31st May 2002

WE HAVE A NEW TEAM NAME!!!!
We are now known as "SETI Synergy"!

Yep SETY Synergy, an entry from Elem103, was the winner!  We had 105 votes, and the final standings were was follows...

• 25 Votes - SETI Synergy

• 18 Votes - World Internet Seti Enthusiasts

• 17 Votes - International Collaboration Of SETI Crunchers

• 14 Votes - So Long, And Thanks For All The Signals

• 11 Votes - New SETI World Order

• 10 Votes - Flinders International Collaboration of Extraterrestrial Intelligence Seekers

• 10 Votes - Zain's Alien Intelligence Network

We are also getting a NEW URL soon.  It will be http://www.setisynergy.com!  I have already ordered it, now I just have to wait.  All it cost only $30AU to set up, plus another $8AU per month link it to my sisters existing www.skifalls.com so we still have FULL access to our great web host and have the space and cgi bin, email addresses etc.  Not bad at all really.

I will be changing the name OFFICIALLY at the Berkeley server later tonight.

I will keep you posted with an email when the new URL goes official!  For now head over to our NEW MENU DRIVEN SITE (see below) and have a look around.  DON'T forget the NEW AWESOME forum!

30th May 2002

JUST 1 days til a NEW team name!

Ooooooh Exciting.  The race is almost over, and soon everyone will know what our new team name will be.

ANY last minute votes have just over 24 hours to be emailed to me.  If you did not get the email (email over quota, wrong email address with SETI) and want to vote just write me a quick email to upto0018@flinders.edu.au and I will send the voting email to you.

Official News from SETI@Home site.

— May 27, 2002 —
SETI@home will be reaching a historic milestone of one million years of CPU time in a few days.

WOO WOO I made 1000 Work Units!  FINALLY
Zain Upton is our latest HALL of FAME member!

29th May 2002

Welcome to our Newest Member!
Member Name : Beast of War

More members let us know who invited them
** Tigrrr brings Beast of War to our team! **

Pumpkin-Peanut sends in their FIRST Gaussians!
New #22 in "PERSONAL BEST Gaussian" section
(other Gaussian sent in features in  "FREAK Gaussians!!!")

Fintuck sends in another PB Gaussian!
New #19 in "PERSONAL BEST Gaussian" section

Ralf Hoehner also sends in another PB Gaussian!
New #25 in "PERSONAL BEST Gaussian" section

27th May 2002

And the counting is under way!
Only 5 days til a new team name!

The count is WELL underway with over 60  members having already voted in the first 2 days since voting opened!  Again it is fairly close, but it seems like a race of 3 entries.  Which ones you ask? ... you have to wait!

If you did not get the email (email over quota, wrong email address with SETI) just write me a quick email to upto0018@flinders.edu.au and I will send you the voting email to reply to.

Welcome to our Newest Member!
Member Name : Dteky

BIG BIG BIG things in the plan!

There wont be TOO many updates this week, cause I am FRANTICALLY working on a BIG BIG BIG change to our web site.  I think everyone will LOVE it!  But keep sending in Gaussians, profiles, etc as I will store them and do one big update later in the week.

PS until this change comes through I have taken DOWN the forum board.  Part of the change will be a BRAND NEW, very very nice forum system.  (Thanks to Lawrence for reminding me to post that fact here)

24th May 2002

DING DING DING.
All votes are counted and the results are...

Well it was VERY close.  As it turns out it was a TIE for 5th, 6th and 7th!  The TOP 7 names voted on by our members (and 77 members voted) were (in RANDOM order):

• International Collaboration Of SETI Crunchers

• So Long, And Thanks For All The Signals

• SETI Synergy

• Flinders International Collaboration of Extraterrestrial Intelligence Seekers

• Zain's Alien Intelligence Network

• World Internet Seti Enthusiasts

• New SETI World Order

So now to the FINAL vote!  You will receive an email later tonight with these 7 names.  You can only chose ONE this time.  The name with the MOST votes at 5pm May 31st will be our NEW team name!

All I ask is one thing.  THINK about what you are voting for.  This name will be for ALL other SETI members to see, the name we tell to possible NEW members and hope it entices them to our team, it will be what DEFINES us.  There were 2 of the above that polled quite a bit ahead of the others... it will be interesting to see what happens now.  So please, just vote for what you think will work for us.

