Mersenne Digest Friday, March 31 2000 Volume 01 : Number 713 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2000 01:28:21 -0500 From: Bruce A Metcalf <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Mersenne: GIMPS in Science News Sorry to be slow with this - I'm behind in my reading. GIMPS was mentioned favorably in an article in the 4 March 2000 issue of "Science News" under the title "Great Computations." It includes commentary on a variety of distributed computing projects, and in addition to GIMPS it mentions George's software, our recent prime discoveries, Scott's Entropia.com, and even some contrite advice from Aaron. The entire article is presently online at <http://www.sciencenews.org/20000304/bob1.asp>. Thought you'all might be interested in the coverage. Bruce A. Metcalf mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://myweb.magicnet.net/bmetcalf _________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2000 01:05:06 -0700 From: "Aaron Blosser" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: RE: Mersenne: GIMPS in Science News >Sorry to be slow with this - I'm behind in my reading. > >GIMPS was mentioned favorably in an article in the 4 March 2000 issue of >"Science News" under the title "Great Computations." It includes >commentary on a variety of distributed computing projects, and in addition >to GIMPS it mentions George's software, our recent prime discoveries, >Scott's Entropia.com, and even some contrite advice from Aaron. > >The entire article is presently online at ><http://www.sciencenews.org/20000304/bob1.asp>. Thought you'all might be >interested in the coverage. I actually meant to forward this info on a long time ago. :) Ivars actually wrote me a while back and asked me if I had any comments I'd want to include, so that's where my statements come from. I just can't stress enough the importance of asking permission. At my current job, I manage the SMS stuff for our huge network. Out of curiousity, I ran a query to see if anyone had prime95.exe or ntprime.exe. Nope...none. Then I did a search for [EMAIL PROTECTED] and found a bunch... Sigh... I wonder what I'd find if I did a search for the distributed.net client executables? Hmm... But, this just goes to show that in any company of a certain size, you will have people who install their own software onto their PC's. Well, my case was just a matter of degree, but still, the principle is the same: if the machine isn't yours, ask permission first. Aaron PS - the article was incorrect in stating that I was arrested...I was never actually arrested. :) Just wanted to clarify that. :) _________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2000 20:29:22 +1200 From: "Halliday, Ian" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Mersenne: GIMPS in Science News This brings to mind a question I have been considering for a while: Why should it be that the seti@home project has collected such a large number of downloads while gimps has only around 10,000. Is it that the search for prime numbers is perceived to be the domain of geeks while everybody is supposed to be excited about extra-terrestrial life? Or is it because of the underlying perception that mathematics is hard and boring? I've invited some of my real-life friends and colleagues to join gimps, but without success. Some of these people had downloaded the seti client and run it for a while but didn't seem to be impressed by its performance or results. I'm much more excited about gimps, and believe that I am much more likely to find a certain Mersenne prime than evidence about extra-terrestrial life (which would still only be a speculation even so). Humour me and visit http://www.geocities.com/intellectualsuicide/ Regards, Ian - -- Aaron Blosser wrote: > At my current job, I manage the SMS stuff for our huge network. Out of > curiousity, I ran a query to see if anyone had prime95.exe or ntprime.exe. > Nope...none. Then I did a search for [EMAIL PROTECTED] and found a bunch... _________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2000 05:13:51 -0800 (PST) From: James Escamilla <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Mersenne: GIMPS in Science News The main reason I�ve heard for people liking the Seti project is because the screen saver looks pretty. - --- "Halliday, Ian" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > This brings to mind a question I have been considering for a while: > Why > should it be that the seti@home project has collected such a large > number of downloads while gimps has only around 10,000. > Is it that the search for prime numbers is perceived to be the domain > of > geeks while everybody is supposed to be excited about > extra-terrestrial > life? > Or is it because of the underlying perception that mathematics is > hard > and boring? > I've invited some of my real-life friends and colleagues to join > gimps, > but without success. Some of these people had downloaded the seti > client > and run it for a while but didn't seem to be impressed by its > performance or results. > I'm much more excited about gimps, and believe that I am much more > likely to find a certain Mersenne prime than evidence about > extra-terrestrial life (which would still only be a speculation even > so). > > Humour me and visit http://www.geocities.com/intellectualsuicide/ > > Regards, > > Ian > -- > Aaron Blosser wrote: > > > At my current job, I manage the SMS stuff for our huge network. > Out of > > curiousity, I ran a query to see if anyone had prime95.exe or > ntprime.exe. > > Nope...none. Then I did a search for [EMAIL PROTECTED] and found a > bunch... > _________________________________________________________________ > Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm > Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com _________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2000 09:40:20 -0500 From: "Geoffrey Faivre-Malloy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: RE: Mersenne: GIMPS in Science News > The main reason I�ve heard for people liking the Seti project is > because the screen saver looks pretty. I've been thinking about this for about a month now and I really think it's time for Prime95 to get a facelift. Now, I was thinking just along the lines of having a better GUI. I.E. Have a percentage complete bar instead of showing that in text. Maybe a log window for those who want it. Things like that. However, for those who wanted something pretty, we could probably do that without using up a lot of CPU time. At the very least though, IMHO, Prime95 needs a facelift. Comments? G-Man P.S. George - do you use the same codebase for win31 or is Prime95 really meant only for 32 bit operating systems? What compiler do you use? _________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2000 10:27:24 -0800 From: Stefan Struiker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Mersenne: GIMPS in Science News TeamM: I will be more detailed later, once I collect and refine my thoughts, but at this point let me say that I think it is the group attracted to SETI, and the Area 51, uh, "enthusiasts," who need some work, not the MPrime interface. More to come, Regards, Stefanovic Geoffrey Faivre-Malloy wrote: > > The main reason I�ve heard for people liking the Seti project is > > because the screen saver looks pretty. > > I've been thinking about this for about a month now and I really think it's > time for Prime95 to get a facelift. Now, I was thinking just along the > lines of having a better GUI. I.E. Have a percentage complete bar instead > of showing that in text. Maybe a log window for those who want it. Things > like that. > > However, for those who wanted something pretty, we could probably do that > without using up a lot of CPU time. > > At the very least though, IMHO, Prime95 needs a facelift. Comments? > > G-Man > > P.S. George - do you use the same codebase for win31 or is Prime95 really > meant only for 32 bit operating systems? What compiler do you use? > > _________________________________________________________________ > Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm > Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers _________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2000 13:29:20 EST From: "Nathan Russell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Mersenne: GIMPS in Science News >From: "Halliday, Ian" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >To: Aaron Blosser <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >CC: "Mersenne@Base. Com" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Re: Mersenne: GIMPS in Science News >Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2000 20:29:22 +1200 > >This brings to mind a question I have been considering for a while: Why >should it be that the seti@home project has collected such a large >number of downloads while gimps has only around 10,000. >Is it that the search for prime numbers is perceived to be the domain of >geeks while everybody is supposed to be excited about extra-terrestrial >life? There are 38 Mersenne primes known, and almost certainly more unknown. We haven't found a single extraterrestrial life form. I would think that that alone would give some evidence of the chances involved. For that matter, every machine working on GIMPS contributes to the effort, whereas most SETI work is duplicated unnecessarily. I can name five Mersenne primes in decimal form offhand: 3, 7, 31, 127, 8191. I would like to challenge any SETI supporter to name even one lifeform that they (or any previous effort - all the ones I named were previous efforts) have found. I hope this doesn't start /another/ onlist flamewar... (sigh) >Or is it because of the underlying perception that mathematics is hard >and boring? >I've invited some of my real-life friends and colleagues to join gimps, >but without success. I wonder if telling them about the possibility of finding hardware errors would help. If we can each get all our friends to run one 5-30 day double-check each, it'll make a huge difference. Some of these people had downloaded the seti client >and run it for a while but didn't seem to be impressed by its >performance or results. >I'm much more excited about gimps, and believe that I am much more >likely to find a certain Mersenne prime than evidence about >extra-terrestrial life (which would still only be a speculation even >so). > >Humour me and visit http://www.geocities.com/intellectualsuicide/ > >Regards, > >Ian Regards, Nathan ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com _________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2000 13:37:40 EST From: "Nathan