Please, oh please tell me this is some kind of cruel April Fools Joke.
It's not though is it? Oh well. Sorry.
--Peter
At 18:04 04/01/1999 -0500, you wrote:
>Hi all,
>
> Please forgive me. I'm terribly sorry. I've discovered a bug
>in version 17 of prime95 and its variants (ntprime, mprime, OS/2 version).
>All Lucas-Lehmer tests above 4,194,304 (except those that were done as
>a continuation of a v16 run) are no good. I feel sick.
>
> I've uploaded version 18 of prime95 and ntprime. I'll port it
>to Linux and Windows 3.1 as soon as I can. Please download and install
>this new version immediately from http:\\www.mersenne.org\freesoft.htm
>Version 16 and earlier users were not affected by this bug. Neither
>were those users that are double-checking.
>
> I've asked Scott to change Primenet to assign double-checking
>work to version 17 clients in the future. I don't know if he can do this
>or not, let's hope so.
>
> After upgrading, you will get error messages that look like this:
>Error reading intermediate file: p6180331
>Renaming intermediate file q6180331 to p6180331.
>Error reading intermediate file: p6180331
> This is normal. Prime95 must discard the incorrect version 17
>save files.
>
> My records indicate that 10,794 of the 59,169 Lucas-Lehmer tests
>above 4,194,304 will have to be discarded. This will set GIMPS back
>roughly 3 to 4 months. This will not affect your standings on the PrimeNet
>server's Top Producer's page.
>
> For those that like to look at the bright side of things, I can find
>only one bit of good news. This will give you a better chance to win the
>$50,000 EFF prize once I sort out the mess and have the server hand out
>smaller exponents to retest.
>
> Once again, I'm sorry for the bug and the wasted CPU cycles the
>last few months.
>
>Humbled,
>George
>
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