Re: Mersenne: Dissed again
Let's not be _too_ eager to emulate SETIhome's popularity and user-friendliness -- http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/security/story/0,224985,20269509,00 .htm Cheats wreak havoc on SETIhome: participants SETIhome administrators are allegedly ignoring claims that the project is being sabotaged by miscreants who are threatening to derail its reputation and that of many valuable Internet-based distributed computing projects. Richard Woods _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
Re: Mersenne: Dissed again
Yeah, I noticed that one of their top 100 users has an average work unit time of less than 30 minutes. Compare that to the ~22 hours I'm getting for a PII 450Mhz, and the SGI team's average of over 6 hours even though they're running on just about the most powerful (and sadly, most expensive and least common) floating point architecture going, 64-bit MIPS. What the hell is this guy pretending to be running? I hope they're disregarding the results of his workunits (almost certainly not.) False data like this would represent dark patches in the sky wherever duplicate work units to this user overlap. Fortunately for SETI that's not terribly bad. For GIMPS it could mean loss of data that would never be found again for decades. Richard Woods wrote: Let's not be _too_ eager to emulate SETIhome's popularity and user-friendliness -- http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/security/story/0,224985,20269509,00 .htm Cheats wreak havoc on SETIhome: participants SETIhome administrators are allegedly ignoring claims that the project is being sabotaged by miscreants who are threatening to derail its reputation and that of many valuable Internet-based distributed computing projects. Richard Woods -- === Gareth Randall === _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
Re: Mersenne: Dissed again
At 12:14 AM 10/23/02 -0700, you wrote: I always get asked what is the purpose or use for such large prime numbers. Since I'm not a math geek, I don't know what to tell them. The stock answer is usually somewhat of a lie. Huge prime numbers are useful in cryptography and and encryption, and helps to make data more secure. This is because one of the common encryption methods is to create a key using two very large prime numbers multiplied together. To read the encrypted message one would need both of the original prime numbers. Without the ability to factor that product into the original prime numbers, the message is unreadable. The reason that this answe ris somewhat of a lie is that the prime numbers used in cryptography are usually NOT the largest prime numbers in the world at the time, nor too close to it. (It'd be easy to crack such keys if they were limited to the 1000 largest primes -- then you're down to a trial and error set of about a million combinations). _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
RE: Mersenne: Dissed again
The reason that this answe ris somewhat of a lie is that the prime numbers used in cryptography are usually NOT the largest prime numbers in the world at the time, nor too close to it. (It'd be easy to crack such keys if they were limited to the 1000 largest primes -- then you're down to a trial and error set of about a million combinations). Actually, it's about a thousand times easier than that if all you want to do is break a particular key. Use trial division by each of a thousand primes and see which gives no remainder. You get the other prime for free. Actually, it's even easier than that! The thousand largest primes are of disparate lengths. A table containing the lengths of the million possible combinations would be both small and easy to search. Look up the length of the key and you will usually know which two primes produced it and no division is required. Where two or more combinations give the same length of key, one single-precision multiplication of the leading few bits of the primes concerned will usually distinguish between them and no multiprecision arithmetic is required. Paul _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
Re: Mersenne: Dissed again
Del S. Brand wrote: I always get asked what is the purpose or use for such large prime numbers. Since I'm not a math geek, I don't know what to tell them. Any ideas? D.Brand Del S. Brand wrote: I always get asked what is the purpose or use for such large prime numbers. Since I'm not a math geek, I don't know what to tell them. Any ideas? D.Brand Its a universal defense mechanism, similar to the Egyption pyramids. When invaders wandered into Egypt, they saw these enormous squared-off mountains, clearly man made. Surely this society had s many guys and s much spare time on its hands as to do this, they better not mess with them. They turned south and invaded there instead. If we contact extra-terrestrials, we send them our enormous primes. They realize we have so many idle computer and brains, they better be nice to us. They turn south and go invade Venus instead. spike _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
Re: Mersenne: Dissed again
