moonraker
17th March 2002, 05:24 PM
The following is an extract from a former <b>Team Picard</b> monthly newsletter.
==============================
Why do you really run seti@home
Maybe it is because you have a fast computer and you want to put it to some use, at the same time demonstrating to your peers your prowess at building and overclocking the machine to get the most out of it. If so this is a perfectly valid reason, and reason enough to run any distributed computing project in itself. The implication here being that the distributed computing project in this case is a means to an end, which is that of proving oneself amongst those considered to be ones peers who are also running high powered machines and distributed computing projects of one kind or another. But what of the aim of the distributed computing project; where does that fit within the requirement for proof of ones proficiency in the ‘art’ of maintaining a computer. For if the only requirement it has to fill is one of taxing the processor to the limits of its ability, then one or two relatively simple programs in Visual Basic or some other programming language would suffice for this purpose. The solution of pi, a prime number sorting programme or some other esoteric number crunching problem along those lines will tax any processor, no matter how fast, to it's utmost for as long as the program is left to run. But this is a very lonely way of testing a newly built and overclocked machine, unless it is known that others are running the same programs, and therefore giving a yardstick to measure ones own achievements against. The Visual Basic program could run for an infinitesimal amount of time and prove very little aside from the fact that it was possible to keep the processor occupied for 100% of its time. The distributed computing project therefore, whatever it’s ultimate aims and complex problems it was instigated in order to solve, is the only real test for the person wanting to both tax their machine to it’s limits and to provide some kind of measure of success and/or acceptance within a peer group.
But what of the aims of that distributed computing project itself. They must surely be of at least passing interest to the person running it in order for him/her to consider it in the first instance. For myself, I run seti@home because I find that it is inconceivable that the human race can be the ONLY possible form of intelligent life in this galaxy or indeed the entire universe. This small and fragile planet where we cling to existence is indeed a very fortunate (for us as humans) combination of circumstances and happenstance. Not too far from the sun, not too close, not too ravaged by interplanetary and interstellar debris, a nice steady orbit around the life giving star, oxygen rich atmosphere etc. Given the fact that the galaxy is composed of some 200 billion stars, there simply have to be other planetary systems where this extraordinary combination of circumstances has come into being to create planets not unlike our own, and if so, where life has developed along similar lines. No doubt there are many, perhaps more, cases where it has almost come to pass but been prematurely snuffed out by some minor cosmological event like a collision between the planetary bodies in that system, a comet or asteroid strike. Maybe the planet in question had too great a ‘wobble’ in the spin around its axis which caused its orbit to become unstable sending outside the thin envelope of ‘correct’ orbital distance around its star, destroying any and all life that may have developed there. There are many more things that would negate a planet ever developing like this one but at the same time even this galaxy is a huge place with millions of stars and there planetary systems. In the last few years astronomers have found evidence of planetary bodies orbiting nearby (a relative term in this context) stars, around 80 instances so far, but the majority of these are gas giants with extreme atmospheres and therefore worlds that are completely inhospitable to life as we know it in any form.
In my opinion, to believe that we are the only life that exists in this galaxy, or indeed the universe, is the equivalent of our ancestors once believing that the earth was flat, and then later believing that it was the centre of the universe and that all other heavenly bodies were rotating around it. To not search in some way for other intelligent life would be the same as burying our heads in the sand.
==================================
<b>As you can see, </b>this is aimed very heavily at seti@home participants. Team Picard is about more than that though. From starting life as an ad-hoc seti team with just over a dozen members it is now among the top teams in the UK and has grown to encompass virtually all the known Distributed Computing projects on the planet. Not just searching for ET, but with an equal, if not larger, section of the membership, crunching data for medical research for the ultimate benefit of all mankind. Along with that, some of the more esoteric number crunching projects that are involved with mathematical problems and their solutions. Throughout it’s growth the one constant thing that has been maintained is the camaraderie of real teamwork. If something needs doing, someone needs help, everyone who is able, sets to and gets stuck in.
<b>So, if you have a turbonutter, liquid cooled, go faster stipes, machine</b>that makes 3DMark2001 shudder at the thought of running another benchmark, and runs through the QIII demo so fast that if you blink you miss it; why not come on over to Team Picard and show it off a bit by putting in some blistering times on Distributed Computing projects.
<b>Even if you don’t have such a machine, </b>maybe it’s the one the company tossed in the skip and you resurrected and upgraded it, it doesn’t matter a jot. There is a DC project to suit all ages and capablities of computer and the message boards are some of the friendliest on the net. Come on over and take a look, you'll be very welcome.
