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| Personal background |
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Intro
I have passed the quarter of century mark and I am still a student. I am doing a PhD at UMIST, Manchester, U.K.. Well, it's now called The University of Manchester since we merged with The Victoria University of Manchester on October 2004.
My working environment
I am in the department of textiles and paper, school of materials, in the UMIST campus, Manchester city centre. I still call it UMIST because I like being politically incorrect. The "new" university is trying to ban everyone from saying or mentioning the name UMIST, apparently that will cause people to think we are still separate (like the fact that we are in two different campuses doesn't tell the story enough already...). I like the new university's image but I believe that it will take time for everything to get assimilated. There is no point in forcing people to change overnight by imposing a ban.
My research project
My project deals with the paper manufacturing industry and I am researching on a method to optimise paper yield. Basically how to make and sell more paper using the existing resources. Sounds easy eh? Well, the modern process has been around for 500 years and the concept even longer (some put it in the region of 4000 years). It also puts the person into perspective as to what the difference is between commodity and luxury goods. The first one is basic, cheap, you probably can't live without it but you hardly ever show interest in it (including the people that work in its industry! just like farming actually). The second one is fancy, expensive, you don't need it to stay alive but you work your arse of just to buy one so that you can show of to your mates. Nough said I think.
Past-time? (when I have the time)
My favourite pass time is sleeping since I don't usually get enough of it in university with all the work load and stuff. Hence a lot of computer time available during any single day...
My computer
My computer locates physically on my university desk. It is really slow and takes its time with each work packet, but it certainly does spend a lot of time on each one of them!?
Nice meeting you all! |
| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
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Why am I running SETI@home?
Join SETI@Home years back, 19th of June 1999. Heard about it on a television program called Tomorrow's World on the BBC (UK broadcaster). Thought that was interesting and so joined. I think I must be one of the first few hundred thousands that joined the project. Seems so long now...
I really believe that the universe is too big to be inhabited by us humans only. I believe that there are extraterrestrial beings somewhere else or even another dimension. The only problem is to make first contact (sounds like a trekie here, never mind). Maybe, just maybe, the way that the SETI project searches foreign lifeforms is the correct one.
Also, I would really love to see earth with my own eyes from space in my lifetime. Better start collecting money now then...
My views on the project
My hopes on SETI are like a rollercoaster. I joined at a high and reached a very low point a couple of years after when they started talking about finishing the project for good. It was high again when new funds were found and the project kept alive. Now? It's even bigger and better! New software, new platforms, more projects to choose from and all this started from a humble project that most people laughed at when I told them about it.
Still, most of the time my interest borders between hopeful and loss of interest. My main concern is the time it takes just to scan one small part of the sky. But don't get me wrong, I still think this is a worthy cause and that's why I am supporting it.
I understand that the universe is too big to search all at once. I think this project is great in that it takes resources from all over earth, increasing the chances and ability of the project's core mission: to find extraterrestrial lifeforms.
Latest BOINC software issue
14/09/2004 - I have just changed over to the new BOINC platform. It was a lot of trouble having the BOINC version on a Windows ME machine. I gave up and reverted to using SETI Classic.
11/2004 - Two months later, I tried again with a newer version of BOINC and have now changed over for sure. It is stable and sits nicely at the task bar not consuming too much of my PC's resources.
03/2005 - My computer crashed and I had to change its hard disk recently. Still don't know what went wrong but very suspicious about Win ME... Took the opportunity to revert back to Win 98. This OS is so much more stable and clean! Although that also means I have to revert BOINC to an earlier version as somehow Win 98 does not seem to respond after installing the latest version (I think it was 1.40 or something near). Hey no complains here, as it is working perfectly now! |
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