That is the problem - the SUN has crashed -

I wonder - how that donated server (that was not accepted) would have worked out in a situation like this.

If I remember correctly, the machine had to be named SETI.USA or something like that as a condition of the donation.

I don't know the University policies on naming rights, but it's probably not simple. The rules may have been written for buildings, and wrangled over by attorneys.

I'm sure if there was a simple way of doing it, they would have been happy to have the machine.

The problem with donated hardware is that for server or high data rate applications you just can’t take something out of your local store and install it. This type of applications requires high speed ether net, error corrected memory, large disk stores, high speed disk controllers, 64 bit address processors, high processor speeds and other features I may not have mentioned. To install something that is not up to standards will result in a bottle neck that will restrict the whole project. The people at SETI are very much aware of all the restrictions and are careful what they use. Hardware not meeting these requirements ends up as a developer system in the lab. Also don’t forget because of money restrictions they are limited to a small room for a computer room that has both power and air conditioner restrictions. Money or a commitment to provided EXACTLY what they request is the most useful way of helping. If you think you have something they can use, there is no harm in asking, BUT they may not be able to use it. If they don’t use the item, it’s because of the good of the project and not for any other reason.

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Ned Ludd- It was not a requirement or absolute condition. It was merely a suggestion to name it SETIUSA....

Dena Wiltsie- You are not reading Kevin's post correctly. He offered a blank sheet to them...as in you order it and he pays for it. It wouldn't have been an off-the-shelf item or such. They could order WHAT THEY NEEDED and he was really shot down pretty hard.

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Ned Ludd- It was not a requirement or absolute condition. It was merely a suggestion to name it SETIUSA....

Dena Wiltsie- You are not reading Kevin's post correctly. He offered a blank sheet to them...as in you order it and he pays for it. It wouldn't have been an off-the-shelf item or such. They could order WHAT THEY NEEDED and he was really shot down pretty hard.

Sorry if I was misunderstood but I was not responding to Kevin. Kevin offered to pay for EXACTLY what they need. I was making the point that second hand hardware is iffy at best as to if it can be used. I would love to see SETI use an 8 core Apple but I know it would be useless unless the whole project was redone.

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I'd like to echo what others have said before. Thanks to Matt and everyone else at UCB that have worked so hard to get and keep things working. I'd also like to say thanks to those that have donated to the project. I will finally be making a small donation once I get my next paycheck.

Speaking of donations, I was looking at the donation history page and notice that only 0.34% of Seti users have donated. I know not everyone has the ability to donate for various reasons, but with 600,000+ users it's hard to not imagine what would be possible if everyone donated just $1 (if the minimum donation were dropped).

Justin

Nice sentiments, but unfortunately, not real world. There is a reason for having a minimum donation amount: it costs in both time and money to process each donation. If the minimum $ is not met, it actually hurts the project to get a donation. :-(

[edit]Darn, Demiurg beat me to it! [/edit]

I would like to say if I may be so BOLD,
Although I find donating a fantastic idea, people like myself who I assume there are many around would find the financial donation difficult but we offer our computers which do use electricity and having given quite a few thousands of hours to crunching data for Seti and other organisations since 1999, personally I think the night hours it is switched on just doing Seti projects is worth as much if not more to the project than me sending ill affordable funds and doing less work. So you can all see that WE ARE ALL DONATION GIVERS in different ways
Baz

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Alien Pet Lover

Dena--

It's not second hand if they get what they're asking for--especially if they put in the order.

I guess I'm not understanding your view of second-hand.

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I'd like to echo what others have said before. Thanks to Matt and everyone else at UCB that have worked so hard to get and keep things working. I'd also like to say thanks to those that have donated to the project. I will finally be making a small donation once I get my next paycheck.

Speaking of donations, I was looking at the donation history page and notice that only 0.34% of Seti users have donated. I know not everyone has the ability to donate for various reasons, but with 600,000+ users it's hard to not imagine what would be possible if everyone donated just $1 (if the minimum donation were dropped).

