not new news, but an interesting article

[bbdd]

http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/security/story/0,2000024985,20269509,00.htm

 

[Digital Pimp]

hmm very interesting read....

at the beginning of the article the writer claims that SETI is a compeition.... all this time i thought it was a Science project...

Digital

 

[hallen]

SETI@Netherlands returned wu's could fit onto a single DVD and the results could be examined for instances of duplicates on a simple SQL PC. I can't see what's so sacred about the results that someone at Berkeley couldn't burn some teams results to settle any allegations of cheating. It's like drug testing in sports.

Harvey

 

[Digital Pimp]

oh but they are too 'busy'....someone needs to actually take a DAY and catch EVERYONE that cheats using the above method... sure people will be ****ed, but how can they complain? also S@H will have all VALID results. looks like a win/win to me...

Digital

 

[Morpheus]

I can't see what's so sacred about the results that someone at Berkeley couldn't burn some teams results to settle any allegations of cheating. It's like drug testing in sports.

Good point Harvey... I'd like to see some score "adjustments" too...

 

[kaillum]

especially when people set teams up like this with the sole intension of cheating...

http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/stats/team/team_154134.html

i mean, come on... their highest woo time is 2hrs 55mins.. whats the point??

 

[hallen]

Kallium- That's a bummer. Seti has been a great project and having it end in controversy is a shame.

That's the problem limited resources creates. Everyone knows about cheating but taking resources away from the science is a hard thing to do. From past experience, people will complain a lot but when the collection plate is passed they all disappear.

There was a cheater here at OCSeti.com and I believe that the account was canceled and all wu's removed. I hope that happens some more.

Still cheerfully crunching.

Harvey

 

[Mictlan]

Let this not hamper our crunching. In any kind of project (specially one as big as this) some rotten apples are due to try to spoil it for everyone.

Hopefully, with the new plataform this will be reduced greatly.

 

[Lorixnt2]

This one is newer anyway

http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/security/story/0,2000024985,20269613,00.htm

 

[Digital Pimp]

SETI@home director David Anderson announced SETI@home would do its best to investigate users returning suspiciously high amounts of work and delete their accounts if it uncovered solid evidence of cheating.

The announcement comes after over 800 of the project’s keenest contributors signed a petition demanding that SETI@home administrators act to curb the rorts.

...

When asked why SETI@home had decided to act on the problem now Anderson said that he just had found some "spare time" to work on it.

...

Anderson said last month that SETI@home’s project designers were in the midst of finalinsing a deal to secure new funding.

right... and just as he's looking for more funding he decides to "clean up" a bit, give me a break. this should have been done a LONG time ago.

Digital

 

[DeltaSierra]

Take a look at this thread from the SETI@home forum:

http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/bb/bb4/bboard.cgi?action=viewthread&num=1912

People are starting to see the results of cheaters being removed from the SETI@home stats. One person claims they've noticed a reduction of 3 million WUs overall because of cheaters being removed.