# ATTN: SETI@home Straight Dopers **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 20, 2002, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035 "2002-10-20T01:26:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2002, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/61 "2002-11-05T22:13:21Z")
Woo-hoo! 1,000 units! ---
**Author:** ![brachyrhynchos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brachyrhynchos/32/376_2.png) [@brachyrhynchos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brachyrhynchos)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/62 "2002-11-06T05:53:42Z")
Wow, I’m impressed! Hmmm, seems I have to take off my ornithologist hat, put on my LAN-Admin hat, and call in the mighty forces of the Entomology Department…muwhahahahaha!!! _gak_ Stand back as I fire up the 486s! Cover your ears as I dial up with lightening speed! ---
**Author:** ![mkl12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@mkl12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mkl12)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/63 "2002-11-06T15:54:02Z")
Congratulations, MEBuckner! And… Woo-Hoo, 250 units! ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2002, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/64 "2002-11-09T19:03:36Z")
Yet another milestone–my “Total CPU Time” has surpassed mere _hours_ and is now measured in years! (1.001 of them at the moment.) Clearly my computer has no life. But at least it doesn’t get a lot of nasty viruses this way. You know, I think we could have a real shot at breaking 15,000 units by the end of the year. So come on, O short-billed one, and bring on the entomologists! We’ll squash them like bugs! _Mwaa-ha-ha-ha-ha!_ ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2002, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/65 "2002-11-09T19:16:43Z")
And what the heck are you running on, **mkl12**? HAL 9000? (The same goes for **mblackwell** only even more so, and maybe a couple other people as well.) ---
**Author:** ![Kwyjibo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/59ef9b/32.png) [@Kwyjibo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kwyjibo)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2002, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/66 "2002-11-09T22:32:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MEBuckner \* > \*\*And what the heck are you running on, **mkl12**? HAL 9000? (The same goes for **mblackwell** only even more so, and maybe a couple other people as well.) \*\* Holy fark! I’m running on a P4 2.3G. It completes a unit very 5 ours or so…but my average time is because of the slower systems I was running it on a few years back. ---
**Author:** ![Jman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jman/32/4416_2.png) [@Jman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jman)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2002, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/67 "2002-11-11T14:04:05Z")
Since I’m not contributing my units, nor my 3.8 hr/unit machine to your cause…I’ll give you all a tip: Use the command line executable, and use [SETI Driver](http://www.wakeassoc.com/setidriver/)…it hides the command line from your view, and caches work units so you can continue to work even if the SETI servers get overloaded. It also keeps track of your progress and tells you how much time it is going to take to process that unit, and how much time it already has taken. It’s great! (Note: the time estimate isn’t accurate until about 25% of the unit is processed) Jman ---
**Author:** ![Jman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jman/32/4416_2.png) [@Jman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jman)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2002, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/68 "2002-11-11T14:09:51Z")
Since I’m not contributing my units, nor my 3.8 hr/unit machine to your cause…I’ll give you all a tip: Use the command line executable, and use [SETI Driver](http://www.wakeassoc.com/setidriver/)…it hides the command line from your view, and caches work units so you can continue to work even if the SETI servers get overloaded. It also keeps track of your progress and tells you how much time it is going to take to process that unit, and how much time it already has taken. It’s great! (Note: the time estimate isn’t accurate until about 25% of the unit is processed) Jman ---
**Author:** ![mkl12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@mkl12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mkl12)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2002, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/69 "2002-11-15T01:02:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MEBuckner \* > \*\*And what the heck are you running on, **mkl12**? HAL 9000? (The same goes for **mblackwell** only even more so, and maybe a couple other people as well.) \*\* I’m running on P4 2 GHz. Until Jman’s post earlier in this thread I used the regular screensaver program, not as a screensaver, but running invisibly in the background all the time. With that I finished one unit in about 4:45. The command line client has cut down that time to about 3:45. But my average times are starting to go up again, because I’ve installed the program on my laptop and my parents computer to be able to compete with **mblackwell** , **bernse** and \*\* Max Override\*\*. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2002, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/70 "2002-11-15T02:13:07Z")
Ah, good! Excellent! Healthy intra-group competetiveness will help us vanquish the alt.fan.cecil-adams deviationist counter-revolutionaries! Long live the glorious struggle against ignorance! ---
