There are two points of view here. They seem to be more or less irreconcilable. This argument repeats on a regular basis.
I have to say that: (a) I agree completely that having an assignment "poached" is annoying to extremely offputting, especially for a relatively new user; (b) I don't see any harm in the occasional triple-check. In fact completing these assignments does give some information of limited statistical value relating to the error rate. Personally I feel it will never be possible to eliminate the problem entirely. After all, we're all volunteers; as such, firm application of discipline is not a realistic option. Probably the best way to rectify the situation is to make sure that when an unexpired assignment completion is notified by someone other than the person/team who owned the assignment; (a) PrimeNet credits the person/team who owned the assignment, rather than the person/team reporting completion; (b) in the case of a double-check assignment, or when a factor is reported, PrimeNet notifies the person/team who owned the assignment so that unneccessary waste of effort can be avoided. This is one way in which the email address associated with each user could usefully be employed - waiting for a routine check-in leaves effort being wasted in the interim. If (unlike Mary) you're running a _first_ test which appears to be "poached", the probable reason is that the person who had the assignment before you has reported their result after allowing it to expire. You are _not_ wasting time by completing the assignment as a double check run will eventually be required - _unless_ a factor has been found! As for Mary's current predicament, with that block of small exponents you have, my best suggestion is to reverse the order of the lines in worktodo.ini so that the _largest_ ones are done first. Intermediate checkins to PrimeNet will then cause unstarted assignments which are no longer neccessary to be automatically removed. Regards Brian Beesley _________________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