Here is something I intend to put up on the web shortly to address the problem of why gimps? Please feel free to use, plagerize, or rewrite this in the hopes that it brings in at least one new member to the project. Why donate your computer cycles to GIMPS? I could give you technical reasons for crunching for GIMPS, but I wont. Most people arent interested in them, though they exist and are quite persuasive. I find the psychological reasons far more compelling because, in the end, these are the reasons you will stay with the project. Tell me something I dont know. There is something very gratifying about knowing the actual outcome of your work unit. A GIMPS client returns very definite results. If you trial factor an exponent successfully, it will not only tell you so but give you the factor that it found. If you Lucas-Lehmer test an exponent, you will know that it is, or isnt, prime because it actually tells you. Results are forever. You can always refer back to them at any time. Twenty years down the road you will be able to state with certainty that you proved that suchand-such a Mersenne number was composite. This is not the case of most other distributed computing projects. You will never have a screen that pops up and tells you that you just found E.T. You will endlessly process work unit after work unit and never will you be able to distinguish between the first one and the ten-thousandth. Anthropomorphic personification. Crunching for distributed computing projects can be thrilling. Watching the number of work units you put out per day can make you excited about your throughput. The work pours in quickly and the results leave even faster. GIMPS is a different sort of project for it is slow and deliberate. The work units are so unlike most others projects that we dont even call them work units at all. We call them exponents or assignments because the term work unit isnt personal enough. With todays computers these exponents can take anywhere between two days to two months to complete. Running a Lucas-Lehmer test on a 33M (a Lucas-Lehmer exponent that is in the thirty-three million range or, when expanded, is a ten million digit number) is an intimate process. You will probably have to trial factor it. Then it passes into L1 factoring stage 1, on to L1 stage 2, and finally it spends weeks on the Lucas-Lehmer testing. All the while you watch it slowly mature. The exponent ceases to be a mathematical representation of an integer but instead takes on a life all its own. It is a life that you and your computer nourish with CPU cycles. Even though you know that only a tiny fraction of the Lucas-Lehmer test could possibly have been performed, you check on it several times a day just in case something goes wrong. You get to know it like a friend. You can recite it by number and you remember it long after the result of the test has been sent in to Prime Net. No other distributed computing project comes close to this level of emotional attachment for the cruncher. The time invested on each exponent is what makes GIMPS special. It teaches the user patience and perseverance. Devotion and loyalty soon follow. Its quiet... too quiet. Another unique aspect of GIMPS is that you can use the client program to search for prime numbers completely on your own. You do not have to go through the server to get your assignments, nor do you have to use the manual web pages. You can, at any time, test any exponent that you wish. The results will be reported to you in the normal fashion, at which point you simply test another one at your leisure. This allows you to do your own search, testing your own range of exponents, building up your own data sheet of results with no one else the wiser. You can be like the mathematicians of old, working in solitude, hoping to find that one number that will put them in the history books. Should you find a one, you will be accredited, along with the project programmer who after all did write the application. Alas, Horatio, I knew him well. The greatness of a distributed computing project isnt dependant on the kind of work it researches, but rather the quality of its client program. This is in turn influenced solely by the competence of the programmer behind it. Some distributed computing projects have client programs that are rarely updated, or worse still, that are rewritten by the users because the programmer himself is not talented enough to handle the job. GIMPS George Woltman is a singular man in this respect. Easily reachable by any and all who want to talk to him, he listens to the needs of his crunchers. He continually seeks to optimize the clients code, often rewriting it completely for every new instruction set that is released. If a bug is found then it is fixed. If you have a suggestion then he will listen. He just plain takes the time and effort. All of this is because he is passionate
Re: Mersenne: Dissed again
At 11:35 AM 10/23/02 -0400, you wrote: Crunching for distributed computing projects can be thrilling. Watching the number of work units you put out per day can make you excited about your throughput. The work pours in quickly and the results leave even faster. I want a computer JUST LIKE THAT. ;-) _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
Re: Mersenne: Dissed again
Well... spike66 wrote: Del S. Brand wrote: I always get asked what is the purpose or use for such large prime numbers. Since I'm not a math geek, I don't know what to tell them. Any ideas? D.Brand Del S. Brand wrote: I always get asked what is the purpose or use for such large prime numbers. Since I'm not a math geek, I don't know what to tell them. Any ideas? D.Brand Its a universal defense mechanism, similar to the Egyption pyramids. When invaders wandered into Egypt, they saw these enormous squared-off mountains, clearly man made. Surely this society had s many guys and s much spare time on its hands as to do this, they better not mess with them. They turned south and invaded there instead. If we contact extra-terrestrials, we send them our enormous primes. They realize we have so many idle computer and brains, they better be nice to us. They turn south and go invade Venus instead. spike Maybe they just give us the next 75 Mersenne numbers, and tell us to clear that piece of real estate they plan to settle. _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers -- Herman DE WAEL Antwerpen Belgium http://users.skynet.be/hermandw/index.html _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
