I've got a possible glitch report regarding the manual use of Primenet
which may be useful, and a couple of comments.
I run Prime95 on my main PC (PII 300) which has a dialup connection to
the Internet. Having been thus hooked on this project for a year, I
recently added a dedicated P166 (more coming). At this point the P166
has no Internet connection (and I don't have the time to set one up --
this is strictly a home based effort), so I grabbed an exponent using
the manual checkout of Primenet (my account is DHPope).
For some reason, though I entered the computer type and speed when I
checked out the exponent, my account page shows the CPU speed as 0 and
the Prime95 version as 16 (I'm running 19.2.1). Also (and probably as a
result of this) the time allotted to the LL test is 50 days, a bit less
than half the time the P166 actually needs.
With that as background, here are some questions:
1) Did I do something wrong, or is 0MHz and v16 assumed for all manual
checkouts? If so, should this be the case?
2) Though I've read the documentation, it's not clear to me whether my
manually checked out exponent will be put back into the pool at the end
of its "days to go" (about a week from now), or whether I have until
"days exp" (about 10 weeks).
3) Though my automated exponent (running on the PII 300) sends an update
every 28 days without fail, I can find no procedure by which I can
update the progress on the manual exponent (i.e., the date updated
column in my account report is always blank). Again, have I missed
something, or am I seeking a function that simply isn't there?
4) If there is no ability to manually send an update, I assume I need to
ask for an extension (I know there's a form for this). Must I do this
before "days to go" reaches 0, before "days exp", or at some other time?
Now for a couple of comments:
Manual Checkouts: Great! Without them, I wouldn't be able to
participate beyond my main PC (and others wouldn't be able to
participate at all). If there are enough of us, is it worthwhile to fix
the glitch (if it is a glitch) in (1) above? Or provide a way to send
updates (a la 3)?
CPU Speed: Sure, I know a P166 is a dog (at least for this kind of
work), but the price was right. And I (for one) don't mind waiting
10-12 weeks for an LL result. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that
P166s (and their ilk) can continue to contribute to the effort for a
couple of more years. Here's one man's vote that this be kept in mind
in future planning for Prime95 and the Mersenne Project.
Best regards,
Dennis Pope
_________________________________________________________________
Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm
Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
