2000-07-31
Dear Diary:

����Well, I STILL haven't been contacted by aliens from outer space. I know, diary dear, that you are as sick about this as I.

����Fortunately, I can take solace in the fact that my SETI@home team (SETI being the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence), the much feared Team Newkirk, is now a mere 141 places from the top IN THE WORLD in our category. (Marn climbs up on her desk, beats her chest and makes gutteral gorilla sounds.)

����We're a piddling 100 results away from crushing the heads of the folks in Epic Systems as we continue our relentless march up the world SETI@home list. (For anyone who is NOT a fan of the Kids in the Hall, that "crush your head" reference just went whooooosh over your head, but fear not, it was not crucial.)

����What we need here is more geeks or geek wannabes like me. Care to join us?

����Here's the deal with SETI@home. It's a volunteer program run by Berkeley University. If you saw the movie Contact with Jodi Foster, then you have the basic premise of the program. Break the sky into grids, point enormous dishes up towards those grids, record all the radio waves.

����Break those static-filled sound bits into tiny little chunks and analyze them, see if you can find the sort of sound pattern that another species might use to contact us.

����It would normally take a kazillion years of computer time to do this, and cost the budget of a small African country, but then someone ingeniously thought, "Hey, why not harness all the computer power that's out there in people's homes and not being used all the time?" That's how the SETI@home program was born.

����You mosey over to the SETI@home home page, download, and install the SETI@home screen saver program. You can use a web mail address in your set-up, an alias, and remain completely anonymous.

����Whenever your screen saver kicks in, instead of just wasting time, your computer begins to analyze little bits of sound. Once it's done, it asks your permission to go on-line, send the results back to Berkeley, and grab another hunk of static.

����And hey, really, do any of us ever have enough static in our lives? I think not!

����As I've said before in my diary, I know that from far off in the solar system our earth looks like a little twinkly bit in the sky. I can't imagine that all those twinkly bits I see on a clear night in the sky above my head are all without life ...

����And besides, I REALLY enjoy climbing up on my desk, pounding my chest and making gutteral gorilla sounds every time my team climbs up a notch on the world SETI@home list.

����But now we're up there with the big boys, folks with major 'puter firepower, and we NEED more CPU's and dammit, we NEED THEM NOW. So ...

����If you want to make a middle-aged woman who has NO LIFE AT ALL (like I had to actually say THAT out loud to anyone who has read more than one of my diary entries) extremely happy, why not become part of SETI@home?

����If you want to throw me into the sort of bliss I normally only experience under the influence of chocolate cheesecake accompanied by Rocky Road ice cream go here and join Team Newkirk. (Just click on the Join link.)

����Gutteral gorilla sounds. C'mon, you KNOW you want to try that.

--Marn

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She's mellllllllllllllting - Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012 - Back off, Buble - Monday, Dec. 19, 2011 - Dispersed - Monday, Nov. 28, 2011 - Nothing comes for free - Monday, Nov. 21, 2011 - None of her business - Friday, Nov. 04, 2011 -


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