Friday, March 04, 2005
GIMPS
On Wednesday Dr Martin Novak, a german opthalmogist was catapulted from obscurity to worldwide fame when he discovered the world's largest prime number. (25Mb .torrent of said prime here for uber-nerds). His prime number belongs to a special class of primes called Mersenne Primes, after a french monk who "invented" them. Using his home PC, Dr Novak discovered his prime using free software downloaded as part of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search.
Not that I wish to downplay or disparage this worthy pursuit, but I thought of some other names for the project, that they may have rejected before settling for the rather unflattering GIMPS:
World Internet Mersenne Prime Search
Collaborative Hunt for Internet Mersenne Primes
Boring Losers Internet Mersenne Prime Search
If I'd been picking, I surely would have chosen:
Project for Internet Mersenne Prime Investigation and Notification
They really missed an opportunity there. Best suggestion, via the comments, wins a (used) Casio FX-100d Scientific Calculator.
On Wednesday Dr Martin Novak, a german opthalmogist was catapulted from obscurity to worldwide fame when he discovered the world's largest prime number. (25Mb .torrent of said prime here for uber-nerds). His prime number belongs to a special class of primes called Mersenne Primes, after a french monk who "invented" them. Using his home PC, Dr Novak discovered his prime using free software downloaded as part of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search.
Not that I wish to downplay or disparage this worthy pursuit, but I thought of some other names for the project, that they may have rejected before settling for the rather unflattering GIMPS:
World Internet Mersenne Prime Search
Collaborative Hunt for Internet Mersenne Primes
Boring Losers Internet Mersenne Prime Search
If I'd been picking, I surely would have chosen:
Project for Internet Mersenne Prime Investigation and Notification
They really missed an opportunity there. Best suggestion, via the comments, wins a (used) Casio FX-100d Scientific Calculator.
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