On Wed, 12 Dec 2001, Aaron Blosser wrote:
> I think we settled on the term "poached" long ago.
>
> There's really nothing stopping anyone from working on any exponent they
> want. If they communicate with Primenet and it reports that an exponent
> is assigned to someone else, the software will remove that exponent from
> your worktodo list.
This is true, although I would hope that the PrimeNet server does not
"cooperate" in "poaching".
I know all about the expiration period and whatnot, and that someone who
was assigned an exponent previously might have it expire and then still
complete it. I noted in an earlier message that I'd gotten an expired
exponent for a doublecheck and wondered what would happen if we both
started checking in work on this exponent. Well, before my computer could
start work on it, the previous holder checked it in completed, and Prime95
removed it from my queue. So that part works.
But I'm still back to trying to figure out how to move an exponent from
one machine to another. Perhaps a little background is in order. I've
been talking with one of the math teachers at my daughter's school about
doing some work with distributed computing. I printed out some
documentation from some projects and took it in to him, including sample
pages from the PrimeNet status reports. He's considering working it in
after Christmas break, but he said the example work units the students
would work on would have to be short. I could set Prime95 up with a small
dummy exponent, but I'd rather see them working on something real (and so
they could see themselves on the PrimeNet reports), so I decided to try
capturing a small doublecheck exponent that was expiring that they could
polish off in a week. I planned to set my computer not to update while
their computer was masquerading as mine for the week. I know trying to
grab expiring exponents is hit or miss, but since they are recycled at 6am
GMT (10pm here), I figured I'd have a good shot at getting a few,
hopefully to get one that was truly abandoned.
I was following several candidates on the assignment report when one of
them changed accounts without having expired. It still had a few days to
go until expiry, and when it changed accounts, the original date assigned
remained the same, as well as the run time, so this was not an expired
exponent being reassigned. So I figured that there must be a way to give
an exponent from one machine to another (and even one account to
another) and have PrimeNet know about it and not squawk. That would
simplify things and allow the kids to run their own account with their
school's name or something.
This exponent is not an isolated example. I have a printout of the first
page of the Assigned Exponents report from Dec 7th. I compared it with
the Assigned Exponents report from a few minutes ago, and three exponents
off that first page have moved from their old accounts (three different
accounts) to this other person's account (same account for all three).
Their assignment dates have remained the same, and the run times were not
reset. I don't know if George manually moved these exponents, but I do
know at least one was being regularly updated every few days, and another
had over 3 weeks to go until expiring. If George didn't do it, then
there's got to be a way for me to move an exponent, by hook or by crook.
Mary Conner
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