RASC Calgary Centre - Are You BOINCing Yet?
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BOINC is the acronym for the Berkeley Open Interface for Network Computing. This new platform is designed to run not only the newest version of the classic SETI (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) distributed computing program but also the Einstein gravity wave analysis, protein folding calculation, and climate analysis, with new projects able to be added to BOINC as they are created and debugged. BOINC in my experience has been more stable and less intrusive than the old stand-alone SETI program. It does require that the same computer to which the dataset is sent be the one from which the result is returned. That means that each computer running BOINC must have internet access. The Einstein Gravity Wave search hopes to detect the gravity waves predicted by the General Theory of Relativity from pulsars using data generated by several gravity interferometers around the world. Of all the BOINC projects this one has the most astronomical significance, even more so than the pioneering distributed computing program, SETI. Einstein has a much greater chance of actually finding what it's looking for, though it lacks the "cool" of finding an actual ET intelligence out there. The RASC has teams in SETI as well as in Einstein, and of course to make a respectable showing vis-a-vis other teams we need as many contributing members as possible. So, come on and start BOINCing!
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