distributed computing and prime numbers...

[John Duff <jfduff@xxxxxxx>]

I was just looking thru www.ars-technica.com and saw an item about the
search for big prime numbers using distributed computing (like seti@home).
I guess the biggest Mersenne prime to date was found a few weeks ago, it's
2^13466917 - 1, and it is over 4 million digits long.  From what I understand,
many groups around the world have formed to search for big Mersenna prime
numbers.  It looks like the software is already out there, not sure about the
linux support (my cursory examination of the website only yielded Windows-based
clients).  Perhaps we might join the search, form a group with our computers?
Sounds boring you say?  Well, it seems that the Electronic Frontier 
Foundation is offering a $100,000 reward for the discovery of the first
10 million digit Mersenne prime.  Of course, I think seti@home, folding@home,
etc. offer more practical usage of our spare cpu cycles.
Something to think about, anyways...

ArsTechnica's Team Prime Rib website: 
http://www.teamprimerib.com

BBC News article: 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1693000/1693364.stm

Mersenne Prime Search home website:
http://www.mersenne.org

-John