Re: Mersenne: Dissed again
- Original Message - From: E. Weddington [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2002 8:19 PM Subject: Re: Mersenne: Dissed again On 22 Oct 2002 at 14:40, Jeff Woods wrote: Either they were really great activists in signing people up, or GIMPS has SOMETHING about it that won't get people to participate. We either need to step up our profile, be more active at recruiting, or do SOMETHING to get us off the static bubble we've been on, at about 18,000 members, 31,000 computers, and falling. Our output goes up ONLY because most of our members upgrade as CPUs get better and cheaper. GIMPS's problems are:- 1. Very long work units. People - especially newbies - want to see results fast. They don't want to have to wait a week before they find themselves on the chart. 2. No obvious benefit to mankind. 3. 'Unsexy' subject matter. What do you have in mind, a volunteer marketing effort? 'Volunteer' goes without saying. Certainly we need a marketing effort. Does anyone have any ideas? Eric Daran _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
Re: Mersenne: Dissed again
- Original Message - From: E. Weddington [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2002 4:09 PM Subject: Mersenne: Dissed again Folding@Home's success: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/10/021022070813.htm Again, they mention SETI@home. As if that were the only other distributed project out there. *sigh* Indeed they're not. And neither are we. Once upon a time GIMPS was the only show in town, so it got all the kudos. Now there are dozens of distributed computing projects. We're going to have to come to terms with the fact that the the world doesn't 'owe' us a mention. Eric Weddington Daran G. _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
Re: Mersenne: Dissed again
On Tuesday 22 October 2002 16:31, you wrote: Yeah, well, we don't have a super cool Trojan horse program that can update itself (and crash machines) like these other ones, and we're not out there looking for ET or saving cancer boy or anything... just a bunch of geeks looking for big numbers. :) (tongue planted firmly in cheek here). And we tend to run in the background, all the time, instead of wasting cycles waiting for a screen saver to kick in, then wasting even more cycles drawing pretty graphics :-P Probably we would get more participants if we had a screen saver version. This has been mentioned many times before. And, _are_ we just looking for big numbers? There are software applications for improved algorithms implementations of algorithms developed for this project; there are engineering spinoffs - a couple of years ago, the problem was how to keep GHz+ CPUs cool enough to be reliable, now the problem is how to make systems quiet enough to live with as well; there are cryptological spinoffs, not withstanding the obvious point that knowledge of a few very large primes is not in itself useful ... for instance, has anyone considered using the sequence of residuals from a L-L test as a practical one-time pad? The problem with one-time pads is distributing the data - but you can effectively transmit a long sequence of residuals by specifying only the exponent and the start iteration, which can be transmitted securely using only a tiny fraction of your old one-time pad data ... OK, this is pretty geekish stuff, but so what? Regards Brian Beesley _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
Re: Mersenne: Dissed again
On 23 Oct 2002 at 19:42, Daran wrote: - Original Message - From: E. Weddington [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2002 4:09 PM Subject: Mersenne: Dissed again Folding@Home's success: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/10/021022070813.htm Again, they mention SETI@home. As if that were the only other distributed project out there. *sigh* Indeed they're not. And neither are we. Once upon a time GIMPS was the only show in town, so it got all the kudos. Now there are dozens of distributed computing projects. We're going to have to come to terms with the fact that the the world doesn't 'owe' us a mention. The point is, whenever another distributed project is mentioned, seti@home invariably gets a mention. When a distributed project shows any kind of success, seti@home gets a mention. It's not about anybody 'oweing' us a mention. It's about marketing and spin. Why should seti@home get a mention in just about every journal piece that get's written about distributed computing? Especially since GIMPS is probably *the* most successful distributed project around. It's about changing the mindset of people to when they think distributed project, they don't think chasing aliens, they instead think of GIMPS, because it's the most successful, best executed, distributed project. This is about behavioral psychology! It's like when Richard Stallman keeps harping that it's GNU/Linux not *just* Linux. It's about executing a #define distributed_computing GIMPS in the wetware of technical writers. /rant Eric _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
Re: Mersenne: Dissed again
