On 12 Mar 2001, at 0:20, Alexander Kruppa wrote:
> > (1) Removing these assignments from PrimeNet and managing them
> > seperately. Anyone who is prepared to make special arrangements to
> > acquire these assignments is unlikely to default by reason of lack of
> > commitment.
>
> Someone is (or was?) doing something similar - David Campeau (sp?), aka
> diamonddave, who set up scripts to grab small exponents right after the
> Primenet servers recycle run and completed them in ascending order of
> size.
That was unofficial. I meant official, and I meant removing the
lagging exponents from PrimeNet so that they simply can't be grabbed
using this sort of technique.
In any case, the "lagging" LL assignments are now in the DC range.
The "diamonddave" technique simply wouldn't be effective.
> This doesn´t help with the exponents that are currently reserved with a
> expected run time of several years - but if the user abandons them, the
> server will recycle them 60 days after the last update from the user
> which doesn´t seem like an overly long delay for the project. If the
> users chooses to complete the exponent on a slow machine or on a machine
> that is not in use very often, then I don´t see why he shouldn´t be
> allowed to do so, delaying a milestone or not.
My suggestion wouldn't cope with that, either. Except by "officially"
pirating the assignment. I would argue that a competent individual
administering a relatively small amount of assignments manually
should be able to make the required judgements.
BTW I agree with Alex that milestones are not the be-all and end-all
of the project. I'm simply trying to find something that will satisfy
the "pushers" without upsetting those who are perfectly happy for a
run to take a long time. Providing, of course, completion does
eventually occur.
Regards
Brian Beesley
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