Aaron
>Aren't large corporations fun? :-)
Oddly enough it's not just the large corporations. The company I used to
work for was tiny, and I suggested idle-time distributed computing tasks to
my supervisor, hoping he'd pick GIMPS. The next morning the Bovine RC5 code
was on every machine in the building (this was just before PrimeNet I seem
to remember), including systems my supervisor had no jurisdiction over.
Within a few days RC5 was cracked and the fuss started when the guy tried to
take the software off. Any chance of PrimeNet went out the window after
that.
I think the amount of bureaucracy in a company of size n is O(n), but with a
very large constant of proportionality...
>Any feedback on anything in the warrant, for those that read it? Is it
just
>me, or do they grossly misunderstand the purpose of GIMPS?
As I suggested to Luke last night, yes they do misunderstand the purpose of
GIMPS - thank heavens it's not a cable TV descrambling project etc etc.... -
BUT they do have a handle on its potential power. RC5 shook them up quite a
bit I think. I'm pretty sure that, should ever the need arise, the FBI and
the various other government agencies would have a use for 'the largest
supercomputer on earth'. Having read the warrant I don't seriously believe
any of the 'net ignorance demonstrated in it is genuine. Maybe this makes me
sound like a conspiracy theorist. Or maybe the guy just happened to have
been down Blockbuster the week before, rented 'Sneakers' or 'Mercury Rising'
and thought that had something to do with it all...
Chris Nash
Lexington KY
UNITED STATES
===============================================
Please note my e-mail address is now [EMAIL PROTECTED]
