Thankyou - I also wish to make a donation via paypal!!

We are working on the particulars in setting up a bank account, but yes - it is true that in the future we will have an easy-to-use donation system via PayPal. Until then, you can still donate by credit card through the university:

https://colt.berkeley.edu:444/urelgift/seti.html

> Is it now time for Full Disclosure to the public what makes the project go?
> They say they have no money... Is it time to tell the truth?

The truth is, as with most anything, that costs are dominated by labor. In other words, I gotta eat.

- Matt

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Actually.. the PayPal thing isn't happening - but I spent a large chunk of time today working on a system that will work pretty well with the UC on-line credit card donation site.

- Matt

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-- BOINC/SETI@home network/web/science/development person
-- "Any idiot can have a good idea. What is hard is to do it." - Jeanne-Claude

I WILL ONLY MAKE A DONATION IF USING PAYPAL, NO OTHER SYSTEM IS GURANTEED AND ASSURED.
<p>

Actually.. the PayPal thing isn't happening - but I spent a large chunk of time today working on a system that will work pretty well with the UC on-line credit card donation site.

- Matt

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There are other methods of making a donation. You could send a bank cheque, Personal cheque, money order, banktransfer, wire transfer, Western Union. I am sure they could accomodate any one of these.

Cheers

I WILL ONLY MAKE A DONATION IF USING PAYPAL, NO OTHER SYSTEM IS GURANTEED AND ASSURED.
<p>

Actually.. the PayPal thing isn't happening - but I spent a large chunk of time today working on a system that will work pretty well with the UC on-line credit card donation site.

- Matt

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There are other methods of making a donation. You could send a bank cheque, Personal cheque, money order, banktransfer, wire transfer, Western Union. I am sure they could accomodate any one of these.

bank cheque: too unsecure
personal cheque: s.a.
money order: How do I do this from germany?
banktransfer: international transfer fees are very high... and do you have the international bank code for this account?
wire transfer: what this? Do er have this in germany?
Western Union: Where is the next WU station for Recklinghausen, NRW, Germany?

PayPal is secure, easy to use, and take sparse fees...

Andy

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Want to know your pending credit?


The biggest bug is sitting 10 inch in front of the screen.

I WILL ONLY MAKE A DONATION IF USING PAYPAL, NO OTHER SYSTEM IS GURANTEED AND ASSURED.
<p>

....

Dang, you don't need to yell! I heard you all the way down here in Southern California.... >;-)

@ Everyone:
I'm not sure about other countries or even other banks, but through my bank, my ATM card can also be used as a credit card. That may be another option, if Berkeley's system can deal with it. I haven't tried it myself, I have 2 credit cards that I use for purposes like this. Just a thought.... >:-) (-:<

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CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath

PayPal is secure, easy to use, and take sparse fees...

Andy

Actually, for any good sized organization, PayPal is about the same price as a regular credit card merchant account -- probably a little higher depending on volume.

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[font='courier,courier new']Send beer, hardware, Jolt, coffee, manuals, experts, and money to...<p align="center">SETI@Home Developers
University of California, Berkeley
Department of Extra-Terrestrial Affairs
Berkeley, CA 94720
United States, Sol III</p>[/font]

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Actually.. the PayPal thing isn't happening [...]

Just curious, Matt; what made you decide this?
Was it the (subscription) cost, a non-existent Open Source alternative, or...?

Anyway, thanks for your efforts of implementing a solution.

Because Matt is a SUN Unix Administrator, yes there are many compaines that make it work every day and it is comparible or better than most credit card processors... Otherwise there would be less business on the Internet...

So the Bottom Line is that there is no Bank account that it can be dropped into, The signature cards for what has to happen (well who is signing for the money)...

Politics WINS, users Lose! If we look at the basic credit card takes 3% and UCB takes 2% then for every $20 that is donated Seti only recives $15 then there is something wrong!

R/

Al

Actually.. the PayPal thing isn't happening [...]

Just curious, Matt; what made you decide this?
Was it the (subscription) cost, a non-existent Open Source alternative, or...?

Anyway, thanks for your efforts of implementing a solution.

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Please consider a Donation to the Seti Project.

RRRRRRRrrrrr... Math alert. $5 is 25% of $20. Better go back and check your math again. 5% of 20 is ONE.... NOT FIVE.

