I’m using it with Windows 7 on a Desktop under Oracle’s VirtualBox.

Love the game Word Hunt. Most of the games have far too many small, obscure words for completion, but a game I just finished had only 20 words.

And I found them all!

No fireworks. Where were the fireworks?

See ten of the words in each screen-shot:

Three extra words they didn’t allow were “noone”, “nox” and “nano”. Come on, this is the 21^st nano-Century.

In this case it took 33. Yes, that’s right 33. The mathematical probability is 1/2 for each step to split the number into two factors. Here, things went wrong when almost every step said “Newton iteration failed to converge”, so it seems there are hidden bugs there somewhere.

The sqrt phase started on Saturday morning (Oct 29, 2011) and continued until Monday morning (Oct 31).

The Lanczos matrix step said that it had found 40 nontrivial dependencies, so if all 40 had failed, we would normally either reduce the number of relations from the 73,520,074 found or continue the sieving to find more. Either way would involve another possible 21+ hours of matrix inversion followed by the sqrt steps.

What a relief.

By the way, the number being factored was the 220-digit composite from 131⁴⁸ + 48¹³¹ = 7 • C220.

Results were posted as message 2433 on XYYXF (in Yahoo Groups) Mon, 31 Oct 2011:

(See http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/xyyxf/message/2433 )

Factor Results for C220_131_48: (by SNFS) — Dep 33 with many errors

prp46 factor:
1359529908141779271184277189171489400662\
097997

prp62 factor:
1911874395935236064025593241578389628028\
2870589357747809888407

prp113 factor:
9608507490790427829994761954763147371788\
3403021818589315152706842120055325258281\
894963227008240264378713088470181

–Bob.

This number came out at Dependency 33 after many mysterious “failed to converge” errors:

…
Fri Oct 28 13:19:41 2011 commencing linear algebra
Fri Oct 28 13:19:43 2011 read 3845291 cycles
Fri Oct 28 13:19:48 2011 cycles contain 10133440 unique relations
Fri Oct 28 13:21:11 2011 read 10133440 relations
Fri Oct 28 13:21:25 2011 using 20 quadratic characters above 536870684
Fri Oct 28 13:22:11 2011 building initial matrix
Fri Oct 28 13:24:02 2011 memory use: 1329.5 MB
Fri Oct 28 13:24:03 2011 read 3845291 cycles
Fri Oct 28 13:24:05 2011 matrix is 3845114 x 3845291 (1134.9 MB) with weight 334702241 (87.04/col)
Fri Oct 28 13:24:05 2011 sparse part has weight 259050938 (67.37/col)
Fri Oct 28 13:24:41 2011 filtering completed in 2 passes
Fri Oct 28 13:24:41 2011 matrix is 3844718 x 3844895 (1134.9 MB) with weight 334691813 (87.05/col)
Fri Oct 28 13:24:41 2011 sparse part has weight 259047871 (67.37/col)
Fri Oct 28 13:24:56 2011 read 3844895 cycles
Fri Oct 28 13:24:57 2011 matrix is 3844718 x 3844895 (1134.9 MB) with weight 334691813 (87.05/col)
Fri Oct 28 13:24:57 2011 sparse part has weight 259047871 (67.37/col)
Fri Oct 28 13:24:57 2011 saving the first 48 matrix rows for later
Fri Oct 28 13:24:59 2011 matrix is 3844670 x 3844895 (1092.3 MB) with weight 265839582 (69.14/col)
Fri Oct 28 13:24:59 2011 sparse part has weight 247878277 (64.47/col)
Fri Oct 28 13:24:59 2011 matrix includes 64 packed rows
Fri Oct 28 13:24:59 2011 using block size 65536 for processor cache size 8192 kB
Fri Oct 28 13:25:12 2011 commencing Lanczos iteration (8 threads)
Fri Oct 28 13:25:12 2011 memory use: 1301.2 MB
Fri Oct 28 13:25:28 2011 linear algebra at 0.0%, ETA 21h11m
Sat Oct 29 10:02:43 2011 lanczos halted after 60804 iterations (dim = 3844670)
Sat Oct 29 10:02:51 2011 recovered 40 nontrivial dependencies
Sat Oct 29 10:02:51 2011 BLanczosTime: 74590
Sat Oct 29 10:02:51 2011
Sat Oct 29 10:02:51 2011 commencing square root phase
Sat Oct 29 10:02:51 2011 reading relations for dependency 1
Sat Oct 29 10:02:52 2011 read 1922895 cycles
Sat Oct 29 10:02:54 2011 cycles contain 5065912 unique relations
Sat Oct 29 10:03:58 2011 read 5065912 relations
Sat Oct 29 10:04:24 2011 multiplying 5065912 relations
Sat Oct 29 10:17:44 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 133.03 million bits
Sat Oct 29 10:17:45 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Sat Oct 29 10:17:45 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Sat Oct 29 10:53:50 2011 Newton iteration failed to converge
Sat Oct 29 10:53:50 2011 algebraic square root failed
Sat Oct 29 10:53:50 2011 reading relations for dependency 2
Sat Oct 29 10:53:51 2011 read 1921916 cycles
Sat Oct 29 10:53:54 2011 cycles contain 5066996 unique relations
Sat Oct 29 10:54:57 2011 read 5066996 relations
Sat Oct 29 10:55:23 2011 multiplying 5066996 relations
Sat Oct 29 11:13:17 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 133.06 million bits
Sat Oct 29 11:13:17 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Sat Oct 29 11:13:18 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Sat Oct 29 12:09:36 2011 Newton iteration failed to converge
Sat Oct 29 12:09:36 2011 algebraic square root failed
Sat Oct 29 12:09:36 2011 reading relations for dependency 3
Sat Oct 29 12:09:36 2011 read 1922386 cycles
Sat Oct 29 12:09:40 2011 cycles contain 5067592 unique relations
Sat Oct 29 12:10:55 2011 read 5067592 relations
Sat Oct 29 12:11:34 2011 multiplying 5067592 relations
Sat Oct 29 12:32:27 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 133.08 million bits
Sat Oct 29 12:32:28 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Sat Oct 29 12:32:28 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Sat Oct 29 13:28:48 2011 Newton iteration failed to converge
Sat Oct 29 13:28:48 2011 algebraic square root failed
Sat Oct 29 13:28:48 2011 reading relations for dependency 4
Sat Oct 29 13:28:49 2011 read 1920514 cycles
Sat Oct 29 13:28:53 2011 cycles contain 5062796 unique relations
Sat Oct 29 13:30:07 2011 read 5062796 relations
Sat Oct 29 13:30:46 2011 multiplying 5062796 relations
Sat Oct 29 13:51:37 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 132.95 million bits
Sat Oct 29 13:51:38 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Sat Oct 29 13:51:38 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Sat Oct 29 14:47:58 2011 Newton iteration failed to converge
Sat Oct 29 14:47:58 2011 algebraic square root failed
Sat Oct 29 14:47:58 2011 reading relations for dependency 5
Sat Oct 29 14:47:59 2011 read 1921542 cycles