**Author:** ![mblackwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5fc32e/32.png) [@mblackwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mblackwell)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2002, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/71 "2002-11-15T02:21:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MEBuckner \* > \*\*And what the heck are you running on, **mkl12**? HAL 9000? (The same goes for **mblackwell** only even more so, and maybe a couple other people as well.) \*\* I’m running it on an AMD Athlon 1800+ running at 1.545 Ghz. I use the command line version and SETI Spy to monitor progress and hide the client window. I’ve been considering running it on my old PC as well, but I’m too lazy and busy right now. Besided, that would wreck my average time. There is a dual 1 Ghz P3 machine at work that is not being used, maybe I could fire it up sometime. ---
**Author:** ![Bean\_Counter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/db5fbb/32.png) [@Bean\_Counter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bean_Counter)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2002, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/72 "2002-11-15T22:05:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MEBuckner \* > \*\*Ah, good! Excellent! Healthy intra-group competetiveness will help us vanquish the alt.fan.cecil-adams deviationist counter-revolutionaries! > > Long live the glorious struggle against ignorance! \*\* The Confederacy thought they had a chance, too. Tthhhhppffff. Separatist. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2002, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/73 "2002-11-22T17:07:37Z")
All righty–I’m now running the command-line version. Now we’ll _really_ see this baby fly, right? Engage! Well, I read that it might be at least 10% faster. Of course, I always ran the graphical processor straight-to-black-screen–I don’t really know what they’re comparing it too. Anyway, every little bit helps. ---
**Author:** ![JimOfAllTrades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@JimOfAllTrades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimOfAllTrades)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/74 "2002-12-09T06:16:06Z")
Ok, last weekend I was checking my stats on the SETI@home page and on a whim I copied everyone’s total as of that day to a spreadsheet. Today I did the same thing, and stuck in a couple of simple formulas to calculate the number of units for the interval, and to make an estimate for year end totals based on that. I checked with **MEBuckner** , and with his blessing, here are the results. Barring emergencies, I will post an update each week. We’ve already beat the pathetic challenge of 10,000 units from those deviationists at alt.fan.cecil-adams (deviationists, hehehe, I love that word, **MEBuckner**. Makes me want to join), but we need more! So come on folks, lets get those units up and show them what we can do! According to my extremely simple extrapolation, we should hit about 17,000 units by year end. Lets push this to 17,500 and make me wrong. ```auto Rank) Name Units on Units on Units in Est Total on 8-Dec-2002 30-Nov-2002 8 Days 31-Dec-2002 1) Arcturis Apt Pendragon 3734 3698 36 3837 2) Max Override 3374 3333 41 3491 3) BriEsterson 1533 1508 25 1604 4) MEBuckner 1062 1059 3 1070 5) Ed Williams 734 734 0 734 6) ColinW 727 727 0 727 7) Astroboy 652 641 11 683 8) mkl12 552 460 92 816 9) TheGarce 452 440 12 486 10) Richard 305 260 45 434 11) mblackwell 272 213 59 441 15) Hodge 219 174 45 348 16) bernse 206 156 50 349 12) jcmckaig 198 198 0 198 13) Vanyel 188 188 0 188 14) Stilett0 185 185 0 185 17) Hattrick 143 110 33 237 18) KendoMonkey 143 108 35 243 19) iconoplast 104 104 0 104 20) Jvanhorn 86 83 3 94 22) LeeJam 69 51 18 120 21) Nick Dierks 65 62 3 73 24) Brian Smith 59 46 13 96 23) Wicky 55 50 5 69 25) The Lone Corndog 52 46 6 69 27) Lockz 45 42 3 53 26) Kevin Blinn 44 44 0 44 29) Xploder12 39 30 9 64 28) Rutabegger 34 34 0 34 30) TheLoadedDog 33 27 6 50 31) Loopus 27 21 6 44 32) Menocchio 15 13 2 20 33) PatPF 11 9 2 16 34) Dancin Pete 2 2 0 2 35) Tuco 0 0 0 0 Totals 15419 14856 563 17023 ``` ---
**Author:** ![mkl12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@mkl12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mkl12)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/75 "2002-12-09T13:00:05Z")
Great idea, **RJKUgly** , but you should try [SETI Team](http://www.sqiz.co.uk/Seti/setiteam.htm). It does most of the work for you, it can predict the results for any date up to three months ahead, and, most importantly, the results are far more up to date than those on the Seti@home page. Another interesting site is [this](http://www.setiatwork.com/cgi-bin/compare_teams.cgi?id=147143&more=30). It compares our team to all the others. [Here](http://www.setiatwork.com/cgi-bin/compare_teams.cgi?id=31937) is the same for the deviationists. ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/76 "2002-12-09T13:43:44Z")
Woot! I’m number 7! Go me!! 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Marcus\_Didius\_Falco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marcus\_Didius\_Falco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marcus_Didius_Falco)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/77 "2002-12-09T13:51:06Z")
I just registered this weekend after a long time lurking. So today I’m sitting at work, working hard (or possibly hardly working), when I spotted this thread and I’ve now added my 210 units to the cause. ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/78 "2002-12-09T14:35:37Z")
Hey! We got 210 more units, AND we de-lurked **Jarod**! Woo Hoo!! Welcome, **Jarod**!😃 ---
**Author:** ![Hattrick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/34f0e0/32.png) [@Hattrick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hattrick)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/79 "2002-12-09T15:28:30Z")
ARGGGG I get demoted to 18th again… time to start up a few extra computers. 😉 Oh and welcome **Jarod** ---
**Author:** ![JimOfAllTrades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@JimOfAllTrades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimOfAllTrades)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035/80 "2002-12-09T16:47:43Z")
The SETI Team looks pretty cool alright, **mkl12** , I’ll try it next week. And BTW, you seem to be cranking out 10 or 11 units per day, 92 units in the last 8 days. Way to go! And welcome **Jarod Ilcast** , new blood for our SETI group and (we hope) for the message board as well. Stick around and have fun, this can be a great place. Keep it up folks, lets see what we can do. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attn-seti-home-straight-dopers/133035.md?page=5)