SETI@home Part II

[OperaTenor]

Barfle, are you still on it?

I just restarted again after a long hiatus. Things have changed, and I'm not sure I get it.

(The original thread seems to have disappeared.)

[navneeth]

I was on it, the first one and the BOINC version(along with Einstein@Home), but then I realised that I was just using a lot of resources.

[OperaTenor]

That was why I quit doing it before. It was gobbling up processing capacity on my old computer. However, this new one doesn't even feel it, and it seems to be flying through the data.

[barfle]

The new BOINC program wouldn't let my monitor go to power save mode, it ran very slowly, and for two or three days, it never finished an analysis, so I dropped it.

Funny you should ask, because I got an email from them over the weekend and they wanted some feedback as to why I wasn't sending them reports any more, so I told them. So far, no reply back.

[OperaTenor]

And that's very interesting to hear. I don't seem to be having any of those problems now.

Could it possibly be a Mac vs. PC issue?

[barfle]

It's just a WAG on my part, but it could have been video card issues. I spent yesterday installing an All-in-wonder card, so maybe...

Hmmm, something for the projects thread.

[OperaTenor]

I'll bet that's it. In terms of video capability, I went from stone knives & bearskins to the space shuttle.

[barfle]

Although I haven't yet gotten back in touch with seti, I did try playing a DVD on my PC last night, and it worked quite well with two of the three programs offered for the task. I didn't try WMP, because I got engrossed in the movie and still had to call it a night before it was finished (but I know who won anyway).

Before, when I would attempt to play a DVD in that computer, it was very clunky, refreshing the screen about twice a second, and occasionlally freezing the computer completely. Of course, that card was acquired in 1999, so it's got an excuse.

I may be on the right track. Dunno when I'll get around to reloading BOINC, but no doubt I'll give it a shot before too long.

[OperaTenor]

Do you know how the new credit system works? I'm up to 596.23 credits, whatever that means.

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

596.23 credits towards purchase of souveniers at AlienMart. Or possibly they're Frequent Flyer Light-Seconds credits, for your next vacation to Vulcan.

[barfle]

Do you know how the new credit system works? I'm up to 596.23 credits, whatever that means.

Not a clue, I'm afraid. But maybe their FAQ can help. It's really low on my list these days, but at least it's back on it.

[barfle]

Well, I loaded up the new program, and it just plain and simple refuses to connect. I've turned off my firewall for the program, and it plain and simple refused to connect.

A few results from the "messages"

11/13/2006 10:00:27 PM|SETI@home|Backing off 4 minutes and 29 seconds on download of file setiathome_5.15_COPYING
11/13/2006 10:03:00 PM|SETI@home|Started download of file seti515.jpg
11/13/2006 10:03:04 PM|SETI@home|Incomplete read of less than 5KB for seti515.jpg - truncating
11/13/2006 10:03:04 PM|SETI@home|Temporarily failed download of seti515.jpg: Error 403
11/13/2006 10:03:04 PM|SETI@home|Backing off 1 hours, 13 minutes and 32 seconds on download of file seti515.jpg
11/13/2006 10:04:57 PM|SETI@home|Started download of file setiathome_5.15_COPYING
11/13/2006 10:04:58 PM|SETI@home|Incomplete read of less than 5KB for setiathome_5.15_COPYING - truncating
11/13/2006 10:04:58 PM|SETI@home|Temporarily failed download of setiathome_5.15_COPYING: Error 403
11/13/2006 10:04:58 PM|SETI@home|Backing off 1 hours, 30 minutes and 31 seconds on download of file setiathome_5.15_COPYING

I'm willing to donate the resources I don't use, but when you check the message board there, it's full of people complaining about the software. This is strike 2 for BOINC, as far as I'm concerned.

[OperaTenor]

Odd. I'm having no trouble with running and communicating at all, I just don't know what I'm seeing as far as the results are concerned.

I'm up to something like 1213 credit units now.

[barfle]

My heart is in the right place, but I'll be damned if I'm going to bust my butt trying to help these guys.


Do you have a router on your computer?

[OperaTenor]

I don't think so. Just the wireless network and "home portal" modem.

The computer has Airport, for what that's worth.

[barfle]

I'm running verizon FIOS. They provided me with a router (a box with a CAT5 input, four CAT5 outputs and a wireless connection) and programmed it, and I'm guessing it has a firewall that's causing my connectability problems. The problem with that is that they set up the router with a password, and I don't have it (having tried all my standard combinations). I discovered a reset button on the router, but I only know of a couple of settings that exist on it. I might be playing with fire. I would need to block out a couple of hours to recover from the disaster I foresee, and, like I said, the board at SETI is full of connectivity gripes. But no solutions.

[GreatCarouser]

Years back I allowed another shared computer venture (Entropia) access to my computer. It gradually became more and more of a hassle because of connectivity issues. Solving them was more trouble than it was worth.

[navneeth]

Celebrity campaign for SETI. Just received this e-mail...

SETI@home needs your help. The SETI@home team has accomplished much in the
past 6 months. We have successfully deployed the "enhanced" version of
SETI@home. The new seven beam data recorder has been installed at Arecibo (the
world's largest radio telescope) and is recording the data that will be
analyzed in the next phase of SETI@home.

But there is still far more to be done. We would like to be able to sift
through the results returned by your computers in order to identify candidates
more rapidly so we can re-observe them. This rapid response validation system
would also give you the ability to see the results your computers have/has
returned in more detail.

To keep SETI@home operating for the next year, and to provide these new
capabilities, will require approximately $540,000. Currently SETI@home is
entirely funded by donations from people like you.

We hope that you will consider making a donation to SETI@home at this time.
You can make a secure donation by credit card on our website
(http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/donate.php). Instructions for donation by
check or money order are there as well. Unless you specify otherwise, your
donation will be noted by a star icon next to your username on the SETI@home
pages and your username will appear on our list of donors. If you do not wish
to have this recognition you may indicate that as well.

You can check on our fundraising progress by visiting our main site at
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu.

Thank you for helping the search for ET, and for considering a donation to
SETI@home.

Sincerely,

Sir Arthur C. Clarke (Author and Futurist)
Dan Werthimer (Chief Scientist, SETI@home)

For more information about how to donate:
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/donate.php

[OperaTenor]

I got that one, too.

I'm now up around 1,900 credits, FWTW.

[piqaboo]

We would like to be able to sift
through the results returned by your computers in order to identify candidates
more rapidly so we can re-observe them.

If they arent doing this already, what is the purpose of their analysis?
Are they in fact actually testing capability of creating a home-computer parttime network rather than making use of one?