Justin

Nice sentiments, but unfortunately, not real world. There is a reason for having a minimum donation amount: it costs in both time and money to process each donation. If the minimum $ is not met, it actually hurts the project to get a donation. :-(

[edit]Darn, Demiurg beat me to it! [/edit]

I would like to say if I may be so BOLD,
Although I find donating a fantastic idea, people like myself who I assume there are many around would find the financial donation difficult but we offer our computers which do use electricity and having given quite a few thousands of hours to crunching data for Seti and other organisations since 1999, personally I think the night hours it is switched on just doing Seti projects is worth as much if not more to the project than me sending ill affordable funds and doing less work. So you can all see that WE ARE ALL DONATION GIVERS in different ways
Baz

Agreed, I donate my CPU time, and it cost me money to buy the CPUs involved, not to mention the net connection, the electricity, the motherboards the CPUs are in, the hard drives, the cases, the power supplies, etc, etc, etc. I realize it has been a long time since the beginnings of the SETI@Home project, but lets not forget, it started to distribute processing load, so that the projects would not have to buy AS MUCH computer power. Let's stop the guilt trips please. Or if you prefer, shut off access to people who don't donate money, see how much you get done there. I'm being sarcastic here to make a point, we are ALL donating. Appreciate it. As much as I appreciate the hard work done by the admins to keep this project going.

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Ned Ludd- It was not a requirement or absolute condition. It was merely a suggestion to name it SETIUSA....

That’s not how I recall it: it may just have been a poor choice of words that didn’t reflect the poster’s intent, but unless my memory is playing tricks the name was stated to be “required” or some such phrase that implied it was a condition of the offer. At any rate, (again IIRC) the bottom line was that it would have cost more time & money than the system was worth just to get 220V power to it.

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I've mostly just scanned over most of the posts, so maybe this has been brought up, but if people are talking about donating for this particular issue, who is to say receipts are actually necessary? If there were say a paypal account set up by someone from the project, and without soliciting (because then it probably has to be "official") simply let us know what that was, many people might be willing to make some kind of "donation" that way, without the need for recognition or receipts. Just an idea...

Hi Modesto,

well guess what, that has already been set up for a few months now ;o)

http://lunatics.at/?page=seti_donate

It's even linked to from http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/donate.php as well. All donations go to SETI@Home, lunatics.at just acts as a "PayPal gateway" because the direct project employees - due to legal issues - can not do this themselves.

When you donate using PayPal, there is no minumum amount (though donations below 1 USD mostly get eaten by PayPal charges).

With this setup, only people who want to receive a tax certificate by snail mail. Simply do not enter your address into the address field, done.

Regards,
Simon.

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Donate to SETI@Home via PayPal!

Optimized SETI@Home apps + Information

May 4, 2007
Great news! Sun Microsystems is coming to the rescue and will be replacing our inoperative science data base server. They are preparing the machine now and will be rushing it to us on Monday. Once we have the machine up and the database recovered, we can start sending work out again. Details on the server crash and our recovery from it can be found in Technical News.

RIP Thumper

---

I'd like to echo what others have said before. Thanks to Matt and everyone else at UCB that have worked so hard to get and keep things working. I'd also like to say thanks to those that have donated to the project. I will finally be making a small donation once I get my next paycheck.

Speaking of donations, I was looking at the donation history page and notice that only 0.34% of Seti users have donated. I know not everyone has the ability to donate for various reasons, but with 600,000+ users it's hard to not imagine what would be possible if everyone donated just $1 (if the minimum donation were dropped).

