SETI@Home

Num7

Administrator
Staff
Messages
12,376
SETI@Home

I just downloaded SETI@home, and when registering I found the Paranormalis@Home Team there !

For those who doesn't know, SETI uses the processing capabilities of idle computers all over the Internet to process their huge amount of date, in order to find ETs intelligence. If you install the SETI@Home software, it sets itself as your screensaver, and when it starts, SETI is using some of your computer's CPU time to process it's data. This is no virus.

Here are some links about SETI@Home.
SETI@home
SETI Institute

As I read about it, it looks to take a very small amount of bandwidth. looks like it sends data over the internet only when a task is completed, after many hours or so. Also, it doesn't slow down your computer, since it's a screensaver.

Num7 :)
 

TimeWizardCosmo

Senior Member
Zenith
Messages
2,936
Re: SETI@Home

I've been using this for a while now :) Hence the Paranormalis@Home team LOL. You explained it exactly right... Whenever your computer is idle it does computations for data collected from SETI and then sends it back whenever it's done. Pretty cool!
 

Num7

Administrator
Staff
Messages
12,376
Re: SETI@Home

Cool :)

This is from Above Top Secret, I found it a few minutes ago.
On last night's (3/28-3/29 2008) Coast to Coast AM show Art Bell mentioned the most extraordinary thing in passing.

He said SETI has received a very complex signal they suspect may be of
extraterrestrial origin. If I heard him correctly, he said they're still working on analyzing it and will release information about it when they've come to a conclusion.
Complex E.T. signal received by SETI, page 1

Looks like there's nothing about this over the Internet. Anyone here listened to C2C AM and heard that ?

There's also this old SETI article from January Has a SETI Signal Been Detected?

Num7
 

Keroscene

Active Member
Messages
571
Re: SETI@Home

I ran SETI for a while not to long ago. They have really come along way, when it first came out it was really buggy. I like how it has 3-d graphics now when the screensaver is running to show what data is being processed. THe only thing i don't like about it is it makes my processor run at 100% when its processing data, it might be just me but i think thats alot of wear and tear and raises my electric bill slightly when its running overnight. Makes my cpu fairly warm when its been going for hours. THey might have a way to throttle cpu usage in the new version but that always bothered me before.

THought I'd share my stats. I can't believe I have 364 hours of cpu time. I didn't think it ran that much. At one time I had an extra PC that I used to let it run all the time on. I could of swore I registered before 1 Jan 2005. THat date sounds a little suspicious to me. THere are people on there that have multiple computers on networks running it 24/7. THey have a bunch of other programs that you can run now to, better mankind.

Total credit 2,190
Recent average credit 0.08
SETI@home classic workunits 43
SETI@home classic CPU time 364 hours
 

Num7

Administrator
Staff
Messages
12,376
Re: SETI@Home

If you want, you can set it in the settings to use only a % of your CPU. If you set it to 50% for exemple, it will leave the CPU idle for 2 seconds, then use it 100% for 2 other seconds. I installed it on my second computer, it's a Double Pentium 3, these ones were not getting too hot anyway.

You have a really good score baud ! :)

(Edit: What I said above depends of the version you have)

Num7
 

Keroscene

Active Member
Messages
571
Re: SETI@Home

THanks for the compliment on the score Numenorean. I downloaded it and installed it again. The option was there like you said, thanks for telling me about it. I joined the paranormalis team. THink we'll find a transmission in all that static? I think there's a better chance of that then them coming here in person so to speak. Then again theres the chance their technology isn't anything like ours, we'll may never detect a signal, if they even have one. I think there are aliens out there in one form or another, but maybe there aren't any intelligent ones. THeres so many planets though, how could someone think there isn't any life out there at all? I think there is!
 

Num7

Administrator
Staff
Messages
12,376
Re: SETI@Home

I think that if we figured out how to listen and to send transmissions, there are some chances that ETs did so. The universe is so big after all.
Like you said, maybe they don't use the same type of communication devices. In that case, we'll never detect anything.

If ETs exist, I wonder if they think they are alone in the universe, like we do !?!

I'll bet that they will find something one day or another. It can take a long time.

Num7
 

Harte

Senior Member
Messages
4,562
Re: SETI@Home

baudmiksen said:
THink we'll find a transmission in all that static? I
I'd say not likely, unfortunately.

People don't realize how much electromagnetic waves attenuate.

It's almost a dead-bang certainty that nobody on another planet has picked us up yet. We don't use (don't need to use) much power, relatively speaking, in our broadcasts. This causes our waves to get waaaay thinned out at less than interstellar distances.

Any signal we do pick up (if ever) would have to be meant for that purpose, like in Sagan's "Contact."

Harte
 

Num7

Administrator
Staff
Messages
12,376
Re: SETI@Home

I'm using Seti@Home once more.
I wasn't leaving my computer alone that much lately, so Seti at home didn't run more than five minutes per week.
Now I let it run a few hours per day. I don't have a super fast computer, but it calculates, calculates, calculates !

As ever, you can join the Paranormalis@Home team, using the links provided earlier in the thread. :)
Bump this thread if you're going to use it !
Let's try to find someone out there.

Num7
 

jurgen36

Member
Messages
204
Re: SETI@Home

Unfortunately I do not believe that we will have any results with seti at all. I do believe that other civilizations do exit but if their technology is only 100 or more years out of synchronization with ours we will most likely not be able to receive any of their signals. If their level is 100 years behind ours they will not be able to send radio signals, if it is 100 years more advanced they most likely do not use radio signals anymore. But do no forget there might be tens of thousands of years difference in technology. So it is most unlikely that we have a similar level of science.
Regards
 

Top