Posts by Jason Safoutin

1) Message boards : Number crunching : BoincLogX stopped working (Message 1212565)
Posted 31 Mar 2012 by Profile Jason Safoutin
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Never mind...it seems whatever was wrong, it has fixed itself. This AM I could not get it to work for the life of me. I just opened it back up and suddenly there was light at the end.
2) Message boards : Number crunching : BoincLogX stopped working (Message 1212560)
Posted 31 Mar 2012 by Profile Jason Safoutin
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I think i had this problem before, but cannot find the thread. I went to open BoincLogX one day and it asked me for the "boinc directory." I forget which "directory" was there. Also when this happened an error message for BoincLogX popped up...however it was in German? Anyways...not sure what I did wrong and every "boinc directory" I try to add fails.
3) Message boards : News : Project Back Online After Overnight Outage (Message 1195406)
Posted 15 Feb 2012 by Profile Jason Safoutin
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Thanks for the update. It's Tuesday night here, so technically the outage is still on :P I am not too worried. You guys always pull through.
4) Message boards : SETI@home Science : Kepler-22b: The new Earth? (Message 1177157)
Posted 10 Dec 2011 by Profile Jason Safoutin
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Dr. Jill Tarter of the SETI Institute announced that Kepler 22b and other promising planets discovered by the Kepler Project will soon be monitored for intelligent radio signals at the newly reopened Allen Telescope Array. IF this planet is inhabited, and *if* its inhabitants had the ability and inclination to send a strong radio beam our way 600 years ago, we may not have to wait too long for confirmation of life on the planet.


They don't even have to be sending it to us. Just in our general direction. Would be nice if they were sending constant signals much like TV and radio on earth do here. But if we don't find those transmissions, that doesn't mean there are no human like beings on the planet, they just might not yet have the capabilities to send such signals. There was a time when we had no clue what radio even was much less signals from space.
5) Message boards : SETI@home Science : Kepler-22b: The new Earth? (Message 1177156)
Posted 10 Dec 2011 by Profile Jason Safoutin
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UPDATE: Is the New planet Kepler 22b discovered by NASA super earth?

"Bill Borucki, Kepler’s lead scientist, said, “If it has a surface, it ought to have a nice temperature.”

Natalie Batahla, the Kepler deputy science chief, said, “It’s right in the middle of the habitable zone. The other exciting thing is that it orbits a star very, very similar to our own sun. It’s so exciting to imagine the possibilities.”

Floating on that “world completely covered in water” could be like being on an Earth ocean and “it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that life could exist in such an ocean,” Batalha said in a phone interview.

Kepler-22b is one of the fifty planets that fit the bill of orbiting a star in the habitable zone. It is 600 light years away from earth and is about 2.4 times the diameter of Earth. It makes a revolution around its sun in 290 days and its surface boasts the balmy daytime temperatures of around 22 degrees Celsius.
"

Also: Human-like Life Could Exist on Newly-discovered Planet

"A newly-discovered Earth-like planet could very well contain continental features where normal human-like life could exist. Or it could be more of a water world with an ocean containing life forms similar to dolphins.

That’s according to Dr. Alan Boss, of the Carnegie Institution for Science, one of the researchers involved in discovering the new planet.

Located some 600 light-years away, Kepler 22B is about 2.4 times the radius of Earth. And while scientists don’t yet exactly know if the planet is predominantly rocky, gaseous or liquid composition, its discovery has excited scientists who now say we’re now one step closer to finding other Earth-like planets throughout the cosmos.

If it is truly made of rock, as some speculate, Dr. Boss says it might look something like our own Earth with probably a fair amount of water on it as well.
6) Message boards : SETI@home Science : Kepler-22b: The new Earth? (Message 1175908)
Posted 5 Dec 2011 by Profile Jason Safoutin
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NASA scientists with the Kepler program have confirmed, for the first time, a planet in the 'habitable zone' in an other solar system.

NASA's Kepler Mission Confirms Its First Planet in Habitable Zone of Sun-like Star

"NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed its first planet in the "habitable zone," the region where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface....The newly confirmed planet, Kepler-22b, is the smallest yet found to orbit in the middle of the habitable zone of a star similar to our sun. The planet is about 2.4 times the radius of Earth. Scientists don't yet know if Kepler-22b has a predominantly rocky, gaseous or liquid composition, but its discovery is a step closer to finding Earth-like planets....Kepler-22b is located 600 light-years away. While the planet is larger than Earth, its orbit of 290 days around a sun-like star resembles that of our world. The planet's host star belongs to the same class as our sun, called G-type, although it is slightly smaller and cooler."