Russell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Mersenne: Quick question I wouldn't send this to the list, except that I think others may be interested. What are the thresholds after which Prime95 does an additional bit of factoring? Regards Nathan ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com _________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2000 14:27:09 -0500 From: Jeff Woods <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Mersenne: GIMPS in Science News At 01:29 PM 3/30/00 -0500, you wrote: Is it that the search for prime numbers is perceived to be the domain of >>geeks while everybody is supposed to be excited about extra-terrestrial >>life? The possibility of LGM is "sexy" in a pop-culture kind of way. Prime numbers are only "sexy" to a handful of people. How many movies can you name about LGM? Now, how many about prime numbers, other than "Contact" (which was also, in a way, about LGM)? _________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2000 12:29:35 -0700 From: "Aaron Blosser" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: RE: Mersenne: GIMPS in Science News >I hope this doesn't >start /another/ onlist flamewar... (sigh) I doubt that would happen on here...the people on this list are all a part of GIMPS, presumably. Well, except for the FBI and US WEST folks who monitor my posts. :) So I think it's safe to say that you're just preaching to the choir here. >I wonder if telling them about the possibility of finding hardware errors >would help. If we can each get all our friends to run one 5-30 day >double-check each, it'll make a huge difference. For what it's worth, one interesting side effect of me running the client on all those US WEST machines was that I found a few machines during my look at the logfiles of them that had failed with some bad hardware errors. I made notes of the machines that had problems like that and removed the client from them...I actually intended to open up service tickets on those machines, but the US WEST security folks got to me first. :( I mentioned the bad machines to them during my "interrogation", but they didn't seem too interested in that more benevolent aspect. >Some of these people had downloaded the seti client >>and run it for a while but didn't seem to be impressed by its >>performance or results. >>I'm much more excited about gimps, and believe that I am much more >>likely to find a certain Mersenne prime than evidence about >>extra-terrestrial life (which would still only be a speculation even >>so). Curiously, some of the SETI clients I found on our network here were older 1.x clients which, apparently, will not get any new work assignments. I'm sure these people just installed it on a whim and forgot about it... I don't know much at all about SETI@Home (I had to download the client and peek inside the CAB files just to see what the executable name of it was), so I may be wrong about that 1.x assumption...but that's what the readme seemed to say. And the whole thing about people faking work results on SETI...sigh...that's just so sad... I'm sure it's things like that which force them to send duplicate data sets to people. At least with GIMPS, we already do double-checks anyway, just as standard due diligence. And the "security" CRC or whatever that George puts into his compiled code for the results has been there for some time, correct? Well, I've said before that the odds of finding ET are very small, given the odds that any exist at all. But that point aside, I personally find it more stimulating to use my spare computer's time for a cause with more tangible results. Just my $0.02 worth. :) Aaron _________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2000 14:23:34 -0500 From: "Frank_A_L_I_N_Y" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Mersenne: GIMPS in Science News what aobut the fact that our tests will take longer and longer as the exponents get larger Frank - -----Original Message----- From: Stefan Struiker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: James Escamilla <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thursday, March 30, 2000 1:48 PM Subject: Re: Mersenne: GIMPS in Science News >TeamM: > >I will be more detailed later, once I collect and refine my thoughts, but at >this point let me say that I think it is the group attracted to SETI, and the >Area 51, uh, "enthusiasts," who need some work, not the MPrime interface. > >More to come, > >Regards, >Stefanovic > >Geoffrey Faivre-Malloy wrote: > >> > The main reason I�ve heard for people liking the Seti project is >> > because the screen saver looks pretty. >> >> I've been thinking about this for about a month now and I really think it's >> time for Prime95 to get a facelift. Now, I was thinking just along the >> lines of having a better GUI. I.E. Have a percentage complete bar instead >> of showing that in text. Maybe a log window for those who want it. Things >> like that. >> >> However, for those who wanted something pretty, we could probably do that >> without using up a lot of CPU time. >> >> At the very least though, IMHO, Prime95 needs a facelift. Comments? >> >> G-Man >> >> P.S. George - do you use the same codebase for win31 or is Prime95 really >> meant only for 32 bit operating systems? What compiler do you