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On Sun, 16 Apr 2000, Darxus wrote:
> Incase you're going to skip large chunks of my post, the point of it is:
> * do not run seti@home (because they are evil)
> * preferably run GIMPS, & if not GIMPS, run distributed.net
[snip]
> Now for my reasoning....
>
> BTW, I'm sure I posted something to this list similar to this before, but
> I can't find it.
>
> I'm all for distributed processing. It's awesome. And seti@home's better
> than nothing. But as far as distributed processing projects go, seti is
> evil.
>
> * I believe they are completely closed source
They are hard, scientific research, which requires that the analysis
method be very rigidly defined and controlled. By distributing in binary
only, this control can be maintained. If they distributed by source, they
would not only have to content with modifications that could cause
spoofing (either deliberately or accidentally), but each installation of
the software would require individual validation. I've done analytical
software validation in the past, it's a non-trivial exercise.
> * when distributed.net offered to help, they declined in fear that their
> sponsors would realize there was something wrong if someone was willing
> to help them for free
Is the reason supposition? And yes, in the business world, there is a
prejudice against something given for free. Whether you agree with it or
not doesn't change its existence.
Also, I don't know about distributed.net, but you can't fault SETI if they
want to maintain control over their research material. What was the
nature of the help they offered?
> * when they ran out of info for clients to process, they started looping
> it, making clients process redundant info, jut to not loose people's
> interest, and sponsorships
Are you referring to when their server was giving the same data chunk? I
believe that was a genuine error on their part, as they reported. If they
were just trying to mark time, they would've just started redistributing.
I will point out that duplicate analysis is part of the analysis plan, and
a good scientific practice.
> In other words, it's all about the money.
Yup. SETI requires money to operate. Lots of it, and very little of it
is salary. I think you're wrong, however, in accusing them of being money
oriented.
Michael W. Ryan, MCP, MCT | OTAKON 2000
mryan@netaxs.com | Convention of Otaku Generation
http://www.netaxs.com/~mryan/ | http://www.otakon.com/
No, I don't hear voices in my head;
I'm the one that tells the voices in your head what to say.
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