Q&A about the ATA shutdown.

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Eric Korpela Project Donor
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Message 1101284 - Posted: 28 Apr 2011, 5:34:40 UTC - in response to Message 1101271.  

Assuming I didn't blow it all on ninja supermodel robots first.

Hoo-boy... Eric, I thought you signed all those papers agreeing not to blow my cover!

Then get back to hiding in the shadows!
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Message 1101316 - Posted: 28 Apr 2011, 9:03:57 UTC - in response to Message 1101097.  
Last modified: 28 Apr 2011, 9:11:50 UTC

Eric, thanks for this thread and that on the front page is a note. Maybe sticky there for a few weeks?


And let the misinformation begin. http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=63890&nowrap=true#1100901 Dirk has pointed us to a German website that talks of the closing but shows the S@H screensaver. This is disturbing in that people are very likely to think they are one and the same.

And later on in that article, it is "stated" that SETI@home is working on ATA data.

So much for the accurateness of journalistic investigation :-(

Gruß,
Gundolf


This is not the only wrong article I found in the Inet.
Make for example an Inet (news/web) search at Google (for example (web) search with 'SETI@home shutdown' (currently the first URL at Google is this thread) or similar keywords) and you will find a lot of messages about that the project SETI@home is 'dead'.

I'm angry about.
It would last weeks to write the true on/in all the sites/forums out there.
Who was the first who wrote this nonsense in the Inet? He should wrote a clarification, maybe then all others would do the same.


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Message 1101330 - Posted: 28 Apr 2011, 10:11:57 UTC - in response to Message 1101097.  
Last modified: 28 Apr 2011, 10:51:26 UTC

And let the misinformation begin. http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=63890&nowrap=true#1100901 Dirk has pointed us to a German website that talks of the closing but shows the S@H screensaver. This is disturbing in that people are very likely to think they are one and the same.

And later on in that article, it is "stated" that SETI@home is working on ATA data.

So much for the accurateness of journalistic investigation :-(

Gruß,
Gundolf


An article appeared yesterday, in the Daily Mail online, which also originally showed the S@H screen-saver. Whilst the article no longer has the screen-saver, I felt that it did tend to lead people to believe that S@H has been shut-down. It also has to be said, that the 'current' article seems to be much shorter than the article that I read yesterday. I can't help wondering, what the article that was printed in the newspaper was like, given that what I read, probably more closely resembled that, rather than what is there now. To be honest, the 'original' article alarmed me to the point of coming straight to these forums, where my concerns were quickly allayed.
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Message 1101331 - Posted: 28 Apr 2011, 10:16:57 UTC - in response to Message 1101330.  

I can only hope that other crunchers think the same way you do, and check the forums here after hearing such misleading news.
"By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible". Hebrews 11.3

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Message 1101333 - Posted: 28 Apr 2011, 10:25:32 UTC
Last modified: 28 Apr 2011, 10:27:53 UTC

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Message 1101337 - Posted: 28 Apr 2011, 11:11:02 UTC

This article reinforces my opinion that journalists are not able to grasp the difference between SETI@home and SETI Institute.
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Message 1101346 - Posted: 28 Apr 2011, 12:49:20 UTC - in response to Message 1101337.  

This article reinforces my opinion that journalists are not able to grasp the difference between SETI@home and SETI Institute.
Tullio


I think it's more laziness than anything. If they bothered to have done their fact checking to begin with, none of this confusion would have happened. It only takes a few clicks to clearly see the difference between SETI@home and the SETI Institute.
"By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible". Hebrews 11.3

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Message 1101351 - Posted: 28 Apr 2011, 13:04:02 UTC - in response to Message 1101057.  


Does this mean the Green Bank data is unlikely to appear, given the budget constraints, or is that still going ahead? There was some talk of using data from Parkes too.


The Green Bank data is sure to happen. The splitter and any client changes necessary to handle it are a bit farther in the future. If one or more of us has to go working less time, it would slow down, but not stop.

The Astropulse reobservations at Arecibo are sure to happen as well.

There aren't any solid commitments as far as Parkes goes. At least none that I'm aware of.


Strongly that these new data arrives and volunteers can help you ....


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Message 1101361 - Posted: 28 Apr 2011, 14:00:49 UTC - in response to Message 1101284.  

Assuming I didn't blow it all on ninja supermodel robots first.

Hoo-boy... Eric, I thought you signed all those papers agreeing not to blow my cover!

Then get back to hiding in the shadows!

My people don't hide dear. We lurk.
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Message 1101363 - Posted: 28 Apr 2011, 14:13:26 UTC - in response to Message 1101346.  

Einstein once said "why two soaps?", one for washing and one for shaving. One is enough, he thought. So most people do not understand why two different institutions are striving for the same goal, and believe, out of Einsteinian logic, that they must be the same. I believe that, under duress, the two might find some cooperation in order to obtain a positive result. The SETI Institute could adopt BOINC, like IBM and CERN have done. and we might get some ATA data to crunch.
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Message 1101364 - Posted: 28 Apr 2011, 14:19:35 UTC - in response to Message 1101363.  