May that those who are better qualified to correct my assumptions, but here's my take... I look at GIMPS' finding of large primes as an avenue of advancingthe concept of a Unified Theory for Mathematics - much like that whichyou hear aboutin Physics. Number Theory. Facinating field of study. Many seemingly unrelated ideas show interconnectedness. Example; take the series 1/(n-squared) where n goes from 1 to infinity; sum all the terms together and you get the value (pi-squared)/6. How does the summation of the inverse of all squares relate to the ratio of a circle'scircumferenceto its diameter?! How about another value that shows up all the time? - e the logarithmic constant. The distribution of primes across the natural number linehas a logarithmic form. So we have a way of closely estimating the nth prime P[n} but "close" just doesn't cut it does it? The fact is, as simple the concept of a prime is, we cannot say what the nth prime is. Nor can we sayifP[n] is prime, what is P[n+1]? We know there are twin primes, but we don't know if there are an endless number of them. We know there are Mersenne primes, but we don't know if thereare an endless number of them either. The way I see it. If we can find rhyme or reason to the exactnature of Mersenne primes (hopefully acquiring more data points will spur a new line of thought), that may help with the nature of primes in general. And that will undoubtedly have an impact across many current Number Theory dilemmas.Results from that would quite possibly become theglue to a Unified Theory. If you can't find the answer to a whole problem, break it down and try solving some of the pieces. If you solve a piece of the problem, the larger problem becomes easier. That's the way I think of GIMPS. aka DigitalConcepts www.teamprimerib.com - Original Message - From: Del S. Brand To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, October 23, 2002 3:14 AM Subject: Re: Mersenne: Dissed again I always get asked what is the purpose or use for such large prime numbers. Since I'm not a math geek, I don't know what to tell them. Any ideas? D.Brand
Re: Mersenne: Dissed again
In a message dated 10/23/2002 3:05:28 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: 'Volunteer' goes without saying. Certainly we need a marketing effort. Does anyone have any ideas? What about a campaign directed at schools? Alex
Re: Mersenne: Dissed again
I would be in favor of a screen saver version as long as it can: a) run in the non-screen saver background (as it currently does) b) have the screen saver option disabled c) have same pretty screen accessible via menu for us geeks to check periodically So us geeks can run it faster and mainstream users can watch pretty colors. - Original Message - From: Brian J. Beesley To: Aaron Blosser Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, October 23, 2002 2:39 PM Subject: Re: Mersenne: Dissed again On Tuesday 22 October 2002 16:31, you wrote: And we tend to run in the background, all the time, instead of wasting cycles waiting for a screen saver to kick in, then wasting even more cycles drawing "pretty" graphics :-PProbably we would get more participants if we had a screen saver version. This has been mentioned many times before.
Re: Mersenne: Dissed again
Great! great!! We could set a contest, where people should give answers in the spirit of this answer by Spike, to the question: What is the use of large primes? Best answers will win the 'Prize of the Great Expert Primus', or something, etc. I am usually quoting with care, but this time I'll copy the message again, so that you can enjoy it again. Del S. Brand wrote: I always get asked what is the purpose or use for such large prime numbers. Since I'm not a math geek, I don't know what to tell them. Any ideas? D.Brand Its a universal defense mechanism, similar to the Egyption pyramids. When invaders wandered into Egypt, they saw these enormous squared-off mountains, clearly man made. Surely this society had s many guys and s much spare time on its hands as to do this, they better not mess with them. They turned south and invaded there instead. If we contact extra-terrestrials, we send them our enormous primes. They realize we have so many idle computer and brains, they better be nice to us. They turn south and go invade Venus instead. spike Lampros F. Kallenos ...EKANAN OISTRO THS ZWHS Idalion, LefkosiaTO FOBO TOU QANATOU Kypros -- _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
Re: Mersenne: Dissed again
At 05:22 PM 10/23/02 -0400, C. Garrison wrote: I look at GIMPS' finding of large primes as an avenue of advancing the concept of a Unified Theory for Mathematics - much like that which you hear about in Physics. Should everything that one does in life have to have a noble higher purpose? I stay in GIMPS because crunching on gigantic numbers has fascinated me ever since I discovered the subject in college, and I love it. The explanation stops there; I don't care if someone else believes I can do something more altruistic or worthy. I will never apologize for or qualify that which I love doing. Two more data points: The science editor of the Washington Post once lectured to the physics dept. at the U of MD College Park one day. In his opinion, the folks who tried (and failed) to get funding for the superconducting supercollider did it all wrong. They tried to emphasize all the good and useful technologies that would eventually come out of the project. Instead, he thought they just should have said we need this thing to discover the secrets of the universe. Finally, when asked what possible use the newly discovered electromagnetic field could have, van Oersted reportedly answered Madam, of what use is a newborn child? jasonp _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
