Hanging reservations and table extension

[ET_]

Two questions:

1 - There are assignments one year old. Should we reassign them?
2 - Rodrigo has done a lot of work on the next range (3321936xxx). Should we add them to the pool?

Luigi

[wblipp]

For old assignments, I think we should try email and PM; if no response within a week, reassign.

Is there interest in opening a new range? Is there interest in continuing to have a CPU-only range?

[ET_]

Originally Posted by wblipp

For old assignments, I think we should try email and PM; if no response within a week, reassign.

Is there interest in opening a new range? Is there interest in continuing to have a CPU-only range?

I tried emailing assignees in the past, with no luck. I will try again during the weekend.

As for your second question, in my opinion GPU to 72 took most of our big irons away, so there is little interest in maintaining the range for CPU only still open. Waiting for others to gather more answers about it.

Luigi

[aketilander]

Well, I think that one reason that we have not seen much activity in the project lately is due to the fact that such a lot of work is necessary just to take 1 exponent 1 bit further from ^83 to ^84.

We are only humans and we want to see results and we want to be a little proud of what we have done.

I think a good idea could be to open a new range, but it is maybe good to keep the old range (M3321935017-M3321935963) for CPUs. We are still some using CPUs for trial factoring, otherwise we cannot really participate in the project.

Another suggestion would be to trial factor semi-bits from ^83 and onwards. If we allow partial bits like tenths of bits to be registered on the webpage we maybe see some more results. What I mean is that we can report the results when we have done like ^83.1 of an exponent.

If we on the same time publish the "status.txt"-file anybody can continue if we release the exponent, or maybe it is even possible to have a "status.txt"-file creator on the webpage if an exponent is done to, lets say, ^83.4 bits and somebody else wants to continue from there?

[Rodrigo]

Originally Posted by aketilander

I think a good idea could be to open a new range, but it is maybe good to keep the old range (M3321935017-M3321935963) for CPUs. We are still some using CPUs for trial factoring, otherwise we cannot really participate in the project.

This sounds reasonable. There should be room for CPUs, otherwise we run the risk of coming off as a snooty "GPUs only, you CPUs need not apply" club.

When I first discovered GIMPS and then OBD, the prospect of getting my old Windows machines participating was a major motivator. And the effort I put into exploring ways to get them involved yielded ample fruit in terms of learning about computing. Even when I ultimately retire the older PCs from factoring work, I enjoy a sense of satisfaction about the experience.

Rodrigo

[ET_]

I tried to contact Christenson by PM last week. I got no answer.

Does anybody here know him and ask whether he likes to complete his exponents on OBD or not?

Luigi