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SETI@home shuts down after 21 years

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Re: SETI@home shuts down after 21 years

#101
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Duron Now there's a name I haven't heard in a while. Duron, the poorerer man's Celeron.

This comment made me nod my head in agreement, laugh and also experience a wave of nostalgia. All at once.

I once overclocked one with a pencil. Just connected the solder points between some leads on the CPU package.

Re: SETI@home shuts down after 21 years

#102
post #80

Not to sound like a broken record (I and others have said this or similar on these kinds of threads) but... I, personally, have become convinced that looking for signals this way is actually pointless. The argument is basically this: 1. Within 1000 years (and maybe a lot less) we will have the engineering capability to build space habitats, powered by solar power. This last part is important because this thought expe…

We may have the technology to create massive habitats in the near future, but what if we do not have the need.

Population is projected to plateau in the near future. What if those habitats exist but just are not observable since they are quite small compared to their stars / planets?

Re: SETI@home shuts down after 21 years

#103
post #80

Not to sound like a broken record (I and others have said this or similar on these kinds of threads) but... I, personally, have become convinced that looking for signals this way is actually pointless. The argument is basically this: 1. Within 1000 years (and maybe a lot less) we will have the engineering capability to build space habitats, powered by solar power. This last part is important because this thought expe…

Interesting. If I understand you correctly, you are saying that it makes more sense to look for large IR sources (without accompanying visible light), instead of looking for radio signals. Correct?

Re: SETI@home shuts down after 21 years

#106
post #18

I remember being a younger pup and building fleets of machines (including overclocking, etc) for the sole purpose of running S@H, and all of the amazing software the spun up around it... SetiSpy, SetiDriver, SetiQ. I often wonder how machines of today would compare in work production to my old Duron 800, but alas.

When I first got my i7 6-core with quad GTX-690s (2 GPUs per card), I naively let Seti@Home run rampant when the computer was idle. Room they were in got up to around 90F when I let it run 100%.

Sad to see they're shutting down.

Re: SETI@home shuts down after 21 years

#107
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RE: folding@home, How much money will the medical cartel make off of the fruits of all that free labor? Do users even know what they're folding? How do users know that they're not building bioweapons?

protein folding simulations don't produce a lot of money for pharma (I say that as somebody with a F@H publication to my name specifically doing research on GPCRs, which are a huge pharma target). users can see what the workunits are doing, and choose subprojects, presumably avoiding bioweapons if that's important to them.

How could the average technically savvy user, let's say willing to use Google a bit but not to obtain a biochemistry degree, tell which subprojects are possible bioweapons? Not a rhetorical question.

Re: SETI@home shuts down after 21 years

#109
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Duron Now there's a name I haven't heard in a while. Duron, the poorerer man's Celeron.

This comment made me nod my head in agreement, laugh and also experience a wave of nostalgia. All at once.

luuuucky. i only got the k6 :O

Re: SETI@home shuts down after 21 years

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hahah, I can relate so much with the 'poorerer' part, I'll raise you another one: my first '686' was a Cyrix 6x86 because those were the cheapest you could get. Eventually got my hands on a Pentium II and had to scavenge parts to replace my setup. Good times. Nowadays I just buy a laptop with everything soldered on it and complain a lot if I have to reboot it every month.

In the late 90s I had a 486sx33 with one of those Cyrix 586 upgrade chips for the math co-processor slot. It was so hot it had a fan on it! Crazy! I also maxed out the RAM to 32mb and upgrade the SRAM in my Trident video card so I could do 256 color in Windows 95. I also had a 40mb Erwin Tape Drive for backing up my 100mb HDD. It wasn't fast but it was faster than reinstalling Tie Fighter from Floppies.

My first was an AMD 286 @ 12MHz, still have it in a cigar box somewhere.
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