Profile: Peter Kistler (Swiss YETI works for SETI)
Personal background
Where do I come from?
I'm citizen of this world (owning a Swiss passport).
About me
Married, two boys.
Profession
I graduated at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
Zurich as an electronics engineer with focal point on software.
I worked in the telecommunications business (17 years in development and marketing).
Now giving my best in "pure" development projects (just to reactivate my strength).
My SETI@home history
I was made aware by job colleagues early after the beginning of the project. Installed the client on every machine I had access (even if systems managers didnt know). Most of the computers were idle HP workstations (which still had 50h per WU, what explains my high cpu-time per WU). Learned alot about the different releases. Installed SETIqueue to work around network problems.
Because I changed my employment there is only my notebook in the office left (plus my slow PC at home). So it took LONG to reach the 5000 WU border. sniff... And the next certificate is just lightyears away!
At least I was a long time the leader on my (new) companies group ;-). Now i'm overruled by my own system manager ...
update 2014
I'm back again (after 8 years) with some newer home workstation just to try if it's the same fun as in those old days ...
Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home
About extraterrestrial life
- It exists for sure (just pure statistics tells us so)
- It's not frigthening me (I'm more frightened about our own way of living together)
Why do I run SETI@home
- because I like science, space technology and astronomy since I was a small boy.
- because there is a lot of unused computer power of which I can donate a small part to a usefull task (at least better than just heating my office)
- so it is the ideal combination of my interest and technical facilities!
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.