22nd May 2002

Official News from SETI@Home site.
An interesting article well worth a read.

— May 21, 2002 —
A new SETI@home article at the Planetary Society: A Question of Bandwidth.

Just ONE day left to get your votes in!

Votes have started to slow down, and just as well as voting for the TOP 5 names ends in just under 24 hrs.  It is really hotting up now, two seem like they will be in for sure, but the other 3 spots are still very very close.  Only time will tell.

IF you did not receive your email (some changed email addresses, some over Mb quota etc) just email me at upto0018@flinders.edu.au with the email address you want me to send out the details to.

Voting closes 5pm Friday 24th May Central Australian time, so make sure you get your votes in NOW!

21st May 2002

Official News from SETI@Home site.

— May 20, 2002 —
OUTAGE UPDATE: There will be several network outages on Wednesday, May 22nd. The first is at 12:30 GMT, and may last upward to two hours. The second is at 15:30 GMT, and may last up to an hour. There will be a final short outage later in the afternoon. We are upgrading our network connection and reorganizing the server closet during these outages, and both the data server and the web site will be unavailable at these times. We'll take pictures of the whole procedure.

— May 17, 2002 —
Today, May 17, 2002, is SETI@home's official three-year anniversary. All the credit for SETI@home's success and endurance belongs to our millions of dedicated users. We thank you and look forward to sharing our future with you.

— May 16, 2002 —
We're now re-splitting some older tapes for clients to process using up-to-date scientific algorithms.

Voting is UNDERWAY!

Over 60 members have replied to the email so far and voted towards stage 1 of our new team name.  Remember you can vote for up to 5 names, the top 5 will go through to the final round.  It is currently very close, with only 4 votes separating the top 10!

IF you did not receive your email (some changed email addresses, some over Mb quota etc) just email me at upto0018@flinders.edu.au with the email address you want me to send out the details to.

Voting closes 5pm Friday 24th May Central Australian time, so make sure you get your votes in EARLY!

~IceMan~ sends in a few more!
New #20 in "PERSONAL BEST Gaussian" section
(other sent in LUCKS OUT in the "BEST OVERALL Gaussian" section - see bottom)

Lagge sends in another Gaussian!
New #8 in "BEST OVERALL Gaussian" section
and New #19 in "BEST SCORE Gaussian" section!!!

Fintuck sends in another PB Gaussian!
New #23 in "PERSONAL BEST Gaussian" section

Check out all NEWLY sent in Member Profiles!!!
View the UPDATED profile for Lynn Ross

19th May 2002

The FINAL List of names.
Now we start to chose the best name!

The final list is below.  A big thankyou to all that have submitted names, we have some REALLY REALLY good ones.  Now for the tough part, narrowing it down to just 1 name that we will go by.

The way we are going to do it is as follows.  I have just send out an email to ALL members (at their current SETI email addresses) with a list of all the options.  What you as members have to do is chose just 5 of the names that you like the best and reply to that email.  I will tally up ALL the replies and the 5 with the most votes will go into the FINAL round.  IF you did not receive your email (some changed email addresses, some over Mb quota etc) just email me at upto0018@flinders.edu.au with the email address you want me to send out the details to.

When choosing a name for our team PLEASE think about who we are, what we are, if it suits us.  Yes it can be funny, or serious, or anything from the list.  This name is what EVERYONE else will see, the name new members will relate to us and maybe even make them want to join us.  I am sure everyone will put a lot of thought into it.

• The One and Only SETI Team [suggestion from Pekka]

• Hardcore Signal Seekers [suggestion from Pekka]

• New Explorers [suggestion from Alainus]

• Superly Aggravated Alien Munchers [suggestion from WillyWalloo]

• Alien Investigator's [suggestion from WillyWalloo]

• Global Online Network of Enthusiasts [suggestion from Tigrrr]

• Global Online ALliance [suggestion from Tigrrr]

• World Internet Seti Enthusiasts [suggestion from Tigrrr]

• Zain's Alien Intelligence Network [suggestion from Tigrrr]

• Flinders International Collaboration of Deep Space Explorers [suggestion from ~Iceman~]

