An offer...

[jinydu]

Originally Posted by Primeinator

That's pretty cool, how much mathematics did it require on your part?

Hardly any at all. The "algorithm" is used is brute force. I used other calendar converters to build an Excel file, then linked the website to the Excel file. You will also find that my converter is quite limited; I think it only extends to the end of 2006 or something (I don't remember exactly).

Wacky, unfortunately, it is unlikely that Primeinator will be given a more specific assignment. One of the frustrating aspects of parts of the IB diploma is that some of the work is very open-ended, which can be bewildering for some students (like me).

Oh well, at least I got 7's in Higher Math and Higher Physics.

[MooooMoo]

Originally Posted by Primeinator

To the veterans on this forum... I have been a member of GIMPS for about a year and a half now, and a viewer of the project longer than that. Maybe surprisingly, I'm a high school student- actually a senior this year. This isn't the usual demogrpahic you might expect to participate in a distributed computing project, let alone one that deals with mathematics. However, I must say that although math may not be my strongest subject, it is one I mind the most interesting.

You're not alone. A few years ago, I discovered my first top 5000 prime as a 15 year old

If you're curious, my school didn't offer IB's. There were only honors and AP classes for people who wanted to challenge themselves.

[Wacky]

Originally Posted by Primeinator

Actually its just that we have to decide what we are doing for our project soon. The actual project isn't due until early 2007. However, we need to have a start or a good idea of what we are going to do long before then.

As mentioned above, I do have more time than was originally interpreted from my posts, it is just the deadline as to a "basic" idea or what I am going to do for the project that I need to decide upon in the next few weeks or so.

Thank you for this clarification. I am pleased to learn that you have an adequate period of time to actually develop a project of reasonable complexity.

[Primeinator]

You're not alone. A few years ago, I discovered my first top 5000 prime as a 15 year old

If you're curious, my school didn't offer IB's. There were only honors and AP classes for people who wanted to challenge themselves.

Good to meet you, I wonder how many other teenagers to age 21 or so are members of these forums?

Hardly any at all. The "algorithm" is used is brute force. I used other calendar converters to build an Excel file, then linked the website to the Excel file. You will also find that my converter is quite limited; I think it only extends to the end of 2006 or something (I don't remember exactly).

You're correct, it says through 2006.

Oh well, at least I got 7's in Higher Math and Higher Physics.

Wow, congratulations- that is very good.

Thank you for this clarification. I am pleased to learn that you have an adequate period of time to actually develop a project of reasonable complexity.

Heh, no problem. I'm going to take a further look at your site now to see what I might be able to do for it. I think I will also pm George- because I have a number of ideas for the main GIMPS status page.

-Kyle

[Prime95]

Originally Posted by Primeinator

I think I will also pm George- because I have a number of ideas for the main GIMPS status page.

I've not responded until now because there are so many other deserving projects that could use qualified help. Depending on your abilities and available time you could have a major positive impact on these projects.

You could learn how to run a BOINC project and search for Cunningham factors with GMP-ECM, or search for Wieferich primes (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/WieferichPrime.html), or create an NFSNet client, etc.

You could add professional touches to NFSNet's web site or client.

Or you could fall back on your idea to spiff up the GIMPS' status (and other?) pages.

[Primeinator]

I've not responded until now because there are so many other deserving projects that could use qualified help. Depending on your abilities and available time you could have a major positive impact on these projects.

Or you could fall back on your idea to spiff up the GIMPS' status (and other?) pages.

This is the idea that I'm most interested in at the moment- creating a status table that includes data for all ranges of exponents from searches in the form of 2^P -1 because a number of people and large amount of processing time is being given to projects such as "100-Million Digit Prefactor" and "Operation Billion Digits." Some of the ideas I mentioned include a different layout of columns and rows, a different color scheme for different related regions of the table, small icons for each different region of the table that when clicked bring up a descriptive graphic of what that part of the table means (because some new users have a hard time understanding the table based from the post by Clyde in the Info and Answers forum), and several others. I am still brainstorming. Another idea I thought of was to have the table automatically update from the PrimeNet server say once daily. Though there are several problems with implmenting this. First, none of the exponents for OBD or 100M Digit Prefactor are tied to the server. Secondly, not all users working in largely-active ranges right now are using PrimeNet. If this idea was implemented, the table could be split for each OBD and 100M Digit Prefactor with one combined table and more complex table seperate that includes additional statistics (on the seperate tables only a few statistics, such as the present ones given, are shown). Other ideas were influenced by what other users have said. In the "reading status chart" thread in the Info and Answers forum, several users expressed a desire to have a more explicit set of ranges- either linear or logarithmic. In addition, I have a few other ideas I've come up with and I'm bound to come up with more if I actually play around with designing it. However, the focus of the this I.B. and ITGS project is to create the product that matches the needs/wants of the person or group you decided to do your project for, whatever those may be. With your permission, this is something that I would like to do- not only because I need to have some sort of related project for my class, but also because this is a subject that I have a lot of interest and passion in. Thanks for the consideration,

Kyle

[jinydu]

You could update all those outdated Primenet banners.

