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SETI@Home For Linux
Benny_Eggs
writes "It's not the pretty screensaver version, but a
SETI@HOME client for Linux is
now available." For those of you unfamiliar with the
project, Seti@Home is like Distributed.net,
except instead of brute force encryption cracking, it searches
radio signal noise looking for signs of intelligence.
How come they never release the source for any of these "idle CPU" clients/projects?
They want to be sure that noone runs bogus clients. In something like this, one bad result could destroy the whole project. (For example, supposed the d.net client returned a no rather than a yes when it found the RC-foo key.)
This isn't to say I completely agree... I'd probably prefer a system where a server checks out open-source clients to see if the're not bogus. (Throws some know problem sets at it every once in a while, and sees that it answers correctly.)
Distributed.net set out to prove something, and it succeeded. Since then, it's been proved again and again, most recently with EEF's dedicated cracker. Working on RC64 is now just flogging an expired equine. It's just not going to make the kind of political statement that RC56 made.
As far as a tool set, d.net had a chance to get their distributed engine out, but they seem to have missed their window. Now, we've got several dedicated distributed efforts going, and d.net is rapidly turning into a fading blip.
My only question is to figure out which machines to switch over from doing primes. Find a new prime, get your name in the history books (well, the math history books). Find a new civilization, get your name in the real history books forever.
...phil
...phil
"For a list of the ways which technology has failed to improve our quality of life, press 3."
At 13 megs don't expect to run this client except for bedtime. Don't expect to find extraterrestrial life until 13 meg level 2 caches come along either. Since it's still better than trying to crack passwords, I'll probably dump the rc5 client for a while.
The surest sign that intelligent life exists is that it hasn't tried to contact us.
There's something that worries me about this. There will probably be some kind of stats or rankings, and people will compete to get to the top. That's fine, but what if somebody develops a client that just drops the blocks so they can get to the top of that list? I heard something like that was developed for rc5.
This is not just an encryption contest, and much more is at stake. I would hate for it to be ruined just by a bunch of stupid people.
I wish I knew of a good counterargument. Suggestions?
I've been watching SETI@Home for a while and have been dying to download the client. Sure, its fun to chip away at RC5, but we all know that RC5 64 bit will eventually be cracked given time.
With SETI@Home, you can use your idle time for something that may have a greater purpose down the road.
Bottom line is, brute force will eventually crack encryption. Woohoo. Increase the bits. Now that this new idea has come along, you have a chance to aid the search for intelligent life.
And that my friends, is a big deal.
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"They misunderestimated me." --George W Bush, Nov. 6, 2000
They'll be lucky! I have enough trouble finding signs of intelligence searching the FM band. I shudder to think how much worse it would be at a non-radio station frequency!
I ate something that disagreed with me. Maybe I should have cooked him first.
I am interested in doing this but i could not find any info on the site as to whether the screensaver version for win32 would be unobtrusive with other applications running in the background like say an FTP server. I would assume it is but... then again....