Seti@Home optimized science apps and information
Optimized Seti@Home apps => Discussion Forum => Topic started by: Simon on 08 Jan 2007, 10:44:09 pm
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Hi folks,
as you may know, SETI@Home is funded by donations only.
Right now, the project is in danger of running out of money! This means, no more Alien searching for you or me, lower chances of ETI's being discovered in our lifetimes, among others.
It also means that the hard work a lot of people have put into this project may be for nothing, after all, and I'd really hate to see that happen.
Now, here's how to help - if you can, donate to SETI@Home directly (http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/donate.php)! This only works if you have a Credit Card, however.
A lot of people have complained (me among them) about the lack of other donation options. Some have started to do something about it (like PopAndBob on his site (http://ca.geocities.com/popandbob/)).
I'm in contact with Eric Korpela, project scientist at SETI@Home. Together with him, I've discussed and come up with a plan how to offer some more donation options.
Namely, I've installed a PayPal Donation page on this site - look on the top left next to the logo. Eric (who is one of the few direct project employees) has full access to the PayPal account receiving the donations (it's a new one I made just for this purpose).
All funds donated to this PayPal account will go IN FULL to the SETI@Home project, that has to be clear from the start.
PayPal charges a transaction fee, this will be charged no matter what, and be the only deduction - also, it will already be deducted by the time the funds are credited to the account, so again, what comes in does go out in full.
I can only urge you all to donate - be it a dollar or be it more - every little bit counts!
Also, please make sure you fill in your SETI@Home account number for every donation - whether you want your green star or not - to make things easier for the project to process.
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All funds donated to this PayPal account will go IN FULL to the SETI@Home project. I want to part of it for myself or this site, that has to be clear from the start. It's also why I definitely wanted Eric Korpela to have access to this account.
Hi Simon, please do not take me wrong, I know how clear you want to express your intentions.
If you can, you should repair one late-night typo in your message (otherwise someone could understand thay you want to take part on the payed money). I suppose you "wanted no part of it"...
Peter
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Thanks Peter,
thanks for spotting that ugly typo! Could really be misconstrued...
Now all that's left over is for me to complete the nasty PayPal transaction infrastructure (custom PHP pages for entry/exit and data reproduction for the donor)...
Should be done within the next two days.
Regards,
Simon.
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Thank you Simon, I'll make a note about this to all, I am in contact with. :)
If you want, you can move my post from yesterday to this thread. I'll leave it up to you.
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Simon,
Sorry to be a literary critic, but I'd drop the "I want no part of this" statement entirely.
"100% of the proceeds goes to SETI" really says what you want to say, and when you give people more words, it seems that you simply give them more opportunity to misunderstand.
Short is better.
-- Ned
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You're probably right Ned, changed.
Regards,
Simon.
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Hi Simon,
Have you contact paypal to see if they can consider SETI as a non-profit organisation and charge no fee for the "donation", this can be a good publicity for them.
Jean
SolAirQuebec.
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Already donated :)
I even have the funky green star to prove it:
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/show_user.php?userid=18721
Adam
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Simon,
I appreciate the link being posted.I also was able to make my first donation today :)
Thanks,
BoB
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Any progress on the Paypal option?
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Simon,
There are a few threads in the S@H forums that that talk about additional ways to raise money for S@H. One of them was to use Google Adsense on an un-official page and all proceeds from the adds would go to S@H (more details here (http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=35308)) I was wondering if you would/had considered putting adds on your page to do the same. BOINC Synergy uses them on their page and they are not disruptive at all. (view here (http://www.boincsynergy.com/stats/index.php))
Just a thought.
-citroja
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Hi Simon,
I wait for the link for the PAYPAL donation, did you know when it will be ready?
Sol Air
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I tried to contribute, even with a minimal amount ($25; I am not at all a rich person), unfortunately without success using cc payment page located at https://egiving.berkeley.edu/egiving/mainform.asp
Maybe this is a problem. Even I know I have a cc - because I am from Romania - not accepted on some sites, I think, who know, if you fix that problem, some more money will go to the project from other people, too. There I suppose a cvv problem into merchant account it is.
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If you were to set up 2 paypal accounts, 1 for CC payments and the other for direct paypal (merchant and standard) you can reduce/eliminate the fee for paypal-to-paypal transactions.
Just a thought.
-citroja
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Sorry for the long wait guys.
I've been away on business and personal matters, so it took a little longer than intended.
Anyway, if you check the top left corner, you'll find a link to the PayPal donation page.
Please help SETI@Home with your donation!
Regards,
Simon.
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Well done! 8)
I've just got an idea. Could the SETI@Home PayPal donation portal (http://lunatics.at/index.php?page=seti_donate) show the amount of money donated so far through it? Maybe the nicely increasing value could also stimulate some folks to donation.
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Hi Simon,
i just tried to donate some money via the Seti@Home PayPal donation portal and had no luck. It is not accepting my banking account data. I do not have a credit card and i'm no PayPal member, but they have a "Richtlinie" that allows non members to make up to 10 transactions without being a member. Any hints?