Because Matt is a SUN Unix Administrator, yes there are many compaines that make it work every day and it is comparible or better than most credit card processors... Otherwise there would be less business on the Internet...

So the Bottom Line is that there is no Bank account that it can be dropped into, The signature cards for what has to happen (well who is signing for the money)...

Politics WINS, users Lose! If we look at the basic credit card takes 3% and UCB takes 2% then for every $20 that is donated Seti only recives $15 then there is something wrong!

R/

Al

Actually.. the PayPal thing isn't happening [...]

Just curious, Matt; what made you decide this?
Was it the (subscription) cost, a non-existent Open Source alternative, or...?

Anyway, thanks for your efforts of implementing a solution.

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Yeah, the PayPal thing was easy to set up as far as programming/etc. - the hard part was getting a bank account to put the money in. This was both a political and legal issue and eventually we decided it was effectively impossible, so back to square one. We will soon be using the UC donation system instead, which currently doesn't have the same useful features as PayPal, but at least it is equally secure and tied to a bank account we have access to.

And math-wise, it's about 3% off for the credit card, and 6% for University overhead. For $20, that ends up about $18.20 for us. This is actually really good. Normally grants we get through, say NASA or NFS has University overhead of about 35%. And even that's really good - I've heard other universities have overheads as high as 70 or 80%. Anyway.. the overhead on the donations pays the people who actually process all this stuff, maintain the servers, etc.

- Matt

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-- BOINC/SETI@home network/web/science/development person
-- "Any idiot can have a good idea. What is hard is to do it." - Jeanne-Claude

Surely If you have access to a Bank Account through the University you can tag that Bank account to paypal so that money can be wired direct to the same account but with less hastle, I have been to the Universities site and my Debit card is not accepted - but it works with paypal no problem. And with regards to an earlier post to wire the money direct to you, my bank here in the UK want to charge me an extra £12.50 to wire the money to the states. THIS IS REDICULOUS. I WANT TO GIVE YOU SOME MONEY!!!!!


I run an online shop myself called www.bongs-r-us.com, and we use paypal with very little difficulty, and you can send money to any bank account...


£20 for me costs roughly £0.75 to process. Plus you can effectivly use paypal as a bank account to, and wire money to people's accounts.


I want to make a donation of £20GBP every quater, thats about $35US, so about $150US a year, 2005 and I can't even give my money away!!!!


Kai

Yeah, the PayPal thing was easy to set up as far as programming/etc. - the hard part was getting a bank account to put the money in. This was both a political and legal issue and eventually we decided it was effectively impossible, so back to square one. We will soon be using the UC donation system instead, which currently doesn't have the same useful features as PayPal, but at least it is equally secure and tied to a bank account we have access to.

And math-wise, it's about 3% off for the credit card, and 6% for University overhead. For $20, that ends up about $18.20 for us. This is actually really good. Normally grants we get through, say NASA or NFS has University overhead of about 35%. And even that's really good - I've heard other universities have overheads as high as 70 or 80%. Anyway.. the overhead on the donations pays the people who actually process all this stuff, maintain the servers, etc.

- Matt

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Matt

If you have the routing number for the account (Seti has Access to) then it is easy to type in that "box" as to where the money gets transfered... You can add multiple back accounts later... Accounting "does" need access and should handle all transfers... You setup the PayPal Account and carry over a piece of paper with the Access Information... You spend a few minutes "bookmark the link" and they handle it, You help them change the password and you are off the hook...

PayPal does the auditing for the transactions "who, when and where" inbound and "who" transfered what outbound... On a Monthly basis Accounting prints the transaction Statement... So much for a paperless society...

UCB can still ultiize their 6% for "handling." However that will also be easier for Accounting.

It would also help against "Fraud Protection/Chargebacks etc..."

It handles International transfers at the Paypal updated exchange rate...

UCB never touches a credit card number, only the money to be transfered to the bank. That relieves one major liability...

Money can be sent to multiple bank accounts. One for Seti and one for UCB Accounting.

As You designate that Seti a Non Profit organization and the Record for the transaction becomes a "Tax Deductable Donation" and can easily be printed from the users computer for tax records...

You could/would only have to setup an "email account/alias" to notify "accounting" and whomever that donations are being applied to the account.

An Autoresponder is setup, Thanking the User for the Donation.

It then becomes easy for users to donate...

