Return-Path: <setiathome@asimov.ssl.berkeley.edu> Received: (from setiathome@localhost) by asimov.ssl.berkeley.edu (8.9.3+Sun/8.9.1) id NAA03189 for setiathome-list@ssl.berkeley.edu; Tue, 19 Dec 2000 13:47:49 -0800 (PST) From: "SETI@home" <setiathome@ssl.berkeley.edu> Message-Id: <200012192147.NAA03189@asimov.ssl.berkeley.edu> Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 13:47:49 -0800 (PST) Content-Type: text/plain Subject: SETI@home News PICS-Label: (PICS-1.1 "http://www.rsac.org/ratingsv01.html" l gen true comment "RSACi North America Server" r (n 0 s 0 v 0 l 0)) PICS-Label: (PICS-1.1 "http://www.classify.org/safesurf/" l gen true comment "SafeSurf" r (SS~~000 1)) Dear SETI@home user: Thanks for your participation in SETI@home. I'm happy to say that the project is going extremely well, thanks to the continued support of our millions of users. This newsletter covers the following: - Project status - Release of version 3 software - New sponsorship from One Cosmos and The Planetary Society - New SETI@home gear is here Dr. David P. Anderson Project Director, SETI@home http://setiathome.berkeley.edu PS: to be removed from our mailing list, see the bottom of this message. -------------------------- PROJECT STATUS Halfway through our second year of operation, SETI@home has processed over 7000 hours of digitally-recorded signals from the Arecibo radio telescope, using the power of millions of Internet-connected computers. As this processing continues, SETI@home's own computers are doing the next phase, in which we separate man-made radio signals from those originating outside our solar system. Our goal is to detect signals from other civilizations. By using the Internet to form the world's most powerful computer, SETI@home has inspired other scientific computing projects, and is often credited (along with Napster) with defining a new generation of computer system design, called "peer-to-peer". Because of the strong continued interest in SETI@home, the project will continue for at least a year beyond its original ending time. Plans are not finalized, but we hope to expand our search to the southern-hemisphere sky, and to search new frequency bands. We will also try to make SETI@home more fun and interesting by adding new content and features to our web site. Our small but hard-working staff (5 part-time members) has had little time to work on this area, but we're expanding our efforts. -------------------------- RELEASE OF VERSION 3 SOFTWARE After almost a year of testing and debugging, we recently released a major new version of our screensaver program. The new version does much better signal analysis; it looks for two new types of signals (pulses and triplets) and it covers a wider range of drift rates. As a result, it takes more time to process each work unit. The old version of SETI@home should automatically notify you when it's time to upgrade to the new version. You can download and install it from our web site: http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/download.html -------------------------- NEW SPONSORSHIP FROM ONE COSMOS NETWORK AND THE PLANETARY SOCIETY We're proud to announce an alliance of SETI@home with One Cosmos Network and The Planetary Society. This alliance will give us the financial support necessary to continue and expand SETI@home, as well as enabling us to provide a richer Web experience. Founded by Internet executive Joe Firmage and Ann Druyan, Carl Sagan's wife and collaborator of 20 years, One Cosmos Network is dedicated to carrying on Sagan's effort to humanize science and bring it to people everywhere. Toward this end, One Cosmos is constructing an Internet portal, OneCosmos.net, and a production studio, Cosmos Studios, which will create compelling science-based entertainment for television and film. Their first release is an updated, digitally remastered Collector's Edition of the Emmy and Peabody Award winning 13-hour television series, "Cosmos." The series is currently available for purchase in DVD or VHS format, with "The Music of Cosmos" available separately in a double-CD format; find them at http://OneCosmos.net. The Planetary Society is the founding sponsor of SETI@home, and its membership is open to anyone who shares the goals of exploring our solar system and searching for extraterrestrial life. In fact, the Society supports six different SETI efforts, along with many other projects in space exploration. We encourage you to join The Planetary Society and help advance their many worthy programs at http://planetary.org/html/member/JoinUs.html We are also extremely grateful to our other sponsors, including the University of California Digital Media Innovation Program, Sun Microsystems, Fuji Film Computer Products, Quantum, and the SETI Institute. Thanks also to the hundreds of individuals who have made contributions to SETI@home. Their names are listed at http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/donorlist.html SETI@home is free for everyone, but if you can consider making a tax-deductible donation to SETI@home, please visit http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/donor.html. -------------------------- NEW SETI@HOME GEAR IS HERE While our goal is to detect life in outer space, we can't do that without the support of our fellow Earthlings. Last year, we introduced several SETI@home products in our online store. The response was so great that this year we've expanded the product line. There are great new sweatshirts, mugs, T-shirts, jackets, desk clocks, lapel pins, patches, and even a heat-sensitive mouse pad. Want more? How about your very own, very elegant, blown-glass globe? Or (our personal favorite) a stylus, red and black pens, and mechanical pencil packed into one very cool gravity-fed tool. You'll find them all online at http://www.exploratoriumstore.com/setihome.html. The profits from each sale help fund the SETI@home project. -------------------------- To be removed from our mailing list, please visit: http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/account_area.html