• Flinders International Collaboration of Extraterrestrial Intelligence Seekers [suggestion from ~Iceman~]

• We Crunch Harder Than a Hungry Troll [suggestion from SigilScythe]

• International Collaboration Of SETI Crunchers [suggestion from SigilScythe]

• Our Team Name Is Cooler Than Yours [suggestion from SigilScythe]

• So Long, And Thanks For All The Signals [suggestion from SigilScythe]

• SETI Stole My Teddy Bear [suggestion from SigilScythe]

• SETI.echo.ET.echo.SETI [suggestion from Elem103]

• SETI Synergy [suggestion from Elem103]

• Terran SETI HQ [suggestion from Chardor]

• Universal SETI HQ [suggestion from Chardor]

• Flinders Universe Searcherz [suggestion from Bob Staples]

• Stella Specto [suggestion from Bob Staples]

• New SETI World Order [suggestion from Wyzzard]

• Terrans of Planet SETI (TOPS) [suggestion from Wyzzard]

• SETI Enthusiasts [suggestion from Zain]

• World SETI Hardcore Crunchers [suggestion from Zain]

PS a big thanks to SigilScythe, Tigrrr and ANYONE who sent in many more names. I only listed 2 for most people, so it was hard to chose at times (but for some who sent in SO MANY I listed more).  For people interested here are some that didn't make the list click here (opens in a new window)

17th May 2002

Welcome BACK to our Newest Member!
Member Name : WillyWalloo

More members let us know who invited them
** Earthling brings Fulazni to our team! **

Check out all NEWLY sent in Member Profiles!!!
View the NEW profile for Booster

15th May 2002

Stats - 339 Members,  209226 Work Units complete (from 337 Members,  204865 WUs - 8 days ago)

We are back on track.  The site is looking great, our name is working out and soon to be voted upon, and once we have a GREAT new URL (which I will buy) we can really start to make a move on the TOP 200 of ALL SETI teams.

I am sure I don't have to remind anyone of our AWESOME NEW HOURLY STATS.  Some didn't realise you can sort by MANY things (little box over in the top right) AND you can get predicted times to pass other members (click on the number link next to your name on the left).  (Extended HOURLY Member Stats)

Three new members since the last update.  A big welcome to Popas, Princa, Fulanzi!  And goodbye to WillyWalloo who is SO dedicated to his Macintosh computer he joined Team MacAddict.

Lets get those new members up.  Until we have a new stable name and bought a URL it is up to YOU (our wonderful members) to bring as many people you know as possible.  Friends family... bring them all!  SETI SETI SETI... Oi Oi Oi.

Member Milestones since last update:

Zain - Team founder and web page designer.
Why?  Dont ask me... I am just a web programmer.

13th May 2002

Welcome to our Newest Member!
Member Name : Fulanzi

Check out all NEWLY sent in Member Profiles!!!

View the NEW profile for Bob Staples
View the NEW profile for Popas

12th May 2002

Welcome to our Newest Member!
Member Name : Princa

More members let us know who invited them
** Popas brings Princa to our team! **

Check out all NEWLY sent in Member Profiles!!!

View the NEW profile for Goteki45
View the NEW profile for Ron Adhikari

11th May 2002

AMAZING NEW DETAILED Stats!
A big thankyou to IronBits and Jing Wee

I have been working on some CGI scripts in perl for the last week or so to try and get us some decent daily updated statistics.  After looking around a couple of the larger teams I was well underway when I decided out of the blue to write to both IronBits and Jing Wee.  They both have sites where stats are done for various teams, and I asked if they could set up one for us as well.  Both were very gracious and said yes within a few hours... so now we have some WONDERFUL stats for our team.

The two stats pages can be found at:

• http://www.dbestern.net/cgi-bin/seti-flinders/setistats.cgi

• http://www.setiatwork.com/cgi-bin/wkystat.pl?group=Flinders+University 

They are both very very good, and will now take over from our Extended weekly stats I have been doing for over a year.

Please visit IronBits's and Jing Wee's site and if you feel like it drop them a thankyou email.

• http://www.setiatwork.com - Jing Wee's site

• http://www.dbestern.net - IronBits's site

Welcome to our Newest Member!
Member Name : Popas
AND Popas goes straight into our HALL of FAME!

