Quote:
Originally Posted by mind4engineering
wtf...
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Its not that hard to understand...
SETI@home searches for possible evidence of radio transmissions from extraterrestrial intelligence using observational data from the Arecibo radio telescope. The data is taken 'piggyback' or 'passively' while the telescope is used for other scientific programs. The data is digitized, stored, and sent to the SETI@home facility. The data is then parsed into small chunks in frequency and time, and analyzed, using software, to search for any signals--that is, variations which cannot be ascribed to noise, and contain information.
The crux of SETI@home is to have each chunk of data, from the millions of chunks resulting, analyzed off-site by home computers, and then have the software results reported back. Thus what appears an onerous problem in data analysis is reduced to a reasonable one by aid from a large, internet-based community.
You don't have to use the screensaver....there is a small program that runs in the background crunching numbers and sending it back to the University of California in Berkeley. The Arecebo satellite takes in too much information per second and needs the help of an internet based community of computers helping it to sort through all the information it gets.