Unfortunately, we really have no way, yet, to determine if life exists on this planet. Sending a probe is possible, but it would take over 600 years to get there. This is great news and I hope they find out more about this planet.

Also: Would it be possible for Arecibo to make an observation of this planet? Not saying aliens are there, but being the first "confirmed, habitable" planet...isn't it worth a shot?
7) Message boards : Science (non-SETI) : Speed of light broken again as scientists test neutrino result (Message 1172277)
Posted 19 Nov 2011 by Profile Jason Safoutin
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I think I started a previous thread on this matter, but can't find it so I am starting a new one because of new developments.

Speed of light broken again as scientists test neutrino result

The speed of light appears to have been broken again after scientists carried out a new set of experiments to test measurements that could require the laws of physics to be rewritten. The researchers behind the experiments, which involved sending neutrino particles 450 miles through the ground from the CERN facility in Geneva to the Gran Sasso laboratory in Italy, have now attempted to rule out one possible source of error. By tweaking the experiment in an attempt to address a potential flaw in their original experiment, they again showed that the neutrons arrived at the Italian site some 60 billionths of a second faster than if they had been travelling at the speed of light.

Scientists have posted new results that confirm measurements made in September that a beam of subatomic particles had travelled faster than the speed of light.

The initial result caused widespread debate as it appeared to break one of the most fundamental laws of physics – that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light.

The findings have proved troubling for scientists as it goes against Albert Einstein's law of special relativity and opens up the possibility of being able to send information back in time.


This really does amaze me. Even if there was an error in the first test (which so far they have yet to find evidence of), this test yielded the same results...TWICE! This is incredible for science. The amount of things we could do if we were able to harness such power in small spaces at a constant, would be near endless. This could very well be a new era of science we never thought possible.
8) Message boards : SETI@home Science : They haven't landed yet! (Message 1170589)
Posted 12 Nov 2011 by Profile Jason Safoutin
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Well I have to agree...at least about 80%. I still think they know a lot more about the possibility or existence of another species, intelligent or not, than what they are telling us. NASA has at least 2 cards left to play: 1) Announce they have found life, microbial or mammal, on another planet (most likely place is one of several moons in our own solar system) or 2) Announce they have found proof of an intelligent alien species that existed in the past or present and have made or intend to make contact with said species (NASA has that second card to play assuming they discover a signal or etc. before any other agency or citizen etc.). Once those cards are played the only real thing left is getting to those places if not in our own backyard and frankly light speed or getting anything near it is not as fascinating as talking to another alien. So once one of those two things happen, then what...you know? So for them its like 'meh.' If you ask me they have a lot of hard evidence to say there may very well mammal life in oceans under the ice surfaces of at least one of Jupiter's and Saturn's moons, but are stalling announcing it. I always asked the question: Why have they paid much less attention to these moons? Why haven't they really planned on sending probes or rovers or etc. to these things? Well i pretty much answered those questions...
9) Message boards : Number crunching : Every workunit I downloaded is a .vlar (Message 1169921)
Posted 11 Nov 2011 by Profile Jason Safoutin
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Credits or etc don't concern me at all. My main concern: Is this normal? I mean I have downloaded a few .vlar here and there before, but never every single workunit in one download bundle. I just thought it to be odd...
10) Message boards : Number crunching : Every workunit I downloaded is a .vlar (Message 1169915)
Posted 11 Nov 2011 by Profile Jason Safoutin
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I have never seen this before on this machine, or any other machine I have used to crunch for SETI@home. Every workunit I downloaded the other day is a .vlar. Not sure what that means if anything, but thought I would run it by here to see why this is the case.
11) Message boards : News : 2 Billion Results (Message 1169623)
Posted 10 Nov 2011 by Profile Jason Safoutin
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This morning we reached 2 Billion BOINC results processed by SETI@home! Or to be more accurate, 2 to the power of 31 results (2,147,483,648). This explains why we're a little slow to recover from today's outage: we need to update code to accept larger numbers.

Unsigned is not a long term solution!

