At 10:06 PM 1/26/03 -0500, Paul Missman wrote:
I never meant to suggest that people outside of GIMPS have no right to be doing testing. If someone scoops GIMPS to a prime (and it has happened), then c'est la vie. If someone just wants to test some numbers (even using Prime95) without using the cooperative Primenet data, and even report their results to George, that's fine. What I'm suggesting is that if someone decides to participate in GIMPS and use Primenet (including the databases and reports), then they should most definitely not be using those databases and reports to pick candidates for testing that have been assigned to other people. If they want the benefits of the cooperation, then they should respect the assignment process that produces those benefits.I know that this might be earth shattering news for you, but there is no such thing as "poaching".Neither GIMPS or Primenet have any license to these numbers, nor are they the only entities testing large numbers for primality. If my sister reads from her math book a method of testing large primes, knows nothing of Primenet or GIMPS, tests the numbers on her home computer, and finds a large prime, she is gonna publish it. She might choose to send any results to GIMPS, or not. She might double check it using GIMPS provided software, or not. But for sure nobody has any reason to prevent her from doing any of this. There simply is no real problem here that is begging for solution. Anyone is entitled to test any number they want for primality. GIMPS isn't the prime number police, nor would they have any right to be.
_________________________________________________________________________
Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm
Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
