From owner-freebsd-hackers  Mon Feb 10 12:16:28 1997
Return-Path: <owner-hackers>
Received: (from root@localhost)
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id MAA22447
          for hackers-outgoing; Mon, 10 Feb 1997 12:16:28 -0800 (PST)
Received: from gateway.skipstone.com (root@GATEWAY.SKIPSTONE.COM [198.214.10.129])
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id MAA22441
          for <hackers@freebsd.org>; Mon, 10 Feb 1997 12:16:24 -0800 (PST)
Received: from [204.69.236.50] (hotapplepie.skipstone.com [204.69.236.50]) by gateway.skipstone.com (8.7.4/8.6.9) with SMTP id OAA16828; Mon, 10 Feb 1997 14:16:02 -0600
Date: 10 Feb 97 14:16:16 -0600
Subject: Re: cool RSA Challenge project, friendly to FreeBSD
From: "Richard Wackerbarth" <rkw@dataplex.net>
To: "Russell L. Carter" <rcarter@consys.com>
Cc: hackers@freebsd.org
X-Mailer: Cyberdog/2.0a2
MIME-Version: 1.0
Message-Id: <AF24DE33-110BC7@204.69.236.50>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Sender: owner-hackers@freebsd.org
X-Loop: FreeBSD.org
Precedence: bulk

	On Mon, Feb 10, 1997 11:20 AM, Russell L. Carter
<mailto:rcarter@consys.com> wrote: 
>
>Those that don't mind hosting a possibly innocuous, polite,
>cpu-cycle parasite might have a look at 
[snip]
>(I have no connection whatsoever to these people)

As an alternative, you might consider ....
(I DO have a connection to THESE people ;-)

>From a recent news release...

NFSNET, a group of people who factor large numbers using the
Number Field Sieve algorithm, announces a record factorization:

On Tuesday, 4 February 1997, we completed the factorization of a
composite number of 167 digits, one of the `More Wanted' factorizations
of the Cunningham Project.  It is:

3,349- = (3^349 - 1)/2 = c167 = p80 * p87

where

p80 = 940428508899845109982891523204385417985320180216539562\
      83741193211654025280185459
p87 = 174165493740875256464746388999480533990944334266849687\
      054611524922878840708206608860499

[snip]

The penultimate prime factor has 80 digits, a record.  The 167-digit
number is also the largest number ever factored by the Number Field
Sieve.

[snip]

NFSNET is a collaborative effort to factor numbers by the Number Field
Sieve.  It relies on volunteers from around the world who contribute
the "spare time" of a large number of workstations to perform the
sieving.

The organizers and principal researchers:

Marije Elkenbracht-Huizing, Peter Montgomery, Bob Silverman,
Richard Wackerbarth, Sam Wagstaff, Jr.

[snip]

If you would like to volunteer the services of your workstation to
help factor large numbers, please email rkw@factoring.dataplex.net
to learn how to join NFSNET.