Odditities in the 100 Million Digit Prime Award
 

For the 10 Million Digit Prime Award the prime number finder got half of the price with the new 100 Million Digit Prime Award he/she will only get one third of the money
[LIST][*][SIZE=1][/SIZE][SIZE=1][*][B][FONT=Tahoma]$50,000 will be awarded to the discoverer Awardee of the 100,000,000 digit prime.[/FONT][/B][*][FONT=Tahoma]$50,000 will be awarded to a 501(c)(3) mathematics-related charity selected by GIMPS.[/FONT][*][FONT=Tahoma]$50,000 will be retained by GIMPS to cover expenses and/or fund future or past awards.[/FONT][/SIZE][/LIST][LEFT][SIZE=1]It's not really logical that for an effort which costs the mprime user more than 45 times the time/money/.... gets [/SIZE]less (in percent) than with the 10 M Digit Prime Awards.

I'm not primarily in for the money but at least half of it should go to the person who invested money/time/hardware on the client side ...[/LEFT]

The actual finder of the exponent which will yield a 100M prime will not be the only one having put a lot of effort in the search. All other GIMPS participants will have contributed to the effort as well. According to your logic the money should be distributed among all participants, one could use the GHz days scores for that (and most of it would be spent in bank fees, a good thing since banks seem to have some cash problems of late ;-)

Jacob

[quote=S485122;193186]The actual finder of the exponent which will yield a 100M prime will not be the only one having put a lot of effort in the search. All other GIMPS participants will have contributed to the effort as well. According to your logic the money should be distributed among all participants, one could use the GHz days scores for that (and most of it would be spent in bank fees, a good thing since banks seem to have some cash problems of late ;-)

Jacob[/quote]

I compared it to the 10M digit prime number distribution (where the participant got 50 percent).

No GIMPS is more of a lottery and as a lottery player you don't get your invested money back if you don't 'win' ... it's also only theoretical nature because after that 12 years double checking you will get only a pizza and two cokes (or alternatively 13,80 Euro) for the 50.000 USD ... *hehe* ...

Just to shed some light on the decrease...
I noticed that in GIMPS history, the discoverer has always won $50,000. For 1M digits, this meant 100%, for 10M digits 50%, and for 100M digits 33.33...%.

[QUOTE=joblack;193188]I compared it to the 10M digit prime number distribution (where the participant got 50 percent).

No GIMPS is more of a lottery and as a lottery player you don't get your invested money back if you don't 'win' ... it's also only theoretical nature because after that 12 years double checking you will get only a pizza and two cokes (or alternatively 13,80 Euro) for the 50.000 USD ... *hehe* ...[/QUOTE]

Seems like you have repealed Moore's law for these projections.

Anyway, I like pizza and coke.

[QUOTE=joblack;193182]
It's not really logical that for an effort which costs the mprime user more than 45 times the time/money/.... gets less (in percent) than with the 10 M Digit Prime Awards.[/LEFT][/QUOTE]

You are right - it is only fair that the winner of the 100M Digit prime should receive $2,250,000. We should demand that GIMPS put up the remaining $2,100,000 and award it all to the lucky winner.

[quote=philmoore;193214]You are right - it is only fair that the winner of the 100M Digit prime should receive $2,250,000. We should demand that GIMPS put up the remaining $2,100,000 and award it all to the lucky winner.[/quote]

Enough sarcasm.

I'm proposing that every participant (GIMPS, prime finders, ...) gets a fair share and if the fraction from the price money goes down for the user it's not very motivating to assign 100M digit prime numbers ...

[quote=Mini-Geek;193205]Just to shed some light on the decrease...
I noticed that in GIMPS history, the discoverer has always won $50,000. For 1M digits, this meant 100%, for 10M digits 50%, and for 100M digits 33.33...%.[/quote]

... and for the 1.000M it's only 20 % (or even less because of inflation) ...

[QUOTE=joblack;193263]Enough sarcasm.

I'm proposing that every participant (GIMPS, prime finders, ...) gets a fair share and if the fraction from the price money goes down for the user it's not very motivating to assign 100M digit prime numbers ...[/QUOTE]This demotivation, IMAO, is a Good Thing.

Prize money is almost always a PITA, partly because of the hassles of sharing it "fairly", whatever that means, and partly because it encourages participants to attempt to optimize their expected winnings rather than to optimize the aims of the project.


Paul

[quote=xilman;193272]This demotivation, IMAO, is a Good Thing.

Prize money is almost always a PITA, partly because of the hassles of sharing it "fairly", whatever that means, and partly because it encourages participants to attempt to optimize their expected winnings rather than to optimize the aims of the project.


