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| Personal background |
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Hello!
I am a 42 year old father of three from Ridley Park, Pennsylvania in the United States. I work for a small software company as a Help System Author (Technical Writer) and Software Quality Assurance analyst. I also do some junior programming projects in Visual Basic as well as support the sales staff with application issues. |
| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
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1. Why do I run SETI#home?
I run SETI at home because I am very interested in the project. About 25 years ago, I was just a kid when I read Cosmos by Carl Sagan. At that time, I didn't realize that my deficienies in math aptitude would cause me to be summarily ejected from my senior high AP Physics class; I loved physics and astronomy and while I didn't have the math skills to handle theory, I found that I was good when given practical applications to deal with...
Anyway, Cosmos introduced me to the Planetary Society and of course, that led to an interest in SETI. I stayed with it as a subscribing member for many years but lost touch eventually, got married, started a family, the usual path. Then, in 2003 or thereabouts, I was told about the SETI@home project and immediately got involved.
I don't have the best computers at my disposal (I did just get a new one at work) but I will get them going and be happy to contribute anyway I can.
UPDATE - 2007/10/12
It has been a while since I updated this profile. I all but disappeared from the SETI@home stats for the last several months as I removed the software from two PCs and two other PCs died. I have resurrected HAIVISTA running Vista Enterprise Edition, a hyper-threaded Dell, just this week and it is back to work for SETI@home. For now, that is the only machine that I am going to bring online.
After about 15 years of waiting - for what I don't know - I read Carl Sagan's Demon Haunted World last month. I highly recommend it to those of you that haven't heard of it to go out and find a copy.
2. What are your views about the project?
I think SETI@home is a great way for the average, non-scientist to contribute to a major scientific effort by simply donating computer processing time that they aren't using anyway. Most consumers never shut off their computers; they just sit there doing almost nothing for probably at least 8 hours each day. I hope more people learn about it; I continue to tell my friends about it.
3. Any suggestions?
Yes, advertise. If you haven't already, find out if PC makers like Dell, Gateway, IBM, etc., would be willing to insert a flyer, at their expense, about SETI@home, in the literature the they ship with a new PC. Perhaps even Microsoft and Linux and other software companies would do the same? |
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