Justin

Nice sentiments, but unfortunately, not real world. There is a reason for having a minimum donation amount: it costs in both time and money to process each donation. If the minimum $ is not met, it actually hurts the project to get a donation. :-(

[edit]Darn, Demiurg beat me to it! [/edit]

I would like to say if I may be so BOLD,
Although I find donating a fantastic idea, people like myself who I assume there are many around would find the financial donation difficult but we offer our computers which do use electricity and having given quite a few thousands of hours to crunching data for Seti and other organisations since 1999, personally I think the night hours it is switched on just doing Seti projects is worth as much if not more to the project than me sending ill affordable funds and doing less work. So you can all see that WE ARE ALL DONATION GIVERS in different ways
Baz

In the USA we believe in freedom and other than taxes, it means you have a right to do what ever you want with your money. But consider the fact that $10.00 or about 7.37 euro will buy you a star by your name and if SETI runs out of money, you will have to crunch for another project. World Community Grid for example has IBM supporting it, but SETI is not as fortunate.

---

I'd like to echo what others have said before. Thanks to Matt and everyone else at UCB that have worked so hard to get and keep things working. I'd also like to say thanks to those that have donated to the project. I will finally be making a small donation once I get my next paycheck.

Speaking of donations, I was looking at the donation history page and notice that only 0.34% of Seti users have donated. I know not everyone has the ability to donate for various reasons, but with 600,000+ users it's hard to not imagine what would be possible if everyone donated just $1 (if the minimum donation were dropped).

Justin

Nice sentiments, but unfortunately, not real world. There is a reason for having a minimum donation amount: it costs in both time and money to process each donation. If the minimum $ is not met, it actually hurts the project to get a donation. :-(

[edit]Darn, Demiurg beat me to it! [/edit]

I would like to say if I may be so BOLD,
Although I find donating a fantastic idea, people like myself who I assume there are many around would find the financial donation difficult but we offer our computers which do use electricity and having given quite a few thousands of hours to crunching data for Seti and other organisations since 1999, personally I think the night hours it is switched on just doing Seti projects is worth as much if not more to the project than me sending ill affordable funds and doing less work. So you can all see that WE ARE ALL DONATION GIVERS in different ways
Baz

In the USA we believe in freedom and other than taxes, it means you have a right to do what ever you want with your money. But consider the fact that $10.00 or about 7.37 euro will buy you a star by your name and if SETI runs out of money, you will have to crunch for another project. World Community Grid for example has IBM supporting it, but SETI is not as fortunate.

So we don't support SETI by donating our computer time? Gee, thanks. Kudos to those who donate, but you aren't the only ones supporting SETI.

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May 4, 2007
Great news! Sun Microsystems is coming to the rescue and will be replacing our inoperative science data base server. They are preparing the machine now and will be rushing it to us on Monday. Once we have the machine up and the database recovered, we can start sending work out again. Details on the server crash and our recovery from it can be found in Technical News.

This is great news, indeed!

Thank you very much, Sun - again. First they donate Thumper, now they're even replacing it? Impressive, to say the least. Hope this time it'll be production and not pre-release hardware, so it'll be fixable if anything else goes down.

Regards,
Simon.

---

Donate to SETI@Home via PayPal!

Optimized SETI@Home apps + Information

In the USA we believe in freedom and other than taxes, it means you have a right to do what ever you want with your money. But consider the fact that $10.00 or about 7.37 euro will buy you a star by your name and if SETI runs out of money, you will have to crunch for another project. World Community Grid for example has IBM supporting it, but SETI is not as fortunate.

So we don't support SETI by donating our computer time? Gee, thanks. Kudos to those who donate, but you aren't the only ones supporting SETI.

Hm, how about this - everyone donates in whatever way they can - be it computation time, money or just a friendly word or two.

This should be valid and applicable internationally and not only for U.S. citizens ;o)

Please, let's keep nationalities out of this. After all, we - humanity, not any nationalities - are looking for signs of other intelligent life out there. Let's not act as if we need to find it on our own planet first...

...back to the topic at hand, even though Sun will replace Thumper, I really liked the idea of a backup system for the master science DB. Matt, any thoughts on this? There seemed to be quite a few people willing to donate hardware or pay for what you need in the past few days, and this would really be a "big thing" as far as downtime reduction and availability goes.

