Supporting SETI@Home and all BOINC Distributed Computing Projects December 2006 ©SETI.USA

Crunch on!!

* Latest News

Intel to Launch Core 2 Quad

* SETI News

Fundraising drive

* Member of the Month Interview

An Interview with SETI.USA’s Fish

* Topic of the Month

SETI.USA Acquiring an International Flavor

* Computer of the Month

* Member’s Pick of the Month

USA Unite!!

* Personal Milestones

* Quote of the Month

Intel to Launch Core 2 Quad Chip in January

Ben Ames, IDG News Service

Tuesday, December 19, 2006 03:00 PM PST

Intel plans to launch the third model of its four-core processor in January, continuing its efforts to stay ahead of Advanced Micro Devices on the next-generation processor family.

Intel will launch the Core 2 Quad chip for high-end desktop PCs during the CES trade show in Las Vegas the week of Jan. 8, industry sources said. The new chip follows Intel's launch in November of its quad-core Xeon 5300 for servers and Core 2 Extreme QX6700 for gamers.

Quad-core chips can handle complex tasks faster than single-core chips by using multithreaded software to break each job into smaller pieces, then computing them simultaneously. The chips are most popular with users of servers and workstations running programs like digital media creation and high-end gaming.

SETI News

SETI@home in the midst of Fall 2006 fundraising drive!

SETI@home is a nonprofit educational and research organization that relies significantly on donations to continue operations. We are in the middle of our first annual funding drive, as we are embarking on several exciting new projects and we need your help. Any level of support is greatly appreciated.

In addition to the $260,000 raised this past spring (thank you!), we hope to raise $538,000 so we can get these projects finished and carry on our daily operations through the coming year. Here is how much we raised so far.

E-mails are currently being sent to all our users asking for their help. This process takes time (we expect to be finished by December 15th). Perhaps your spam filters blocked our e-mail. If you haven't gotten your e-mail yet, you can always read it on line.

Member of the Month Interview

An Interview with SETI.USA’s Fish

by Beerdrinker

In this edition of monthly interview we decided to let the participants interact with each other. The solution chosen, was to let the participant forward a question. Hope you like the improvement.

Christmas is getting close. It’s time to give and receive. And to remember your friends and family.
I will therefore get a heads start by giving you SETI.USA´s very first gift to all you readers.
I proudly present:.......Fish!

Beerdrinker: Tell us a little bit about yourself. What do you do for fun? For a living?

Fish: Carpenter/Contractor mostly Kitchen and Bath remodeling, room additions. In the summer I do alot of Custom cedar decks and gazebos. I also have a small biz doing home and office network setup (hardware and wiring) support, and sell about 50 custom pc's a year. So I guess you could say a little of this and a little of that, and sometimes nothing at all!! then I go fishing.

Beerdrinker: When did you first join SETI@Home and why?

Fish: August 23, 1999, seemed silly enough that it might just work.

Beerdrinker: Where did you first hear about SETI.USA? When did you join? And what caused you to stay?

Fish: On the Berkely Boards.

September 16, 2005.

Waiting for the party at JoeJoe's of course.

Beerdrinker: How many machines do you have running SETI@Home?

Fish: Presently I have 6, one P4 3.0HT, four A64's @ 3200+, 3500+, 3700+ x2, and a Turion X2 lappy.

Beerdrinker: Tell us about your fastest cruncher.

Fish: Right now it looks like the Acer lappy is edging out the rest, doing two Reisels in about an hour and ten.

Beerdrinker: If you could build your "dream" cruncher, what would it be like?

Fish: Very Quiet.

Beerdrinker: Any advice for the other members of the team?

Fish: Let it rip, crunch what ya want, when you can, it all adds up.

Beerdrinker: Which question would you like the next participant to answer?

Fish: Paper or plastic?

On behalf of the SETI.USA newsletter staff, I would like to say thank you to Fish for participating in this interview.

Topic of the Month

SETI.USA Acquiring an International Flavor!
by SargeD & Orion

As our team name says, SETI.USA was originally founded to be a USA team, but we have lately taken on an international aspect as crunchers from allied countries have joined up. This is not a problem for us as we welcome any cruncher who wishes to join and help us become the number one team in all of BOINC. I think it is only fitting that we recognize the countries represented on our team. Orion was kind enough to research this and provide the following list:

North
America: United States of America, Canada, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago

South
America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela

Europe: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Scotland, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland

Asia: Adzaria, Bahrain, China (Shanghai), Hong Kong, Israel, Lebanon, Pakistan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey

Africa: Ethiopia, Morocco

Australia
& Oceania: Guam, Indonesia, New Zealand, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Australia

We want to say WELCOME to these allies and we hope that many others will join us in our climb to the top!!

Computer of the Month

This month, jghilino has sent us the following information from rgathright, who is the proud owner of SETI.USA's Computer of the Month!

rgathright: I built the pine desk in August 2005. I used a 2"x2" pine boxed sub frame to increase the rigidity of the desk because of the heavy vibrations the desk would endure during its lifetime.
I used 8"x1" sections of pine for the top of the desk. 1"x4" pine interlocking paneling was used to cover the sub frame. The interlocking paneling helps make the seams air tight.
I mounted a 20x20 box fan from a local hardware store inside. The fan was the low end model and cost me about $20.

