Enough UFO acrimony: Want to be part of the search for extraterrestrial life? You can.

[NoodleBoy]

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/

I'm a member of the Seti@Home project, because even though I am, as most of you have probably realized, a hardened skeptic, I think the search for extraterrestrial life is worth undertaking.

Basically, the various antennae around the world searching the cosmos for signals from other life rakes in a huge amount of data, and there isn't enough computing power in each facility to sift through it all and pick out good candidates. Seti@Home harnesses the power of people's home computers, by downloading a program which allows you to adjust how much of your computer's processor is devoted to analyzing the data received. It's as simple as that-- instead of one big, expensive supercomputer, thousands of home computers' processing powers are used, resulting in an extremely cost-effective way to contribute to scientific progress.

Even if we never find any evidence of ET life this way, we'll still have a much greater understanding of all the different naturally-occuring radio transmissions in the Universe, which still has great scientific worth.

There are a few other projects that use the same software as Seti@Home, I currently have both Seti@Home and the Rosetta project, which helps to predict how different proteins fold, which helps in research for a cure for AIDS... I think. I'm obviously not much up on biological science.

Anyway, there is even a community of people using the software, if you decide to download it you can choose which 'team' you'd like to be a part of, and someone could even start a Democratic Underground Team. It's worth checking out.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. Should we start a DU Team?

Either SETI or Folding? I will have a new Intel QuadCore computer in the next week or two and I should be able to crunch some beaucoup numbers.

[NoodleBoy]

2. if you want. Also, the software will work on PlayStation 3's, a new development

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

5. Well, with thiose Cell Processors...

In those PS3's and the way they work, they got to do some serious crunchitude. Man, what next? A PS3 cluster running Seti or Folding? ;-)

[eppur_se_muova]

10. Yep, set a new record --

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2190646&mesg_id=2190646

[krispos42]

3. There is a DU team for SETI@home already

I'm a member of it!

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/team_display.php?teamid=31451


Join! It's free publicity for the DU!

And the software really is out-of-site, out-of-mind easy.

[NoodleBoy]

4. hey you're right... oops.

cool anyway.

[landdaddy]

7. Thanks for the link

just added my numbers to the team.

[landdaddy]

6. I run Seti and

Climate Prediction on an 6000+ X2 and have to throttle back on the Number crunching due to the heat. Running air now and am looking to switch to H2O cooling. Any thoughts or recommendations?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

8. What fan/heatsink are you using?

[eppur_se_muova]

9. Hey, how about a SETI Team -- Kucinich '08 ?? nt

[TZ]

11. Protein folding is VERY important

Proteomics is becoming very important in disease research, you are absolutely right.
Heres some studies you might find interesting then, Noodleboy
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070719111359.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070719164531.htm

[NoodleBoy]

12. those are interesting, thanks

do you run the BOINC program?

[TZ]

13. err

actually in some ways I am still kind of computer phobic (I can do certain things like posting on message boards) but I don't do a lot of downloading or running of complex programs...my laptop is pretty basic, really.....

[NoodleBoy]

14. but... don't you worship science?

jeez, fall into line, shill!