I'm from Italy (Trento) and my first hobby is translating GNU programs into italian (Gnome Evolution & Gimp for example...). The spare cpu cycles are to seti :-)
Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home
1. Yes, to prove it is suffice to say that we never saw them until now... :-)
2. Yes, binary rapresentation of pi for example...
3. Suggestion: use smaller data blocks!
SETI@home and Astropulse are funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, NASA, and donations from SETI@home volunteers. AstroPulse is funded in part by the NSF through grant AST-0307956.