On Sat, 13 Nov 2004 13:44:11 -0500, Frances Del Rio <fdr58@yahoo.com>
wrote:

ok, I downloaded it (not the command-line version.. I chickened
out..  ;)

so: I see a little green satellite-like icon on lower right hand-side of 
my screen...  when I click on it program starts running.. I don't see it 
start running on its own when I stop using computer (or is it always 
running and I only see it when I click that icon?)  I want it to run 
only when I'm not using computer..  thank you..  Frances

Frances, so appearently you downloaded the GUI version, which can also
display graphics (utterly useless and CPU consuming). You can set that
one to act as screensaver, so it kicks in only when your screensaver
kicks in, but you can also set it to "always crunching". 
Remember just 1 thing: this is a very decently programmed thing. It
takes all CPU it can GET, which doesn't mean it WILL eat all CPU there
is available (I wish a lot more s/w was programmed like that...).
So if you run any other apps and need more CPU for those, the
Seticlient will throttle back to 0 if necessary and halt until it can
get some CPU again. In other words: while you are working on the
puter, you won't notice it runs. This is especially true for the
command-line version, which doesn't need extra CPU to display its
graphics or even its window. The only thing it eats is some RAM,
usually around 15 megs or so, but I hardly think that's an issue these
days.
The cmd-line version is usable on its own, but using a shell for it
like Seti-driver is easier. So you can cache units, which might come
in handy when the Berkeley site is unreachable. Once set up decently
the whole process will be an unattended one, it starts when you fire
up your puter and it ends when you shut it down again. I put my bets
on that you soon enough will swap your GUI version for the cmd-line
one :-)

Happy crunching,

Louis