[5.30.00]
The team is still working almost a year later! Please join love_fest and send a note to gregor.
Things got real busy for a while there. We have all been checking out SETI@home, upgrading machines and work work working. Internet life is great.
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[5.14.99]
The SETI@home distributed computing application has been released.
If you run the app, use your own email address, but use love_fest as your nickname. That way we will begin to build a history on the SETI server.
The release is timed to coincide with the new Star Wars movie. I believe that funding for the SETI project came partially from the movie's sponsors. I would expect that a trailer before the movie will feature the project.
So now it's decision time. Do we switch as a team to the SETI calulations?
Please send your thoughts to gregor@myhouse.com.
There are some known factors relating to this important decision:
- Finding the 38th Mersenne Prime will win you $50,000.
- The SETI@home app uses a lot more system resources. It may not be possible to run the application and use your computer at the same time.
- Windows NT machines will need to be logged in to run the app, at least for now.
- Most people on the team like the idea of the SETI effort - it is easier to concieve the benefits of success.
- It may be possible to run Prime95 as usual, during the day or when you are using your computer, and then have SETI@home cut in as a screensaver at night. When SETI is running, Prime95 slows down to a crawl, then resumes when the screen saver stops.
- Team love_fest could sponsor its own cash prize, of $xxxx.xx dollars for any love_fest member who finds alien signals. That would level the playing field a bit.
This is a historic time for distributed computing. The SETI@home beowolf supercomputer will be so large as to dwarf all previous efforts. Team love_fest is one of the largest blocks of computing power in the world right now. I believe our decision on this matter is very important to the shape of the computing world this year.
As 'goosepad' says:
ah, money, On some lever I think I'd rather discover intelligent life
than win 50K, but 50K hmmmm..... tough one...
-gregor (gregor@myhouse.com)
Michael Bowers sent in an animated banner graphic for the team. Pretty cool. A bit large in load for this page, but if you have a place for it, download love_fest.gif here.
New members and machines
I won't be able to get this right on the first try, so please email me with the corrections.
Matthew Paulsen just brought in 21 twenty-one! new machines to the team. They are named Cruncher1 through Cruncher21.
Chris Gregory is running NiGHTS
Lothlorien is run by David Yip
Erick Yamanaka is pushing bits on yew, britain, and skarabrae
Derek Allerding has got Marduk back on line.
Ed Lewis is a superbrain with Superbrain
There are more, stay tuned. email me. Good luck to all.
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[4.20.99]
OK. I am adding a whole bunch of new machines to the Team roster:
New members and machines
First of all, yours truely, gregor markowitz added two more: Ellie-Mae and synergy.
Christopher Street who runs Wintermute, has now also cranked up 3Jane and Neuromancer. Perhaps he is calculating from a data warehouse in orbit???
Liptovsky Hradok in Slovakia is the home of RoBiK who just registered 10 (yes ten!) new fast machines to the team. Here goes: RoBiK1, robik2, robik3, robik4, robik5, robik2, robik2, robik6, robik7, robik8, robik9, robik10. Hopefully RoBiK will find the elusive prime number and we can all get together for a big party and press conference.
Our old friend Mike Bowers is gettin' back on it, after an employment change related slowdown, with trustno1 (now faster than ever). In general, when going in for a job interview, one should attempt to calculate how many prospective team machines an employer has to factor in to the workplace lifestyle quality ranking.
It appears that Paul Burke is up to cockeyed4 now.
Who is Deathstar?
Hee hee hee. We're gonna surprise 'em on the rankings page when all this new talent hits the boards in 2-3 weeks!
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[4.11.99]
---------------
US $50,000.00 for Next Million Digit Prime
31 March 1999 - The Electronic Frontier Foundation, in cooperation with Entropia.com and the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, announces a prize of US $50,000.00 for the next research discovery megaprime! GIMPS has already determined the 38th Mersenne prime will be at least a million digits long. Join GIMPS, do research and hunt for the winning prime! See www.eff.org for contest details and official rules.
---------------
There have been some questions, in light of the drastic raise in the prize amount. If you find the prime exponent while working for Team love_fest you get all the money, credit, and tax liability. It would be nice if you mentioned the team in the credit. It would also be nice if you spent some of the money on parties and press releases. But officially, the team is asking for nothing if you are able to win this contest. Really there are some reservations about this turn of events. Some people think that a prize this high will make the effort more like a lottery than a group computer project. Since you don't really choose the exponent you work on, somebody will eventually be assigned the big winner. Sort of like a very slow scratch-off lottery ticket. Some other people think this is the best thing that could've happened.
Version 18.1 of Prime95 has been released. Everyone should upgrade from the 17.x app if you havn't already. Here is the download.
There are a LOT of new members on the team right now. I'm lagging a bit behind. If there are any mistakes, or uncredited members / machines, please send me details.
New members and machines
Siqi Chen is now on the team, running Oxygen8.
Paul Burke, a strong pillar of support this year, is back again with another new machine: cockeyed3.
Terren Markowitz is crunching with balance.
Jeff Kawski brought in his two machines, Damogran and Arkintoofle.
Still looking for the names to go with VoRTeX, harmless, lasagna.
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[3.27.99]
Something has happened. It seems that the new version of the PrimeNet server includes the ability to make a hot link out of the team name on the status page. A small thing maybe, but the team page here is attracting a lot of attention.