Sat Oct 29 14:48:03 2011 cycles contain 5063820 unique relations
Sat Oct 29 14:49:18 2011 read 5063820 relations
Sat Oct 29 14:49:57 2011 multiplying 5063820 relations
Sat Oct 29 15:10:49 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 132.98 million bits
Sat Oct 29 15:10:50 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Sat Oct 29 15:10:50 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Sat Oct 29 16:07:08 2011 reading relations for dependency 6
Sat Oct 29 16:07:09 2011 read 1921070 cycles
Sat Oct 29 16:07:13 2011 cycles contain 5062324 unique relations
Sat Oct 29 16:08:27 2011 read 5062324 relations
Sat Oct 29 16:09:06 2011 multiplying 5062324 relations
Sat Oct 29 16:29:56 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 132.94 million bits
Sat Oct 29 16:29:57 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Sat Oct 29 16:29:57 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Sat Oct 29 17:26:15 2011 reading relations for dependency 7
Sat Oct 29 17:26:16 2011 read 1922582 cycles
Sat Oct 29 17:26:20 2011 cycles contain 5066668 unique relations
Sat Oct 29 17:27:35 2011 read 5066668 relations
Sat Oct 29 17:28:14 2011 multiplying 5066668 relations
Sat Oct 29 17:49:07 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 133.05 million bits
Sat Oct 29 17:49:07 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Sat Oct 29 17:49:08 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Sat Oct 29 18:45:29 2011 Newton iteration failed to converge
Sat Oct 29 18:45:29 2011 algebraic square root failed
Sat Oct 29 18:45:29 2011 reading relations for dependency 8
Sat Oct 29 18:45:29 2011 read 1921431 cycles
Sat Oct 29 18:45:33 2011 cycles contain 5063694 unique relations
Sat Oct 29 18:46:48 2011 read 5063694 relations
Sat Oct 29 18:47:28 2011 multiplying 5063694 relations
Sat Oct 29 19:08:20 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 132.97 million bits
Sat Oct 29 19:08:21 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Sat Oct 29 19:08:21 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Sat Oct 29 20:04:44 2011 Newton iteration failed to converge
Sat Oct 29 20:04:44 2011 algebraic square root failed
Sat Oct 29 20:04:44 2011 reading relations for dependency 9
Sat Oct 29 20:04:45 2011 read 1922781 cycles
Sat Oct 29 20:04:49 2011 cycles contain 5069110 unique relations
Sat Oct 29 20:06:04 2011 read 5069110 relations
Sat Oct 29 20:06:43 2011 multiplying 5069110 relations
Sat Oct 29 20:27:36 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 133.12 million bits
Sat Oct 29 20:27:37 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Sat Oct 29 20:27:37 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Sat Oct 29 21:23:57 2011 Newton iteration failed to converge
Sat Oct 29 21:23:57 2011 algebraic square root failed
Sat Oct 29 21:23:57 2011 reading relations for dependency 10
Sat Oct 29 21:23:58 2011 read 1920899 cycles
Sat Oct 29 21:24:02 2011 cycles contain 5064278 unique relations
Sat Oct 29 21:25:16 2011 read 5064278 relations
Sat Oct 29 21:25:56 2011 multiplying 5064278 relations
Sat Oct 29 21:46:48 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 132.99 million bits
Sat Oct 29 21:46:48 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Sat Oct 29 21:46:49 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Sat Oct 29 22:43:09 2011 Newton iteration failed to converge
Sat Oct 29 22:43:09 2011 algebraic square root failed
Sat Oct 29 22:43:09 2011 reading relations for dependency 11
Sat Oct 29 22:43:10 2011 read 1922664 cycles
Sat Oct 29 22:43:14 2011 cycles contain 5068604 unique relations
Sat Oct 29 22:44:27 2011 read 5068604 relations
Sat Oct 29 22:45:06 2011 multiplying 5068604 relations
Sat Oct 29 23:05:57 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 133.11 million bits
Sat Oct 29 23:05:58 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Sat Oct 29 23:05:58 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Sun Oct 30 00:02:22 2011 Newton iteration failed to converge
Sun Oct 30 00:02:22 2011 algebraic square root failed
Sun Oct 30 00:02:22 2011 reading relations for dependency 12
Sun Oct 30 00:02:22 2011 read 1922119 cycles
Sun Oct 30 00:02:26 2011 cycles contain 5064340 unique relations
Sun Oct 30 00:03:41 2011 read 5064340 relations
Sun Oct 30 00:04:21 2011 multiplying 5064340 relations
Sun Oct 30 00:25:12 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 132.99 million bits
