It just seems they hype it up too much all the time. It is a cool discovery. But I don't like the idea of a scientific discovery being made into a commercial. This is awesome stuff we are dealing with and NASA treats it like a movie...I am surprised they don't do a "this press conference brought to you by..." |
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18)
Message boards :
SETI@home Science :
NASA to Announce Kepler Discovery
(Message 1152626)
Posted 15 Sep 2011 by Jason Safoutin
Post: I watched it...well the first few minutes of it. I then realized how disappointed I was in the entire thing. I guess this has to be expected of NASA as of lately though. I mean the discovery is cool, but the Lucas Arts/films guy or whoever seemed to be there just so they could use the Star Wars names and etc. Cool discovery, but one of NASA's worst press conferences on the books. |
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19)
Message boards :
SETI@home Science :
NASA to Announce Kepler Discovery
(Message 1152199)
Posted 14 Sep 2011 by Jason Safoutin
Post: NASA to Announce Kepler Discovery at Media Briefing NASA will host a news briefing at 2:00pm EDT (11:00am PDT), Thursday, Sept. 15, to announce a new discovery by the Kepler mission. The briefing will be held in the Syvertson auditorium, building N-201, at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. The event will be carried live on NASA Television and the agency's website at http://www.nasa.gov/ntv Kepler is the first NASA mission capable of finding Earth-size planets in or near the "habitable zone," the region in a planetary system where liquid water can exist on the surface of the orbiting planet. Although additional observations will be needed to achieve that milestone, Kepler is detecting planets and planet candidates with a wide range of sizes and orbital distances to help us better understand our place in the galaxy. A representative from Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), a division of Lucasfilm Ltd., will join a panel of scientists to discuss the discovery. The briefing participants are: --Charlie Sobeck, Kepler deputy project manager, Ames Research Center --Nick Gautier, Kepler project scientist, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. --Laurance Doyle, lead author, SETI Institute, Mountain View, Calif. --John Knoll, visual effects supervisor, ILM, San Francisco. --Greg Laughlin, professor for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, University of California, Santa Cruz, Calif. The panel is very interesting. Has a SETI Institute representative ever sat in on a press conference regarding planets found with Kepler? And why Lucasfilm? Maybe this is something big. But they have hyped these in the past and I know I was pretty disappointed. Maybe they found another habitable planet. We need a good new space race. |
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20)
Message boards :
News :
more data on the way
(Message 1151191)
Posted 11 Sep 2011 by Jason Safoutin
Post: In an attempt to push some older unanalyzed files through the pipeline we encountered data that could not be successfully preprocessed or split. This has resulted in work distribution going to near zero. We are currently transferring newer files from off site storage and soon will be receiving a disk shipment from Arecibo. Once these data are on hand work distribution will pick up. That all depends...are they sending a constant signal? How about one that only lasted for so long before they stopped transmitting? Maybe we missed the signal, then again, it may not have gotten here yet. We just need to crunch the right work units that are pointed at the right part of the sky at the right time. That's a lot to comprehend. Even lotteries don't have such bad odds. |
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21)
Message boards :
Technical News :
Drive (Aug 11 2011)
(Message 1151070)
Posted 11 Sep 2011 by Jason Safoutin
Post: I have to agree with Rob. It is not the credits that count! I agree 100% I am here for the science, not the points. |
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22)
Message boards :
News :
more data on the way
(Message 1150904)
Posted 10 Sep 2011 by Jason Safoutin
Post: Just got 346 new workunits. Most of them were recorded within the last 2 months. Nice to see fresh data come in. Good work guys! |
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23)
Message boards :
SETI@home Science :
For the folks who belive mars can have life.