13th May 2002

Welcome to our Newest Member!
Member Name : Fulanzi

Check out all NEWLY sent in Member Profiles!!!

View the NEW profile for Bob Staples
View the NEW profile for Popas

12th May 2002

Welcome to our Newest Member!
Member Name : Princa

More members let us know who invited them
** Popas brings Princa to our team! **

Check out all NEWLY sent in Member Profiles!!!

View the NEW profile for Goteki45
View the NEW profile for Ron Adhikari

11th May 2002

AMAZING NEW DETAILED Stats!
A big thankyou to IronBits and Jing Wee

I have been working on some CGI scripts in perl for the last week or so to try and get us some decent daily updated statistics.  After looking around a couple of the larger teams I was well underway when I decided out of the blue to write to both IronBits and Jing Wee.  They both have sites where stats are done for various teams, and I asked if they could set up one for us as well.  Both were very gracious and said yes within a few hours... so now we have some WONDERFUL stats for our team.

The two stats pages can be found at:

• http://www.dbestern.net/cgi-bin/seti-flinders/setistats.cgi

• http://www.setiatwork.com/cgi-bin/wkystat.pl?group=Flinders+University 

They are both very very good, and will now take over from our Extended weekly stats I have been doing for over a year.

Please visit IronBits's and Jing Wee's site and if you feel like it drop them a thankyou email.

• http://www.setiatwork.com - Jing Wee's site

• http://www.dbestern.net - IronBits's site

Welcome to our Newest Member!
Member Name : Popas
AND Popas goes straight into our HALL of FAME!

10th May 2002

POLL RESULTS - Do we need a name change?

22 Votes - No - "Flinders University" should stay as the name
63 Votes - Yes - We need a new name (which will be decided later)

Well it is about 75% yes, 25% no.  With numbers like these I am more than happy to run with a name change.  Many people emailed me with opinions one way or the other, and you all had good points.  But I run this team for the team members, and I think it is time we had a change.  Flinders Uni, Flinders Uni Hall and a more complete history will appear as a page soonish after the name change is through, just so everyone can keep track of our development with time.

Well it is obvious what has to happen now...

Member submissions for a new team name!
Send them in to upto0018@flinders.edu.au

I have two "SETI Enthusiasts" or "World SETI Hardcore Crunchers", but I want about 10.  Anyone is welcome to send in up to 2 team names.  I will get a panel of people together (locally) and pick out the best 10 team names we think.  Then we will have a poll again to let the members decide.

Remember when thinking of a team name think of things that represent our team.  What we are about, what direction we are moving in, what may attract people to our team and what just sounds good.

So start sending them in.  I will be taking submissions until Next Friday (17th of May) when I will post the poll, but get them in early and I will post them here as we go for others to see.

Official News from SETI@Home site.

— May 9, 2002 —
OUTAGE ALERT. There will be 2 network outages in the next week for hardware upgrades. Each one will start at 13:00 GMT and should not last more than 1 hour. The first one is tomorrow, May 10, and the second one will be Thursday, May 16. Both the data server and the web site will be unavailable during these outages

— May 7, 2002 —
The 500 millionth SETI@home result was returned by Milada, who wins a T-shirt and the $500 prize offered by the Wichita State University team.

Two more  Member gets into our HALL of FAME!
Congratulations to "Robert Brändström" and "Zmadian".

Lagge sends in a CHART TOPPING Gaussian!
We haven't had a Gaussian this good in a LONG time.  Well done Lagge!
New #1 in "BEST SCORE Gaussian" section!!!
New #1 in "BEST FIT Gaussian" section!!!

Fenrus sends in a nice Gaussian!
New #15 in "BEST OVERALL Gaussian" section

Fintuck sends in a new PB Gaussian!
New #24 in "PERSONAL BEST Gaussian" section

~IceMan~ sends in a new PB Gaussian!
New #30 in "PERSONAL BEST Gaussian" section

7th May 2002

Official News from SETI@Home site.

