I'm a retired Civil Servant (due to health problems)age 44 and have had a long standing interest in Space and technology.
I live in London England and have an active interest in SF in all it's forms i.e. written, TV and Films.
Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home
I think it vertually a certainty that life outside of Earth exists, and that it is likely to be inteligent in at least some cases.
As to sending out a beacon of that I'm not so sure.
SETI@home and Astropulse are funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, NASA, and donations from SETI@home volunteers. AstroPulse is funded in part by the NSF through grant AST-0307956.