On 15 Jun 99, at 17:35, Carlos Gustavo Tamm de Araujo Moreira wrote:
> I am a little bit impatient about the divulgation of the value of the
> exponent of the (probably)recently found new Mersenne Prime.
I think all of us are at least a bit impatient ...
> According to Chris
> Caldwell's home-page,M37 was found on 1/27/98 and Slowinsky finished the
> double checking on 1/30/98.Since the exponent of the new prime is close to
> the double of the exponent 3021377,it is reasonable to expect that a double
> check could be done in not much more time than 4*3=12 days,say 2 weeks,so,if
> these considerations make sense we should expect to know the new exponent
> very soon.
David Slowinski ran the verification of 3021377 on a Cray, actually
it took only about 8 hours run time (that's a supercomputer for you)
but, like other users, he has to wait for time to become available.
I think that the verification job has also been sent to at least one
other user who can definitely finish the job in 4 weeks.
> Moreover,I am convinced that the main motivation of
> the great majority of GIMPS participants is the intelectual satisfaction of
> contributing somehow to human's knowledge.Money prizes are very positive
> iniciatives,but should not affect the transparence of the traditional
> information policy of such a nice project as GIMPS. According to these
> considerations,I consider that it doesn't make sense to keep the exponent in
> secret until publication on a paper review.
I sympathise deeply with this viewpoint, but, all the same, I don't
see that it makes any sense to risk a legal tangle over the prize
award, should the EFF decide that, in some way, GIMPS has broken the
rules (which _they_ are allowed to set - it's _their_ money) and that
the prize award is therefore withheld.
The original discoverer could have run straight to the press if
he/she really didn't want to claim the prize!
If I was George, I'd wait until the verification comes in, then get
in touch with the EFF people and ask for permission to make a public
announcement, pending publication of the paper. But I _would_ wait
until the verification comes in.
Regards
Brian Beesley
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