Seti (http://www.ninjamicros.com/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php3?s=&forumid=20)
Humanitarian Resarch (http://www.ninjamicros.com/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php3?s=&forumid=20)
Mathematical Projects (http://www.ninjamicros.com/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php3?s=&forumid=20)
==============================
Why do you really run seti@home
Maybe it is because you have a fast computer and you want to put it to some use, at the same time demonstrating to your peers your prowess at building and overclocking the machine to get the most out of it. If so this is a perfectly valid reason, and reason enough to run any distributed computing project in itself. The implication here being that the distributed computing project in this case is a means to an end, which is that of proving oneself amongst those considered to be ones peers who are also running high powered machines and distributed computing projects of one kind or another. But what of the aim of the distributed computing project; where does that fit within the requirement for proof of ones proficiency in the ‘art’ of maintaining a computer. For if the only requirement it has to fill is one of taxing the processor to the limits of its ability, then one or two relatively simple programs in Visual Basic or some other programming language would suffice for this purpose. The solution of pi, a prime number sorting programme or some other esoteric number crunching problem along those lines will tax any processor, no matter how fast, to it's utmost for as long as the program is left to run. But this is a very lonely way of testing a newly built and overclocked machine, unless it is known that others are running the same programs, and therefore giving a yardstick to measure ones own achievements against. The Visual Basic program could run for an infinitesimal amount of time and prove very little aside from the fact that it was possible to keep the processor occupied for 100% of its time. The distributed computing project therefore, whatever it’s ultimate aims and complex problems it was instigated in order to solve, is the only real test for the person wanting to both tax their machine to it’s limits and to provide some kind of measure of success and/or acceptance within a peer group.
But what of the aims of that distributed computing project itself. They must surely be of at least passing interest to the person running it in order for him/her to consider it in the first instance. For myself, I run seti@home because I find that it is inconceivable that the human race can be the ONLY possible form of intelligent life in this galaxy or indeed the entire universe. This small and fragile planet where we cling to existence is indeed a very fortunate (for us as humans) combination of circumstances and happenstance. Not too far from the sun, not too close, not too ravaged by interplanetary and interstellar debris, a nice steady orbit around the life giving star, oxygen rich atmosphere etc. Given the fact that the galaxy is composed of some 200 billion stars, there simply have to be other planetary systems where this extraordinary combination of circumstances has come into being to create planets not unlike our own, and if so, where life has developed along similar lines. No doubt there are many, perhaps more, cases where it has almost come to pass but been prematurely snuffed out by some minor cosmological event like a collision between the planetary bodies in that system, a comet or asteroid strike. Maybe the planet in question had too great a ‘wobble’ in the spin around its axis which caused its orbit to become unstable sending outside the thin envelope of ‘correct’ orbital distance around its star, destroying any and all life that may have developed there. There are many more things that would negate a planet ever developing like this one but at the same time even this galaxy is a huge place with millions of stars and there planetary systems. In the last few years astronomers have found evidence of planetary bodies orbiting nearby (a relative term in this context) stars, around 80 instances so far, but the majority of these are gas giants with extreme atmospheres and therefore worlds that are completely inhospitable to life as we know it in any form.
In my opinion, to believe that we are the only life that exists in this galaxy, or indeed the universe, is the equivalent of our ancestors once believing that the earth was flat, and then later believing that it was the centre of the universe and that all other heavenly bodies were rotating around it. To not search in some way for other intelligent life would be the same as burying our heads in the sand.
==================================
<b>As you can see, </b>this is aimed very heavily at seti@home participants. Team Picard is about more than that though. From starting life as an ad-hoc seti team with just over a dozen members it is now among the top teams in the UK and has grown to encompass virtually all the known Distributed Computing projects on the planet. Not just searching for ET, but with an equal, if not larger, section of the membership, crunching data for medical research for the ultimate benefit of all mankind. Along with that, some of the more esoteric number crunching projects that are involved with mathematical problems and their solutions. Throughout it’s growth the one constant thing that has been maintained is the camaraderie of real teamwork. If something needs doing, someone needs help, everyone who is able, sets to and gets stuck in.
<b>So, if you have a turbonutter, liquid cooled, go faster stipes, machine</b>that makes 3DMark2001 shudder at the thought of running another benchmark, and runs through the QIII demo so fast that if you blink you miss it; why not come on over to Team Picard and show it off a bit by putting in some blistering times on Distributed Computing projects.
<b>Even if you don’t have such a machine, </b>maybe it’s the one the company tossed in the skip and you resurrected and upgraded it, it doesn’t matter a jot. There is a DC project to suit all ages and capablities of computer and the message boards are some of the friendliest on the net. Come on over and take a look, you'll be very welcome.
Seti (http://www.ninjamicros.com/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php3?s=&forumid=20)
Humanitarian Resarch (http://www.ninjamicros.com/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php3?s=&forumid=20)
Mathematical Projects (http://www.ninjamicros.com/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php3?s=&forumid=20)