So, who thinks forming a small team (10 people?) and crunching the hell out of Eternity2.net work and splitting the earnings is a good idea?

Perhaps everyone attach as a single user?

Or is 34 pounds / $60 a total flippin rip-off? (That's my first instinct)

I think 60$ spent on lottery tickets is a better choice and keep crunching for science

I'm generally in agreement. I thought I'd float the idea, though.

Where does the $60 come from?

I think it is in my case, but if you're a big-time cruncher and attach all your hosts you have a chance.

To crunch for eternity2.net you must buy the real game, which is about USD 60.

I searched their site, can't find a reference to that. Care to post a link?

Damn, I'm blind.

Easier to see Prize Money since it's written in bold.

This project is just one of the contestants....no guarantee the founder or anyone else running this project will win anything IMHO

That's a post from the eternity forum (I bet it will be gone soon)

<snip>
Message 37 - Posted 22 Jul 2007 19:00:52 UTC [Edit this post]

Nobody is giving away 1 or 2 million bucks! Nobody! There will be grief, hate, and sorrow at the end.
Either the manufacturer pushes the sales or .....

I do not believe one word.

Nice idea but it seems like one of those emails we all get from the UK currently. U won 2.500.000.000 .....

Give the cpu-cycles to fightaids@home or whatever u like best.

regards
</snip>

You have t buy the game when u wanna run eternity, btw.

I give my cycles to CPN, Seti, WCG, and others. I don't want to be one of the upset and disappointed guys who threw all their cycles out of the window to make others rich.
I'd rather calculate some CPN cycles with a sheet of paper and my abacus. 8)

Be careful with ur resources!

According to the BOINC project admin (just read around the forums to find this info), the reason purchase is required is because the 'piece definition file', the file which describes the pattern of each of the 256 pieces of the board, is not allowed to be distributed (he cites copyright concerns). Thus, you must buy the game and create this file yourself.

A news story can be found on the BBC.

Don't feel bad, eternity seemed to be just another BOINC project until one tried to get a WU to run.

. . . then go back and read the fine print.

Been there, done that. . . .

The project admin is not the puzzle maker. He is a third party person who will split the winnings 50/50 with the one BOINCer who's computer finds the one answer out of thousands. The one answer was preselected by the puzzle maker "Lord Christopher Monckton".

When you purchase the puzzle, the piece definition file is included along with it's own application to run seperately from BOINC. But, by going through the Eternity II BOINC project you are increasing your odds of the project finding the answer and the winner being one the BOINCers.

IMHO, since this project is not for science I will keep my money and spend my time and cycles on the projects that need it.

Good luck to you all on this one,

Would seem this only increases the project admins odds of winning....not the crunchers....project admin needs to pay the crunchers for thier comp time on this one in my opinion....something like if the project wins and actually gets the cash he re-imburses all participants for thier (60$) ,75$,or even 100$ that way you have a chance at a free game and maybe pays some of the electricity. I'm sticking with science and hope most do too.

That's true! Your chances of winning by running the app alone are the same as when running the project. However, the admin gets increased chances because all the users' computers are added...

So why would any intelligent person want to split half his winnings with project admin when there is absolutely no benefit in doing so? Am I missing something? Is it because some people will join any Boinc project just to up thier count of projects?

I bet some people attached without even reading they can't win without buying the real puzzle, so surely a lot more attached without "calculating" that crunching in the project doesn't increase the odds of winning.

One of my teammates attached to that project in order to test it and add it to his cross-project-credit-comparison table. And then he wondered why he did not get a single WU...
So I guess that about 90% of the users attached without thinking about it. :|

I did attach w/o thinking to much about it ( I tipically attach till I got 10k from a project) I have gotten several apps, but meny of them are crashing, and even locking up my systems. Im not going to run this till I get my 10k, this is the first project I have done this for...

I'd think an enterpriseing lad would get the jump on these greedy guys running Eternity2.net and make the split more enticing; like 20/80 in favor of the crunchers. That'd still be a huge winning, more than most people make in several years of working, and a larger incentive for crunchers to join.

I think I too will keep away, but I'll watch with interest to see how it all plays out.

Hi.
I am the administrator for this project, http://eternity2.net.
This project provides participants with a BOINC application which attempts to solve the (soon to be released) puzzle EternityII. (see its official site http://www.eternityii.com).
If your computer solves this puzzle, you will share (50/50) the US$2,000,000 prize with eternity2.net!
In order to solve this puzzle using the Eternity2.net boinc software, you will need to own a legitimate copy of the puzzle. This is due to copyright restrictions. Obviously it would be great to be able to distribute the software solver 'complete' with all necessary details of the actual puzzle pieces, however the inventor and distributors have indicated that this would be a breach of their copyright, and they would likely sue me!
Hence users are required to type in some information about their puzzle in order to prove that they own it.
You can read more about the issues at http://eternity2.net/legal.php

So this project isn't suitable to just 'sign up for' without understanding the project's goals, and I apologize if some users have signed up and then been disappointed that additional steps (and a puzzle purchase) are required before meaningful work units can be achieved.

For those users who do wish to buy the puzzle, and join this project, good luck for winning US$1,000,000 !

Dave Clark
http://Eternity2.net

Running the project doesn't increase individuals' chances of finding the answer (and getting money), only your chances. I see you didn't comment on that...

Sure it does.

If you don't buy the puzzle you have 0 chance of winning. AKA "0 lotto tickets".

If you buy the puzzle alone, you have only your single brain working on it. AKA "1 lotto ticket".

If you buy the puzzle and join the project, you have your brain, plus as many results as you can crunch. AKA "many lotto tickets".