On Sun, 3 Feb 2002, Maciej Hrynczyszyn wrote: > Hi. I'm new to GIMPS. I recently switched from SETI@Home looking for > something more solid, which probably makes me a good example for this > discussion :-) This entire thread scared me a lot, I must admit. Could > anybody told me - a complete newbie in this area - what should I do in > order not to waste my (&my A1200) time working on numbers which may be > taken over by someone else in some uncertain future? Currently I'm > finishing my first exponent (that's M7505207 double-check) connecting to > PrimeNet server whenever it needs to, lastly on Jan 31 to get new exponent > to work on. > Is there anything more I ought to know or do? How long can I work on a > single number not worrying that anyone will consider this abandoned?
It's very unlikely that particular exponent will get poached. But in general, the best way to avoid poachers is to avoid looking like a newbie. If you are running Prime95, set your Options-->Preferences-->Days between sending new end dates value lower, down to 1 if that is possible (doesn't matter if you don't log in every day, if you miss a day it just means that Prime95 will check your exponent in the next time you connect). You also have a "default" account name of S followed by five digits, and a "default" computer name of C followed by an eight digit hex number. Change those to something more personalized. The way things stand right now, completely avoiding poachers is not possible if you have any exponents that are close to the top of the Assigned Exponents Report. Most of them will stay away if an exponent is being checked in frequently and showing progress. If you go on vacation for a couple of weeks and don't log in during that time, you could return to find your exponent poached, though. I really hope that the people who are poaching are reading this list, and will scurry away from the light being shed on this matter. _________________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