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Pepo, that's going to be installed tomorrow (total donated amount). I'm too tired to code it today :)
Urs, not sure right now, I'll research this more tomorrow.
Regards,
Simon.
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Urs, not sure right now, I'll research this more tomorrow.
Thanks, i will try again tomorrow.
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I'm too tired to code it today :)
Simon, you probably wanted to say "tonight" ;D
Yes, highest bedtime :)
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Simon, I see you've got it. Nice it is.
Another question along with this, maybe you've agreed with Eric on some details - is any minimum amount (maybe during last 12 months) necessary to get the green star displayed? Or really "any amount is enough"?
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Pepo,
personally, I think any donation should be recognized.
Not sure how Berkeley sees it, but that's how I'll handle it (in effect, I'm passing on all donation infos in an automated way, how they dole out the stars is up to them).
Only thing is, PayPal charges on very small donations are pretty high, percentage-wise, so that's not so great, but something's always better than nothing, isn't it?
Regards,
Simon.
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Yes, sure, yes, ...
This way there is finally the chance that also a large amount of tiny-to-small donations can sum up to something really important.
And Berkeley can (later) decide, how to recognize (some number of) such small donations. Actually any star is secondary, yet probably motivating or satisfactory.
Peter
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And Berkeley can (later) decide, how to recognize (some number of) such small donations. Actually any star is secondary, yet probably motivating or satisfactory.
Sorry, Simon, I'm either blind or forgot (or both):
From Your Donations... (http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/user_donation.php) page:
...if you donated more than $10 in the last year an icon ((http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/star.gif)) will show up next to your user name...
This makes it clear.
Maybe the main SETI@home Donation page (http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/donate.php) should state the same once the PayPal section gets corrected.
Peter
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...
Only thing is, PayPal charges on very small donations are pretty high, percentage-wise, so that's not so great, but something's always better than nothing, isn't it?
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Hi Simon,
which size a donation must have to have the best relation in terms of donated money over PayPal fees?
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Hi Urs,
that's hard to say, but let me show you the actual fees for donations of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 USD (all amounts that have been donated already).
1 $
33 cents fee, 33% deduction
5 $
50 cents fee, 10% deduction
10 $
69 cents fee, 6.9% deduction
20 $
1.08 $ fee, 5.4% deduction
50 $
2.25 $ fee, 4.5% deduction
100 $
4.20 $ fee, 4.2% deduction
Personally, I'd say gifts under 10 USD have a bad fee ratio, but that's something you have to decide for yourself.
PayPal isn't all that cheap, but it's easy to use.
Regards,
Simon.
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1 $ ~= 0.78€ => 0.26€ fee + 0.52€ donation
33 cents fee, 33% deduction
5 $ ~= 3.88€ => 0.39€ fee + 3.49€ donation
50 cents fee, 10% deduction
10 $ ~= 7.76€ => 0.54€ fee + 7.22€ donation
69 cents fee, 6.9% deduction
20 $ ~= 15.51€ => 0.84€ fee + 14.67€ donation
1.08 $ fee, 5.4% deduction
50 $ ~= 38.76€ => 1.75€ fee + 37.01€ donation
2.25 $ fee, 4.5% deduction
100 $ ~= 77.52€ => 3.26€ fee + 74.26€ donation
4.20 $ fee, 4.2% deduction
...
Did some calculations based on 1€ ~= 1.29$ today, always rounding up. And your right, everyone has to decide themselves what fee one's donation is worth.
Wat'n heck meck. ;D
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Simon, You talked me into giving to Seti. I sure do appreciate all yours and your freinds hard work. Thanks.
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Thanks and you're welcome, too ;)
Simon.
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So anyone know how long a green star takes to show up then?
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I'm transferring donation data to SETI@Home once a week, so it may take about that long after you donate to show up.
Please be patient :) Donor data will be transferred more often than money, to save on charges.
HTH,
Simon.
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Thats ok then just couldn't seem to find anything with that info on
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My star showed up in an hour or two.
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hiamps,
you probably donated directly via SETI@Home's donation page, not the PayPal one here, right?
In any case, I just sent the first donation data over to SETI@Home. Eric Korpela said he will try to find time to process them tomorrow, so people who donated up to now should see their green stars appear.
One restriction - SETI@Home requires that you donate a total of 10 USD or more in the past 12 months so you get a green star. So smaller donations will still be counted, but may not receive one.
This isn't something I have any control over, it's in their policy. They require a minimum donation of 10 USD for this reason, I don't :)
Please look a few posts up for an estimate of how much PayPal charges for donations from 1 USD to 100 USD, respectively.
Regards,
Simon.
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At the risk of sounding ignorant (if not outright stupid), just what is the "SETI@Home Account Number" that the PayPal form asks for? Is this the same as my "Account Key"?