Pumkinhead was in 59th place with over 18 years 'alive' but switched to Team love_fest, bringing all the processing experience along. Wow. 18+ years in one fell swoop!
We would like to invite any other teams or loners out there to go ahead and join love_fest. It is a way that you can taste the thin air at the top, even if you joined PrimeNet later on. To that end: If you would like to transfer your already accomplished work to the team, please write to gregor for some simple instructions.
I dunno, does it seem to anyone else that a prize prime is a bit overdue about now? Anticipation grows. The amount of processing going on now to find the 38th Mersenne Prime is just mind boggling. I think more computer flops have gone into finding this one than all of the others combined. If the Prime exponent is out there, it is a prize indeed.
New members and machines
John MacPherson, also known as Pumkingirl (his daughter's nickname) has come to the team bearing many fruits. Lemme see if I can get this right...
Jenny, Mr_Hasty_Rib, up, Nutmeg, BooBoo, Captain_Oobi.
cobra_kotnet is Jeroen Coekaerts speed machine. Jeroen has been working with the team for some time now, but I failed to mention his entry.
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[3.5.99]
WELCOME: H O B E R listeners!
The team is in seventh place. We are still looking for our prime. Everyone is looking for the prime. It has been a long time since the last discovery, and tension is beginning to build as the Prime calculation community awaits the long overdue discovey of the 38th Mersenne Prime.
The team is one year old this week. We have tested 469 exponents, in calculations that would take a Pentium 90 computer over 66 years to complete.
Time for the spring member drive.
Please tell a friend - preferably one with one of the new Pentium III's which have just been released - about Team love_fest.
New members and machines
Derek Allerding has re-re-rejoined, with Enki.
gregor markowitz adds Jethro, Harvest and Courage.
Dan Wold brings us adidas1.
Mark Hartung is running BITCRUSHER.
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[10.4.98]
There has been some churn this month. Several members are unable to keep up their calculations for various reasons. Others are upgrading to the Pentium II class crunchers. Along with that, there is a new stream of fast machines signing up each week.
Labor Day marked the beginning of this year's computin' season, so we're looking forward to tightening up the team and renewing the search for more new members over the winter.
The number of machines/clock speed on this page will be re-calculated in the near future, from the ball-park estimate above.
New members and machines
Jim Anderson has joined, with wildfire.
Shawn Lowry comes in with Daedalus.
George Erhard brings us YoyoDyne.
Randy Salvo is testing on Moe.
I havn't figured out yet who is running cancerman.
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[week of 9.4.98]
Don't blink. We're moving like greased lightning. The team moved into 5th place the
other day, and tonight we burst into 4th position on the PrimeNet team rankings. But
don't blink because a huge team called SW is about to blow past us.
New members and machines
So there are three mystery machines which are processing for love_fest.
One is called serendipity and two others are nameless. Of course anyone
is welcome to help the team any time they want to, but if you write in, I will
be happy to give you a welcome note on this page and add your address to the
team mailing list.
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[week of 8.26.98]
Yeah! The team is now in sixth position.
New members and machines
Derek Allerding has added a second processor, making the dual 300, Ereshkigal, the heaviest iron on the team.
David J. Iacovone and yaxx have joined the team.
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[week of 8.18.98]
OK. This is what is happening. Team love_fest has been slowly gaining on the impressive WANDA team effort. Our team has been stacking up calculations for a time, and we have 43 results due to be posted in the next two weeks (~6 years). This will put us up over WANDA, S0030 and challange, and set us in 4th place worldwide.
New members and machines
Paul Burke is juggling a second wicked fast PII named cockeyed2, but due to his situation, both boxes will report as cockeyed.
There is also a nameless mystery machine listed on the status page, but I don't know who it is.
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[week of 8.7.98]
New members and machines
Braddock Graham finally bought a hot processor: snerk.
Derek Allerding is back! This young man from Michigan worked two jobs for a lonnnnnnnng time to save up for Ereshkigal, his new pet PII 300. Congrats to you, marduk!
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[week of 7.27.98]
We move to position 8 in the rankings. The team is very strong and growing well.
New members and machines
Matt Bardeen is coming in with grime, goliath and freedom. Matt says more are on the way!
Mark Jones joins love_fest with santa_fe.
Mike Bowers has added the power of lone_gunmen.
wisdom is upgraded to a PII300 by gregor.
friar has been upgraded to a Pentium by Sue Malkove.
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[week of 6.24.98]
Team love_fest earns a place in the TOP 10!
SETI@home is looking for an experienced C++ programmer. There is early source code available by ftp to work on. Very interesting stuff for any programmer who wants to go up under the hood.
New members and machines
Chicklet turned out to be Gina Louise of Canada.
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[week of 6.14.98]
Team love_fest completes our first 100 tests in about 9.6 years.
We are hunkered down for the long haul, processing about a P90 year every 5 days.
New members and machines
James Henrion operates whatever, in this case a computer.
Stephen Danic is driving KITT.
thukpa is Lauran Hartley's dumpling.
Dr. David Mussington graciously adds Ono-Sendai_I to the mix.
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[week of 6.3.98]
Please upgrade to Windows Prime95 Release 16.3 (see below)
There have been several queries about the upcoming SETI supercomputer project. Since almost everyone on the team is interested in this project, I am going to redouble my efforts to find out the exact status of the SETI@home software.
PrimeNet has published a statement about the general power of the entire Prime95 effort:
