From: Spike Jones (spike66@ibm.net)
Date: Mon Aug 16 1999 - 23:09:36 MDT
To those who wish to join the extropians GIMPS team,
go to the following link and follow the directions. To join
the team, the user ID is "extropians" and the password
is "maxmore".
http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm
[Hey Max, I shoulda checked with you first, sorry. Is this cool
to use the name extropians for the team? How about
maxmore for the password? I can change it if you object.
I also created an automatic link to the ExI page...]
Anyway, if you arent sure GIMPS is for you, no problem.
You can download the program if you want, test run it for
a while; if it works for you, you can keep your own account
or merge it into extropians. If you start on the team and
later want to quit or start your own account, there will
be no questions asked. This is to be the no-coersion,
totally libertarian GIMPS team.
Note: do put your individual computer ID, so that if
our team bags a Mersenne prime, we know who did
it. In the record books, which will stand for all time, the
name of the *individual* goes there, not the team (unless
you *want* the extropian team name to go on that
same short list with some of the greatest math gods
of all time...)
Also note, if any prize money is won, it is solely the
property of the individual who won, not the team, and
its their call what to do with it. The current exponents
being checked are *not* eligible for the EFF $100K
prize, as they are on the order of 2 million digits, and the
EFF loot is for the first 10 million digit prime. I estimate
it will be 4 to 5 years before the GIMPS effort gets up
to the paydirt, but there are 4, perhaps 5 undiscovered
Mersenne primes between here and there, for which
the discoverer wins.... everlasting fame. {8^D Of course,
if your computer finds one, the computer becomes worth a pile of
money as a collectors item, but thats a whole nuther story.
So. Good luck to all who decide to join, and good luck
to all who decide to search but not join. If you have any
ideas on how to take the extropians GIMPS team and
use the spare CPU cycles for something else, good deal.
Code up that something else and lets go! {8-] spike
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