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#1 2003-04-01 11:46 am
Did you get a "promising candidate" letter?
A few people over at Ars Technica's Team Lamb Chop are reporting that they got the following letter from Berkeley (in addition to the one we all got):
Dear SETI@home participant,
After nearly four years of searching for extraterrestrial
intelligence, the SETI@home project will take a closer
look at its most promising candidate radio sources. The
"Stellar Countdown" will use Puerto Rico's Arecibo radio
telescope on March 18-20, 2003 to re-observe up to 150
of the most interesting radio sources found out of the
billions detected since the distributed computing project
began in May 1999.
Your computer was one of the ones that processed the data
for the selected candidate radio sources. There might be
interest from the media (newspapers, TV, etc) to talk to
people whose computers processed that data. Local
newspapers and TV stations often want to include a local
angle in their stories and may request to speak to a
SETI@home participant who lives in their vicinity. They
would not be looking for technical details -- those are
available from the SETI@home team. Instead they might
ask how you became interested in SETI@home, how much
time your computer spends processing SETI@home
data, how long you have been a participant, etc.
from: http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopi … 5920995555
I did not receive one of these letters, but I was wondering if anyone here did get one.
QS
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#2 2003-04-03 3:34 pm
Re: Did you get a "promising candidate" letter?
Here's my copy.
Dear SETI@home participant,
After nearly four years of searching for extraterrestrial intelligence, the SETI@home project will take a closer look at its most promising candidate radio sources. The single data unit you processed, unfortunately was not one of the candidates chosen. The "Stellar Countdown" will use Puerto Rico's Arecibo radio telescope on March 18-20, 2003 to re-observe up to 150 of the most interesting radio sources found out of the billions detected since the distributed computing project began in May 1999.
A word of caution - Your computer was one of the top ten slowest computers used in this distributed computing project. There might be
interest from the media (newspapers, TV, etc) to talk to people whose computers processed data at such a slow speed but this is highly unlikely. Public humiliation would be a likely motive and if this is the case and we hope that you would try to avoid any contact with the media. Local newspapers and TV stations often want to include a local angle in their stories and may request to speak to a SETI@home participant and ask them publically why they would even think of participating in such a project given the antiquated computer used. If they approach you, please tell them you have no idea what they are talking about. They would not be looking for technical details (as you obviously have none) regarding your computer but mainly just one simple question, "Why haven't you upgraded your computer in the last 10 years?". If they find evidence of your participation, and let's hope they don't, they might ask how you became interested in SETI@home, how many months your computer spends processing a single SETI@home data unit, or perhaps, how long you plan to keep up this charade. We at Seti@home will continue to search for intelligent life somewhere in this vast universe of ours, however, we know without a doubt that we do not have to look for intelligent life living at your address. With this in mind, we sincerely ask that you refrain from processing any further data units. 
"Wise men learn from their own mistakes. Yet, the wisest of all, is the man who learns from the mistakes of those wise men." [author unknown]
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#4 2003-04-03 4:32 pm
Re: Did you get a "promising candidate" letter?
Well, I have a souped up Quadra 700 with a PowerPc 601 60MHz upgrade installed. This baby cranks out about 1 WU per month (on a good month). Of course, if I dedicated it full time to processing, I could possibly double this output. I'll be approaching 100 any week now. I'll make a public announcement here when this happens. I wouldn't want anyone to miss such an important Seti@home milestone if it happens before the project end. 
"Wise men learn from their own mistakes. Yet, the wisest of all, is the man who learns from the mistakes of those wise men." [author unknown]
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#5 2003-04-08 1:05 pm
- JediKnightChewie
- eternal n00b

- From: far from home
- Registered: 2002-06-18
- Posts: 4649
Re: Did you get a "promising candidate" letter?

the c00ki33 0wns J00!
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