Congrats to the crunchers and the project.


Been too busy to check forums lately, so figured I would comment from the beginning. This really is great news. It means more people are participating in this project and that makes me happy. Congrats to everyone on every end of the project. this is a huge milestone.
12) Message boards : Number crunching : Upload server down? (Message 1153901)
Posted 19 Sep 2011 by Profile Jason Safoutin
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No upload for 12 hours here in UK. I'm sure the lads know and will fix it. No real panic anywhere that I can see.


Indeed...seems to just be something to do with uploads. Everything else seems to be working fine. I would not be surprised if they just need to reboot something. 10:25am EDT on Monday here. They should be in the lab within an hour or two roughly.
13) Message boards : SETI@home Science : Need help with the math (Message 1153761)
Posted 19 Sep 2011 by Profile Jason Safoutin
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Well I am not one for the math, but to calculate a logical assumption, there are more than a few dozen variables that exist based on how far and how long a signal can travel through "space." there are obstructions, interferences etc, How long is the signal broadcast for, will it last for seconds, minutes days, years etc...I mean the list goes on. So to get an idea of the math for something like that, you would sort of need to pick on and make a best guess...
14) Message boards : SETI@home Science : SETI... What do we look for? (Message 1153760)
Posted 19 Sep 2011 by Profile Jason Safoutin
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So all we are doing is using our computers to help try and find something coming from space... but we never know if we found anythign or not. I find this interesting but I think once we run this we should be able to see the information for the projects we helped with. I think that would maybe attract more people and broden the chances of finding something. IDK maybe not... I know I would like to see anything that is found from my computer. Thanks for your feedback.
Trista


There was a lot of discussion about this when SETI@home CLassic switched to the BOINC platform. A lot of people felt they lost what was one of the better things about analyzing workunits, the screensaver. I used to watch the screensaver all the time in the Classic version. Not so much anymore unless BoincLogX tells me there might be some interesting data.

I agree that there should be some way of seeing the data that is analyzed. I would like to see what Arecibo picks up even if earth made material. I guess it is more so a lack of funding ad the equipment and ability to produce such a task. I am not sure what the data looks like once it's analyzed or what exactly the guys at SETI@home look for in detecting signals, alien or not.

Also there is the 'Near-Time Persistency Checker' which lists the "Current Best Candidates by Score" on analyzed workunits. This does not mean these signals are ET, but merely they are the best candidates to look at again and look for repeating patterns. This list is technically something Arecibo should look at again in the future and compare the data. The list changes as better candidates arise. There are star charts and etc. Good at math and you can plot rough locations. But as such, it doesn't say what computers crunched that data.

Screensaver info: http://www.boinc-wiki.info/Screen_Saver_&_Graphics_Display_-_SETI@Home
15) Message boards : SETI@home Science : SETI... What do we look for? (Message 1153628)
Posted 18 Sep 2011 by Profile Jason Safoutin
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To be honest, I like the information that was displayed with the SETI@home classic software. I forget exactly what was displayed, but it was in my opinion as informative as it could be about the task you analyzed, but the same results were that you still wouldn't know if your computer(s) ever detected anything unless you were told. You still get a bit of information from these tasks with third party programs aka SetiMapView or BoincLogX etc.

SETI@home, to my knowledge has not detected anything yet. Einstein@home has discovered a few pulsars: http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=61049
16) Message boards : SETI@home Science : NASA to Announce Kepler Discovery (Message 1153624)
Posted 18 Sep 2011 by Profile Jason Safoutin
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Joe, Thank you for the reply. I am eager to see more results, one way or the other. It would be great to send a probe that would report back in my lifetime if we find a promising target near in.

We would have to jack up our propulsion methods to achieve the necessary speeds.


I think if we want to find definitive life on other planets/moons other than earth, we need to send probes to the likes of Jupiter's moon Europa, Saturn's Enceladus and Titan...any of these three are the best candidates for bacterial life or even mammals. If Europa or Enceladus have liquid water under their surfaces, there could be an entire ecosystem on these moons. We already know Cassini discovered "organic" material as well as water spewing from geysers on Enceladus, so that moon would be my first choice. As much as I love Mars and hope we find something big there, NASA has several other better candidates for mammal life right under their noses, but avoid landing on these moons. If life is what they are seeking, they are looking in the wrong places so to speak.
17) Message boards : SETI@home Science : NASA to Announce Kepler Discovery (Message 1152857)
Posted 16 Sep 2011 by Profile Jason Safoutin
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I watched it...well the first few minutes of it. I then realized how disappointed I was in the entire thing. I guess this has to be expected of NASA as of lately though. I mean the discovery is cool, but the Lucas Arts/films guy or whoever seemed to be there just so they could use the Star Wars names and etc. Cool discovery, but one of NASA's worst press conferences on the books.

