Author:
cowboy_pocahontas_ar
[Edit]
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Date Posted: 13:57:08 11/08/04 Mon
>Hello Everyone,
>
>This is my first post on this board.
>
>Allow me to ask everyone a question: Is there
>intelligent life
here in the u s of a for bush to win again ?
in Outer Space? Are we really alone
>here on Earth, or did God create life elsewhere as
>well?
>
>Well as I am sure you know, that is a question which
>people have been asking themselves for a very long
>time. I know it is something which I have likewise
>pondered for a number of years, since I was a kid
>actually, many years ago.
>
>Well, since a few years ago, some people decided to
>find out the answer to that intriguing question. That
>is what the SETI@home project is all about. Some of
>you here have probably heard about it.
>
>For those of you who are not familiar with it, SETI
>stands for "Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence".
>What the SETI@home project does, is it takes data
>collected by the radio telescope located in Arecibo,
>Puerto Rico, and analyzes it for repetitious radio
>signals at certain frequencies, which may possibly be
>indicative of intelligent extraterrestrial life. To
>date, after a number of years, they have found nothing
>definitive.
>
>At any rate, the folks at the University of California
>at Berkeley, (who also brought us the legendary "After
>Dark" screensavers), invented a new way of analyzing
>data, whereby, instead of using a super-computer to
>crunch the data on their campus, (or "crunching the
>numbers"), they distribute packets of data, called
>"work units", or WU's for short, to regular people
>like you and me, who want to help them with the
>project. In this way, they have in effect created a
>super-computer which is made up of thousands of
>personal computers which are scattered all over the
>world. This form of computing is called "Distributed
>Computing", or DC for short. Some people also refer to
>it as "Network Computing". Naturally, this form of
>computing speeds up the process of analyzing the data
>significantly.
>
>As of October of 2004, there are over 50,000 active
>participants in the SETI@home project, and over 5
>million people have registered to date. The work load
>is distributed to all of these people by means of a
>small free program which each participant installs on
>his or her computer. This program, which is called the
>BOINC Client, (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for
>Network Computing), works as either a regular
>clickable program, or as a screensaver, and there are
>versions for both Macintosh and Windows machines, as
>well as for a few other platforms.
>
>As I said, the BOINC client, as well as the original
>SETI@home "classic" client are absolutely free. You
>can download the latest version of the client for your
>particular platform at the SETI@home website.
>
>As far as rules and obligations are concerned, there
>are no rules regarding when or how much you have to
>run the program. It is entirely up to you. If you set
>it to screensaver mode, it will only crunch data when
>you are not using your computer, and it is sitting
>idle, but still on. In other words, whether you run it
>as a regular program, or as a screensaver, it only
>uses CPU cycles that you are not using. That means
>that it will not interfere with any other work that
>you may be doing on your computer. It only uses the
>computer power that you are not using. Of course, the
>faster your computer is, the more data the program
>will be able to crunch in a shorter amount of time;
>and, if you happen to own a dual processor machine,
>that will give you even more of an advantage over
>others who may have single processor computers.
>
>Some people might find the SETI@home project to be
>dull, boring science. Well, the people who run
>SETI@home thought of that possibility; and so, to make
>it a little more interesting and exciting, they
>introduced the concept of teams. Teams are where
>people who have common interests join together in
>order to collect more credits. Credits are given based
>upon how many work units you, (or your team), have
>completed, as well as by how many of those completed
>units are verified by other SETI@home participants. In
>other words, a quality control system has been
>implemented so that results are not validated until at
>least two or three participants submit the same
>results for the same work unit. So the idea behind
>SETI@home teams is basically to create an atmosphere
>of friendly competition; all of which serves the
>greater purpose of getting more people to crunch the
>data. There are school teams, university teams,
>business teams, and many others. You will find them
>listed on the teams page at the SETI@home website.
>
>Now, this is where you and I enter the picture. Some
>people have attempted to form Christian teams in the
>past, but from the looks of it, it seems like most of
>them have floundered and fallen apart after a while.
>So, after pondering the idea for a while, I decided to
>start a new Christian SETI@home team called "Curious
>Christians". At the present, the only requirement I
>have set is that any potential member of our team must
>be a dedicated Bible-believing Christian. You can be
>of any denomination you like. All that matters to me
>is that you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord
>and Savior. I am a non-denominational Christian
>myself, and so the idea here, is to bring together as
>many Christians as possible to form what we might call
>one "super team" of Christians who want to participate
>in the SETI@home project.
>
>Some of you might be wondering why I, a
>Bible-believing Christian, would become involved in a
>project which would seek to prove whether or not
>intelligent extraterrestrial life exists. Well, one
>reason is because, like millions of other people
>around the globe, I am curious; and I am sure that
>some of you here are as well. Whether or not God
>created intelligent life elsewhere is really an open
>question, if we can be honest with ourselves. Also,
>there is an element of excitement and fun to the
>SETI@home project.
>
>Do I personally believe that intelligent
>extraterrestrial life exists, or that we will someday
>make contact with it? Those are rather profound
>questions which merit in-depth responses. If you would
>really like to know what I think, then I encourage you
>to read some of the articles. I am not allowed to
>advertise our website here due to this board's rules,
>so let just say that you can also read my personal
>profile at the SETI@home website in order to see what
>some of my current views are.
>
>Of course, it would be dishonest of me to say that
>curiosity, fun and excitement are my only motivations
>for joining the SETI@home project. Being an
>evangelical-minded Christian, it is also my hope that,
>in obedience to Jesus' commandment to let our light
>shine before men, (Matthew 5:16), I might be able to
>share the Good News of Salvation through Jesus Christ
>with other participants of the SETI@home project. As I
>noted a moment ago, once you join the project, you get
>your own profile page where you can put a photo of
>yourself, (which is entirely optional), as well as
>tell other SETI members about yourself. In my case, I
>have used my personal profile as an opportunity to be
>a Christian witness to others. In similar fashion, as
>a member of the SETI@home messageboard, I have also
>created my own signature, which I also use as an open
>witness of my faith. This signature, which uses an
>image I created on my computer, also has a link back
>to our Endtime Prophecy Net website.
>
>So you see, regardless of what your personal
>theological views are regarding intelligent
>extraterrestrial life, joining our "Curious
>Christians" SETI@home team is another way for you to
>be able to be a witness to others of your Christian
>faith, if you are willing. If you do decide to join
>us, you will also be able to use our special "Curious
>Christians" logo as part of your signature, should you
>choose to participate in the SETI@home messageboard.
>
>If you would like to join the "Curious Christians"
>SETI@home team, please go to the URL below. Near the
>bottom of the page, before the links table, you will
>find a URL which will take you to a page on the
>SETI@home website where you can provide a few bits of
>information in order to set up your "Curious
>Christians" account. After you have set up your
>account with our team, you will need to install the
>BOINC client on your machine. If you encounter any
>difficulty in doing that, please let me know by email,
>and either I, (if you are a Mac user), or another
>member of our team, will help you out:
>
>http://www.endtimeprophecy.net/SETI-At-Home/index.html
>
>Thank-you so much for considering joining our team! I
>appreciate it!
>
>The WordWeaver
>webmaster@endtimeprophecy.net
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