Paul[/quote]

I have a different opinion - especially because GIMPS isn't paying the price money anyway and every additional pc searching for new primes is a good thing.

[QUOTE=joblack;193308]I have a different opinion - especially because GIMPS isn't paying the price money anyway and every additional pc searching for new primes is a good thing.[/QUOTE]

Well perhaps you forget that this is run by volunteers. They might not welcome too big an inrush of participants at their expense. You think the database server is slow now? If the non-profit can use some of those funds to upgrade the servers I think all, present and future, contributors will benefit.

[QUOTE=lfm;193317]If the non-profit can use some of those funds to upgrade the servers I think all, present and future, contributors will benefit.[/QUOTE]

We've been pricing a dual Xeon 5520 system from Dell -- with 32GB of memory to keep the database happy. Plus, Scott found a great deal on software. For all the bashing Microsoft gets in these forums, they get kudos for providing software at cost to 501c3 corporations.

Okay, I'm going to semi-hijack this thread and ask:

Has anyone ever actually bothered to READ 501(c)(3)? Actually, here's an ever better idea:

Track down the page it's on(might take you a while, but to start you off it's in Title 26 of the Internal Revenue Code). Now turn to the page that has the heading 501(c)(3). Don't actually read that part, because I have something way more interesting for you to do. Start turning back pages to find the major heading that little piece of legislation is on. You might end up going back to 501(c)(3) and starting over a few times in disbelief, because it's a tax write-off for FOREIGN BUSINESSES AND CORPORATIONS.

That's right folks, by signing up under a 501(c)(3)tax shelter, you're identifying yourself as a FOREIGN entity. Obviously, if you're not an American, this can be pretty cool, but if you ARE an American, and your business is in the US, then you're shooting yourself in the foot by using this.

Unfortunately, my research involved the Income Tax, so I never bothered to discover if there was an alternate route to tax free status for non-profits. But for those of you who are involved in US religious organizations that you have a bit of influence in, or any of the other non-profit stuff going on(some of which I wish didn't exist) you might want to take the time to research this.

Ain't US law grand?

Jasong, you need to provide a citation to support your contention. IAAL, and I have no idea what you are talking about.

I would offer [url]http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/26/501(c).html[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/501(c[/url])
The first is the actual code.

501c3
 

Jason

I am looking at section 501c3 and do not see anything saying that these are foreign corporations.

I am involved with 501c3 organizations and they are all incorporated in the United States.

[quote=jasong;195305]Start turning back pages to find the major heading that little piece of legislation is on. [/quote]When you wrote, "Start turning back pages to find the major heading", did you mean just sequentially going back to previous pages without regard to the sectional hierarchy? How did you decide what was "the major heading" for 501(c)(3)?

How far back did the hierarchy you followed match the one I list below?

I started at [URL="http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/26/501%28c%29.html"]http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/26/501(c).html[/URL]

Going back [B][U]up[/U][/B] the hierarchy from there is:

"PART I--GENERAL RULE" at

[URL]http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/26/usc_sup_01_26_10_A_20_1_30_F_40_I.html[/URL]

then

"Subchapter F--Exempt Organizations" at

[URL]http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/26/usc_sup_01_26_10_A_20_1_30_F.html[/URL]

then

"CHAPTER 1--NORMAL TAXES AND SURTAXES" at

[URL]http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/26/usc_sup_01_26_10_A_20_1.html[/URL]

then

"Subtitle A--Income Taxes" at

[URL]http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/26/usc_sup_01_26_10_A.html[/URL]

then

"TITLE 26--INTERNAL REVENUE CODE" at

[URL]http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/26/usc_sup_01_26.html[/URL]

Here are some sanity checks:

[quote=jasong;195305]Has anyone ever actually bothered to READ 501(c)(3)?[/quote]C'mon, did you actually think it's realistically likely that no one's ever read it?

[quote]Start turning back pages to find the major heading that little piece of legislation is on. You might end up going back to 501(c)(3) and starting over a few times in disbelief, because it's a tax write-off for FOREIGN BUSINESSES AND CORPORATIONS.[/quote]Once you thought you had found that (rather unlikely) connection, how seriously did you consider the possibility that [i]you had followed the wrong path[/i] when going backwards? Did you try going forward from that heading, in search of 501(c)(3), in addition to simply repeating the back-track you'd already made? As you did your repetitions of path-following, did you vary the methods by which you followed the hierarchal path?