Sun Oct 30 00:25:13 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Sun Oct 30 00:25:13 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Sun Oct 30 01:21:33 2011 Newton iteration failed to converge
Sun Oct 30 01:21:33 2011 algebraic square root failed
Sun Oct 30 01:21:33 2011 reading relations for dependency 13
Sun Oct 30 01:21:34 2011 read 1923598 cycles
Sun Oct 30 01:21:38 2011 cycles contain 5068416 unique relations
Sun Oct 30 01:22:51 2011 read 5068416 relations
Sun Oct 30 01:23:30 2011 multiplying 5068416 relations
Sun Oct 30 01:44:22 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 133.10 million bits
Sun Oct 30 01:44:23 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Sun Oct 30 01:44:23 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Sun Oct 30 02:40:43 2011 Newton iteration failed to converge
Sun Oct 30 02:40:43 2011 algebraic square root failed
Sun Oct 30 02:40:43 2011 reading relations for dependency 14
Sun Oct 30 02:40:44 2011 read 1922990 cycles
Sun Oct 30 02:40:48 2011 cycles contain 5066768 unique relations
Sun Oct 30 02:42:02 2011 read 5066768 relations
Sun Oct 30 02:42:41 2011 multiplying 5066768 relations
Sun Oct 30 03:03:33 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 133.06 million bits
Sun Oct 30 03:03:33 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Sun Oct 30 03:03:34 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Sun Oct 30 03:59:54 2011 reading relations for dependency 15
Sun Oct 30 03:59:55 2011 read 1923933 cycles
Sun Oct 30 03:59:59 2011 cycles contain 5068060 unique relations
Sun Oct 30 04:01:18 2011 read 5068060 relations
Sun Oct 30 04:01:57 2011 multiplying 5068060 relations
Sun Oct 30 04:22:51 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 133.09 million bits
Sun Oct 30 04:22:52 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Sun Oct 30 04:22:52 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Sun Oct 30 05:19:10 2011 Newton iteration failed to converge
Sun Oct 30 05:19:10 2011 algebraic square root failed
Sun Oct 30 05:19:10 2011 reading relations for dependency 16
Sun Oct 30 05:19:11 2011 read 1923668 cycles
Sun Oct 30 05:19:15 2011 cycles contain 5068872 unique relations
Sun Oct 30 05:20:28 2011 read 5068872 relations
Sun Oct 30 05:21:07 2011 multiplying 5068872 relations
Sun Oct 30 05:41:58 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 133.11 million bits
Sun Oct 30 05:41:59 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Sun Oct 30 05:41:59 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Sun Oct 30 06:38:18 2011 Newton iteration failed to converge
Sun Oct 30 06:38:18 2011 algebraic square root failed
Sun Oct 30 06:38:18 2011 reading relations for dependency 17
Sun Oct 30 06:38:19 2011 read 1921938 cycles
Sun Oct 30 06:38:23 2011 cycles contain 5065234 unique relations
Sun Oct 30 06:39:37 2011 read 5065234 relations
Sun Oct 30 06:40:16 2011 multiplying 5065234 relations
Sun Oct 30 07:01:06 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 133.01 million bits
Sun Oct 30 07:01:07 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Sun Oct 30 07:01:07 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Sun Oct 30 07:57:23 2011 Newton iteration failed to converge
Sun Oct 30 07:57:23 2011 algebraic square root failed
Sun Oct 30 07:57:23 2011 reading relations for dependency 18
Sun Oct 30 07:57:24 2011 read 1920749 cycles
Sun Oct 30 07:57:28 2011 cycles contain 5065534 unique relations
Sun Oct 30 07:58:42 2011 read 5065534 relations
Sun Oct 30 07:59:21 2011 multiplying 5065534 relations
Sun Oct 30 08:20:12 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 133.02 million bits
Sun Oct 30 08:20:13 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Sun Oct 30 08:20:13 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Sun Oct 30 09:16:32 2011 Newton iteration failed to converge
Sun Oct 30 09:16:32 2011 algebraic square root failed
Sun Oct 30 09:16:32 2011 reading relations for dependency 19
Sun Oct 30 09:16:33 2011 read 1921228 cycles
Sun Oct 30 09:16:38 2011 cycles contain 5063624 unique relations
Sun Oct 30 09:17:51 2011 read 5063624 relations
Sun Oct 30 09:18:31 2011 multiplying 5063624 relations
Sun Oct 30 09:39:22 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 132.97 million bits
Sun Oct 30 09:39:23 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Sun Oct 30 09:39:23 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Sun Oct 30 10:35:42 2011 Newton iteration failed to converge
Sun Oct 30 10:35:42 2011 algebraic square root failed
