Telescope Silence (Sep 17 2009)

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Profile Matt Lebofsky
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Message 934059 - Posted: 17 Sep 2009, 19:55:10 UTC

As Josef pointed out in yesterday's thread we are indeed unable to get any new data from the telescope until early November. This is a problem because we have only a few drives full of data on our shelf, and maybe a few drives down at Arecibo (which we asked to have shipped up to Berkeley).

The silver lining is that Jeff has been putting effort into getting the data recorder crashing issues fixed - now that project can be back-burnered and he can focus on RFI issues. Meanwhile I'm cracking on the software radar blanking stuff. I actually made a significant advance this morning, discovering that at any given time the radar patterns we are locking onto can drift as little as 0.1 samples, with drastic results in our ability to find the radar. I've solved that little bit, and it's all pretty much plumbing/testing/deploying at this point. Hopefully I can get this rolling before we completely run out of data. Of course, I always feel that running out of data shouldn't be that big a deal.

By the way, one of the reasons I've been lax with these threads lately is that I'm getting tired of being the sole focus for tech support/donation queries/etc. Please don't be insulted if I address roughly 0% of your requests that are personally addressed to me. I simply don't have the time. I keep asking for additional web presence and user interaction from the others or perhaps the hiring of actual web support staff, to no avail.

- Matt

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-- "Any idiot can have a good idea. What is hard is to do it." - Jeanne-Claude
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Message 934080 - Posted: 17 Sep 2009, 20:30:45 UTC - in response to Message 934059.  
Last modified: 17 Sep 2009, 20:31:09 UTC

Matt,

Thanks as always for the update.
Please feel absolutely free to ignore everything we ask :)
Just do keep dropping us pearls of wisdom & information as time and spirit allow, it is always most welcome.
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Message 934103 - Posted: 17 Sep 2009, 21:37:43 UTC

Although personal diaries are out of style for the most part, I've always thought that professional diaries containing periodic succinct entries provide a true benefit. Maintaining a diary forces one to reflect on what has been done, needs to be done, and where one is going on a given project. There is also a satisfaction that one receives when reviewing the diary over time (and sometimes remorse if the wrong decision or action was made). So I hope that Matt perseveres in his technical postings, for the good of the project as well as for us nosey volunteers.
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Message 934172 - Posted: 18 Sep 2009, 3:01:16 UTC - in response to Message 934059.  

Viva La Vida Master Matt

By the way, one of the reasons I've been lax with these threads lately is that I'm getting tired of being the sole focus for tech support/donation queries/etc. Please don't be insulted if I address roughly 0% of your requests that are personally addressed to me. I simply don't have the time. I keep asking for additional web presence and user interaction from the others or perhaps the hiring of actual web support staff, to no avail.

- Matt


*smile*

I'm listening Viva La Vida by Coldplay now. Again and again. I don't pay attention on the lyric. I only listen to the music. It gives me comfortable. I'm not going to preach you Master Matt. Just take a sit back and enjoy the music that usually you listen to.

For now, you're ruling the world. The world of SETI. Almost everyone listen to your words. Waiting for your existance. And without knowing we have to burden you. I'm just gonna say...

Viva La Vida Master Matt

Cheers,
LiliKrist
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Message 934372 - Posted: 18 Sep 2009, 20:58:54 UTC

Its called job stress. Lots of problems and to many dikes to plug everyday, to little manpower or resources to plug them.
Matt dont worry about us. A little down time is great for blowing the dust out of the cooling fans.
[/quote]

Old James
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Message 934387 - Posted: 18 Sep 2009, 22:16:40 UTC - in response to Message 934059.  

By the way, one of the reasons I've been lax with these threads lately is that I'm getting tired of being the sole focus for tech support/donation queries/etc. Please don't be insulted if I address roughly 0% of your requests that are personally addressed to me. I simply don't have the time. I keep asking for additional web presence and user interaction from the others or perhaps the hiring of actual web support staff, to no avail.

- Matt


yea, good luck with that... thats like asking for a so called former president to wake up and smell the economy.


I recommend Secunia PSI: http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/
Go Georgia Tech.
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Profile Johnney Guinness
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Message 934435 - Posted: 19 Sep 2009, 1:41:44 UTC

Matt,
Anyone reading your tech messages on a regular basis is aware that you simply don't have the time to respond to everyone's comments. We know that sometimes you "gloss over" the comments and are aware of the issues.

