I run the SETI@home screen saver b/c I think it’s a cool concept (group computing or something?), and I want to be the guy whose computer “discovered” little green men. That’s a whole other can of worms.
I want to know why a work unit that takes hours and hours and hours to process, only takes about 3 seconds to download raw and upload processed. I’m sure my terminology is far from ideal. Basically, what (in terms of d/l and u/l times) seems to be a few words, my computer is treating like an encoded encyclopedia.
Cable modem and Pentium 4 1.8 ghz with 256 Mb RAM by the way.
Well, you could read a paper here, but it’s pretty simple. Remember any of your math homework - one line to ask, one number to answer, and you’ve got 3 pages of scribbles in between.
