SETI and the Distributed Pickup

SETI@Home has announced a milestone in their distributed computing experiment: they are going to use the data that they’ve gathered together. They are going to look at the spots in the sky that people have helped to identify as likely alien hotbeds.

Very cool, and something of a breakthrough. Distributed computing is a piece of the future that has barely been scratched. Spamming is not the only way to make money with your computer’s idle time. Offering spare CPU cycles and hard drive space can be billable as well, similar to offering up a pickup truck for its services. Of course it can be volunteered for projects like SETI@Home as well, and a nifty thing about computers is that they’re pretty good schedulers, despite what payroll might say.

Way to go SETI, and good luck! I want to believe.