SETI@Home, the pioneering project that put personal computers to work in the search for extraterrestrial life, may shut down because of financial struggles.
The distributed-computing effort, begun in 1999, has attracted more than 5 million participants and spawned a number of imitators. But as the dot-com glory days ended and the novelty of grid computing wore off, corporate sponsorship for the project all but dried up. (VNUNet)
Supporters of SETI@Home — including Arthur C. Clarke, the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey — are hoping to scrounge up $750,000 by the end of the year to keep the project going. But some bloggers, like Silicon Valley Sleuth, say it might be time for SETI@Home to retire: With other grid-computing endeavors asking users to help simulate protein folding and search for a cure for AIDS, casting about for ET seems a bit less urgent.
8 Responses to SETI@Home Searches for Cash
historiann - March 15, 2012 at 10:42 am
Thanks for the vacation report! I hear that the whole Hemingway house & office now smells of cat pee, because (as you note) it’s overrun with “cotsies.” Any comments on the olfactory qualities of this historic home?
mcgowan - March 15, 2012 at 11:25 am
My need to visit Key West (years ago) was, like many Parrotheads, a desire to visit the Margaritaville Cafe and Caroline Street. However, it is Hemingway’s home that made a more lasting memory for me than anything else we did in Key West. I too noticed the “private” nature of the museum and the tour. I note that you did not mention the saltwater pool. Historiann, it has been a long time but I do not have an olfactory memory.
cpotter01 - March 15, 2012 at 11:51 am
They may have dealt with the cotsie pee issue: my Radical companion has a particularly keen nose for such things and did not pick up on it.
tolivier - March 15, 2012 at 8:15 pm
Tenured-Radical fans world wide want to know: You’re a fan of “Everything Ernest Hemingway”??? EVERYTHING?
Contingent Cassandra - March 15, 2012 at 8:24 pm
One of my students was headed to Key West for spring break, having “done” Ft Lauderdale last year, and wanting something “less touristy.” I decided not to react to the overheard conversation with another student about how easy or hard it is to use fake ids there. I hope she took in the Hemingway house in between bar-hopping.
cpotter01 - March 17, 2012 at 12:48 pm
Key West is pretty touristy: when we were in the lower Keys, a cruise ship (@5,000 people) docked every *day*. According to my sources, a lot of the businesses and bars that used to make it special have been replaced with tee shirt/souvenir shops. On Duval street we also saw a bunch of chain clothing stores and not much else. There’s also Jimmy Buffet’s “original” Margaritaville Bar — always beware places touting their “originality,” whether college campuses, pizza parlors or bars. If it’s really original, why would you need to say that?
edwoof - March 19, 2012 at 12:57 am
I personally take great comfort in the fact that the most obnoxious parts of Florida will disappear with only a few meters of rising sea-level due to global warming (see http://geology.com/sea-level-rise/florida.shtml) (You can play with sea-level– I suggest two meters for every letter in Bush v. Gore). In the not-too-far-off future, Florida will be able to make a geologically complementary retort to Scalia’s “get over it” by physically “being under it.”
physioprof - March 22, 2012 at 11:12 am
I visited the Hemingway house about 17 years ago, and it was just like you describe. Totally fucken cool!!