Slashdot Mirror
SETI@Home Close to Half-Billionth Result
Jonathan writes: "SETI@Home, the largest distributed computing project in the world, is on the verge of receiving its 500 millionth result. This is a major milestone for both the project and distributed computing as a whole. Oh, and if you still need some added incentive to get involved, there's a $500 reward for the user who returns the milestone result."
By my calculations based on Seti's stats from the last 24 hours the 500 millionth result will be reached in 3.67 days.
I'm posting this to ensure that everyone here is aware that there's a "Team Slashdot" group on SETI@home. Click here to see the latest team results. This team is actually not far away from reaching the one-millionth result.
By the way, I'm ranked #174. Kewl. :)
Steve Magruder, Metro Foodist
Where's the fun in that? We already know those prime numbers exist!
i think the point of the search is that some 2^x-1 are prime, and some are not... and because of the mathematics involved, it is relatively easily to factor them, and to also find some really huge primes in the process...
the deeper question of why the heck we should look for them are more philosophical... some concrete reasons? there are cryptological applications, i think, and mathematical implications, most definitely... but mostly, it's just kewl, you know? why do anything in life? why go to the south pole? why go to mars? why get out of bed in the morning!
here's a good list of detailed reasons:
Tradition!
For the by-products of the quest
People collect rare and beautiful items
For the glory!
To test the hardware
To learn more about their distribution
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it