At 17:04 02/03/2001 -0500, Jeff Woods wrote:
>At 04:48 PM 2/3/01 -0500, you wrote:
>
>>After hanging around the Anandtech DC forum for awhile, I'm convinced that
>>this completion time "problem" might be GIMPS biggest hurdle to getting
>>more participation. Very few "loonies" like us are willing to wait 14
>>months for the calculation of one result. Those folks at Anand's are
>>interested in visible changes in daily statistics, something GIMPS doesn't
>>provide when doing LL testing.
>
>Then why is SETI@home so popular, when it shows little in the way of daily
>statistics, either?
My understanding is that it is possible to have a significant change in
daily statistics with SETI@home. A fast machine can complete a SETI work
unit in 8 to 10 hours, I believe.
Additionally, I believe that SETI@home is "sexier" for the general public
and has done a much more thorough job of selling itself via the general media.
BTW, I do participate in GIMPS (and have since around 1996 or so), so it's
not as if I think it's a bad thing. I just think it will be tough to
attract significant membership numbers (say two hundred thousand users,
just to throw out a number) when an exponent takes 14 months to complete.
Kel
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