[Primeinator]

You could update all those outdated Primenet banners.

After reading the M44 is Here thread, I was actually going to add that to my table reconstruction.

Some other banners (that need to be updated) say:

GIMPS / Primenet = 38 Cray T916 Supercomputers. Whoa.
GIMPS does 79 years of computing- every day. Help out.
GIMPS / Primenet. Join 15,000 fellow computer users.
38 of them are known in the universe. Find one more.
27,000 computers. Working as one. GIMPS / Primenet.
It exists. Hiding. Cloaked. Find Mersenne Prime #39.
GIMPS. Because 2,098,960 digits just aren't enough.
GIMPS. Because 2^6,972,593-1 just isn't big enough.
950,000,000,000 floating point operations / sec. Nifty.


These banners should say instead:

GIMPS / Primenet = 400 Cray T932 Supercomputers. Whoa.
GIMPS does 1800 years of computing- every day. Help out.
GIMPS / Primenet. Join 47,000 fellow computer users.
44 of them are known in the universe. Find one more.
72,000 computers. Working as one. GIMPS / Primenet.
It exists. Hiding. Cloaked. Find Mersenne Prime #45.
GIMPS. Because 9,808,358 digits just aren't enough.
GIMPS. Because 2^32,582,657-1 just isn't big enough.
22,000,000,000,000 floating point operations / sec. Nifty.

I can update them if you want. Right now though I need to get a little sleep- had a Youth Group Lock-In and I just got back and I'm pretty tired and have to go into work later this afternoon.

-Kyle

[brunoparga]

Kyle, on the one hand I like your idea of including 100MDPP and OBD in your tables. On the other hand, I don't quite like the idea of making the table rows linear or logarithmic. I think in at least one table the thing should be kept the way it is, because it shows us the FFT sizes used - this relates to the time needed to test an exponent. If I read the table correctly, and if we assume we're testing exponents around 35M, when we're testing exponents around 70M the time needed won't be just twice as now, it'll be larger because of the larger FFT (please notice I'm considering the same machine doing both tests).

What I'd suggest then would be, firstly, one "overall" table showing that there are at least five different Mersenne exponent areas:
(1) <14M, tested and double-checked, only 39 Mersennes here
(2) 14 - 79.3M, GIMPS/PrimeNet current work area
(3) 79.3 - ~332M, Lone Mersenne Hunters >79.3M area
(4) ~332M - ~3.3G, 100M Digits Prefactor Project area
(5) >~3.3G, Operation: Billion Digits area

And then, for areas (1) and (2), which are currently represented here, instead of displaying it linear or logarithmic, why don't you change the row height? It's a way of keeping the FFT sizes and show the ranges covered are different in size.

Cheers,
Bruno

[drew]

Originally Posted by brunoparga

Kyle, on the one hand I like your idea of including 100MDPP and OBD in your tables. On the other hand, I don't quite like the idea of making the table rows linear or logarithmic. I think in at least one table the thing should be kept the way it is, because it shows us the FFT sizes used - this relates to the time needed to test an exponent. If I read the table correctly, and if we assume we're testing exponents around 35M, when we're testing exponents around 70M the time needed won't be just twice as now, it'll be larger because of the larger FFT (please notice I'm considering the same machine doing both tests).

What I'd suggest then would be, firstly, one "overall" table showing that there are at least five different Mersenne exponent areas:
(1) <14M, tested and double-checked, only 39 Mersennes here
(2) 14 - 79.3M, GIMPS/PrimeNet current work area
(3) 79.3 - ~332M, Lone Mersenne Hunters >79.3M area
(4) ~332M - ~3.3G, 100M Digits Prefactor Project area
(5) >~3.3G, Operation: Billion Digits area

And then, for areas (1) and (2), which are currently represented here, instead of displaying it linear or logarithmic, why don't you change the row height? It's a way of keeping the FFT sizes and show the ranges covered are different in size.

Cheers,
Bruno

I don't see a problem. FFT size is related to the logarithm. If you'll notice on the table you linked...the rows are separated by a factor of about 2^1/4. This is delimiting the base 2 log by fourths.

The Primenet status page uses a linear scale, and I believe this may be the one Primeinator was referring to. Of course, there are many more rows in this table, so they would have to be divided further than by FFT size.

Drew

[Primeinator]

Then I guess the thing to do now is decide what all information will be put on the table. My current idea, or the one I believe will be the most practical to implement, is to have several different tables (representing different ranges similar to what brunoparga mentioned) showing just basic information and statistics (range, number of exponents, testing status, FFT sizes, etc) and then having 1 larger and more complex table showing more information and combining all the ranges.

The question now becomes, "what all do you want on each table, and how do you want it depicted on the table?"

-Kyle