I'm 58 years old. For almost 30 years, I was a Programmer\Analyst and senior Systems Programmer, specializing in SNA Data Communications (VTAM and NCP), on large-scale IBM mainframes. I'm a "Data Processing," or "MIS" person, not "IT". Computers are computers. They are tools. I don't get too involved in the mainframe vs. PC argument.

I'm former U.S. Air Force (Vietnam era). I was an Air Traffic Control Radar Repairman. I built my first computer from a kit, a MITS Altair 8800b, an S-100 bus machine. That's pre Apple II, pre IBM PC (the original 4.77 MHz machine with the audio cassette port on the back.)

Now, I'm back at university studying Photography Technology. I attend Oklahoma State University - Okmulgee. I have enjoyed photography for most of my life. I was looking for a new career, and it is photography.

My other interests include, but are not limited to, Killifish, photography, computers, astronomy, science, sci-fi, filk music, Celtic music (my heritage is Welsh, Irish, and Cherokee), and too many other things to mention here. I am a member of the American Killifish Association (AKA). I was caretaker of a pack of three Eastern Timber Wolves for more than ten years.

Why do I run SETI@home? I believe extraterrestrial life does exist somewhere out there, possibly right next door on Mars. By the numbers, even conservative numbers, life almost has to exist elsewhere. I believe some of that life is intelligent. At least some of that intelligent life must be at or above our level of development. We just need to look to find them. We need to know! Absence of proof is not proof of absence.

The distributed computing aspects of this project fascinate me. Besides, it gives my computer something to do while I'm in class or out shooting images.

To borrow a line from one of Diana Gallagher’s songs, "I want to go dancing on the moon, I want to frolic in zero gravity! If Jupiter sings to Saturn’s rings, when will space be open for me?" (Yes, I like "flik" music!) With SpaceShipOne about to capture the X Prize, I still may have the chance to do it. With only the government playing in space, I would never even be given a chance.

I first registered for SETI@home Classic on 20 April 2000, so I've been at this for a little while, almost 4.5 years. I had 5250 SETI@home Classic WUs, a total CPU time of 6.407 years, with an average CPU time of 10 hours, 41 minutes, 27.7 seconds per work unit, when I switched to SETI\BOINC. Thanks to SETI\BOINC being down so much of the time, and some problems with BOINC 4.05 and Win98SE, I'm now up to 5309 SETI@home Classic WUs, a total CPU time of 6.462 years, with an average CPU time of 10 hours, 39 minutes, 46.6 seconds per work unit, or 3.26 WU's per day.

I want to thank Rom Walton and Walt Gribben for quickly diagnosing the BOINC 4.05/Win98 problem(s) and getting new working version(s) to us very quickly.

I was a member of Team Tulsa, but I appear to be the only one, as far as I can tell, that has turned in any SETI\BOINC credits.

I switched to SETI\BOINC on 09 August 2004. I may grouse, like a lot of the other users, but having been in data processing for so many years, I do understand some of the problems the SETI\BOINC team is undergoing.

Can you say, "Released to the public too early"? I thought you could.