(Message 1147813)
Posted 1 Sep 2011 by Jason Safoutin
Post: The one thing that life on Earth teaches: if there is liquid water, life will find a way. Where ever water has existed on earth, life has always found a way. If bacteria can thrive is arsonic then it can live on Mars. Either NASA is looking in the wrong spots, or we are being told the wrong things while they discover life. There are rivers UNDER the Amazon river, nearly as big as the Amazon itself...OVER 6,500 FEET below the Amazon. So if water can flow freely, under the Amazon, and we already know life can exist in total darkness, then why not on Mars? If you ask me, all these major discoveries regarding life lately, is going to lead up to an announcement by NASA that some form of life exists on Mars. Every time they say there is a huge Mars announcement, they have stopped short of saying they found life every time. I think it's just a matter of time before they actually announce it. And i don't mean aliens. Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's Enceladus and maybe even Mars, are probably the best candidates for actual primitive life in our solar system. Be it jellyfish or fish or whatever. Titan is a good candidate too, but more on a bacterial level. |
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24)
Message boards :
Technical News :
Drive (Aug 11 2011)
(Message 1147811)
Posted 1 Sep 2011 by Jason Safoutin
Post: I see, so the Technical forum is the wrong place to ask questions about a technical problem. That's because there are a lot of old timer users who know when things are bad, they know where to look and what to do. It's not that people don't care, it's just what they are used to. If you have enough credits, feel free to start a thread yourself regarding downtime. |
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25)
Message boards :
Technical News :
Drive (Aug 11 2011)
(Message 1147809)
Posted 1 Sep 2011 by Jason Safoutin
Post: A lot seem to be impatient. Just relax. They're doing the best they can with what they have. There isn't a team of like 200 people that work on keeping this project alive. So things take time and often times big things break. Regardless of time. SETI@home has ALWAYS fixed their issues one way or another. I doubt these guys would waste most of their time on this if they didn't care or simply just didn't want to fix it. Sometimes they need parts. Other times it's a deeper issue. Whatever the reason, be patient. I am sure there are a lot of other things you can do in the meantime. I have been uploading and reporting whatever WUs I managed to download for about a solid 5-6 days, and that's NOT including the weekly downtime. As of this posting it seems that hings are finally working again for the most part. Still a few disabled servers, but there are a couple hundred workunits to be crunched so lets get a move on :P |
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26)
Message boards :
Technical News :
Drive (Aug 11 2011)
(Message 1146194)
Posted 28 Aug 2011 by Jason Safoutin
Post: Looks like I downloaded my 71 WU's just in time :( |
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27)
Message boards :
Technical News :
Drive (Aug 11 2011)
(Message 1145531)
Posted 26 Aug 2011 by Jason Safoutin
Post: Successfully downloaded 71 workunits just now. Saw a cache of a few hundred thousand available so decided to give it a try. |
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28)
Message boards :
Technical News :
Drive (Aug 11 2011)
(Message 1144424)
Posted 24 Aug 2011 by Jason Safoutin
Post: Yeah. To change it would mean someone donating a good some of $ or hardware to SETI@home. If I had the means I would. It's a great project with the potential to discover what is probably the most exciting thing in mankind: to discover we are not alone. Humans can't listen to all of the sky all of the time. SETI@home is probably one of, if not the only project, that listens to the skies just about 24/7. If we miss even one second, that second could mean listening to or missing the message we have all been waiting for. |
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29)
Message boards :
Technical News :
Drive (Aug 11 2011)
(Message 1144152)
Posted 23 Aug 2011 by Jason Safoutin
Post: I have been crunching with SETI@home on and off for a while now. Whenever there was major issues that brought the project down, these guys (Matt et. al.) always pulled through to get the project up and running again, whether it be sooner or later. I have faith that they will pull through this problem as well. It's a shame there are not more donations both financially and in terms of hardware. So sad to see a good program go underfunded. If I ever run into a lot of money, you can bet I would make a large donation to the project. |
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30)
Message boards :
News :
Allen Telescope Array Hibernation
(Message 1139676)
Posted 13 Aug 2011 by Jason Safoutin
Post: Funding is only in place until the end of 2011. |
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