Re: Call for participation

From: Phil Carmody (thefatphil_demunged_at_yahoo.co.uk)
Date: 11/15/03 

Date: 15 Nov 2003 03:01:13 +0200

"Tom St Denis" <tomstdenis@iahu.ca> writes:

> <pleyland@microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:uk763xmvi.fsf@microsoft.com...
> > And now a word from my sponsors: NFSNET is also recruiting. If you
> > prefer a computational client that needs very little human attention,
> > albeit at the cost of needing an always-on connection to the net such
> > as ADSL or cable-modem, please contact the NFSNET team either by
> > direct email to me (paul_@_nfsnet_._org_) or through the NFSNET
> > website at http://www.nfsnet.org. Right now, we are devoting most of
> > our effort to a record-breaking factorization of the 239-digit
> > cofactor of 2^811-1, aka M811 in GIMPS terms or 2,811-.c239 to the
> > Cunningham project.
>
> First off, heads up to anyone trying Bob's code. It won't build with GCC
> [afaik] and he has win32 binaries only... BOO!

Oh. However, that does mean that those with Linux can almost certainly
run it using WiNE.

> [btw this is why I go out of my way to write portable code that while a tad
> slower than the "best" will build ANYWHERE not just on Bob's Win32 C
> compiler....].

But most people do still use Windows, whether you and I like it or not.

> As for NFSNET... WHY OH WHY? Who cares what the factors of 2^811 - 1 are?

A whole bunch of nerdy mathematicians. (Of which I'm one.)

> Does this mean you can factor say RSA keys of the same length with the same
> effort? [I know for a fact you can't....].
>
> As far as math is concerned those factors are useless.

Not really. They're curiosities. Without numbers like them, the proof
of the world's largest known prime with only prime digits (in base 10)
would have been impossible:
http://primes.utm.edu/curios/page.php?number_id=3519 (just the #)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/primeform/message/3846 (explanation)
Factors (or millennia, or multi-terahertz) are required for a
formal mathematical proof of primality for these kinds of numbers,
which is one reason why finding them is of great interest to those
who like that kind of thing.

(Self-supporting argument, I know, but you're asking Hillary why
he climbed Everest, I'm afraid).

> As far as crypto is
> concerned it's useless too. Unless you can directly map your work to a GNFS
> attack there is little merit... e.g. you may say "Oh but NFSNET factored a
> 800 bit integer" and I'll say "That was with the SNFS which can't be used
> against RSA so I don't care."

As far as I understand it, the NFSNET code is still in a ramping up
phase. They're still just practicing, and flexing their muscles. I suspect
that when they're happy that the various infrastructural parts, and the
common code works as slickly as they can get it, they will turn their
hand to GNFS targets too. If NFSNET were to get 1/10th of the CPU grunt
that SETI have, then I'm sure that they'd have the capability to take on
the next size up >*kerching*< target.

There's a non-null overlap between the NFSNET guys and the Squeamish
Ossifrage guys. I really don't think that RSA is hugely distant from
their minds.

I keep doing these not-necessarily-speaking-for-Paul posts, sorry Paul!

Phil 

-- 
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