Re: Mersenne: Dissed again
Daidalos wrote: Great! great!! We could set a contest, where people should give answers in the spirit of this answer by Spike, to the question: What is the use of large primes? Are we allowed more than one entry? spike _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
RE: Mersenne: Dissed again
We could set a contest, where people should give answers in the spirit of this answer by Spike, to the question: What is the use of large primes? My entry: To piss off phone companies. :-D Do I win? _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
Re: Mersenne: Dissed again
Sorry, guys, but the problem is well known and well discussed here and it is this: looking for extra-terrestrial life is sexy searching for cures to diseases is sexy looking for enormous primes is geeky These are not my views, but the ones held by the public at large. So I fear that GIMPS will always remain the province of the few, although those who do join will probably stay for longer and be committed to what they are doing. I've been here for six years and I'm sure there are plenty of us who intend to stay here. We have had success here four times; if SETI has had any success, I haven't heard about it. Regards, Ian E. Weddington wrote: FoldingHome's success: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/10/021022070813.htm Again, they mention SETIhome. As if that were the only other distributed project out there. *sigh* -- Ian W Halliday, BA Hons, AAIBF Snr, ATMS, CL +64 27 245 6089 (GMT+13) http://baptism.co.nz ; http://ringbark.livejournal.com -- Word documents not accepted -- see http://baptism.co.nz/word.html _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
Re: Mersenne: Dissed again
I always get asked what is the purpose or use for such large prime numbers. Since I'm not a math geek, I don't know what to tell them. Any ideas? D.Brand
RE: Mersenne: Dissed again
Yeah, well, we don't have a super cool Trojan horse program that can update itself (and crash machines) like these other ones, and we're not out there looking for ET or saving cancer boy or anything... just a bunch of geeks looking for big numbers. :) (tongue planted firmly in cheek here). Actually I don't really know... do the folding@home and seti@home projects use self-updating code? When they phone home, can they update themselves like spyware (thinking about Hotbar and the like)? To be honest, I thought that would be a neat option (note the use of the word option) to have your Prime95 check itself with something on the primenet server that shows the latest version... if there's a newer version available, a little box with a clickable link to the ftp site to download the new version. But certainly not automatic (or if there was an auto-update, have that NOT be the default), and also have a setting to turn that off entirely (for people who run it on unattended machines like servers, etc). Pretty much like the way the new Windows Update works... has full auto mode, download and prompt to install, notify only, or totally turned off. :) Aaron -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:mersenne-invalid- [EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of E. Weddington Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2002 8:09 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Mersenne: Dissed again Folding@Home's success: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/10/021022070813.htm Again, they mention SETI@home. As if that were the only other distributed project out there. *sigh* Eric Weddington _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
RE: Mersenne: Dissed again
Why not write a perfect program so you don't need updates :-P *** REPLY SEPARATOR *** On 22-10-2002 at 9:31 Aaron Blosser wrote: Yeah, well, we don't have a super cool Trojan horse program that can update itself (and crash machines) like these other ones, and we're not out there looking for ET or saving cancer boy or anything... just a bunch of geeks looking for big numbers. :) (tongue planted firmly in cheek here). Actually I don't really know... do the folding@home and seti@home projects use self-updating code? When they phone home, can they update themselves like spyware (thinking about Hotbar and the like)? To be honest, I thought that would be a neat option (note the use of the word option) to have your Prime95 check itself with something on the primenet server that shows the latest version... if there's a newer version available, a little box with a clickable link to the ftp site to download the new version. But certainly not automatic (or if there was an auto-update, have that NOT be the default), and also have a setting to turn that off entirely (for people who run it on unattended machines like servers, etc). Pretty much like the way the new Windows Update works... has full auto mode, download and prompt to install, notify only, or totally turned off. :) Aaron -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:mersenne-invalid- [EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of E. Weddington Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2002 8:09 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Mersenne: Dissed again Folding@Home's success: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/10/021022070813.htm Again, they mention SETI@home. As if that were the only other distributed project out there. *sigh* Eric Weddington _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
Re: Mersenne: Dissed again
