sciforum seti crunchers

I don't know that I have your answers, Divine_Key. I can make some speculations or if you wish I can hunt up an e-mail address where you can ask them.

SETI is looking for life, more or less, as we know it. Therefore they look where they suspect it would be if it near like us and in the same technological area. If we were in the cave man days, we could not communicate. Places like the hydrogen band are the most noisy and therefore some of the worse places to look.

When you get into the what if's, they go one for ever. What if they encrypt? Or if they hide their signals because they are paranoid? What if they use the next genereation of equipment that we don't have yet and can not intrupret what we see as a signal?

You can do a search for the "wow signal" to see what it looks like. It was a signal that was observed, never repeated, but was recorded. No explainations to present have emerged to show what it was or what it might have been.

Welcome to sciforums, Divine_Key.
 
Originally posted by Divine_Key
and what does seti search for?
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SETI stands for: Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence.
Further information can be found at the Berkely website which is posted somewhere at the beginning of this thread. I could look it up, I am kind of lazy today... :)
 
Earlier it was mentioned about the "wow" signal. Below is an article about it...

Robert H. Gray

In 1977 the SETI program at Ohio State University recorded a strong narrowband 21 cm signal, dubbed the "Wow!" signal because it was a good candidate to be an emission from another civilization. Indeed, this signal is probably the most well-known of historical SETI "detections." However, Ohio State was unable to confirm the signal despite many subsequent transit observations, and returned to their long-term survey.

The signal might have been due to man-made interference, but it is intriguing because it had the signature of a transiting celestial source, and its frequency was very near the hydrogen line. Only one independent confirmation attempt has been reported, using the extremely narrowband (0.05 Hz) Harvard/Smithsonian-META system. A search with a receiver having frequency resolution comparable to Ohio State's 10 kHz/channel seemed overdue.

In September, 1995 and in May, 1996 I observed the "Wow" position with the Very Large Array, using 127 channels of 6 and 12 kHz. Sensitivity was some 100 times Ohio State's, offering the possibility of detecting a weaker underlying source. If the signal was due to a natural but variable source, then it might be detected in a less excited state. If the signal was due to an intermittent interstellar beacon, then one might find a weaker but continuous signal to which the beacon was intended to draw attention.

Two faint radio sources were found in the neighborhood of the Ohio State position, but proved to be normal continuum sources: they were detected at both 21 and 6 cm. Neither could account for the "Wow" signal. No narrow bandwidth spectral features were found down to a level of about 50 mJy.

The VLA search also found no sign of strong, intermittent emission. The array was used to observe for less than 45 minutes on each field, so this was not a good test for a lighthouse-like source that might have a period of many hours. Future observations, dwelling for a lot longer, will settle the question of whether there might be a long-period emission at the "Wow" locale.

This was apparently the first time the full VLA has been used for SETI. Its high spatial resolution is helpful in the search for optical counterparts to radio sources, and big spectral peaks coinciding with bright solar-type stars would obviously be interesting for SETI! As an interferometer, the VLA is highly immune to terrestrial interference (RFI). Its relatively wide spectral line channels (~1 kHz and up) are not attractive for some SETI purposes, but a proposed upgrade may result in ~10 Hz channels.
 
I asked this question below to an astronomer and got told the signals were being received all the time. What they mean though is another story.

How many of these signals do seti get from possible aliens each week?

<A HREF="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020728.html" target=new><FONT COLOR=blue size=+1> An Anomalous SETI Signal </FONT></A>

<img src="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0207/unknownseti_cavan_big.jpg">
 
I got 2 questions:

1) Is a 56k analog modem sufficient for downloading the data from the internet?
2) Do i have to be online 24/7?

I'm dying to be a SETI cruncher. :)
 
Is a 56k analog modem sufficient for downloading the data from the internet?
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Yes, once you have the SETI@Home program loaded, the data set is about 340 kb's (+ or-) long. Depending on the speed of your computer and the data contained in the WU as to how fast you crunch a unit. You then need to connect and download another unit. You can down load the client addon and set up a cache. Depending on how big a cache you make as to how often you need to reconnect. I think mine is set up for 6 work units (WU's). This allows that if the Berkley SETI server goes off line for maintaince or what ever, I do not have to wait to reload the next WU. It automatically starts on the next unit.

Do i have to be online 24/7?
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The only time you have to be on-line is to download/upload a WU. Other than that the WU crunches in the background, normally you are not aware that it is even running.

You must first establish an account, then if you wish to crunch for sciforums, go to the link provided by Porfiry on page one entitled: To join the sciforums.com team. Fill in the data and you will have your units in the sciforums team account.
 
Congrads on your first work unit for sciforum team, BloodSuckingGerbile!
 
Working in the background? Does it take up a lot of cpu? Is it easy to shut down when you need your full cpu power?

If I find an alien, can I keep it? :)
 
Does it take up a lot of cpu? Is it easy to shut down when you need your full cpu power?
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I find that it doesn't use a lot of the cpu. Somewhere I read it uses about 16-32 megs of ram. The settings can be used so that it starts automatically when your computer boots off, or that it gives precedence to whatever you are working one. There are several other settings that can be invoked depending on what add-ons you load. If you have over 64 megs of ram there is a place to choose that the data always runs, (the setting I use). Mine always runs, even when I am not on the net.

Shutting it down is as easy as choosing exit from the menu.

If you find the alien, I gotta tell you, Ma Bell got hooked on the last phone call, she's looking for pay up....
 
So what really happens when their planet is finally found? Do we let the birds fly right away? Or do we send the marines out there to plunk a base down on their land?
 
It is with appreciation to Michial Thompson, that by his permission he has granted access to his server for the purpose of downloading SETI WU’s. (called SETIQUEUE) Should you wish you may set up a cache and link to his site for speeder uploading of WU’s. This will still credit you with your WU's to the team and give you a place to get WU's from, even if Berkley is down.

Thank you, Michial, for your kindness...

http://uslems.com:5517/default.htm
 
I am crunching a unit, and the information given is:

triplet, power: 9.28 period 7.7707. Getting a lot of power: 6.00 too.

Does that mean something?

Can I keep the alien? :D
 
You slipped in on me. Welcome to the sciforums team, A4Ever!

By the time I noticed your WU's posted you had already made a post here. ***mumbles to self about paying attention***

triplet, power: 9.28 period 7.7707. Getting a lot of power: 6.00 too
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There are a variety of programs that can be used to crunch WU's, depending on your ability to configure them and what you are using (ie. OS). They also give a variety of infomation on your processes and work at different speeds. Probably one of the best ways to learn about what your screen saver is doing is at the SETI site where they explain it. Here
pulse.gif

triplet.gif


data_analysis2-2.0.gif


<img src="http://www.sciforums.com/f6/s/attachment.php?s=&postid=154423">


If you find the alien, I wanna see...
 
Thats me in case any one cared.
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Yes, I care! Welcome to the team again.

I'm afraid I don't entirely understand this, can anyone tell me where I can find help?
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I shall be happy to help you, Popcorn8636. I shall be returning home around 3 in the afternoon tomarrow, cst. Should you need help before that, Porfiry can help you. He or I will endevour to answer your questions and what help you might need. You could send me a pm.
 
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