Some of you long time readers may remember way back in August of 2007 when I tried to run GIMPS on my new MacBook. That didn't work out because I never spent the time I needed to spend on figuring out the installation and setup for the Mac. But if you click on the user summary link above, you will hopefully see my newly established GIMPS account. I'm back on the search for a Mersenne prime number after a break of 10 years (which was the last time I had unlimited access to a PC but I got caught and had to stop running the program).From the graphic here you see that Mersenne primes are in the form of (2^p)-1. Pick any number for p. Use that as the exponent for 2. Then subtract 1 from the product. If the difference is prime, the prime is called a Mersenne prime.
Read more at Mersenne Primes: History, Theorems and Lists, maintained by Chris K. Caldwell.
This has all happened because of my new Dell PC. I'm still a MacAddict but have added this machine (a gift from John) to ease my photography problems. And while I'm at it, I can do other stuff, like GIMPS, that I couldn't do on a Mac.
I'm going to re-submerge myself in more caffeine and smoke now . . .
_/\_/\_
With all the prime hunting going on, I bet the values of P are getting pretty big. I am glad that you liked my post and limerick for Turnip and happy that it helps you deal with the grief.
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