At 09:09 AM 10/22/02 -0600, you wrote: FoldingHome's success: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/10/021022070813.htm Again, they mention SETIhome. As if that were the only other distributed project out there. *sigh* Two years ago, Pande launched Foldinghome a distributed computing project that so far has enlisted the aid of more than 200,000 PC owners, whose screensavers are dedicated to simulating the protein-folding process. /quote Either they were really great activists in signing people up, or GIMPS has SOMETHING about it that won't get people to participate. We either need to step up our profile, be more active at recruiting, or do SOMETHING to get us off the static bubble we've been on, at about 18,000 members, 31,000 computers, and falling. Our output goes up ONLY because most of our members upgrade as CPUs get better and cheaper. _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
Re: Mersenne: Dissed again
On 22 Oct 2002 at 14:40, Jeff Woods wrote: At 09:09 AM 10/22/02 -0600, you wrote: FoldingHome's success: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/10/021022070813.htm Again, they mention SETIhome. As if that were the only other distributed project out there. *sigh* Two years ago, Pande launched Foldinghome a distributed computing project that so far has enlisted the aid of more than 200,000 PC owners, whose screensavers are dedicated to simulating the protein-folding process. /quote Either they were really great activists in signing people up, or GIMPS has SOMETHING about it that won't get people to participate. We either need to step up our profile, be more active at recruiting, or do SOMETHING to get us off the static bubble we've been on, at about 18,000 members, 31,000 computers, and falling. Our output goes up ONLY because most of our members upgrade as CPUs get better and cheaper. What do you have in mind, a volunteer marketing effort? Eric _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
Re: Mersenne: Dissed again
This amazing number of participants may be misleading. For instance, I've been running a SETIhome client ... (okay, okay, it's because SETI supports uncommon platforms) and was quite amazed, when I returned my first completed workunit, to find that I was now ahead of over 30% of their users. After returning 2 work units I think I was ahead of 50% of them. Recalling that the total userbase of SETI was then almost 4 million users, you can see just how many lamers SETI must have listed! (Note: these workunits take about 22 hours on a PII-450, so this isn't much effort) Perhaps we could catch some more publicity by appending home to the end of the project, thus: GIMPShome, or primeshome ? Jeff Woods wrote: At 09:09 AM 10/22/02 -0600, you wrote: FoldingHome's success: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/10/021022070813.htm Again, they mention SETIhome. As if that were the only other distributed project out there. *sigh* Two years ago, Pande launched Foldinghome a distributed computing project that so far has enlisted the aid of more than 200,000 PC owners, whose screensavers are dedicated to simulating the protein-folding process. Either they were really great activists in signing people up, or GIMPS has SOMETHING about it that won't get people to participate. We either need to step up our profile, be more active at recruiting, or do SOMETHING to get us off the static bubble we've been on, at about 18,000 members, 31,000 computers, and falling. Our output goes up ONLY because most of our members upgrade as CPUs get better and cheaper. -- === Gareth Randall === _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
Re: Mersenne: Dissed again
Well, you're going to love this [links below]. The Google Toolbar has a new icon today stating that it had updated itself. Reading further shows that one of the updates is the ability for Google Toolbar users to automatically run the Folding@Home distributed computing effort. I am guessing there are at least many thousands of Google Toolbar users and a fair percentage of them will find this new distributed computing thing interesting; maybe even 5-10%. Regardless of the actual number, Folding@Home is going to receive a huge boost from Joe and Jane web user just because they were not previously educated on other distributed projects and this one happened to fall into their lap. I initially am jealous of the free boost that Folding@Home will receive, but at least maybe a tiny percentage of Joe's and Jane's will find their way to us now that they have been introduced to distributed computing. Someone mentioned marketing. It appears that Folding@Home simply found a large userbase already attached to a neat tool, then cut a deal. http://toolbar.google.com/dc/aboutdc.html http://toolbar.google.com/dc/faq_dc.html#about8 Erle Greer Evangel University Webmaster Subscribe to The Gann Letter if you are interested in: varying levels of humor/jokes/quotes, parody/satire, science/space/technology items, cool news, games, programs, pics, and other interesting stuff. subscribe #1: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe #2: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheGannLetter/join subscribe #3: gann (at) ganns.com read online : http://ganns.com/TheGannLetter Quoting E. Weddington [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Folding@Home's success: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/10/021022070813.htm Again, they mention SETI@home. As if that were the only other distributed project out there. *sigh* Eric Weddington _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers _ Unsubscribe list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
