Editing SETI@home (section)

==Challenges==

===Closure of Arecibo Observatory===

Until 2020, SETI@home procured its data from the [[Arecibo Observatory]] facility that was operated by the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center and administered by [[SRI International]].

The decreasing operating budget for the observatory has created a shortfall of funds which has not been made up from other sources such as private donors, [[NASA]], other foreign research institutions, nor private non-profit organizations such as SETI@home.

However, in the overall long-term views held by many involved with the SETI project, any usable radio telescope could take over from Arecibo (which completely collapsed in December 2020),<ref name="guardian collapsed">{{cite news|date=1 December 2020|title=Giant Arecibo radio telescope collapses in Puerto Rico|work=[[The Guardian]]|agency=[[Associated Press]]|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/01/arecibo-radio-telescope-collapses-puerto-rico|access-date=1 December 2020|archive-date=December 5, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201205135942/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/01/arecibo-radio-telescope-collapses-puerto-rico|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="APNews1Dec2020">{{cite news |last1=Coto |first1=Danica |title=Huge Puerto Rico radio telescope, already damaged, collapses |url=https://apnews.com/article/technology-arecibo-observatory-puerto-rico-science--0da6abb251f455977bf0c752348e712e |access-date=5 December 2020 |work=AP NEWS |date=1 December 2020 |archive-date=April 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210422013836/https://apnews.com/article/technology-arecibo-observatory-puerto-rico-science--0da6abb251f455977bf0c752348e712e |url-status=live }}</ref> as all the SETI systems are portable and relocatable.

===More restrictive computer use policies in businesses===
In one documented case, an individual was fired for explicitly importing and using the SETI@home software on computers used for the U.S. state of Ohio.<ref>{{cite web |date=October 9, 2004 |author=John Adams |url=http://www.oreillynet.com/databases/blog/2004/10/knock_down_then_kick.html |title=Knock Down, Then Kick – O'Reilly Databases |publisher=Oreillynet.com |access-date=17 May 2009 |archive-date=May 13, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130513035117/http://www.oreillynet.com/databases/blog/2004/10/knock_down_then_kick.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In another incident a school IT director resigned after his installation allegedly cost his school district $1&nbsp;million in removal costs; however, other reasons for this firing included lack of communication with his superiors, not installing [[firewall (computing)|firewall]] software and alleged theft of computer equipment,<ref>{{cite news |title=Higley firing tied to alien-search software |date=November 30, 2009 |newspaper=The Arizona Republic |url=http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/11/30/20091130searchforaliens1202.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100407055848/http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/11/30/20091130searchforaliens1202.html |archive-date=April 7, 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref> leading a [[ZDNet]] editor to comment that "the volunteer computing nonsense was simply the best and most obvious excuse the district had to terminate his contract [[Dismissal (employment)#Reasons|with cause]]".<ref>{{cite news |author=Christopher Dawson |url=http://www.zdnet.com/blog/education/admin-fired-for-incompetence-not-alien-search/3408 |title=Admin fired for incompetence, not alien search |work=ZDNet |date=December 2, 2009 |access-date=20 November 2013 |archive-date=May 11, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100511193644/http://www.zdnet.com/blog/education/admin-fired-for-incompetence-not-alien-search/3408 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

{{As of|2005|10|16}}, approximately one-third of the processing for the non-BOINC version of the software was performed on work or school based machines.<ref>{{cite web | author = SETI@home | year = 2005 | url = http://seticlassic.ssl.berkeley.edu/stats/venues.html | title = SETI@home computer venues | access-date = 12 June 2006 | archive-date = July 3, 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080703160840/http://seticlassic.ssl.berkeley.edu/stats/venues.html | url-status = live }}</ref> As many of these computers will give reduced privileges to ordinary users, it is possible that much of this has been done by [[network administrator]]s.

