Your thoughts/opinions on what SETI@home needs to succeed

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Al Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
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Message 1866054 - Posted: 7 May 2017, 16:17:15 UTC
Last modified: 7 May 2017, 16:18:18 UTC

I thought I would post this question out to everyone, to have them chime in on to see if there is anything close to a consensus as to what SETI's most pressing needs are. I know they are many, it appears hardware might be a concern right now, as well as obviously manpower, that is always an issue these days.

Hardware is probably easier to resolve than a lack of personnel I would think. So, what would be the most urgent issue that replacing it would provide the greatest amount of good? Or is it more of a web of things that need to be addressed all at once, if the funding were available?

Thoughts?

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Message 1866057 - Posted: 7 May 2017, 16:55:11 UTC - in response to Message 1866054.  

You are right but until the staff tells us their needs and how we can help, really nothing we can do. I know in the past there have been fundraisers for the project but without input from the staff, it's hard to get much done. Probably what they really need is $$ to hire more staff (intern, etc) to help them police the current hardware and see where improvements can be had.
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Message 1866061 - Posted: 7 May 2017, 17:14:52 UTC

Money is always important but i can ask Eric if there are special needs in short term.


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Message 1866065 - Posted: 7 May 2017, 17:34:05 UTC - in response to Message 1866061.  

Money is always important but i can ask Eric if there are special needs in short term.

Yes, IMO what the project needs are more people with green stars
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Message 1866069 - Posted: 7 May 2017, 18:07:41 UTC - in response to Message 1866061.  

Money is always important but i can ask Eric if there are special needs in short term.
That would be great if you could do that, I'd appreciate hearing it directly from the 'horses mouth' so to speak. That way there would be no ambiguity to it. Thanks!

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Message 1866099 - Posted: 7 May 2017, 20:39:25 UTC

I believe the last tidbit I heard was a couple of servers with 24 SSDs. Probably much like what they have shown in that Greenbank video. Which brings that up, all that receiving equipment of that precision is a lot of dollars and probably where a lot of money goes for new installs like that.
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Message 1866102 - Posted: 7 May 2017, 20:46:35 UTC

More specialists in data processing and radiophysisists.
SETI apps news
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Message 1866137 - Posted: 7 May 2017, 22:49:38 UTC - in response to Message 1866102.  

More specialists in data processing and radiophysisists.
Yeah, personnel. That would be a harder nut to crack, I would think. Hardware is a one time investment, people are an ongoing expense, which has to be budgeted for every year. I know they would have a huge positive impact on the project, I just expect that it will be hard to get anyone added to the project without a long term commitment of funding for that person/s. But hey, here's hoping!

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Message 1866144 - Posted: 7 May 2017, 23:25:10 UTC - in response to Message 1866099.  

I believe the last tidbit I heard was a couple of servers with 24 SSDs. Probably much like what they have shown in that Greenbank video. Which brings that up, all that receiving equipment of that precision is a lot of dollars and probably where a lot of money goes for new installs like that.

What "Greenbank video"? I must have missed that. I'm willing to further donate to the project but it would be nice to know just what hardware they are most in need of to keep the project running with less interruptions or hands-on maintenance that requires scarce personnel intervention.
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Message 1866145 - Posted: 7 May 2017, 23:39:20 UTC - in response to Message 1866099.  

I believe the last tidbit I heard was a couple of servers with 24 SSDs.


Yes, there will apparently be a requirement soon for a new storage multi-drive bay + compute capability for new data sources. The specs are still being worked out.

I suspect that this will be required for bringing Parkes online as Breakthrough Listen data source.
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Message 1866156 - Posted: 8 May 2017, 2:03:57 UTC - in response to Message 1866144.  

What "Greenbank video"?
This one Keith http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=81290
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Message 1866190 - Posted: 8 May 2017, 6:05:44 UTC

Lots of thoughts/opinions to add here. So many it will take some time to form a proper response. Probably most important in my eyes is that the Universities, as degree mills, are probably the least appropriate venue for anything worthwhile.
"Living by the wisdom of computer science doesn't sound so bad after all. And unlike most advice, it's backed up by proofs." -- Algorithms to live by: The computer science of human decisions.
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Message 1866195 - Posted: 8 May 2017, 6:43:42 UTC - in response to Message 1866190.  

Probably most important in my eyes is that the Universities, as degree mills, are probably the least appropriate venue for anything worthwhile.

But if you've got some money they can provide some cheap, well educated, labor. Uni students always need more money for more alcohol.
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Message 1866202 - Posted: 8 May 2017, 7:00:57 UTC - in response to Message 1866195.  

Probably most important in my eyes is that the Universities, as degree mills, are probably the least appropriate venue for anything worthwhile.

But if you've got some money they can provide some cheap, well educated, labor. Uni students always need more money for more alcohol.

Good point :D. Will try to figure where the undergraduate slave labour market fits into the bigger picture.
"Living by the wisdom of computer science doesn't sound so bad after all. And unlike most advice, it's backed up by proofs." -- Algorithms to live by: The computer science of human decisions.
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Message 1866205 - Posted: 8 May 2017, 7:19:15 UTC

The UGSM will require hardware and infrastructure to support their efforts. Plus supervision - I've seen the 4*P that can be (often is) the result of a group of UGSM.
So, clone DA, EK, DW, ML. JC, AS et-al, give them loads of new servers, plenty of money and UGSM...
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Message 1866272 - Posted: 8 May 2017, 19:09:55 UTC - in response to Message 1866156.  

What "Greenbank video"?
This one Keith http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=81290

Ahh, thanks Brent. I only remembered that video with respect its emphasis on water cooling. Didn't associate the brief mentions of the storage systems with anything to do with SSD's. See that they are using Seagate Red 5TB drives.
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Message 1866276 - Posted: 8 May 2017, 19:16:02 UTC - in response to Message 1866270.  

Nitpicker never happened, but what is happening is the Nebula project over at Einstein's Atlas cluster. We need to convince people in the first place, that crunching for Seti@Home is worthwhile doing and funding. That done, THEN we need to see about what they need to run it.

Just me 2c worth M'lud

D.A. posted a progress update yesterday on the Nebula project thread. Looks like they are getting a better idea on how to crunch our 18 years worth of data by getting rid of the noise sources. They are still grappling with what are the best tools to reduce the data.
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Message 1866280 - Posted: 8 May 2017, 19:23:07 UTC - in response to Message 1866272.  

See that they are using Seagate Red 5TB drives.


I thought it was only the WD NAS drives that had those colour codes... I would think they would use WDs as well as Seagates aren't as reliable.
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Message 1866323 - Posted: 9 May 2017, 0:55:25 UTC - in response to Message 1866280.  

See that they are using Seagate Red 5TB drives.


I thought it was only the WD NAS drives that had those colour codes... I would think they would use WDs as well as Seagates aren't as reliable.

Seems they are actually using Toshiba drives. http://i.imgur.com/JCdsbE3.png
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Message 1866329 - Posted: 9 May 2017, 1:35:39 UTC

My mistake. I just saw the red label and some manufacturer identifier that was NOT WD. There are good reports on the 5TB Toshiba hard drive reliability.
who-makes-the-most-reliable-hard-drives

I'm not sure what the benefit of going to SSD drives would be. It's not a situation where you need constant access to the data array. I would think you just need an array large enough to hold the datasets that you are going to analyze.
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Message boards : Number crunching : Your thoughts/opinions on what SETI@home needs to succeed


 
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