Sun Oct 30 10:35:42 2011 reading relations for dependency 20
Sun Oct 30 10:35:43 2011 read 1922751 cycles
Sun Oct 30 10:35:47 2011 cycles contain 5064916 unique relations
Sun Oct 30 10:37:02 2011 read 5064916 relations
Sun Oct 30 10:37:42 2011 multiplying 5064916 relations
Sun Oct 30 10:58:33 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 133.01 million bits
Sun Oct 30 10:58:34 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Sun Oct 30 10:58:35 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Sun Oct 30 11:54:54 2011 Newton iteration failed to converge
Sun Oct 30 11:54:54 2011 algebraic square root failed
Sun Oct 30 11:54:54 2011 reading relations for dependency 21
Sun Oct 30 11:54:55 2011 read 1922658 cycles
Sun Oct 30 11:54:59 2011 cycles contain 5067126 unique relations
Sun Oct 30 11:56:13 2011 read 5067126 relations
Sun Oct 30 11:56:52 2011 multiplying 5067126 relations
Sun Oct 30 12:17:44 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 133.06 million bits
Sun Oct 30 12:17:45 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Sun Oct 30 12:17:45 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Sun Oct 30 13:14:04 2011 Newton iteration failed to converge
Sun Oct 30 13:14:04 2011 algebraic square root failed
Sun Oct 30 13:14:04 2011 reading relations for dependency 22
Sun Oct 30 13:14:06 2011 read 1922046 cycles
Sun Oct 30 13:14:10 2011 cycles contain 5065688 unique relations
Sun Oct 30 13:15:25 2011 read 5065688 relations
Sun Oct 30 13:16:04 2011 multiplying 5065688 relations
Sun Oct 30 13:36:56 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 133.02 million bits
Sun Oct 30 13:36:57 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Sun Oct 30 13:36:57 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Sun Oct 30 14:33:17 2011 Newton iteration failed to converge
Sun Oct 30 14:33:17 2011 algebraic square root failed
Sun Oct 30 14:33:17 2011 reading relations for dependency 23
Sun Oct 30 14:33:18 2011 read 1921561 cycles
Sun Oct 30 14:33:22 2011 cycles contain 5065824 unique relations
Sun Oct 30 14:34:36 2011 read 5065824 relations
Sun Oct 30 14:35:16 2011 multiplying 5065824 relations
Sun Oct 30 14:56:07 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 133.03 million bits
Sun Oct 30 14:56:08 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Sun Oct 30 14:56:08 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Sun Oct 30 15:52:24 2011 Newton iteration failed to converge
Sun Oct 30 15:52:24 2011 algebraic square root failed
Sun Oct 30 15:52:24 2011 reading relations for dependency 24
Sun Oct 30 15:52:26 2011 read 1922653 cycles
Sun Oct 30 15:52:30 2011 cycles contain 5068270 unique relations
Sun Oct 30 15:53:43 2011 read 5068270 relations
Sun Oct 30 15:54:23 2011 multiplying 5068270 relations
Sun Oct 30 16:15:14 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 133.10 million bits
Sun Oct 30 16:15:14 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Sun Oct 30 16:15:15 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Sun Oct 30 17:11:31 2011 Newton iteration failed to converge
Sun Oct 30 17:11:31 2011 algebraic square root failed
Sun Oct 30 17:11:31 2011 reading relations for dependency 25
Sun Oct 30 17:11:32 2011 read 1923008 cycles
Sun Oct 30 17:11:36 2011 cycles contain 5067092 unique relations
Sun Oct 30 17:12:50 2011 read 5067092 relations
Sun Oct 30 17:13:30 2011 multiplying 5067092 relations
Sun Oct 30 17:34:20 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 133.06 million bits
Sun Oct 30 17:34:21 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Sun Oct 30 17:34:21 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Sun Oct 30 18:30:37 2011 Newton iteration failed to converge
Sun Oct 30 18:30:37 2011 algebraic square root failed
Sun Oct 30 18:30:37 2011 reading relations for dependency 26
Sun Oct 30 18:30:38 2011 read 1921717 cycles
Sun Oct 30 18:30:42 2011 cycles contain 5064030 unique relations
Sun Oct 30 18:31:56 2011 read 5064030 relations
Sun Oct 30 18:32:36 2011 multiplying 5064030 relations
Sun Oct 30 18:53:26 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 132.98 million bits
Sun Oct 30 18:53:26 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Sun Oct 30 18:53:27 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Sun Oct 30 19:49:44 2011 Newton iteration failed to converge
Sun Oct 30 19:49:44 2011 algebraic square root failed
Sun Oct 30 19:49:44 2011 reading relations for dependency 27
Sun Oct 30 19:49:45 2011 read 1920575 cycles
