staff blogs

distributed.net staff keep (relatively) up-to-date logs of their activities in .plan files. These were traditionally available via finger, but we've put them on the web for easier consumption.

2008-09-30

bovine [30-Sep-2008 @ 16:22]

Filed under: project status — bovine @ 16:22 +00:00

:: 30-Sep-2008 16:22 GMT (Tuesday) ::

Dear friends,

As you know, we are drawing to the conclusion of the OGR-25p2 project,
with less than 1% remaining and we estimate project completion
sometime within the next month. You can view the latest OGR-25p2
project percentages here:
http://stats.distributed.net/project/ogr_status.php

We have noted that a significant amount of work is not being counted,
due to being held out of the system for a long time and completed by
other users before it is returned. In some cases, it is returned even
after stubspaces have been closed. At the current stage of the
project, a workunit which isn’t returned within two weeks of being
issued will have a high chance of being recycled and processed by
somebody else. This duplicated workunit will still be credited in
personal stats, but it won’t have any value to the project.

One of the stubspaces currently open will take only two days of
concerted effort to close off. If we are to calculate at full
effectiveness, it is vital that work is completed and returned in a
timely fashion.

If your computer has a connection to our key servers or a local proxy
server, we recommend that you keep your client set to the default
buffer settings to avoid buffering an excessive amount of workunits.

Additionally, if your client is configured to participate in only
OGR-P2, we encourage you to consider enabling your clients to
participate in both OGR-P2 and RC5-72. Over the next few weeks, we
anticipate there being occasional periods of time when there will not
be any OGR-P2 workunits available, due to the recycle delays and
timeout periods. By enabling your clients to also process RC5-72, you
will ensure that your computers will not go completely idle during
these periods.

Finally, we would like to mention that we are currently finalizing a
next-generation OGR project that will further the exploration into
even higher-order Optimal Golomb Rulers. Stay tuned for more details
later.

We would like to thank you for your continued support and your ongoing
efforts to help us.

Moo!

2008-09-15

mikereed [15-Sep-2008 @ 00:35]

Filed under: Uncategorized — Mike Reed @ 00:35 +00:00

:: 15-Sep-2008 00:35 GMT (Monday) ::

Dear friends,

It has come to our attention that a firm named ‘Mystery Shoppers Inc.’ has
been sending out headed letters with our logo on them. These letters contain
instructions on how to become a mystery shopper and bogus checks to cash as
‘earnings’. We would like to assure you that we would never put our name to
this kind of operation. We hope that the fraudsters behind it are brought to
justice promptly. We thank you for your continuing support.

Moo!

2008-09-08

bovine [08-Sep-2008 @ 02:09]

Filed under: project status — bovine @ 02:09 +00:00

:: 08-Sep-2008 02:09 GMT (Monday) ::

Dear friends,

As announced on May 21, 2007, RSA Labs officially discontinued their
sponsorship of the Secret Key Challenge and withdrew the monetary
prize they offered. However, we have been continuing to run the RC5-72
project without their sponsorship. Effective with this announcement,
we will officially fund the prize using the same distribution ratios that
we would have originally used, as per
http://stats.distributed.net/misc/money.php?project_id=8

* The individual who finds the key US$1,000
* The winning individual’s team US$1,000
* Free Software Foundation (winning charity) US$2,000

Although the option of privately funding the prizes had been discussed
publicly on the mailing list and we had internally decided this
several months ago, we thought it would be prudent to officially
announce this position to our participants.

These prizes will be paid from our organization’s general purpose
funds. If you would like to make donations to us and designate them
for use as a prize, we will gladly honor that request. If we receive
designated contributions exceeding the above totals, then the excess
will be paid out in proportion to the above ratios. To donate to our
organization, please see http://www.distributed.net/donation.php

Moo!