I put two air filters in the "filter space" between the 2x2 frame members. I used two 20x24 air filters, they cost $8 every time I replace them. I have replaced them only once in a year.

I plugged in the fan and ran it on low for a year. I wanted a burn-in period to ensure the system was reliable. The only problem I encountered was a slight change in the "low hum noise" from the fan during the first three months. I corrected this by installing an APC and surge protector in the system.

Specs

Motherboard: Intel 865GLC
Processor: Intel Pentium 4, 2.4Ghz, 800FSB
Memory: 640Mbs RAM
Video: Internal Video
Network Card: Linksys Wireless W54G
Power Supply: Enermax
Hard Drive: 120Gb Maxtor 7200RPM PATA
OS: Windows XP Professional

More pictures here... http://www.reubengathright.com/box_fan_computer/

Member’s Pick of the Month

USA Unite!!
by SargeD

Time and again, I find myself constantly reminded of how blessed, honored, and privileged I am to be a member of Team SETI.USA. I cannot imagine being on any other distributed computing team in the world. The friendship, camaraderie and support this team has provided me has kept me going through those times that have caused many in the DC community to give up, and I cannot thank the other members enough for this. Kind of reminds me of the Lee Greenwood song but with different words “(always) gladly stand up, next to you, and defend you still today, ‘cause there ain’t no doubt I love this team, God bless SETI.USA.”

Our members come from many different countries and are of different ethnic, religious, political, and social backgrounds, and while the expectations of the international DC community may have been that we were a team without a chance, we have, in spite of our many differences, been – and still are – united as one, big family. This has never been more evident than it is today. While many in the DC community said we did not stand a chance, we have now proven them wrong. We stood up to and faced their ridicule when they said we were a goldfish in a pond of sharks. Now the goldfish has joined the eagle as one of our symbols of strength. The goldfish is the power in the pond and the sharks are on the run. We, as Team SETI.USA must use this power to keep the pressure on and to gain our rightful place as the #1 Team both in SETI and in BOINC combined.

SETI.Germany is now scrambling to try to find a way to stop us. There is now talk of trying to merge many German teams into one to try to stop, or at least slow down the inevitable stomp. It is now that our resolve must remain the strongest!! We cannot allow ourselves to be distracted from the task at hand, but must continue to crunch as if there were no tomorrow!! We WILL prevail and reach our goal, it is but a matter of time. I call on all of our current members to put everything you have into this task. No cruncher is too slow and every WU crunched is one step closer to our goal. I also call on all other USA based crunchers and our allies to join in the fray. Join with SETI.USA and be there when we take the crown from SETI.Germany!!

God bless America and God bless Team SETI.USA!!

Personal Milestones

SETI.USA would like to thank ALL of it's dedicated crunchers and offer CONGRATULATIONS to all those who achieved significant personal milestones in the month of November. As you all know, we are growing exponentially. We now have 35 "millionaires", 76 members with over 500,000 credits and an astounding 257 teammates with over 100,000. Crunch on all!!

25,000,000: Jim Vennes

9,000,000: Daniel Schaalma

6,000,000: mac2312

5,000,000: Donald Thomas, Ranger

3,000,000: D. Brown, Kango

2,000,000: Crunch3r

1,000,000: JimmyJet

900,000: shadow36, sKr0d

800,000: AlanSerl, Curt Frazier, sideband, striker737

750,000: Irondog, MadDog69

700,000: Dale, Logan5, Shaverly

600,000: BWX, code_breaker, DrBob, Rich Shafer

500,000: Bill Hughes, Chris Onjian, Drunkula, John R. Bailey, MikeJr, skywatch

400,000: djstone, Dr. Dan T. Morris, FaTCaT, teratoma

300,000: Boyle Ke, Jerry, JGhilino, Joker, Joshua Carroll, Magneto,
Mithotar, rclarksworld, rvertz, Wanabeelee, WY_X

250,000: Derek_66, drchin, Michael Bouse

200,000: Ace41690, BKerr, h20fl0w, Harley, Lilee, Mark Vogt, Nyulak,
Omegablues, Palomar Jack, Ricky Moore, wholmes

100,000: Alexander J. Norris, Boston, DryHeat, Ferro, Herr_Fritz, John,
PaulPreston, razertech, reckless ronin, Skyrunner, Steve Cain

- Compiled by Orion

Quote of the Month

Our second "Quote of the Month" follows the first in the sense that it hails all those who want to know more about the universe around them.

Soon the child's clear eye is clouded over
by ideas and opinions, preconceptions and abstractions.
Simple free "being" becomes incrusted with
the burdensome armor of the ego.
Not until years later does an instinct come
that a vital sense of mystery has been withdrawn.
The sun glints through the pines, and the heart
is pierced in a moment of beauty and strange pain,
like a memory of paradise.
After that day. . . we become seekers.

-Peter Matthiessen (1927- )