A good point and a very relevant one...the analysis resources could be pooled, which would keep us 'crunchers' very happy and, of course, the now 'sleeping' ATA would get the analysis done for an incredibly small cost. Oh, Angela, when does "lurking", become stalking? lol



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Message 1101381 - Posted: 28 Apr 2011, 15:00:16 UTC - in response to Message 1101330.  

To be honest, the 'original' article alarmed me to the point of coming straight to these forums, where my concerns were quickly allayed.


Iona,
That could be a good thing. Maybe it will draw some of those people with mis-configured computers in long enough to find out the old V12 app from Lunatics doesn't work with the new Fermi cards. So many of them are the set and forget crowd that don't even read PMs let alone the forums.


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Message 1101422 - Posted: 28 Apr 2011, 17:27:33 UTC

There are several reason that SETI@home isn't associated with the SETI Institute. The first is that when SETI@home started, some people at the SETI Institute were worried that SETI@home might generate bad publicity for them if something went badly. So they wanted SETI@home to remain separate.

Second, the SETI Institute has its own instruments and observes nearby stars using long observation times rather than doing an all sky survey like SETI@home. So in general, our methods don't fit in with their philosophy.

We have, at times, tried to negotiate joint fund raising efforts with them. These efforts usually break down over dividing revenue between institutions, and whether the SETI Institute would have access to our database of email addresses. The Institute solicits donations much more aggressively than we do, and we're not sure our volunteers would like that. In addition, our privacy policy says we aren't going to give private info to anyone, and we aren't going to violate that. But we will probably be forced to solicit donations more frequently than once a year to stay afloat. Hope we don't end up like NPR with pledge drives every three weeks.

Since we don't do the same thing, it's unlikely there would be any efficiency gains from becoming a part of the SETI institute. What we would gain is access to their fund raising staff. But it's unclear whether the Institute could or would promise to keep us funded.
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Message 1101476 - Posted: 28 Apr 2011, 21:55:44 UTC

Thank you for taking the time to explain all this Eric. Very enlightening! But to give me a leg up, and so I don't fall behind, please keep me abreast of the ninja supermodel robot situation.
(Can they be programmed to do laundry??)

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Message 1101477 - Posted: 28 Apr 2011, 22:09:37 UTC - in response to Message 1101476.  

Thank you for taking the time to explain all this Eric. Very enlightening! But to give me a leg up, and so I don't fall behind, please keep me abreast of the ninja supermodel robot situation.
(Can they be programmed to do laundry??)

As long as they keep they cooking skills :)

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Message 1101536 - Posted: 29 Apr 2011, 0:59:56 UTC
Last modified: 29 Apr 2011, 1:05:40 UTC

G'day,

I tried lobbying the csiro in Australia for you guys to try and get them to talk to you about using the parkes telescope. as I don't think it does too much these days. but at the time I got dismissed/blocked by a woman who wasn't even Australian and made me feel like a crackpot.(How Insulting) :-( the parkes radio telescope is just up the road from me in a roundabout way. I can't say I know much about the hardware required. but what hardware would you need inorder to setup seti@parkes and piggyback off of the parkes radio telescope? if you want I am more than happy to start hassling them again. :-)
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Message 1101545 - Posted: 29 Apr 2011, 1:19:02 UTC - in response to Message 1101536.  

We'd need to build a data recorder capable of pulling in all of the beams. A replica of the one that we have at AO would suffice. And, of course, we'd need some support from personnel at the telescope, and an approval through the proposal process. And, of course, someone here would need to free up the time to handle it, or an Australian astronomer could help make it happen. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of SETI funding in Australia, from what I understand.

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Message 1101593 - Posted: 29 Apr 2011, 3:53:11 UTC - in response to Message 1101545.  

Is that pretty much it? wouldn't you need a server? or would you do it the same as AO and send the tapes to berkeley? As far as funding is concerned it's mostly political. I don't think the governments are that closed minded about life in the universe. as the view here of the milkyway in the country, on a cloudless summernight is beyond description. especially when you are away from the townlights. it's just, like any politicians they like anything that makes it look like they are doing something and it costs them nothing to establish. ie hardware. they get their heads in the media for their 15 seconds of fame.

Anyway here is the Chief Scientist of Australia's website. His name is Professor Ian Chubb AC. http://www.chiefscientist.gov.au/contact/
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Message 1101605 - Posted: 29 Apr 2011, 5:09:57 UTC

Einstein@home is getting data from Parkes for its binary pulsar search but I don't know anything about the details of this agreement.
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Message 1101611 - Posted: 29 Apr 2011, 5:57:04 UTC - in response to Message 1101605.  
Last modified: 29 Apr 2011, 6:01:35 UTC

The Einstein@home data is of a different type than we require. Rather than raw receiver voltage measurements, they do their processing on low frequency-resolution power spectra. That is good for a pulsar search, but wouldn't work for a narrow band signal search. The data they use was recorded for a standard pulsar search, but they are using it to search for pulsars with accelerations due to tight orbits. It's a very good use of the data.

BTW, we're on very good terms with Bruce Allen and Jim Cordes, so if we had a use for that data, I have no doubt they'd give it to us. In fact, we're sharing the SERENDIP V.v data with Jim and his grad student Laura Spitler. We're both sharing code and developing our own, just to make sure we don't miss anything.
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