I used to run SETI@Home in the early days - when I wasn't doing as much programming and 3D work and didn't have several servers running.

Here's my take on it: There is almost definitely extraterrestrial life out there (past/present/future - however you want to consider time across the universe).  There is a good chance that some of it has evolved into a sentient lifeform that can do things like build technology (like us).  The question is how far away and at what time relative to ours (i.e.: in the past, present, or future). Since Drake's Equation is just a nice parlor game (you can fiddle with the variables to arrive at anything from 0 to a nearly infinite number of technological sentient civilizations in the universe) I would tend towards the lowest of numbers for concurrent (therefore discoverable) technological sentient civilizations - say 10 to 1000 in the entire universe right now (as it were).  When I say 'right now', of course I mean that their 'signals' would be reaching Earth at about this time in our history and not a hundred years ago or older  That isn't searching for a needle in a haystack.  That's searching for a particular atom in an ocean the size of Jupiter.  Did we discuss signal decay over such long distances (thousands/millions/billions of lightyears)?  Most distant stars only dribble a photon here and there over a period of time - and they aren't exactly quiet when it comes to energy release.

PhilC: LOL!

C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot. C++ makes it harder, but when you do, you blow your whole leg off.

 -- Bjarne Stroustrup

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