Sun Oct 30 19:49:50 2011 cycles contain 5062388 unique relations
Sun Oct 30 19:51:05 2011 read 5062388 relations
Sun Oct 30 19:51:44 2011 multiplying 5062388 relations
Sun Oct 30 20:12:34 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 132.94 million bits
Sun Oct 30 20:12:35 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Sun Oct 30 20:12:35 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Sun Oct 30 21:08:53 2011 reading relations for dependency 28
Sun Oct 30 21:08:54 2011 read 1922721 cycles
Sun Oct 30 21:08:58 2011 cycles contain 5067978 unique relations
Sun Oct 30 21:10:11 2011 read 5067978 relations
Sun Oct 30 21:10:51 2011 multiplying 5067978 relations
Sun Oct 30 21:31:43 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 133.09 million bits
Sun Oct 30 21:31:44 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Sun Oct 30 21:31:44 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Sun Oct 30 22:28:07 2011 Newton iteration failed to converge
Sun Oct 30 22:28:07 2011 algebraic square root failed
Sun Oct 30 22:28:07 2011 reading relations for dependency 29
Sun Oct 30 22:28:08 2011 read 1924199 cycles
Sun Oct 30 22:28:12 2011 cycles contain 5069314 unique relations
Sun Oct 30 22:29:27 2011 read 5069314 relations
Sun Oct 30 22:30:07 2011 multiplying 5069314 relations
Sun Oct 30 22:50:59 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 133.12 million bits
Sun Oct 30 22:51:00 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Sun Oct 30 22:51:00 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Sun Oct 30 23:47:21 2011 Newton iteration failed to converge
Sun Oct 30 23:47:21 2011 algebraic square root failed
Sun Oct 30 23:47:21 2011 reading relations for dependency 30
Sun Oct 30 23:47:22 2011 read 1923086 cycles
Sun Oct 30 23:47:26 2011 cycles contain 5068548 unique relations
Sun Oct 30 23:48:41 2011 read 5068548 relations
Sun Oct 30 23:49:21 2011 multiplying 5068548 relations
Mon Oct 31 00:10:14 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 133.10 million bits
Mon Oct 31 00:10:15 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Mon Oct 31 00:10:15 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Mon Oct 31 01:06:36 2011 Newton iteration failed to converge
Mon Oct 31 01:06:36 2011 algebraic square root failed
Mon Oct 31 01:06:36 2011 reading relations for dependency 31
Mon Oct 31 01:06:38 2011 read 1921195 cycles
Mon Oct 31 01:06:42 2011 cycles contain 5064628 unique relations
Mon Oct 31 01:07:57 2011 read 5064628 relations
Mon Oct 31 01:08:36 2011 multiplying 5064628 relations
Mon Oct 31 01:29:28 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 133.00 million bits
Mon Oct 31 01:29:29 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Mon Oct 31 01:29:29 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Mon Oct 31 02:25:50 2011 Newton iteration failed to converge
Mon Oct 31 02:25:50 2011 algebraic square root failed
Mon Oct 31 02:25:50 2011 reading relations for dependency 32
Mon Oct 31 02:25:52 2011 read 1921864 cycles
Mon Oct 31 02:25:56 2011 cycles contain 5066216 unique relations
Mon Oct 31 02:27:10 2011 read 5066216 relations
Mon Oct 31 02:27:50 2011 multiplying 5066216 relations
Mon Oct 31 02:48:42 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 133.04 million bits
Mon Oct 31 02:48:43 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Mon Oct 31 02:48:43 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Mon Oct 31 03:45:02 2011 Newton iteration failed to converge
Mon Oct 31 03:45:02 2011 algebraic square root failed
Mon Oct 31 03:45:02 2011 reading relations for dependency 33
Mon Oct 31 03:45:03 2011 read 1921618 cycles
Mon Oct 31 03:45:07 2011 cycles contain 5065538 unique relations
Mon Oct 31 03:46:21 2011 read 5065538 relations
Mon Oct 31 03:47:01 2011 multiplying 5065538 relations
Mon Oct 31 04:07:53 2011 multiply complete, coefficients have about 133.02 million bits
Mon Oct 31 04:07:54 2011 warning: no irreducible prime found, switching to small primes
Mon Oct 31 04:07:54 2011 initial square root is modulo 53
Mon Oct 31 05:04:17 2011 sqrtTime: 154886
Mon Oct 31 05:04:17 2011 prp46 factor: 1359529908141779271184277189171489400662097997
Mon Oct 31 05:04:17 2011 prp62 factor: 19118743959352360640255932415783896280282870589357747809888407
Mon Oct 31 05:04:17 2011 prp113 factor: 96085074907904278299947619547631473717883403021818589315152706842120055325258281894963227008240264378713088470181
Mon Oct 31 05:04:17 2011 elapsed time 64:20:38

