I just talked to Edson Smith. He let me touch the prime-finding computer and even read the results.txt file. So exciting...

[QUOTE=sylvester;141784]For now you guys are looking forward to get-togethers and beer drinking. Enjoy! But there will be a day when you will again start looking into how to get more people to run the GIMPS client. Here are my top 2 suggestions:
.....
2) Develop a workaround for a problem where SQL servers running on the same machine as GIMPS keep postponing the maintenance tasks that are scheduled for the periods of low CPU load. This affects MSSQL 2005 SP2 EE, maybe others.

I doubt I will see any action on this front, but at least I tried to state the business case.[/QUOTE]That one is easy to solve. Use the Time setting in Prime.ini
[quote=From the Prime95 help file]You can configure this program to have different properties at different times of the day and/or to not run during certain times of the day.

Unfortunately, you must manual edit the prime.ini file. Let's say you want to install the program on a friend's machine and he runs a screen saver at night. He also runs a disk defragmenter at midnight on weekdays. This prime.ini file will run the program at a higher priority than his screen saver at night and on weekends. It also sleeps for an hour when his defragmenter starts running. Finally, at night fewer save files are generated to allow his disk to stay powered down longer.

UserID=foo

Other prime.ini entries

Time=1-5/8:30-17:30
Priority=1
DiskWriteTime=30
Time=1-5/1:00-8:30,1-5/17:30-24:00,6-7/0:00-24:00
Priority=5
DiskWriteTime=240

The 1-5 refers to days of the week, with Monday=1 and Sunday=7. The time portion refers to the hours of the day based on a 24-hour clock. You do not need to specify days of the week (e.g. Time=1-7/0:00-8:00 is the same as Time=0:00-8:00). Unpredictable results will occur if there are overlapping time intervals. Also note that any options that appear in the Time= sections should not appear earlier in the prime.ini file and you can no longer edit these options from the user interface.[/quote]
You can have Prime95 not run during the peroid that you want the SQL server to do maint.

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;143204]That one is easy to solve.[/QUOTE]

You probably are technically correct. However, if you had ever seen the scheduled job list on a real SQL production server, you would also understand that this workaround is [U]completely[/U] impractical.

I'm weakly hoping that sometime in the future the GIMPS directorate will have some time to research those issues. Especially since the PrimeNet servers are running Windows and MS-SQL (if I understand the situation correctly.)

[QUOTE=sylvester;143213]You probably are technically correct. However, if you had ever seen the scheduled job list on a real SQL production server, you would also understand that this workaround is [U]completely[/U] impractical.

I'm weakly hoping that sometime in the future the GIMPS directorate will have some time to research those issues. Especially since the PrimeNet servers are running Windows and MS-SQL (if I understand the situation correctly.)[/QUOTE]

There is an option that makes Prime95 stop while certain other programs are running:

PauseWhileRunning=prog1,prog2,prog3,etc

Maybe this helps.

[i]Nature[/i]: [url]http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2008/09/big_prime_nets_big_profit_1.html[/url]
[i]iTWire[/i]: [url]http://www.itwire.com/content/view/20739/1066[/url]

We're still not getting a lot of coverage, though. :sad:

[quote=ixfd64;143284][I]iTWire[/I]: [URL]http://www.itwire.com/content/view/20739/1066[/URL][/quote]
[quote]Found by GIMPS software, the largest prime number is now: [B]2[sup]43,112,609[/sup]-1[/B], where n = 43,112,609.[/quote]In the context of its description about Mersenne primes on the page before, it's not a complete non sequitur, but it's still quite strange.
[quote=ixfd64;143284]We're still not getting a lot of coverage, though. :sad:[/quote]
True...Even Slashdot, which posted stories when each prime was reported ([URL="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/08/27/2220226"]here[/URL] and [URL="http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/13/1940218"]here[/URL]) didn't post any story about them being announced with their identities and number of digits and everything (they rejected my story submission, so it wasn't just a lack of any suggestions) of M45 and M46.

Did they give a specific reason for the rejection?

[quote=jinydu;143291]Did they give a specific reason for the rejection?[/quote]
Nah, doesn't work that way, and I'm sure they reject a lot of story submissions, but still...it's annoying to see articles on them being discovered, but nobody knows the numbers, then see nothing saying the numbers.

[quote=Mini-Geek;143293]Nah, doesn't work that way, and I'm sure they reject a lot of story submissions, but still...it's annoying to see articles on them being discovered, but nobody knows the numbers, then see nothing saying the numbers.[/quote]

Slashdot wants to coverage sensational news. Here's a brief that Slashdot wouldn't be able to help but pick up:


[I][B]New prime declared illegal by DMCA, Comcast throttles bandwidth to Prime95 users![/B]
[EMAIL="primeguy@mersenne.org"]primeguy@mersenne.org[/EMAIL] writes: Last week, it was discovered that buried within the many digits of 2^43602119-1, one can find the orginal deCSS key, and also the bz2 compressed representation of the ascii string "Mickey Mouse". Both the MPAA and Disney have submitted copyright applications for the number, and Disney has spent $43.6 million to hire Sandy Litvack back to assess the value of the new prime. Primenet hasn't made any official statements yet, but reports are that they will be moving to a new operation center in Sealand (an abandoned navy base offshore of England). When asked about the move of the servers to HavenCo, Scott Kurowski simply said "Imagine a beowulf cluster of those". In response, Comcast has already begun throttling bandwidth to users of the popular prime95 program. Hollywood has been vocal on the matter also. When interviewed about the new prime, Natalie Portman said nothing, but poured hot grits down her dungarees.[/I]


5 points for every slashdot reference that you get in that paragraph :)

[QUOTE=uigrad;143350]Slashdot wants to coverage sensational news. Here's a brief that Slashdot wouldn't be able to help but pick up:


[I][B]New prime declared illegal by DMCA, Comcast throttles bandwidth to Prime95 users![/B]
[EMAIL="primeguy@mersenne.org"]primeguy@mersenne.org[/EMAIL] writes: Last week, it was discovered that buried within the many digits of 2^43602119-1, one can find the orginal deCSS key, and also the bz2 compressed representation of the ascii string "Mickey Mouse". Both the MPAA and Disney have submitted copyright applications for the number, and Disney has spent $43.6 million to hire Sandy Litvack back to assess the value of the new prime. Primenet hasn't made any official statements yet, but reports are that they will be moving to a new operation center in Sealand (an abandoned navy base offshore of England). When asked about the move of the servers to HavenCo, Scott Kurowski simply said "Imagine a beowulf cluster of those". In response, Comcast has already begun throttling bandwidth to users of the popular prime95 program. Hollywood has been vocal on the matter also. When interviewed about the new prime, Natalie Portman said nothing, but poured hot grits down her dungarees.[/I]


5 points for every slashdot reference that you get in that paragraph :)[/QUOTE]You didn't note that the prime also contains the rot-13ed message: "Duke Nukem Forever out RSN says CowboyNeal".


Paul

[QUOTE=xilman;143355]You didn't note that the prime also contains the rot-13ed message: "Duke Nukem Forever out RSN says CowboyNeal".


Paul[/QUOTE]Geeze you guys know Slashdot a lot better than I do.
ps. "All your base are belong to us!"