To some extent, this may be offset by [[Internet access#History|better connectivity to home machines]] and [[Moore's law|increasing performance]] of home computers,{{Citation needed|date=December 2007}} especially those with [[GPU]]s,<ref name="SETI_GPU">{{Cite web
 |url=http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=73935
 |title=SETI@home now supports Intel GPUs
 |date=January 29, 2014
 |access-date=February 19, 2015
 |archive-date=February 20, 2015
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150220063011/http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=73935
 |url-status=live
 }}</ref> which have also benefited other volunteer computing projects such as [[Folding@Home]].<ref>{{cite web
 | url = https://www.engadget.com/2006/09/29/stanford-university-tailors-folding-home-to-gpus/
 | title = Stanford University tailors Folding@home to GPUs
 | author = Darren Murph
 | date = September 29, 2006
 | access-date = February 19, 2015
 | archive-date = October 12, 2007
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071012000648/http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/29/stanford-university-tailors-folding-home-to-gpus/
 | url-status = live
 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web
 | url = http://graphics.stanford.edu/~mhouston/
 | title = Folding@Home – GPGPU
 | author = Mike Houston
 | access-date = February 19, 2015
 | archive-date = October 27, 2007
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071027130116/http://graphics.stanford.edu/~mhouston/
 | url-status = live
 }}</ref> The spread of [[mobile computing]] devices provides another large resource for volunteer computing. For example, in 2012, Piotr Luszczek (a former doctoral student of [[Jack Dongarra]]) presented results showing that an [[iPad 2]] matched the historical performance of a [[Cray-2]] (the fastest computer in the world in 1985) on an embedded [[LINPACK]] benchmark.<ref name="iPad2_Cray2">{{Cite web
 |url=https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTE4NjU
 |title=Apple iPad 2 As Fast As The Cray-2 Super Computer
 |first=Michael
 |last=Larabel
 |date=September 16, 2012
 |access-date=February 19, 2015
 |archive-date=February 20, 2015
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150220054659/http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTE4NjU
 |url-status=live
 }}</ref>

===Funding===
There is currently no government [[funding]] for SETI research, and private funding is always limited. Berkeley Space Science Lab has found ways of working with small budgets, and the project has received donations allowing it to go well beyond its original planned duration, but it still has to compete for limited funds with other SETI projects and other space sciences projects.

In a December 16, 2007 plea for donations, SETI@home stated its present modest state and urged donations of $476,000 needed for continuation into 2008.

===Unofficial clients===
A number of individuals and companies made unofficial changes to the distributed part of the software to try to produce faster results, but this compromised the integrity of all the results.<ref>{{cite journal | title = The SETI@Home Problem | journal = Crossroads |year = 2000 | first = David | last = Molnar | volume = 7 | issue = 1| url = http://oldwww.acm.org/crossroads/xrds7-1/september2000.html | archive-url = https://archive.today/20120715134754/http://oldwww.acm.org/crossroads/xrds7-1/september2000.html | archive-date = 15 July 2012 | access-date = 30 January 2011}}</ref> As a result, the software had to be updated to make it easier to detect such changes, and discover unreliable clients. BOINC will run on unofficial clients; however, clients that return different and therefore incorrect data are not allowed, so corrupting the result database is avoided. BOINC relies on cross-checking to validate data<ref>{{cite web |url=http://boinc.berkeley.edu/trac/wiki/SecurityIssues |title=SecurityIssues – BOINC – Trac |publisher=Boinc.berkeley.edu |access-date=17 May 2009 |archive-date=June 5, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605024001/http://boinc.berkeley.edu/trac/wiki/SecurityIssues |url-status=live }}</ref> but unreliable clients need to be identified, to avoid situations when two of these report the same invalid data and therefore corrupt the database. A very popular unofficial client (lunatic) allows users to take advantage of the special features provided by their processor(s) such as [[Streaming SIMD Extensions|SSE]], [[SSE2]], [[SSE3]], [[SSSE3]], [[SSE4]].1, and [[Advanced Vector Extensions|AVX]] to allow for faster processing.

===Hardware and database failures===
{{original research|date=February 2023|part=section|reason=The section appears to be original research elaboration upon the passing mention of "The sources of failure, both hardware and software,seemed limitless." in <ref name="acmanderson" />.}}
SETI@home is a test bed for further development not only of BOINC but of other hardware and software (database) technology. Under SETI@home processing loads, these experimental technologies can be more challenging than expected, as SETI databases do not have typical accounting and business data or relational structures. The non-traditional database uses often do incur greater processing overheads and risk of database corruption and outright database failure. Hardware, software and database failures can (and do) cause dips in project participation.

The project has had to shut down several times to change over to new databases capable of handling more massive datasets. Hardware failure has proven to be a substantial source of project shutdowns, as hardware failure is often coupled with database corruption.