Space Forum / SETI / August 2008

houndnews@gmail.com wrote <299b0944-b201-47cf-9860-7c8cc13fe83b@y5g2000hsf.googlegroups.com> in sci.astro.seti:

I'll be glad to help, as soon as they release a client that installs
and runs just like the old SETI@home client.  But as long as BOINC is
required, there's no way I'll resume my participation.

Guys, take a step back and look at the bigger picture here for a minute.
Sure, running software on our systems that either eats up all our systems
resources, or eats up all our time working on installations or maintenance
can come with its drawbacks. But, the most important thing is that we all
have the same aims, the same goals, and the same prize placed ahead of us.

The systems that run at Arecibo are so much more time consuming, resource
consuming, and cash consuming than simple applications like BOINC that can
run on platforms like MS Windows or Linux. We all know that the more
advances we make into radio telescope and spectral analysis technologies
will come with their highs and lows. If every time we came across a hurdle
in the SETI, we just moaned about how difficult it is/was; or time consuming
it may be, we will never make that all important discovery.

We all know that working with computers can be challenging at times.
Sometimes, working with computers can be so frustrating that we just want to
throw in the towel. The one thing that we all know is that, even through all
the tough times we go through with the systems we use can be tough, when we
get the outcome we expected, and the reaction we wanted, it makes all the
coding, tweaking, and debugging even more sweeter!

So the new S@H software is a little tough to get running. That doesn't
change the way that the SETI has been coordinated. Being faced with removal
of project funding, complications of running radio telescopes of that
magnitude, and the approach that most of the borderline "skeptic believers"
take towards the SETI, people like Seth Shostak take it on the chin and keep
on pushing until there's no more room to push.

There's one thing I have to say to you all...

One day, we as a species may find an intelligence not that dissimilar from
us in a star system away from our own. Whether the system that detects their
radio transmissions is either a desktop PC, or a supercomputer, the result
will be the same. If we do detect that signal, everything about us; our
culture; our reality; our seclusion will all change. The probability is that
if we do detect that signal, it will probably be so far away that we won't
be able to contact them back before our technological adolescence leads us
to our demise. However, it does not remove the means from the end. If we
find that signal, and can verify that it is a genuine sign of extra
terrestrial life other than ourselves, we will finally have the answer to
the question we have been asking ourselves for as long as we have been
sentient beings gazing into the night skies. Whether you are the person that
finds the signal, or the last person to know that it has been found, it will
not lose its significance in the slightest. Don't be phased by complicated
software, because if you are still reading this post, then that means you
really want it, no more or less than the founders of the SETI. If you want
it bad enough, put in your contribution, show your commitment and support,
and maybe one day that narrow band, ET signal may come through. When that
time comes, you will know that all the struggle was worth it. If you thought
any different, you wouldn't still be reading this post!!!

Now quit with the complaints, and show your patriotic side! We all want that
signal to come through, so the more people that join in and help with the
SETI, the higher the probability rises of us discovering it before our
technological adolescence destroys us! Time is not on our side people! So
what are we going to do? Will it come to the point where ET finds our
broadcasts, come looking for us, and find a baron graveyard like Mars? Or
will we find them in time to let them know that they are not alone too?

Fight the good fight people. We all know that nothing worth fighting for
comes easy, whether it is running the BOINC system, or cleaning the optic
fibre cables that connect the RT's to the computers. We know it is worth it
in the end... That is how the SETI started!

CQ... This is the anomaly signing off... Now lets get stuck in, and give the
SETI the strength it needs: NUMBERS!!!

Personally i think that nasa, cause is nationally financed, has all the
money
it needs to get mainframes powerfull how much it wants, much more than
all the power boinc can offers.
I prefer to dedicate my little whit boinc to researches that the USA doesn't
locate at the firsth locations and doesn't finance so much.
So my boinc aims to genome comparisons, cancer aids and diabetes.
I think it's better.
I partecipate with world community grid and superlink@technion and my
40 watts pc is always awake for it.