use? >> >> _________________________________________________________________ >> Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm >> Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers > >_________________________________________________________________ >Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm >Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers _________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2000 11:58:00 -0800 From: Stefan Struiker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Mersenne: GIMPS in Science News Our machines are getting faster, wider, better. Itanium! Williamette! On to victory! And someone is going to find that double-time code breakthrough to get us all there at twice the speed. Where is Alan Turing when we really need him?! Stefanovic Frank_A_L_I_N_Y wrote: > what aobut the fact that our tests will take longer and longer as the > exponents get larger > > Frank _________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2000 11:21:49 -0800 From: Stefan Struiker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Mersenne: GIMPS in Science News - --------------619F27607297FB36E87A5D6C Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Nathan Russell wrote: > all the ones I named were previous efforts) have found. I hope this doesn't > start /another/ onlist flamewar... (sigh) > > > >I'm much more excited about gimps, and believe that I am much more > >likely to find a certain Mersenne prime than evidence about > >extra-terrestrial life (which would still only be a speculation even > >so). Precisely. I hope a serious discussion, short of a "war," can be ignited, although perhaps GIMPS is not the proper forum. George and and the other pioneers and principals might weigh in on this. The "listening" SETI group, not the astro-physicist community searching for Earth-like planets, seems a bit lunatic fringe. Stefanovic - --------------619F27607297FB36E87A5D6C Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit <!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> <p>Nathan Russell wrote: <blockquote TYPE=CITE>all the ones I named were previous efforts) have found. I hope this doesn't <br>start /another/ onlist flamewar... (sigh) <br> <p>>I'm much more excited about gimps, and believe that I am much more <br>>likely to find a certain Mersenne prime than evidence about <br>>extra-terrestrial life (which would still only be a speculation even <br>>so).</blockquote> Precisely. I hope a serious discussion, short of a "war," can be ignited, <br>although perhaps GIMPS is not the proper forum. George and <br>and the other pioneers and principals might weigh in on this. The "listening" <br>SETI group, <i>not </i>the astro-physicist community searching for Earth-like planets, <br>seems a bit lunatic fringe. <p>Stefanovic</html> - --------------619F27607297FB36E87A5D6C-- _________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2000 21:48:53 EST From: "Nathan Russell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Mersenne: GIMPS in Science News >From: "Frank_A_L_I_N_Y" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: "Stefan Struiker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >CC: "James Escamilla" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Re: Mersenne: GIMPS in Science News >Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2000 14:23:34 -0500 > >what aobut the fact that our tests will take longer and longer as the >exponents get larger > >Frank I believe that Moore's Law will more than make up for that, unless huge numbers of machines start joining GIMPS. Regards, Nathan ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com _________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2000 02:14:23 -0500 (EST) From: Kevin Amorin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Mersenne: Java Hello, I have been playing with a Java implementation of LL and am hoping that something more complete has been done, including ECM and factoring. Thanks Kevin _________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2000 02:26:12 -0500 (EST) From: Lucas Wiman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Mersenne: GIMPS in Science News > Precisely. I hope a serious discussion, short of a "war," can be ignited, > although perhaps GIMPS is not the proper forum. George and > and the other pioneers and principals might weigh in on this. The "listening" > SETI group, not the astro-physicist community searching for Earth-like planets, > seems a bit lunatic fringe. I agree, the logistics of them sending a message to Earth and us recieving it seem, well, a bit out of this world. :) In this case they are not hurting us though. It may seem that they are, but my guess would be that the number of people that switched from GIMPS to SETI@Home is small. It's not like we would have a million people giving us their CPU power were it not for SETI. All in all, SETI is probably a benefit. Think of the number of articles about SETI@Home that also incidentally mention GIMPS (I can think of at least 2 in the last month alone...). This probably helps us recruit members. - -Lucas _________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2000 00:01:53 From: Bryon Buck <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Mersenne: GIMPS in Science News At 08:29 PM 03/30/2000 +1200, you wrote: >Is it that the search