| Personal background |
|---|
I was born in 1966, and although this would qualify me for being a part of
the heyday of home-computing history, I only got my first machine in 1987.
Four years of studying computer science made me familiar with - and gave me
a strong preference for - network computing and UNIX operating systems in
particular. I consider myself a long-time internet user, being able to
trace back my net-activities to 1988.
I live in Bottrop, at the north border of the Ruhrgebiet, Germany's
largest industrial area. I currently work with one of the world's
major internet carriers, my office being located in Dortmund.
When not at work, I enjoy family life with my wife, Anne, and two
children, Rebecca and David. Among my large number of hobbies are
gardening, building toys (LEGO, alright!), home theater (i.e. DVD/LD
and related toys) and reading (Fantasy/SF, all-time favorite: Terry Pratchett).
Much to the dislike of my wife, I share my hobby room with a collection
of workstations, my main "numbercrunchers" being a SUN Ultra2 and an
SGI Indigo2 R10k.
I also run a german language SUN user forum at http://sonnenblen.de |
| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
|---|
E.T.? Why, of course. What could be more arrogant than expecting we were the
only intelligent species in the vast reaches of the universe?
My long time dream is to live to see an alien encounter, but of course
given the vast distances between stars, not to mention inhabitable star
systems, we probably won't stand a chance in the short run. I expect,
however, that any such discovery, and be it only the proof of existence of
life somewhere else in space, will cause an enormous boost in human
effort to get there and lay hands on it. Looking at man's history in
exploration, it is probably good it will take us a while to do so.
I strongly vote for an attempt to send messages out to space for
whoever might be out there to receive them. Even if they can't get here and
we can't get there, it is important to know of each other's existence.
When I first joined seti@home with another username, it was more of a
fun project to me. Meanwhile, I think that the networked effort is our
only way to systematically scan the available material for proof of
alien intelligent life. |
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