On 26 Jul 99, at 17:12, David L. Nicol wrote:
> Are you In It For The Money currently?
No. Actually I stumbled across GIMPS by accident when I was looking
for "free" floating-point benchmark programs, though I did have a
long-standing latent interest in the topic. At that time the prize
was $1100, I can honestly say that this made no difference one way or
the other. I've never played our national lottery because I realize
that it's a long-term loser (betting on the gee-gees is _much_ more
effective as an "investment", but I don't do that, either). In fact,
participating in the project has cost me several thousand dollars in
terms of electricity bills and hardware upgrades that wouldn't have
been neccessary otherwise, but, hey, I've had fun participating!
>
> I've got an idea -- let's set up a fake seti@home client that runs
> a randomized seti@home graphical lookalike display but secretly connects
> to
> entropia for assignments -- Ha!
Not such a good idea. That is, at best, deception, at worst, "misuse
of electricity" (as the archaic law here has it). I want to encourage
volunteers so _they_ can have fun, too - foisting something onto
people without their consent deprives them of the joy of
participation.
> points one and six seem contradictory. I think we need LMJ to
> properly cope with the appearance of the EFF awards, and keep GIMPS
> a just-for-fun activity.
What's wrong here is a (well-meaning but apparently misguided)
attempt to "change the rules" within GIMPS. Also, advertising a prize
(awarded by someone else) but then indicating that you might get only
a fraction of that amount if you win is not really honest.
I'm sensitive and sympathetic to what George & Scott are aiming at,
but I'm coming round to the opinion that the best thing to do is to
go back to the position on the $50K EFF prize - let it be awarded to
the discoverer & trust that some filters back.
Regards
Brian Beesley
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