Its good news about the radar blanking, well done Matt! And thank you for taking the time to write these tech news messages!

Thank you Matt,
John.
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Message 934535 - Posted: 19 Sep 2009, 16:29:30 UTC

Matt:

A suggestion for your technical posts. Have a piece of boiler plate at the bottom of all of your messages that routes all technical support questions to the SETI Help Forums and to the BOINC online help. This might cut down on you getting tech support requests.


BOINC WIKI
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Message 934837 - Posted: 20 Sep 2009, 19:42:06 UTC - in response to Message 934059.  

Maybe you can some student doing some kind of social study about online communities, who in the course of those studies acts as an interface between staff and users....

...

By the way, one of the reasons I've been lax with these threads lately is that I'm getting tired of being the sole focus for tech support/donation queries/etc. Please don't be insulted if I address roughly 0% of your requests that are personally addressed to me. I simply don't have the time. I keep asking for additional web presence and user interaction from the others or perhaps the hiring of actual web support staff, to no avail.


mic.


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Message 934962 - Posted: 21 Sep 2009, 8:59:39 UTC

Recently Facebook (I am not a member) has shown some interest in BOINC projects but SETI@home is not one of them. It's a pity, since it is the project with the greatest users number.
Tullio
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Message 934964 - Posted: 21 Sep 2009, 9:31:56 UTC - in response to Message 934962.  

Recently Facebook (I am not a member) has shown some interest in BOINC projects but SETI@home is not one of them. It's a pity, since it is the project with the greatest users number.
Tullio


I have account on Facebook, and I am fans and member group for SETI@Home

http://www.facebook.com/pages/SETIhome/16063264533?ref=search&sid=1840450739.2603947823..1

and this

http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=SETI%40Home&init=quick#/group.php?gid=2204554986


N = R x fp x ne x fl x fi x fc x L
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Message 934966 - Posted: 21 Sep 2009, 9:50:00 UTC
Last modified: 21 Sep 2009, 9:50:30 UTC

The link to Progress Thru Processors in the BOINC home page mentions only rosetta@home, climateprediction.net, africa@home. Since I am not a Facebook member I was not aware of any connection to SETI@home.
Tullio
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Message 942725 - Posted: 25 Oct 2009, 8:51:08 UTC
Last modified: 25 Oct 2009, 8:55:25 UTC

Looking at these numbers, is this a sign that all of the data from the telescope has almost been processed? Tapes listed are all the tapes that are currently in the splitter queue. Data as of 25 Oct 2009 8:00:16 [done] = Astropulse work

    Multibeam Astropulse
    09se09af 50.20 GB (10) (done)
    10se09aa 50.20 GB (8) (done)
    10se09ab 50.20 GB (9) (done)
    10se09ac 38.15 GB (5) (done)
    10se09af 50.20 GB (5) (done)
    10se09ag 50.20 GB (done)
    10se09ah 50.20 GB (done)
    11se09aa 50.20 GB (done)
    11se09ab 50.20 GB (done)
    11se09ac 50.20 GB (done)
    total available channels on disk: 140 0
    channels in progress: 5 0
    channels done: 23 0
    channels ended in error: 9 0
    total channels to do: 103 0


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Message 942756 - Posted: 25 Oct 2009, 14:50:15 UTC - in response to Message 942725.  
Last modified: 25 Oct 2009, 14:52:41 UTC

We are getting close to the end of new data until the telescope is available again. Not to worry, Matt's radar blanking software seems to have tested out. That means we can finally process the older tapes that were badly interfered with by the radar noise. This should keep our system busy until when new data can be recorded again.

Boinc V7.2.42
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Message 942798 - Posted: 25 Oct 2009, 20:01:40 UTC - in response to Message 942756.  

We are getting close to the end of new data until the telescope is available again. Not to worry, Matt's radar blanking software seems to have tested out. That means we can finally process the older tapes that were badly interfered with by the radar noise. This should keep our system busy until when new data can be recorded again.

Thanks foe confirming. It's good news on the radar blanking software front. Since my last post another 19 channels have been processed leaving 84 channels to be processed. Rough calculations indicate that at the current speed we are processing 1.72 channels per hour.
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Message boards : Technical News : Telescope Silence (Sep 17 2009)


 
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