Ramblings of an Apologetic Young Mind
Guys,
(This post used to be a reply to the thread "Friendly Forums"; see <http://www.free-dc.org/forum/showthr...&threadid=4860>. I'm making it a new thread to get a fresh start.)
I'm sure I'm making a terrible mistake reviving old flames, but at the risk of being castrated by Louie I'd like to mention a few things. Someone should save this post in case I change my mind and delete it. :-)
First of all, neither myself nor Louie would dare to dispute that the "organization" hasn't been as active as it could have been, or maybe even should have been. But be careful when you compare this project (or this "organization") to other projects. A lot -- maybe even a majority -- of DC projects are funded, or at least sponsored as a legitimate academic research project by some institution. This project is neither. It is completely unsponsored by any institution and is not funded monetarily in any way. Moreover, the "organization" -- myself and Louie and the many people that have contributed in other ways to the project -- are not professional researchers. We're hobbyists that, in truth, got in over our heads.
The story behind the creation of SB may be informative. Some of you have probably heard it before and I apologize. First, I'll humor a previous poster in talking a bit about Louie and myself.
I'm a 22-year-old software engineering contractor for the U.S. Department of Defense. I graduated from the University of Illinois with a bachelor's degree in computer science. At the time SB was conceived, I was doing miscellaneous computer work for the University and spending too much of my spare time with personal programming projects.
Louie is also 22 and just a couple of weeks ago received his degree in computer engineering from the University of Michigan. He's applied to a number of graduate schools and is currently taking some time off to enjoy his (probably temporary) freedom from academia.
Louie and I have been friends since the very young age of roughly 7. We grew up together in a little town in Michigan. We've undertaken a lot of projects together of various kinds, most of which ended in complete failure or personal injury (often both).
Back in early Spring 2002, Louie and I became interested in the Sierpinski problem. We didn't know about the ad-hoc searching that at that time was under way by a group of mathematicians, so we decided to give it a crack ourselves. We wrote some simple code to implement Proth's algorithm and were pleased. When we realized it would take our two computers a very long time to actually get anywhere, one of us had the bright idea that we could write a server to coordinate testing among several computers. The original goal was to get a small group of friends running our test programs on their computers. We put together a client with network support and a simple (ugly) website so that our friends could see how well their computers were doing.
When we realized we could get even more work done by allowing our friends' friends to run the tests too, we adapted the website so that people could create their own accounts. But even at that point we had no grandiose plans for a real, live DC project -- it was just a working solution to a problem we were interested in.
A few months and several hundred users down the road we began to realize what we had gotten ourselves into. A few more months and we started actually producing results, getting publicity with real news sources, and new signups galore. It finally began to sink in at that point that we had started a real DC project. Over the 2002 Christmas holidays the entire system was rewritten to accomodate the huge load that was being placed on the simple infrastructure we'd built -- which was still largely the same code that we'd written expecting only a small group of friends to use.
Since that rewrite and the end of the "Month of the Five Primes" last year, I've largely been out of the loop. As much as I hate to say it, there have been things in my life that are more urgent than SB -- school, work, and so forth. I'm only 22, and to spend all of my spare time on this project, as fun and positive as it is, would probably be a decision I would regret when I later reflect on my youth.
Louie has of course done a far better job of sticking with the project. He's had his own lapses, as should be expected of one trying to make the best of their college experience. But he's done, in my opinion, a commendable job of doing the best he can and helping out as his schedule and lifestyle allowed.
Our sixth prime discovery last month has re-kindled my interest in the project, and now that I myself am finished with college and have stable employment, I can realistically hope to spend a bit of time working on the project. I'll be getting more specific about how I'd like to help out soon, but for now I think it's best to give Louie some time to re-adjust to life outside of school and wait until we can come up with a realistic plan of how much activity we can put into the project and how best to spend our time.
I wish very much that Louie and I were in a position to devote more resources to this project. It's been a real life experience for both of us and we couldn't have done it without everyone's help, from major code contributors right down to the least user. Maybe someday this situation will change, and the "organization" can become more of an active, accredited project, but expecting it is foolish. We have to make the best with what we have, and so do you.
Whatever the outcome, this has been an experience neither of us will ever forget. And though we may not at times show it, we'll never forget that it couldn't have happened without you.
Yours,
--
David Norris
[email protected]
