While watching MHz, I saw this report about the SETI@Home Project finding a mysterious frequency that might be from intelligent life. Prior to reading the article, I didn’t know much about the SETI@Home Project. I knew about SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) and I knew that it was basically all about listening through static of space to find a stable frequency. I did not know that this research was participatory! The SETI@Home Project allows people around the world to download a chunk of data and analyze it when their computer is not being used (its a nifty screensaver!). Its passive research that employs millions of computers around the world to sift through the static of the universe. Best yet, there is a MAC OS X client which allows me to partake in the research. So now when I’m away from my computer, I’ll have a 3D satellite image graphic rendering and SETI@Home analyzing noise from space. Cool stuff.
The data came from Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico. Its the same telescope featured in the James Bond film “Golden Eye” and its also the stage for the last level of the Nintendo 64 game (I spent so many hours playing that game in High School!).
About my last post… I came home last night to have the various mainstream news channels broadcasting live from inside of the hurricane. I never want physical harm to come on to someone, but I morbidly recorded the news with the hopes that I’d record a reporter getting hit by some flying debris (I didn’t have any “luck”). When I get done reformatting my external hard drive (RIP 20 gigs of MP3s!), I’ll encode one of the funniest segments I recorded of a reporter in the middle of the storm.