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At the risk of sounding ignorant (if not outright stupid), just what is the "SETI@Home Account Number" that the PayPal form asks for? Is this the same as my "Account Key"?
I would guess that this was the case... They need to identify who to give the star to somehow!
BoB
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At the risk of sounding ignorant (if not outright stupid), just what is the "SETI@Home Account Number" that the PayPal form asks for? Is this the same as my "Account Key"?
Isn´t that the one you can see when you login to Seti@home and look in "Your account" at the bottom part of the page under "Work done" for "Account number Used in URLs"?
Giving them your account key is like telling them your password (or worse actually as the account key can be used to login without having to know the e-mail address). Although I don´t think they´ll missuse it or anything but still telling someone your password isn´t very wise, you never know who else might be able to get access to it.
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Isn´t that the one you can see when you login to Seti@home and look in "Your account" at the bottom part of the page under "Work done" for "Account number Used in URLs"?
Yes it is that number but that isn't your account key (or password).
Look at any of the seti user stats pages and you can see everybodies account number, mine for example is 1178.
Don't worry, its the public number they want NOT your secret account key.
DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR ACCOUNT KEY
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Yes it is that number but that isn't your account key (or password).
Look at any of the seti user stats pages and you can see everybodies account number, mine for example is 1178.
Don't worry, its the public number they want NOT your secret account key.
DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR ACCOUNT KEY
That was the point I was trying to make, perhaps I should have expressed it a bit more clearly ::) Thanks for clearing it out, ajs :)
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Thanks, everyone. Believe it or not, I am an IT professional, which probably kept me from doing something dumb, at least.
If I may make a suggestion: Put a brief description of where one might find one's user ID on the PayPal page. As silly as this may seem to some folks that have memorized their own, or whatever, I can't be the only one who doesn't know his/her own ID number, and needs to look it up.
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Hi Lloyd,
I did put a short passage about where to find it and a link into the donation page itself - but maybe it needs to be emphasized better, I'll look into it.
Thanks for your feedback,
Simon.
<edit>
I've changed the paragraph to make things more obvious, and also inserted a statement explaining about account key or number.
Please enter your details into the form below - make sure you enter your S@H account number (you can find it on this page (http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/home.php) as "Account number (Used in URLs)" - of course, donations from people who don't have one are also accepted gladly!
To prevent any confusion: we do not need your account KEY (which is private and should NEVER be shared with anyone), but your public account NUMBER.
HTH.
</edit>
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Cool. Looks like it will work, even for people like me.
Clearly, I was walking around in the same haze I sometimes accuse my users as being in. :o
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Hi Simon,
why that: "Sie können diese PayPal-Zahlung nur per Banküberweisung abschließen."
Why is there no possibility to use the "Lastschriftverfahren"?
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Urs,
I'm not sure. PayPal isn't very forthcoming with information, either - the payment options are all they allow.
As far as I know, it works in some places and not in others (Lastschrift), depending on what contracts PayPal has locally.
HTH,
Simon.
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There's something else that's wacky with donations, though it only matters to me personally.
Every time a donation comes in, the daily page view counter resets to 0. I'm trying to investigate why that happens.
So you may see the page counter fluctuate a bit, just FYI.
Regards,
Simon.
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Might get my star at some point when Eric gets around to it :o ;D
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I've just noticed that the link to 43 Donations to S@H page (http://lunatics.at/index.php?page=seti_donate) is sometomes not correct - seems to be relative to the currently read subarea and looks then like:
http://lunatics.at/linux/index.php?page=seti_donate
http://lunatics.at/windows/index.php?page=seti_donate
http://lunatics.at/discussion-forum/index.php?page=seti_donate
These links are dead :(
Peter
P.S.: Actually it is true for all links in the Site Statistics/Downloads/Pages served/Donations rectangle (upper right part of each side).
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Oops,
thanks for noticing. I recently changed the site configuration to use "SEO-friendly" URLs, and forgot to edit the stats block to reflect these changes.
Just fixed it, was missing a few slashes ("/index.php?..." vs. "index.php?..."
<edit>
The "Online Users" block on the left also had this problem, fixed.
</edit>
Regards,
Simon.
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HI sorry I got I v.weird idea.
Was talking to some mates about Seti and them needing funding etc. and the topic of them selling souvenir like item to help make some revenue. I did say I think they already do a little of that but then we got onto the topic of GFX crunching and maybe even purpose built boards (like the FPGA stuff) and that then went on to the idea we came up with.
What if Seti where to build fairly cheap boards that they could code for that people can put in their machine to help crunch too. Could make (or have made) and sell them for a very slight profit towards the project and hopefully with a fairly quick bit of dedicated code for those boards can really help crunching?
Sorry if a silly Idea. I can imagine several ways its all completely infeasible but maybe is feasible for all I know? I know I'd probably get one if was something like under £80 or so. Maybe even other projects could also pitch in and also try to take advantage buthats something else.
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Thanks Peter,
thanks for spotting that ugly typo! Could really be misconstrued...