[quote]That's right folks, by signing up under a 501(c)(3)tax shelter, you're identifying yourself as a FOREIGN entity.[/quote]How long did you think about the oddity of that conclusion?

[quote]Ain't US law grand?[/quote]Law-reading does require care to keep the hierarchies straight.

Finally, something I know about as an attorney!

All of the relevant statutory text is found here: [URL="http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/26/usc_sec_26_00000501----000-.html"][COLOR=#800080]http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/26/usc_sec_26_00000501----000-.html[/COLOR][/URL]

Section 501(a) (titled "Exemption from taxation") states: "An organization described in subsection (c) or (d) or section [URL="http://www.mersenneforum.org/../uscode26/usc_sec_26_00000401----000-.html"][COLOR=#0066cc]401[/COLOR][/URL] [URL="http://www.mersenneforum.org/../uscode26/usc_sec_26_00000401----000-.html#a"][COLOR=#0066cc](a)[/COLOR][/URL] shall be exempt from taxation under this subtitle unless such exemption is denied under section [URL="http://www.mersenneforum.org/../uscode26/usc_sec_26_00000502----000-.html"][COLOR=#0066cc]502[/COLOR][/URL] or [URL="http://www.mersenneforum.org/../uscode26/usc_sec_26_00000503----000-.html"][COLOR=#0066cc]503[/COLOR][/URL]."

Section 501(c) (titled "List of exempt organizations") lists some of the types of tax-exempt organizations referred to in Section 501(a). There are 28 different classes of organizations listed in Sections 501(c)(1)-(28).

The part of the statute at issue here (Section 501(c)(3)) defines one such type of tax-exempt organization to be:

"Corporations, and any community chest, fund, or foundation, organized and operated exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, testing for public safety, literary, or educational purposes, or to foster national or international amateur sports competition (but only if no part of its activities involve the provision of athletic facilities or equipment), or for the prevention of cruelty to children or animals, no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual, no substantial part of the activities of which is carrying on propaganda, or otherwise attempting, to influence legislation (except as otherwise provided in subsection (h)), and which does not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office."

As you can see, there is nothing in Section 501(c)(3) that limits its application to [U]foreign[/U] businesses or corporations. Thus Jasong is incorrect when he claims that "[b]y signing up under a 501(c)(3)tax shelter, you're identifying yourself as a FOREIGN entity."

(If you're wondering, Section 501(d) defines another type of tax-exempt organization referred to in Section 501(a), namely religious and apostolic organizations. And Section 401(a) deals with trusts created or organized in the United States and forming part of a stock bonus, pension, or profit-sharing plan of an employer for the exclusive benefit of his employees or their beneficiaries.)

[QUOTE=jasong;195305]Has anyone ever actually bothered to READ 501(c)(3)?[/QUOTE]

Yes, I have.

[quote=cheesehead;195428]the hierarchal path?[/quote]hierarchical

(What's the point of having an as-I-key spellchecker if I'm going to ignore its prompts?)

The tax code is quite convoluted and complicated and one can't always rely on what might appear to be statutory hierarchies, because there are numerous cross-references, exceptions, and other stumbling blocks sprinkled throughout Title 26.

The bottom line is that although the tax code does permit certain foreign organizations to enjoy tax-exempt status in the United States, the exemption from withholding on income paid to such an organization requires that it qualify under Section 501(c) and that the income not constitute unrelated business taxable income under Section 1443 (titled "Foreign tax-exempt organizations").

Federal regulations require all foreign tax-exempt organizations to provide the U.S. withholding agent a withholding certificate (Form W-8EXP, Certificate of Foreign Government or Other Foreign Organization for United States Tax Withholding) along with a favorable IRS determination letter or opinion issued by U.S. counsel that: (1) confirms its tax-exempt status; (2) certifies what portion, if any, of the amounts received constitutes unrelated business income; and (3) specifies whether it is a private foundation described in Section 509.

(The reason for the third requirement above is that under Section 1443, special withholding rules and rates apply where the foreign tax-exempt organization earns unrelated business taxable income. Section 4948(a)provides that to the extent that the foreign tax-exempt organization is characterized as a private foreign foundation, it is subject to a 4% excise tax on its gross investment income.)

All of this is explained in a bit more detail here: [URL="http://www.britannica.com/bps/additionalcontent/18/32010519/US-Withholding-Tax-Imposed-on-Foreign-TaxExempt-Organizations"][COLOR=#810081]http://www.britannica.com/bps/additionalcontent/18/32010519/US-Withholding-Tax-Imposed-on-Foreign-TaxExempt-Organizations[/COLOR][/URL]

Hope this helps clear things up a bit.