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Old 21st Dec 2001, 08:51
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Dibble&Grub
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
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Post PPRUNE SETI Group Start Up

OK you CPU cycle rich PPRUNERs out there, let's put some of your spare cycles to use.

Most of you have probably come across the SETI idea (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) and I don't doubt that some are already running the SETI screen saver.

What I would like to propose is a PPRUNE SETI collaboration / team whatever. We are a sizeable and techie group and as such we could make a significant dent in the processing requirements.

First a link so you can take a look at the idea :

<a href="http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/" target="_blank">http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/</a>

In it's simplest form the SETI software is just a fancy screen saver. The linkage is through your email address and that may be a cause for concern, but remember apart from this little advert, there will be no linkage to your PPRUNE user name at all. (Although I suppose there is nothing wrong with using your USER@PPRUNE address if you so wish.)

Anyway, back to the collaboration. Most people do the SETI units (which can take anything from 4-40 hours of spare CPU time depending upon your system) as individuals. However there is a growing trend to get a collaboration / club together and pool resources to make a Group Effort, if you will. This doesn't affect the individual's credits in any way, and you can join and leave a group as the mood takes you. It is a purely an admin thing. There is an element of friendly competition here as well. Spend some time with the site - you will get the feel of it. It is not a "mine is bigger than yours" thing. More a "we have got our sh*te together" thing.

There is an associated newsgroup :

alt.sci.seti

Which is very active and a sensible read.

So if you have a mind to help with this project and have your PC do something useful when you are not actually using it to PPRUNE or whatever, do look at the SETI site and maybe even join up and get it running. I would recommend that you start with the standard Windows / Mac software and get that running - very easy, very simple install. There are lots of add ons and tweeks available and maybe we can discuss that if this gets going. Once you are up and running, go back to the SETI site and join the PPRUNE group - which I have started. This will effectively link us up and sum our total units under the PPRUNE banner. There are 40,000 + PPRUNERS out there - if just 1% of us got our act together we would be a formable asset to the SETI cause. Maybe we could even ask them to point the dishes at the various management offices for a quick scan. Although I would rather take a bet on the Tau galaxy....

Certainly the SETI software, although it sits IDLE when you are working, gives your PC a stress ECG when it gets a chance and the output is a very good indication of PC health and efficiency. It is a very compact and efficient piece of code and if you have anything more than 64K of RAM you will never know it is there.

Once you are running I would recommend SETI SPY :

Web: <a href="http://pages.tca.net/roelof/setispy/" target="_blank">http://pages.tca.net/roelof/setispy/</a>

as a alternate front end as the output is very informative.

Any queries, and I will help where I can, but I am no expert, use the email address on this UserName - which is not the one I usually use !!. This is my real address - but I can't hide that since this is my logon to SETI (as you will see if you go to the PPRUNE group / team page). No enquiries to this thread please. Danny has kindly allowed us to use the PPRUNE logo as a group name, but this is not aviation and we mustn't clog this server with SETI chat...

And once again. Although we will be grouping under the PPRUNE banner, there is no linkage to our PPRUNE identities, so don't be shy.

See you out there ....

Ken

[ 21 December 2001: Message edited by: Dibble&Grub ]</p>
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