Listening for ET [SETI, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence]

U. Cal. Berkley Engineering ^ | 05 January 2005 | David Pescovitz

[Bob]

Too slow - you must be running the GUI version.

Is the non-GUI version significantly faster than the GUI one? I'm running at a little under 5 hours on a 2.4 GHz P4 using the GUI version.

[DirtyHarryY2K]

Here is the link:
http://www.download.com/SETI-home/3000-2400_4-10196959.html?tag=lst-0-1

Man this thing originates from U C Berkley, Nobody takes responsibility for it. I'm scared to open the file.

[general_re]

All else being the same, you can reasonably expect to boost your throughput by 15-25% if you switch to the command-line version and register it as a service so it runs constantly - those pretty gui pictures waste valuable crunching cycles ;)

If, like most people, you're not familiar with the ins-and-outs of making and registering Windows services on your own, this page has a nice little tool that can handle it setting up the command-line client as a Windows NT/2000/XP service for you (it doesn't say XP on that page, but it works just fine with XP). Note that it doesn't work with Windows 95/98/ME, though.

[Shryke]

The only "measurements" that we have so far for the speed of Gravity are the orbits of planets around moving Suns, which indicate speeds orders of magnitude faster than Light for Gravity waves.

The article you are referring to, which I read 2 years ago or so, has been pretty much debunked. I've pinged a couple of guys that may have steered me straight on that.

[G32]

"Nonsense. The only "measurements" that we have so far for the speed of Gravity are the orbits of planets around moving Suns, which indicate speeds orders of magnitude faster than Light for Gravity waves."

I'd like to see sources for that. I've been reading Brian Greene's work and it sure seems there's nothing out there that's going to reverse Einstein's general theory of relativity to say gravity is faster than light.

[Bob]

Thanks for the information. Every little bit helps. :=)

[Moonman62]

Link

While current observations do not yet provide a direct model-independent measurement of the speed of gravity, a test within the framework of general relativity can be made by observing the binary pulsar PSR 1913+16. The orbit of this binary system is gradually decaying, and this behavior is attributed to the loss of energy due to escaping gravitational radiation. But in any field theory, radiation is intimately related to the finite velocity of field propagation, and the orbital changes due to gravitational radiation can equivalently be viewed as damping caused by the finite propagation speed. (In the discussion above, this damping represents a failure of the "retardation" and "noncentral, velocity-dependent" effects to completely cancel.)

The rate of this damping can be computed, and one finds that it depends sensitively on the speed of gravity. The fact that gravitational damping is measured at all is a strong indication that the propagation speed of gravity is not infinite. If the calculational framework of general relativity is accepted, the damping can be used to calculate the speed, and the actual measurement confirms that the speed of gravity is equal to the speed of light to within 1%. (Measurements of at least one other binary pulsar system, PSR B1534+12, confirm this result, although so far with less precision.)

[NurdlyPeon]

I'm in the top 2.1%, I average about 5 hours/unit, and I've just joined the Freeper team. Do I get to brag? (I'm #14 on the list).

[Drango]

I'm currently 43 th on the FR list... 3507 hr 41 min 5 hr 05 min

I think everyone can transfer their time over from whatever group they currently are on.

[LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget]

Why would an intelligent species want to talk to us?


They do not wish to talk to us... they wish to contact Democrats in order to learn the finer points of election fraud.

[Southack]

The binary pulsar test was debunked. It turns out that there are other alternatives besides gravity waves that explained orbital decay (e.g. that pulsars emitted matter at high speeds).

[Southack]

"I'd like to see sources for that. I've been reading Brian Greene's work and it sure seems there's nothing out there that's going to reverse Einstein's general theory of relativity..."

Einstein's General Relativity theory showed that our universe was static (e.g. Einstein's 1919 paper); that was conclusively debunked by the astronomical observations of Edwin Hubble in 1929. It turns out that our universe is expanding.

[KevinDavis]

In fairness to the ET's, I would find this planet a dump.

[U S Army EOD]

There is only one universe and this is it, everything else is in it.

[U S Army EOD]

Burp.

[Bob]

I think everyone can transfer their time over from whatever group they currently are on.

I believe I've seen that somewhere on the SETI site but I don't recall where. I'm currently 11th in the FR group.

[xrp]

In fairness to the ET's, I would find this planet a dump.

Yeah, if they landed in the Chicago area...of course. I've not seen many dirtier, nastier cities.

[Moonman62]

The binary pulsar test was debunked.

Who debunked it?

[thackney]

SETI ping

[spodefly]

I am running the GUI version. I decided that is best for that P4-3.2 machine since it is primarily a game computer (Far Cry!!!/Quake 3/ Half Life 2/Doom 3) and I need all the horsepower I can get for having fun shooting things without stopping and starting services on that box. Plus, I have to keep the fans running while SETI is working, and that machine sounds like an F16 when all the fans are running, so SETI only runs on that box intermittently.)

I may change the second machine (a P4 2.4) to the services version just so I will be additionally cool like you .. :) It doesn't need fans running to stay below 50 degrees C.