This would also be your "One Chance" to use David's Name. LOL

So it does not have to be so tough... Just making sure you have the correct names to go in the correct slots. If it also advertised on Seti Classic then UCB might be surprised at what else might start to happen...

Yeah, the PayPal thing was easy to set up as far as programming/etc. - the hard part was getting a bank account to put the money in. This was both a political and legal issue and eventually we decided it was effectively impossible, so back to square one. We will soon be using the UC donation system instead, which currently doesn't have the same useful features as PayPal, but at least it is equally secure and tied to a bank account we have access to.

And math-wise, it's about 3% off for the credit card, and 6% for University overhead. For $20, that ends up about $18.20 for us. This is actually really good. Normally grants we get through, say NASA or NFS has University overhead of about 35%. And even that's really good - I've heard other universities have overheads as high as 70 or 80%. Anyway.. the overhead on the donations pays the people who actually process all this stuff, maintain the servers, etc.

- Matt

Hehehehe

You would never want to set yourself up with something paperwork, that you could not get rid of...

R/

Al

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Please consider a Donation to the Seti Project.

well i don't have/want to send money but there is a wildlife refuge that list stuff that they need (tools, caging materials {like steel pipe, sheet steel) if i see something on ebay or DRMO sell I could pick itup... even some one on this board migh have/know here a extra SUN 400Mhz cipset and give/ship it.

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well i don't have/want to send money but there is a wildlife refuge that list stuff that they need (tools, caging materials {like steel pipe, sheet steel) if i see something on ebay or DRMO sell I could pick itup... even some one on this board migh have/know here a extra SUN 400Mhz cipset and give/ship it.

It's a nice idea, but they'd also need a chassis to put it in ...

The 220Rs take a maximum of 2x CPUs, which they already have.

The E3500s can take up to 8 CPUs, but the CPU slots double as IO board slots so it depends on what the IO requirements are as to whether they could fit more CPUs/RAM.

I guess another risk with accepting donations of hardware when you are planning to run mission critical apps on it is the level of support, MTBF and history.
I'd be suprised if SETI/Berkeley didn't have some sort of service contract/SLA with Sun for the kit they have supplied.
Once you start mixing that kit with donated hardware what happens when the free stuff fails ?

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{snip}
Once you start mixing that kit with donated hardware what happens when the free stuff fails ?

You chuck the failed free item in the bin, and replace it with another donated (IE free) bit of kit.

OR...

You flog the free stuff off, and use the money to buy what you want...

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Seing as there have been comments "why no pay pal?" why not have some person who is a trused member of the "volunteer" team open a paypal account, and use this to collect donations made with pay-pay?
He/She could them make a monthly "forwarding" of donations recieved to Berkely.

I would pay "respected member" £X and "respected member" could post in the thread "donation recieved" that , "£X recieved, payment Ref. number Z."

Annonimous, but clear.

The user/donator would see this and know their donation had been recieved, and acknowledged. At the end of the month the person could say $Y given in, and Matt could post "$Y recieved".

New thread started at the end of month, for the following months donations.

Sound's so obvious that it can't work.

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Foamy is "Lord and Master".
(Oh, + some Classic WUs too.)

yes i'm back with more bad spelling ;)

i just got done going to the sponsors pages...they have an area that shows a by month of how much was given sence nov 01. please chech it out some months they only got $50 that is sad!!! someone said they gave 25k boy i would love for them to show me!!!

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I donated $25 a few months back...sorry it couldn't have been more. I would like to see all fellow Electricians match my donation....come on guys...it's for a good cause.

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Since this project is 99.99% Volunteer, and just a few people are getting paid? any chance of getting a look at the budget? If people see how the money that is donated is spent, it might make it worthwile for people to donate some more..
Personnel Costs, Admin, Utilites, Hardware purchases (if any above donations) etc.

Thanks
Chromis

Losi, are you aware that the only programmers, that are paid, are Matt and Rom?

Only 2 (two) programmers are on the paylist, the rest are voluntary developers! And you really need at least some people in the staff to keep the continuity in the project! You can't only have students and volunteers!

So I think the staff is really so sparsely filled as it can be!

And I think Matt and Rom are running for their money! I'm amazed how much they accomplish here for the time, they're supposed to be here! I'm sure the project (and with this, us!) owe them for a lot of unpaid overtime!

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