mersenneforum.org  

Go Back   mersenneforum.org > Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search > News

Reply
 
Thread Tools
Old 2008-09-15, 05:44   #199
retina
Undefined
 
retina's Avatar
 
"The unspeakable one"
Jun 2006
My evil lair

185016 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by jinydu View Post
At least the leaks appear to confined to German websites.
Is it really a leak? It seems to me to be nothing more than what is already publicly available on this forum.
retina is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 2008-09-15, 05:45   #200
ixfd64
Bemusing Prompter
 
ixfd64's Avatar
 
"Danny"
Dec 2002
California

95B16 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by retina View Post
Is it really a leak? It seems to me to be nothing more than what is already publicly available on this forum.
I agree. Unless someone actually disclosed the exponents before they are officially announced, I wouldn't call this a "leak."
ixfd64 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2008-09-15, 06:08   #201
cheesehead
 
cheesehead's Avatar
 
"Richard B. Woods"
Aug 2002
Wisconsin USA

22·3·641 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by retina View Post
Is it really a leak? It seems to me to be nothing more than what is already publicly available on this forum.
Yes, so the correct term would be "misunderstanding" rather than "leak". It's like mistaking some condensation on the inside of a steel ship hull for water coming through a hull crack.

Again: _All_ this kerfluffle (e.g., mistaking verifiers for discoverers) can be avoided by simply not making any public announcement that a new prime has been discovered, until after verification is complete and complete information, including exponent, discoverer and verifier identities, is released as a package. It looks like v5 PrimeNet will be like that -- not divulging discovery before verification.

Last fiddled with by cheesehead on 2008-09-15 at 06:12
cheesehead is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2008-09-15, 06:25   #202
ixfd64
Bemusing Prompter
 
ixfd64's Avatar
 
"Danny"
Dec 2002
California

1001010110112 Posts
Default

Well, it's always possible that the discoverer himself (or herself) becomes too excited about finding a Mersenne prime and starts bragging to all their friends about it!
ixfd64 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2008-09-15, 06:57   #203
Batalov
 
Batalov's Avatar
 
"Serge"
Mar 2008
Phi(4,2^7658614+1)/2

2×47×101 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by biwema View Post
According to that report
( http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/m...577935,00.html )
one Prime number was probably found by a computer in Germany.

How can they know that?

It also says "...according to the german mathematician society"
It could be condensation of course, and it could also be simply untrue (for example they could have remembered/confused Nowak's discovery), but the Spiegel reports:
1. Both numbers have more than 10M digits and
2. one Prime number was found by a computer in Germany.

Most of the other blurbs are of course clones of each other, silly and hurtful only to their own paper's reputation.
Batalov is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2008-09-15, 07:43   #204
coyote
 
coyote's Avatar
 
"Lelio R Paula"
Aug 2008
Salvador-BA, Brazil

11012 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Andi47 View Post
What is "Recherche" (for a newspaper article) in english?
Recherche if french for research
coyote is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2008-09-15, 07:51   #205
Andi47
 
Andi47's Avatar
 
Oct 2004
Austria

46628 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by coyote View Post
Recherche if french for research
We also say "Recherche" in german (yes, this word comes obviously from french) if we search for literature, or if the press is searching for facts for e.g. a newspaper article. What is the correct english word for this press activity?
Andi47 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2008-09-15, 08:15   #206
sylvester
 
sylvester's Avatar
 
Dec 2007
RSM, CA, USA

4210 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Andi47 View Post
What is the correct english word for this press activity?
In American English that would be either "getting a scoop" or "fact checking" depending on whether you searching for a first source of information or a secondary source to cross-check the first.
sylvester is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2008-09-15, 09:04   #207
davieddy
 
davieddy's Avatar
 
"Lucan"
Dec 2006
England

11001010010102 Posts
Default

Research
davieddy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2008-09-15, 09:26   #208
jinydu
 
jinydu's Avatar
 
Dec 2003
Hopefully Near M48

175810 Posts
Default

It seems that the main danger with the current system (report the fact that a Mersenne prime discovery of an exponent has taken place, but not the exponent) is the media mis-stating the facts.

If the official press release were delayed much longer, could it be only a matter of time before a press outlet reports incorrect exponents, perhaps by misinterpreting a guess on this thread as a fact?
jinydu is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2008-09-15, 10:13   #209
Andi47
 
Andi47's Avatar
 
Oct 2004
Austria

2×17×73 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by jinydu View Post
It seems that the main danger with the current system (report the fact that a Mersenne prime discovery of an exponent has taken place, but not the exponent) is the media mis-stating the facts.

If the official press release were delayed much longer, could it be only a matter of time before a press outlet reports incorrect exponents, perhaps by misinterpreting a guess on this thread as a fact?
Normally (the last times) there was "only" one prime, which was verified in approx. 10 days and then released to press only a few hours after the verification has finished. Has there been any premature article (with M44, M43, M42, etc.) in press like the actual articles in German and Austrian papers? I don't know of any.

Now that we have 2 primes and 20 days passed since the fisrst prime, there has been the double amount of time for the press to find out that a prime (or in this case two of them) has / have been discovered, and now it seems that several papers are getting impatient and print premature articles.

P.S.: I think the best time for sending the press release when you want to get the article into the monday papers is SUNDAY in the evening, so the best time would have been approx. 12-18 hours ago.

Last fiddled with by Andi47 on 2008-09-15 at 10:15
Andi47 is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
A nice introduction to primes and related math axn Lounge 2 2019-10-15 15:19
Lucas-Lehmer Primes henryzz And now for something completely different 42 2019-06-03 14:09
compendium of formulas related with primes ? skan Miscellaneous Math 6 2012-12-14 12:56
Holy new Mersenne prime, Batman! (M47 related) ixfd64 News 901 2008-11-10 19:29
holy tethered cow! new Mersenne prime? (M43-related) ixfd64 News 265 2006-01-04 09:47

All times are UTC. The time now is 21:11.


Sun Aug 1 21:11:53 UTC 2021 up 9 days, 15:40, 0 users, load averages: 1.70, 1.65, 1.56

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2021, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.

This forum has received and complied with 0 (zero) government requests for information.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.
A copy of the license is included in the FAQ.