SETI Shock

Seti@home recycles data endlessly

The Seti@home programme, described on PNN, is suffering from teething problems.

Overwhelmed with over 500,000 volunteers, they have had to dedicate virtually all of their computer resources to servicing data submissions and requests for more data. Unfortunately, they don't have enough left to receive and process incoming raw data from radio telescopes, and break it down into bite-size packets to send out to volunteers. Exactly how many different packets of data they have is a closely guarded secret, but we understand that it may be a number not unadjacent to 115, and these few packets are being endlessly recycled and reprocessed.

They promise that they are getting more resources, and this is a temporary situation. So keep on processing the data, and don't forget to join "Team Plokta".

-- Mike Scott

13 Jun 1999