To those who wish to join the extropians GIMPS team, go to the following link and follow the directions. To join the team, the user ID is "extropians" and the password is "maxmore".
http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm
[Hey Max, I shoulda checked with you first, sorry. Is this cool to use the name extropians for the team? How about maxmore for the password? I can change it if you object. I also created an automatic link to the ExI page...]
Anyway, if you arent sure GIMPS is for you, no problem. You can download the program if you want, test run it for a while; if it works for you, you can keep your own account or merge it into extropians. If you start on the team and later want to quit or start your own account, there will be no questions asked. This is to be the no-coersion, totally libertarian GIMPS team.
Note: do put your individual computer ID, so that if our team bags a Mersenne prime, we know who did it. In the record books, which will stand for all time, the name of the *individual* goes there, not the team (unless you *want* the extropian team name to go on that same short list with some of the greatest math gods of all time...)
Also note, if any prize money is won, it is solely the property of the individual who won, not the team, and its their call what to do with it. The current exponents being checked are *not* eligible for the EFF $100K prize, as they are on the order of 2 million digits, and the EFF loot is for the first 10 million digit prime. I estimate it will be 4 to 5 years before the GIMPS effort gets up to the paydirt, but there are 4, perhaps 5 undiscovered Mersenne primes between here and there, for which the discoverer wins.... everlasting fame. {8^D Of course, if your computer finds one, the computer becomes worth a pile of money as a collectors item, but thats a whole nuther story.
So. Good luck to all who decide to join, and good luck to all who decide to search but not join. If you have any ideas on how to take the extropians GIMPS team and use the spare CPU cycles for something else, good deal. Code up that something else and lets go! {8-] spike