Duplicate assignments?

[drew]

Hi,

I've got a test that's close to finishing and Primenet assigned test 37357709 to me. Today, I get an error saying that exponent is assigned to someone else. When I checked the Primenet site, it indeed showed someone else was testing that exponent.

So why is my assignment getting given away to someone else?

[petrw1]

Originally Posted by drew

Hi,

I've got a test that's close to finishing and Primenet assigned test 37357709 to me. Today, I get an error saying that exponent is assigned to someone else. When I checked the Primenet site, it indeed showed someone else was testing that exponent.

So why is my assignment getting given away to someone else?

I've heard reports of "poachers" .... they are talked about in other threads.

[Mini-Geek]

Originally Posted by petrw1

I've heard reports of "poachers" .... they are talked about in other threads.

I don't get the reason someone would want to poach a number PrimeNet could assign them. Maybe they're cranks () and think the number they're poaching will be M45, so they want to get the number themselves.

Poaching a number that is taking an extreme amount of time to complete (e.g. one being run by one of the ~368 very old CPUs, like AMD K6 and 486), I understand. I don't agree with it, but I understand it. That, I just don't get...

[drew]

Originally Posted by Mini-Geek

I don't get the reason someone would want to poach a number PrimeNet could assign them. Maybe they're cranks () and think the number they're poaching will be M45, so they want to get the number themselves.

Poaching a number that is taking an extreme amount of time to complete (e.g. one being run by one of the ~368 very old CPUs, like AMD K6 and 486), I understand. I don't agree with it, but I understand it. That, I just don't get...

Wouldn't primenet reject people who try this (not that they couldn't test the number anyway)? Instead, primenet gave me an error next time I checked in. I'd think it should still acknowledge my test as valid.

In this case, I don't care, so I just unreserved that particular exponent...any other number is just as good, but if I had already started testing that number, it would have been wasted effort.

[Xyzzy]

...but if I had already started testing that number, it would have been wasted effort.

If we understand the system properly, had you finished the exponent first and submitted it, you would have gotten first time credit for it. Technically you wouldn't even have to have it assigned to you. PrimeNet may complain about it but we can't remember it ever not accepting a result. We think that is the default behavior. And the other guy working on that exponent would get double check credit for turning it in when he was done.

We've run into this in the past and George has been very willing to make sure things are accounted for properly.

(PrimeNet will unreserve the work but all you have to do is "go offline" and put that work back into worktodo.ini and then wait for it to complete, and then "go online". By this we mean, checking and unchecking "Use PrimeNet".)

[drew]

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

If we understand the system properly, had you finished the exponent first and submitted it, you would have gotten first time credit for it. Technically you wouldn't even have to have it assigned to you. PrimeNet may complain about it but we can't remember it ever not accepting a result. We think that is the default behavior. And the other guy working on that exponent would get double check credit for turning it in when he was done.

We've run into this in the past and George has been very willing to make sure things are accounted for properly.

(PrimeNet will unreserve the work but all you have to do is "go offline" and put that work back into worktodo.ini and then wait for it to complete, and then "go online". By this we mean, checking and unchecking "Use PrimeNet".)

I think I must be miscommunicating something. I'm not trying to poach an exponent, I'm trying to understand how the record of my assignment got replaced on the server.

If the exponent was first assigned to me, and someone else reported a status for that same exponent, does Primenet just throw out my status in deference to the new one? And if that's the case, why doesn't the same occur when I report the status?

It sure looks like a Primenet problem to me.

Drew