should i quit seti@home?

WOW Scanner - I thought *I* was paranoid!! Thank you for your erudite thoughts on this topic

What do you use your latent computing power for, BTW, if you don't mind me asking? Here, my machine is used 24/7 and, in it's idle moments, crunches SETI. I like the idea of it doing so, but then again I've never been a selfish person and like to share my toys.

Have a good Life Scanner!!

Ps - my SETI stats are 1511 wu's in 1.335 CPU years and I don't think that's cool at all.

SETI is not a waste of time!!! What else do you have to run on your computer? Just suck it up and keep it on your computer. Maybe you will be the one to detect something.

I have been using seti@home for quite a while now,I have 153 work units at 7804hrs time in and dont have a problem with it at all. I use it as a screen and saver think its great. If seti never finds anything then I had a cool screensaver, if they ever do then Im a part of history.

Look. You can uninstall seti if u want. But if ya got something like unlimited dl, leave ur comp on most fo the time and aren't erhe for some of that. Why not just use it as a screensaver and let it do stuff while ur not doing anything on ur comp. May as well have ur comp doing something good even if u dont think it's good. It's helping someone out. And when ur not using it, ur not using it. Any harm done? none.
Just let it go on as screensaver so when ur not using ur comp, others can get the processing power and put it to some use. Else it's just a waste of processing power.

Levi, i think you were about 2 nanoseconds away from the discovery of the century when you deleted the Seti client from your puter, you could have been king!

My kids think its cool that their mom is helping to search for aliens. They tell all their friends "My mom's looking for ET on her computer." I guess that would explain the strange looks I get from all the neighbors!

I started the seti@home program on 7/06/03 and have logged 14 units in 70 hours and 17 minutes.

I have a dual MP too, nice machine. Too bad you are close minded and wont use it to the fullest of its potential. I have tried to bog mine down, and I cant. So whats the harm in letting it run in the background. Maybe its my 2 gig of ram that makes the difference.

but I'll add it to this thread anyways..

"We have released a new version of SETI@home based on BOINC, a general-purpose platform for distributed computing projects. We encourage you to switch to the new SETI@home"

SETI@home's transition to BOINC

i will most likely get seti@home but i dont what to unknowenly download spyware on my pc that would suck. its a pain in the ass to kill off.

is it safe?????????

Yes, seti@home is absolutely safe. I've processed over 6000 units and actually use a 3rd party utility (SETI Monitor) to manage my work units so I can keep a personal graph/chart of each signal or candidate and download/upload 5 work units at a time. To date, I've found 1 gaussian which seti revisited at the beginning of the summer, 5 "Interesting pulses" and 3 "Interesting Spikes". I've been emailed by seti two times in the past 3 years about "One of your signals is a potential candidate which we will be revisiting with the Arecebo readio telescope in (month)" etc. I think it's a great thing to waste cpu cycles on when I'm not using it (I only run it as a screen blanker and not in the background).

I really feel these are genuine private astronomers who truely are working (albeit on a side project) to discover an alien signal and then to share it with the world and not hide it from us. They are VERY public with the signal information and the processes to gather/analyze and report those signals.

At least that's my opinion on it.

Hi DRAGON27!

Well, I use all sorts of spyware catchers here, including Adaware , Spybot Search & Destroy and Spywaresweeper amongst others: none of these has ever reported SETI@home as being spyware. I'm also a 6kWU user over three years and can happily report no problems at all, so please don't worry too much about SETI@homes sfaety record!

First of all I'd like to say that I wouldn't be surprised if SETI was masking an NSA program and also I was wondering how to read the numerous graphs and charts that appear on SETI@home.

Personally, I think people's computing power could be put to better use, namely software which helps find cures for common and deadly diseases, like cancer for one
To me, finding a cure for cancer which both my mum and my dad have, is more important than scanning over data for a possible alien signal.
There's so much evidence around us to suggest that aliens are allready visiting us and have done for years, so why bother wasting potentially billions of hours of our time scanning for radio frequencies from other planets?
Just my opinion.

I think everyone with a computer should be running either SETI or the Cancer client. Both discoveries would change the world. There may be some evidence that aliens have visited Earth, but what is really needed is undisputed evidence, besides who can say that an Alien race hasn't already found the cure for Cancer?


1113 wu completed in 7851hrs!

good point!!

Someone said earlier about aliens masking their radio signals (can't remember who). Why would they want to? If they are anything like us, they would want to be found.

I have had SETI@home for... an hour and a half, and it was this thread that gave me the idea. I mean, what better to do with the spare computer time?

I know it is unlikely that an individual user is gonna find it, but winning the lottery is unlikely, but that doesn't stop people playing that, and that costs money.

I've been running SETI for somehting like a year, I don't know how much either way. I'm the proud owner of 99 units soon to be made 100 units.

Like everyone else has said, SETI may seem like a time waster, but then having wasted computer ram is a waste too, so might as well put it to use.

Besides, you paranoidetons what have you got to hide from the NSA? Like they are seriously interested. So unless you have anything to hide (that is of NSA standard dangerous issue or problematic issue) there is no need to be paranoid over governments and angencies obtaining information. Besides, if they where after a name, they wouldn't need to bug a computer, more likely track the source down, the end.

Talk to you all another day Folks.

Phoenix, Agent Phoenix

Read the info. If a signal is found they want to keep it open, in other words, not one of us would be able to access the signal. It's a government control thing, pure and simple. "Again." Let the signal be found then see if you can tune in, it won't happen.

Crunch Crunch Crunch.


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