Regards,
Simon.

---

Donate to SETI@Home via PayPal!

Optimized SETI@Home apps + Information

Hm, how about this - everyone donates in whatever way they can - be it computation time, money or just a friendly word or two.

This should be valid and applicable internationally and not only for U.S. citizens ;o)

I agree, but sadly there are instances where I've personally seen those of us without green stars looked upon in a negative light. It's great for those who can and do donate, but I'm not terribly fond of some of the browbeating I've seen in the past (not what Dena did...I'm speaking of other instances)...

Hm, how about this - everyone donates in whatever way they can - be it computation time, money or just a friendly word or two.

This should be valid and applicable internationally and not only for U.S. citizens ;o)

I agree, but sadly there are instances where I've personally seen those of us without green stars looked upon in a negative light. It's great for those who can and do donate, but I'm not terribly fond of some of the browbeating I've seen in the past (not what Dena did...I'm speaking of other instances)...

Green star was a bad idea. Although to use a famous MMO maker's phrase, it is working as intended. It's just not a very good intent.

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Hm, how about this - everyone donates in whatever way they can - be it computation time, money or just a friendly word or two.

This should be valid and applicable internationally and not only for U.S. citizens ;o)

I agree, but sadly there are instances where I've personally seen those of us without green stars looked upon in a negative light. It's great for those who can and do donate, but I'm not terribly fond of some of the browbeating I've seen in the past (not what Dena did...I'm speaking of other instances)...

I agree, every one that is using their computer to crunch is donating, no exception, no discussion.

I even went to the extent to purchase another computer since I started crunching in Feb of this year, my E6600, just to crunch for SETI, $1,200. I'm an accountant and I can assure you there isn't any accounting software I run that needs that kind of processing power and memory, not even close.

Do i get a colored star for that, lol. (Can I pick the color?)

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Hm, how about this - everyone donates in whatever way they can - be it computation time, money or just a friendly word or two.

This should be valid and applicable internationally and not only for U.S. citizens ;o)

I agree, but sadly there are instances where I've personally seen those of us without green stars looked upon in a negative light. It's great for those who can and do donate, but I'm not terribly fond of some of the browbeating I've seen in the past (not what Dena did...I'm speaking of other instances)...

I agree, every one that is using their computer to crunch is donating, no exception, no discussion.

I even went to the extent to purchase another computer since I started crunching in Feb of this year, my E6600, just to crunch for SETI, $1,200. I'm an accountant and I can assure you there isn't any accounting software I run that needs that kind of processing power and memory, not even close.

Do i get a colored star for that, lol. (Can I pick the color?)

I'd love a plaid star for the linux box i keep up for BOINC but i don't really need :-). Getting rid of it would save 'tricity, admin time, and frustration at the Fedora project (Debian next time methinks).

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Hm, how about this - everyone donates in whatever way they can - be it computation time, money or just a friendly word or two.

This should be valid and applicable internationally and not only for U.S. citizens ;o)

I agree, but sadly there are instances where I've personally seen those of us without green stars looked upon in a negative light. It's great for those who can and do donate, but I'm not terribly fond of some of the browbeating I've seen in the past (not what Dena did...I'm speaking of other instances)...

The green star is not important and some people who don’t have one have donated. The star can be turned off if you don’t want it. Just understand the reason SETI will be down for a week is because they don’t have the money laying around for a backup server.

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Matt,

great news. I 've read Sun come at rescue. Free advertising or real rescue. It is not important. Soon we will be all of us again full operational. It is the most important.

I wish you and all the team my best. Not easy to integrate all again.
But it will be
I am sure you were very worry. The " Good Star " is coming.
We will find something. Perhaps one of the result, waiting analyze
from main db, will alert all the team with a perfect signal.
With THE signal.

Philippe from little Belgium

Belgium ?? Where is it ?? Joke !

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is Sun not in the situation to replace the Motherboard, in time....

Greetings from Germany NRW
Ulli