for prime numbers is perceived to be the domain of >geeks while everybody is supposed to be excited about extra-terrestrial >life? 1. To the average person, aliens are a lot "sexier" than prime numbers. Anyone can picture little green men from Mars, but it takes a special person to apprecite what a prime number is, and especially prime numbers of the magnitude we deal with. 2. SETI has had some high profile press. I can't remember when and where I first heard of the SETI screen saver project, but it was on a prominent web news site about two years ago. take care, - --buck - ------------------ Bryon Buck 6829-D Ramblewood Drive Fort Wayne, IN 46835 219-492-4231 ICQ: 4890668 _________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2000 14:45:22 +0100 From: Yvan Dutil <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Mersenne: GIMPS in Science News Well, I think the diffence of culture between the people of GIMPS and those of SETI@Home can be illustred simply by the comparaison of subject of discussion between this list and sci.astro.seti. This is the listing of recent subjects: SETI@home Online Newsletter 1 Cmd line ver 2.4 exe 2 problems width WINNT CLI 2.4 5 No more blinking icon 2 Exobiology and the Fermi paradox. 32 BeOS client question 6 Command line 2.4 is "Doing basline smoothing." all 5 !!!! HAVE FUN !!!! 2 Fight Gasoline Prices 119 ANN: SETI Spy 2.3.1 available 9 WINNT CLI 2.4 upgrade from WINNT CLI 2.0 32 Clarification on "strongest gaussians" 3 Win NT CLI version 2.4 still gets wrong percentage 3 SETI Monitor is ZDNet's pick of the day!!! 9 MicroSoft Case 7 Ye Olde data? 3 Scientists discover two new planets circling stars 1 anybody know how to set up a ramdisk? 5 Mac s@h clients 10 Software Flaw - WHO DO I TELL 5 Problems with server 1 A quick tip... 1 Problems with returning result (error -20;2) 1 2 cts about WU processing time 1 Missing switches in CLI S@H clients 1 This newsgroupe may not represent teh majority of users. maybe, alt.sci.seti would do better. Yvan Dutil _________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2000 20:06:24 -0000 From: "Brian J. Beesley" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Mersenne: Quick question On 30 Mar 00, at 13:37, Nathan Russell wrote: > What are the thresholds after which Prime95 does an additional bit of > factoring? >From the file common.h in the (publically available) source for v19: /* Factoring limits based on complex formulas given the speed of the */ /* factoring code vs. the speed of the Lucas-Lehmer code */ #define FAC72 71000000L #define FAC71 57020000L #define FAC70 44150000L #define FAC69 35100000L #define FAC68 28130000L #define FAC67 21590000L #define FAC66 17850000L #define FAC65 13380000L #define FAC64 8250000L #define FAC63 6515000L #define FAC62 5160000L #define FAC61 3960000L #define FAC60 2950000L #define FAC59 2360000L #define FAC58 1930000L #define FAC57 1480000L #define FAC56 1000000L The reason there is a bigger band than you'd expect for 64 bits (from 8.25 million to 13.38 million) is that there is a sharp efficiency drop when you go to 65 bits for reasons intimately bound with the word length of the CPU. Regards Brian Beesley _________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2000 20:06:24 -0000 From: "Brian J. Beesley" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Mersenne: GIMPS in Science News On 30 Mar 00, at 10:27, Stefan Struiker wrote: > I will be more detailed later, once I collect and refine my thoughts, but > at this point let me say that I think it is the group attracted to SETI, > and the Area 51, uh, "enthusiasts," who need some work, not the MPrime > interface. I tend to agree. However could I respectfully point out that those willing to trade a small percentage of CPU cycles for a pretty display could pretty easily build a "skin" to hide the Prime95 console window behind. Regards Brian Beesley _________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2000 15:18:49 EST From: "Nathan Russell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Mersenne: GIMPS in Science News >From: Bryon Buck <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: Re: Mersenne: GIMPS in Science News >Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2000 00:01:53 >1. To the average person, aliens are a lot "sexier" than prime numbers. >Anyone can picture little green men from Mars, but it takes a special >person to apprecite what a prime number is, and especially prime numbers of >the magnitude we deal with. I do wonder whether /any/ people can really appreciate the size of numbers with the magnitude of the Mersenne primes. Running down the list of known ones: (? signifies that I'm not sure how to represent the number) M(2) presents no problem M(3) is about the limit of how high a typical person can count by sight, i.e. without actually thinking in order of the names of numbers. M(5) is in the range of the highest numbers we count to in day-to-day life. M(7) is the highest Mersenne prime to which an average person has counted in their life M(13) approaches the number of letters it is possible to print visibly on one piece of paper, and is the highest that a person could theoretically count to in one sitting. M(17) is the number of people that could fit into a /very/ large open arena or stadium. M(19) would take the better