Hi all,
At 02:33 PM 6/6/99 -0500, Amy and Shane Sanford wrote:
>My understanding of the purpose of rewards like the EFF is posting is to
>foster new and innovative ways to solve problems that almost seem
>impossible at the time.
Absolutely. Otherwise, why offer a prize for a billion digit prime.
Even though the Lucas-Lehmer test is virtually unchanged for the last
hundred years. As recently 6 years ago, Crandall and Fagin published
the details for doubling the speed of the test. Perhaps there are
more theoretical or algorithmic improvements to come. (Anyone on this
list working on that right now??)
>If asked 10 years ago who here would have thought
>we would be testing numbers as big as we have... George & Scott's vision...
Don't credit me with any great vision. I have repeatedly made boneheaded
statements like "Our goal is to test all exponents below 1.3 million by
the year 2000". Scott Kurowski and Luke Welsh have had much better vision.
Best regards,
George
P.S. On the trolling issue: Don't worry about me - I have a thick skin.
There is no reason to jump in to defend me. If you feel you must, please
try to handle it by private email in the future.
It has been a pleasure working with all the GIMPS participants. GIMPS
memebers are a very pleasant and intelligent group to work with.
P.P.S. And for Pete's sake, do NOT reply to this P.S. or P.P.S!!
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