Help me, I'm a newbie

Okay, I just downloaded SETI@Home.
I installed SETI@Home.
I ran SETI@Home and finished my first Work Unit.
My second Work Unit started.

Am I missing something? Is that it? I am really new to this, but I do find
the concept very interesting. Can someone tell me more about SETI, there
isn't much information on the website.

- MitchM

"Mitch Malone" wrote in message
...
Okay, I just downloaded SETI@Home.
I installed SETI@Home.
I ran SETI@Home and finished my first Work Unit.
My second Work Unit started.

Am I missing something? Is that it? I am really new to this, but I do find
the concept very interesting. Can someone tell me more about SETI, there
isn't much information on the website.

- MitchM



Yup, that just about it.
When I completed 100 work units a robot sent me a thank you email.
You can also subscribe to alt.sci.seti where you can brag about how many WUs
you have done.
I once had a WU that looked very odd (screensaver version) but I couldn't
get anyone to take any interest- only robots and "refer to FAQs" - and never
heard any more about it.
It is a Good Cause though, and the people in charge are probably very busy.

"Mitch Malone" wrote in message
...
Okay, I just downloaded SETI@Home.
I installed SETI@Home.
I ran SETI@Home and finished my first Work Unit.
My second Work Unit started.

Am I missing something? Is that it? I am really new to this, but I do find
the concept very interesting. Can someone tell me more about SETI, there
isn't much information on the website.

- MitchM



Yup, that just about it.
When I completed 100 work units a robot sent me a thank you email.
You can also subscribe to alt.sci.seti where you can brag about how many WUs
you have done.
I once had a WU that looked very odd (screensaver version) but I couldn't
get anyone to take any interest- only robots and "refer to FAQs" - and never
heard any more about it.
It is a Good Cause though, and the people in charge are probably very busy.

Mitch,
If you ever wanted to be directly involved in a serious scientific
project, SETI@home is one way to do that. The web page for S@h has lots of
information on it, but it may be somewhat "buried" for the casual
observer. Dig into it, and you will see that the site is many layers
deep. Come back here, for explanations of what you might find there.
What you did was put the wasted clock cycles of your computer to some use
better than the usual bouncing objects or useless patterns of most screen
savers. The project is called "distributed computing", breaking down an
enormous task into 350K chunks that your computer can sift for the good
stuff.
That "good stuff" for us can be pulses, spikes, triplets, or a Gaussian
(that last item being what the radio telescope would "see" as it pans
across a steady radio source). A neat and quick utility, SETIspy, is
available for free.
http://cox-internet.com/setispy/
SETIspy can show you the results that you have found in a WU in progress,
where the telescope was looking to record that WU (click Results, &
Skymap), and many other assorted other items of interest.
Listen to several different strong pulsed radio signals from
extra-terrestrial origins (but not *intelligent* ET sources) he
http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/~pulsar/Educ...ds/sounds.html
--
Cheers,
Red
--
*************************
Replies will bounce, unless you remove
the letter A from my email address.

Mitch Malone wrote:
Okay, I just downloaded SETI@Home.
I installed SETI@Home.
I ran SETI@Home and finished my first Work Unit.
My second Work Unit started.

Am I missing something? Is that it? I am really new to this, but I do find
the concept very interesting. Can someone tell me more about SETI, there
isn't much information on the website.

- MitchM

Mitch,
If you ever wanted to be directly involved in a serious scientific
project, SETI@home is one way to do that. The web page for S@h has lots of
information on it, but it may be somewhat "buried" for the casual
observer. Dig into it, and you will see that the site is many layers
deep. Come back here, for explanations of what you might find there.
What you did was put the wasted clock cycles of your computer to some use
better than the usual bouncing objects or useless patterns of most screen
savers. The project is called "distributed computing", breaking down an
enormous task into 350K chunks that your computer can sift for the good
stuff.
That "good stuff" for us can be pulses, spikes, triplets, or a Gaussian
(that last item being what the radio telescope would "see" as it pans
across a steady radio source). A neat and quick utility, SETIspy, is
available for free.
http://cox-internet.com/setispy/
SETIspy can show you the results that you have found in a WU in progress,
where the telescope was looking to record that WU (click Results, &
Skymap), and many other assorted other items of interest.
Listen to several different strong pulsed radio signals from
extra-terrestrial origins (but not *intelligent* ET sources) he
http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/~pulsar/Educ...ds/sounds.html
--
Cheers,
Red
--
*************************
Replies will bounce, unless you remove
the letter A from my email address.