part of a month to count to. M(31) exceeds the population of China, and is impossible to count to in a person's lifetime. It is comparable to the number of heartbeats in a lifetime, and compares favorably with the number of stars in the galaxy, and is about a third of the world population. M(61) is a decent approximation for the number of living cells on this planet. It is a realistic upper limit on the amount of data that the world will ever store. M(89) ? M(107) ? M(127) is slightly less than the number of grams in the sun. M(521) is far greater than the number of particles in our universe. M(607)? M(1279) ? M(2203) is comparable to the number of text documents the length of this email. M(2281) ? M(3217) ? >From here on I have no clue how to proceed. "The number of atoms in the universe to the power X" or "the number of possible N digit numbers" gives little impression of the size of the number. Regards, Nathan P.S. If anyone wants to take a shot at the others, I left the rest of the list of exponents in this email. 4253 9689 9941 11213 19937 21701 23209 44497 86243 110503 132049 216091 756839 859433 1257787 1398269 2976221 3021377 69725931 ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com _________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2000 14:31:25 -0700 From: "Aaron Blosser" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: RE: Mersenne: GIMPS in Science News >I do wonder whether /any/ people can really appreciate the size of numbers >with the magnitude of the Mersenne primes. Running down the list of known >ones: (? signifies that I'm not sure how to represent the number) I don't recall the details, but one nice example I heard to demonstrate large probabilities was: Imagine you have a little bulldozer (atomic sized of course :) (assume hydrogen atoms since they be the smallest) This little bulldozer is tasked with moving a universe sized # of atoms from one side of a universe width to the other. It can only move one atomic width each year while pushing each atom, and then must move one atomic width each year on the way back to pick up the next one. The number of years it would take to move those atoms is, as you might guess, the really big number being conceptualized. Now...what I don't recall off the top of my head are (a) what's the estimate for the number of atoms in the universe, (b) about what is the estimated radius of the universe (if it's spherical at all, which, by big bang standards, it should approximate), and (c) what's the width of a hydrogen atom. Perhaps if I'm feeling up to it, I'll find which book I read this example in. It probably doesn't bear mentioning that I read this stuff in a book on the odds of abiogenesis occurring. :) So just ignore that aspect. Probably in Behe's "Darwin's Black Box" or Sproul's "Not a Chance" Aaron _________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Apr 2000 15:06:28 +0800 From: "Dave Mullen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Mersenne: Factoring Depths This is a multi-part message in MIME format. - ------=_NextPart_000_000B_01BF9BEB.DB032720 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable I'd just like to get a clarification on some files I downloaded from the = Entropia FTP. Re the file of exponents, and how far they have been trial factored.=20 I extracted a range using the decomp program. Each exponent has a number = by the side, but I am unclear to what this number refers. Is it=20 a) The bitlength of the K value alone i.e. a bit length of 32 would = indicate all K values 1 to (2^32) have been tested ? or b) The bitlength of 2 x K x Exp + 1 as computed ? Just to save me repeating previously done work. Thanks Dave - ------=_NextPart_000_000B_01BF9BEB.DB032720 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META content=3D"text/html; charset=3Diso-8859-1" = http-equiv=3DContent-Type> <META content=3D"MSHTML 5.00.2614.3500" name=3DGENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=3D#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>I'd just like to get a clarification on = some files=20 I downloaded from the Entropia FTP.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>Re the file of exponents, and how far = they have=20 been trial factored. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>I extracted a range using the decomp = program. Each=20 exponent has a number by the side, but I am unclear to what this number=20 refers.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>Is it </FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>a) The bitlength of the K value alone = i.e. a bit=20 length of 32 would indicate all K values 1 to (2^32) have been tested=20 ?</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>or</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>b) The bitlength of 2 x K x Exp + 1 as = computed=20 ?</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>Just to save me repeating previously = done=20 work.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>Thanks</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>Dave</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML> - ------=_NextPart_000_000B_01BF9BEB.DB032720-- _________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers ------------------------------ End of Mersenne Digest V1 #713 ******************************