We've released our latest newsletter (#14): The Signal Candidate Scoring System

Welcome to our Newest Member!
Member Name : BEAR

Don't Forget our POLL
Do we need a NAME CHANGE for our TEAM?
POLL will end Friday 10th of MAY

This is your chance to have your say.  Please just take 30 seconds to click on the form.  Good reasons to change are the lack of Flinders people, our world wide member base, a new era with a new web server, it is just that time.  Reasons not to change include we have been Flinders from the start, some people don't like change, and all the editing of web page listing in search engines etc.

If there is a overwhelming yes to change, then we will go through a process where ALL members can suggest a name, and we take a vote on it (with my final yes or no).  Personally I was thinking something like "SETI Enthusiasts" or "World SETI Hardcore Crunchers" etc, but that is for another day.

(Poll removed as results have been noted and acted upon)

Stats - 337 Members,  204865 Work Units complete (from 338 Members,  199914 WUs - 13 days ago)

Well, all is coming good after our hectic 2ish week of losing our web host.  3 members left, one to join a team in his home land of Portugal, and the other 2 cause they thought we were dead dead.  One has since joined back up, and hopefully the 2nd will now we have a stable web host.

Take sure to check our extensive weekly stats is the place to look to see how you compare to all our other members in many fields.  You may not have the most work units, but how do you rank in work unit time, biggest movers and shakers etc?  (updated 7th May)  (Extensive Weekly Stats)

One new member since the last update.  A big welcome to BEAR!

At this stage until we have decided on our team name issue and URL name, I wont be actively recruiting anyone.  So what we need EVERYONE to do is recruit people you know.  Friends, family, workmates!  The more the merrier.

Member Milestones since last update:

Zain - Team founder and web page designer.
"Space, the final frontier" - so what was the first frontier?

6th May 2002

Still working away on the web site. 

If you notice anything you think is a bit strange here on our site after our move can you please let me know at upto0018@flinders.edu.au  Hopefully I have fixed most things now, and today will start up the updates again.

4th May 2002

It feels like an eternity we have been down!
VR9 packed up without warning, but we are UP UP UP again.

Well dramatic times, and and before I say anything about it a BIG THANKYOU to everyone for their support.  I have had about 30 emails from dedicated members offering web space on personal servers, work servers, actually everywhere.  The response blew me away, it was so very nice of everyone.  After I sent the last email and checked my email 24hrs later, with all the responses I just sat and thought "Wow what great people".

In the end I have decided to go with something my very own sister has offered.  It does make it a bit easier as it is family, I don't feel I am imposing on anyone, and I can call her at anytime if things go wrong.  The address is a part of www.skifalls.com which is a little site about an apartment in the snow fields of Victoria Australia in a town called Falls Creek.  It is a site maintained by my sister, for my parents.  It is only new, but here to stay and actually payed for (so it wont disappear).

What is more I am thinking about two big things for our site in the immediate future.

1. Considering buying an URL address for our team - we are getting big and strong, have many dedicated members, and I think rather than have this address as permanent, I may look into getting our very own URL.  Sure it will cost me some money, but in the overall scheme of things I think it may be worth it.
   

2. I am thinking about changing our TEAM NAME.  We now have well over 320 members, most of which have nothing to do at all with Flinders University.  But with this decision I need your help.  There are good reasons to change, and good reasons not to.  So please fill out the voting poll below and we will see if the members want a change.  Lets face it, it is the members this team is for... so lets hear what the members want.

So the updates will start again.  Note all old email addresses with vr9.com in them wont work anymore, and I am in the process of working out some email pop accounts (once we think about issues 1 and 2 above).  So for now any correspondence send to my email address you all have (ie upto0018@flinders.edu.au)

Thanks for your patience and understanding in all this.  We did lose 2 members, but everyone else just slogged it out and kept crunching.

Cheers,
Zain.

PS Once I have edited the 120ish files for small changes for this web host I will get back to updating the weekly stats, Gaussians etc.  But feel free to start sending in stuff to my email address.

A Quick word about www.vr9.com 

Honestly I did expect MORE from them in the end.  Yes they were free, but during the last year they have been very very good, and quite reliable.  But to pack up shop and not tell ANYONE about it I think is rather rude.  It was about 10 days before anyone knew what was going on, no email warning to web hosts nothing.

The old addage is true "you get what you pay for", but do you really have to pay for a little bit of respect?