"Um Blair? Did you order another phone line for the loft?"

"Yep, needed it, man. We have to have the phone free, and we are online so much it just seemed practical to have the new PC hooked up on line all the time."

"R-r-right. Okay, Chief, the real reason."

"Jim, I paid for the installation. You said since I was moving up in the loft bedroom, this would be my office, right?"

"Right, babe, but another line?"

"Yes, with the new line I can get the modem running and it's already booted up and ......"

"Never mind, Chief, and did you sign up with that yeti thing?"

"Yeti?... oh, not yeti...SETI !! See here's all the info, S'Belle sent it to me from my Trek list."

SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence)

SETI has developed a plan to enlist at least 100,000 volunteers to help analyze radio telescope data with their own ordinary desktop (or even laptop) PCs. SETI is working on creating a program that volunteers could run on their home computer that would help analyze information gathered from radio telescopes. The program won't tie up the volunteers' computers; it will only work during moments when the computer is switched on but sitting idle. In fact, it's just the world's most sophisticated screen saver.

Like any other screen saver, it is designed to load automatically after the computer has been unused for a few minutes (as with all screen savers, the exact interval can be set by the user). It then begins processing a chunk of data from the world's largest radio telescope dish, the Arecibo observatory in Puerto Rico, downloaded earlier over the Internet. Each chunk of data will consist of 250 kilobytes, or a quarter of a megabyte, and the program itself will take up about 10 megabytes on the user's hard drive -- comparable to many application programs today, and less than most video games.

As the program crunches the data, the screen will show exactly what it's doing, with colored graphs showing the peaks of intensity as it scans through hundreds of radio frequency channels, looking for strong peaks of transmission that stand out from the background noise.

When the analysis of that data is complete -- typically, it should take a week or two of idle moments, but can vary considerably, depending on how long the computer is left on -- that chunk is sent back to a central computer at the University of California, Berkeley, where the project will be run. At the same time, a new packet of data is downloaded. All this happens automatically whenever the computer user logs onto the Internet and does not interfere with other activity.

The software, which will be sent free to volunteers, won't be ready until April, although a few copies will be sent out for testing in December.

Whoever finds that first confirmed signal will get credit. The data will be labeled with the finder's identity, and if a signal does prove to be real after weeks of follow-up, he or she will be notified.

YOU could become famous! Anyone with a home or office computer who wants to join the project can sign up online, or by calling the Planetary Society. To sign up online, or to get more information, connect to one of these sites:

http://www.planetary.org/

or

http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/

Let's all join and find our next new friends from another planet wouldn't that be a kick?

"So, you signed us up for this, didn't you?"

"Yep, but I do need the extra line, Jim, and so do you!"

"Okay, Chief, but next time, let me know first, all right?"

"Oh, yeah, sure, Jim. Tell you what: why don't I just do a little make up for that error in thought, hmmmmm???"

Smoooch, lick, zip, lick, nibble, suck...

Later....

"Oh, Chief! You are forgiven, babe!"

-end-