>From: Your Name <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: Mersenne: Manual Use of Primenet
>Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2000 22:56:48 -0500
>
>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.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the four primes we've found so far were
found on, from most recent:
-300 MHZ Aptiva
-200 MHZ Pentium
-100 MHZ Pentium
-90 MHZ Pentium Pro
Note that two of the winning machines were far slower yours, and the others
were not state-of-the-art at the time they won. As a new member of this
project, I realize that I may have little voice, but I do feel that it is
important to keep all computers capable of contributing doing so.
Nathan
>
>Best regards,
>Dennis Pope
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