>On Wednesday 22 January 2003 22:50, Richard Woods wrote: >> Here's what I've just posted in the GIMPS Forum. >> >> - - - >> >> _IF_ PrimeNet has automatic time limits on assignments, ordinarily >> requiring no manual intervention to expire assignments or re-assign >> them, then why would any GIMPS participant, other than a system >> administrator or a would-be poacher, need to know someone else's: >> >> (a) current iteration, >> >> (b) days-to-go, >> >> (c) days-to-expire, or >> >> (d) last date-updated? >> >> If there's no non-poaching non-administrating user's need-to-know for >> those items, then just stop including them in public reports. Include >> them only in administrative reports and private password-requiring >> individual reports. >> >> That would deny target-selecting information to would-be poachers, >> right? > >Sure. So would eliminating the report altogether.
I'll add my 2 cents worth to this by saying what difference does it really make how detailed the reports are??? Any report, no matter how detailed, can be used for both good AND bad, just like anything else. When they split the atom, did anybody foresee it being used to drop the bomb??? When they discovered they could transplant organs, did anybody foresee people being murdered for black-market transplants??? My point is, if somebody is going to poach exponents, whether it's sanctioned or not, how detailed the report is, doesn't make a single bit of difference. Here is a very good example, having just looked at the Assigned Exponent Report. There are two exponents below 7 million out being double-checked. If somebody wants to have everything under 7 million checked sooner than later, and they know they can test both exponents in say 5 days, they are going to do it, no matter what. It doesn't matter whether the report looks like: 6715589 D* 64 5066752 60.9 14.2 74.2 14-Jan-03 22:02 24-Nov-02 20:49 crown bubak 6977699 D* 64 6750207 233.7 -27.2 22.8 17-Dec-02 13:16 05-Jun-02 02:23 guizuza guizuza OR looks like: 6715589 D* crown bubak 6977699 D* guizuza guizuza Why?? Because the poacher knows they can do both in 5 days! It doesn't matter whether the current assignee is on iteration 1 or 6715580, or has been assigned the exponent 1 day or 350 days. The poacher is going to do the exponents anyways. Besides that, if there is more than one poacher, they're taking a chance that somebody else hasn't already poached the exponent, and they are checking it for the 5th time. Again, it doesn't matter how detailed the report is. Personally, IMHO, I like to see all the details, just to get a general idea of how things are progressing. Maybe it's because it's math, math is all about numbers, and I like numbers. (you know, the more details, the more numbers there are!) If anything was changed in the reports, I would say I would like to see the reports accurately report factoring depth, but even George's files don't do that (because of the .5 adjustment used for P-1). If a exponent says it's been tested to 2^68, how do you know it's 2^68, or whether it's 2^67, with P-1 having been done as well??? But that is so minor of a thing, it's only a glancing thought. OK... I'll shut up now... and get back to more mersenne testing... Eric Hahn _________________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