It is a cool discovery though Jason!

I suppose we all get excited when NASA hold press conferences and say they have some "BIG" announcement about Exoplanets. Really, we're all kinda hoping that some day NASA will tell us the big one......That they found and confirmed life somewhere else. Then its a let-down if they don't announce that.

What we are confirming with the Kepler telescope is that other solar systems are similar to our own, and sometimes other solar systems will have strange and wonderful stuff that we don't have.

It is very cool to imagine two Sun's crossing the sky every day. What a wonderful thought......and now we know that it really does happen in other places!

John.


I guess that's true and will agree to an extent because when they do announce life on other planets, what could really trump that? But It just seems they hype it up too much all the time. It is a cool discovery. But I don't like the idea of a scientific discovery being made into a commercial. This is awesome stuff we are dealing with and NASA treats it like a movie...I am surprised they don't do a "this press conference brought to you by..."
18) Message boards : SETI@home Science : NASA to Announce Kepler Discovery (Message 1152626)
Posted 15 Sep 2011 by Profile Jason Safoutin
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I watched it...well the first few minutes of it. I then realized how disappointed I was in the entire thing. I guess this has to be expected of NASA as of lately though. I mean the discovery is cool, but the Lucas Arts/films guy or whoever seemed to be there just so they could use the Star Wars names and etc. Cool discovery, but one of NASA's worst press conferences on the books.
19) Message boards : SETI@home Science : NASA to Announce Kepler Discovery (Message 1152199)
Posted 14 Sep 2011 by Profile Jason Safoutin
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NASA to Announce Kepler Discovery at Media Briefing

NASA will host a news briefing at 2:00pm EDT (11:00am PDT), Thursday, Sept. 15, to announce a new discovery by the Kepler mission. The briefing will be held in the Syvertson auditorium, building N-201, at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. The event will be carried live on NASA Television and the agency's website at http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

Kepler is the first NASA mission capable of finding Earth-size planets in or near the "habitable zone," the region in a planetary system where liquid water can exist on the surface of the orbiting planet. Although additional observations will be needed to achieve that milestone, Kepler is detecting planets and planet candidates with a wide range of sizes and orbital distances to help us better understand our place in the galaxy.

A representative from Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), a division of Lucasfilm Ltd., will join a panel of scientists to discuss the discovery. The briefing participants are:
--Charlie Sobeck, Kepler deputy project manager, Ames Research Center
--Nick Gautier, Kepler project scientist, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
--Laurance Doyle, lead author, SETI Institute, Mountain View, Calif.
--John Knoll, visual effects supervisor, ILM, San Francisco.
--Greg Laughlin, professor for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, University of California, Santa Cruz, Calif.


The panel is very interesting. Has a SETI Institute representative ever sat in on a press conference regarding planets found with Kepler? And why Lucasfilm? Maybe this is something big. But they have hyped these in the past and I know I was pretty disappointed. Maybe they found another habitable planet. We need a good new space race.
20) Message boards : News : more data on the way (Message 1151191)
Posted 11 Sep 2011 by Profile Jason Safoutin
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In an attempt to push some older unanalyzed files through the pipeline we encountered data that could not be successfully preprocessed or split. This has resulted in work distribution going to near zero. We are currently transferring newer files from off site storage and soon will be receiving a disk shipment from Arecibo. Once these data are on hand work distribution will pick up.



Oh no, not more data....

If ET isn't in the data from the last 12 years, then I don't think he will be found in even more data.

What we need is less of data, and more of ET :-)


That all depends...are they sending a constant signal? How about one that only lasted for so long before they stopped transmitting? Maybe we missed the signal, then again, it may not have gotten here yet. We just need to crunch the right work units that are pointed at the right part of the sky at the right time. That's a lot to comprehend. Even lotteries don't have such bad odds.


Next 20


 
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