Mitch Malone wrote:
Okay, I just downloaded SETI@Home.
I installed SETI@Home.
I ran SETI@Home and finished my first Work Unit.
My second Work Unit started.

Am I missing something? Is that it? I am really new to this, but I do find
the concept very interesting. Can someone tell me more about SETI, there
isn't much information on the website.

- MitchM

How on earth 'Help me I am a Newbie' got to the philosophical question
of God is beyond me. Just two points...
1)The greatest reason to believe in extra-terrestrial intelligence is
that it is intelligent enough to realise that silence is the wisest
course where we are concerned.
2) What gives anyone the right to believe that God stopped with us?

How on earth 'Help me I am a Newbie' got to the philosophical question
of God is beyond me. Just two points...
1)The greatest reason to believe in extra-terrestrial intelligence is
that it is intelligent enough to realise that silence is the wisest
course where we are concerned.
2) What gives anyone the right to believe that God stopped with us?

Geoff Davis replied:
How on earth 'Help me I am a Newbie' got to the philosophical question
of God is beyond me. Just two points...
1)The greatest reason to believe in extra-terrestrial intelligence is
that it is intelligent enough to realise that silence is the wisest
course where we are concerned.

So you assert that lack of evidence is evidence of presence?

We know that they must be there because they are silent?

I hope you are not serious.

2) What gives anyone the right to believe that God stopped with us?

I'm not sure what rights have to do with beliefs, but as long as you
are stating your belief as such (regardless of underlying reasons) I'd
say that this is sufficient for ascertaining it's reliability.

If ETs are your belief system, fine, I'll respect that. I will not
respect those who claim that there must be other intelligent life in
the universe because they cannot imagine it (or believe in it) any
other way. Your lack of information and/or imagination does not and
cannot create anything, much less intelligent ET life. If it exists
it exists in spite of your ignorance or lack of imagination, not
because of it.

So much of SETI *is* a belief system today that I question that honest
science will be properly done in the long run. But I still suspect that
despite the belief, much honest work will still be done.

I personally doubt that anything will be found. And I also doubt that
the absence of evidence despite a search will affect anybody's belief
system.

But I also feel that negative knowledge is also valid, and that many
don't value it properly. SETI, at the very least will provide valuable
negative knowledge (which is not a lack of knowledge, but a knowledge
of lack).

Rich

Geoff Davis replied:
How on earth 'Help me I am a Newbie' got to the philosophical question
of God is beyond me. Just two points...
1)The greatest reason to believe in extra-terrestrial intelligence is
that it is intelligent enough to realise that silence is the wisest
course where we are concerned.

So you assert that lack of evidence is evidence of presence?

We know that they must be there because they are silent?

I hope you are not serious.

2) What gives anyone the right to believe that God stopped with us?

I'm not sure what rights have to do with beliefs, but as long as you
are stating your belief as such (regardless of underlying reasons) I'd
say that this is sufficient for ascertaining it's reliability.

If ETs are your belief system, fine, I'll respect that. I will not
respect those who claim that there must be other intelligent life in
the universe because they cannot imagine it (or believe in it) any
other way. Your lack of information and/or imagination does not and
cannot create anything, much less intelligent ET life. If it exists
it exists in spite of your ignorance or lack of imagination, not
because of it.

So much of SETI *is* a belief system today that I question that honest
science will be properly done in the long run. But I still suspect that
despite the belief, much honest work will still be done.

I personally doubt that anything will be found. And I also doubt that
the absence of evidence despite a search will affect anybody's belief
system.

But I also feel that negative knowledge is also valid, and that many
don't value it properly. SETI, at the very least will provide valuable
negative knowledge (which is not a lack of knowledge, but a knowledge
of lack).

Rich