For many years Firefox has not allowed Copy/Paste to omit the actual hyphens in the resulting string on the Clipboard. Opera and IE work as expected (no actual hyphens).

Here is a small HTML file to demonstrate the problem. Copy and Paste this code into a text file called, say, hyphen.htm and then open it with Firefox. See what happens.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Testing Soft Hyphens</title>
<meta http-equiv=”Content-Type” content=”text/html; charset=windows-1252″ />
<style>
h1 {text-align: center}
p {padding-left: 4em; padding-right: 4em}
blockquote {padding-left: 4em; font-weight: bold}
</style>
</head>

<body>

<h1>Testing Soft Hyphens</h1>

<p>
Select and copy this number to the clipboard:
</p>

<blockquote>
1234567890&shy;1234567890&shy;1234567890
</blockquote>

<p>
You should get this:
</p>

<blockquote>
123456789012345678901234567890
</blockquote>

<p>
In Firefox we get this (showing the hyphens):
</p>

<blockquote>
1234567890-1234567890-1234567890
</blockquote>

<p>
If you paste it into Word or Wordpad, you appear to get
123456789012345678901234567890, but try saving it as plain text
(or rtf and actually look at the file with a text viewer) you will
see the dreaded hyphens. They are meant to be hidden.
</p>

<p>
<b><i>For how many years now, has Firefox got it wrong?</i></b>
</p>

<hr />

</body>
</html>

Here is the text:

The composite cofactor of 2,1031- was the product of 74-digit and 225-digit prime numbers:

74-digit prime factor:
 85884311010746784399233543419755720548350735429670484635313607293408440231

225-digit prime factor:
 2608126619512734023079871401658597171708499248629287812371858820458873848148365066692974001408079\
 0094023694008624928430905568835328503742450614946289860645017638349124175799945515756962732171253\
 365651516226751

This is the project's first kilobit SNFS factorization. The factors will be reported to the Cunningham
project and will be recorded on Page 122.

Unfortunately, this is not correct. The large number above has only 209 digits.

The 225-digit prime should be:

N = 2982096305018115260812661951273402307987140165859717170849924862928781237185
88204588738481483650666929740014080790094023694008624928430905568835328503742450
614946289860645017638349124175799945515756962732171253365651516226751

A Copy & Paste slip, no doubt.

[ The Forum entry has now been corrected by the author, after a quick email ] 

Well, DOSBox.com is the place to go.

This is not the Microsoft unofficial name for a “DOS Window” running under Windows 98, 2000, XP  or 7 but a site that offers true DOS emulation for our old programs.

The particular one I needed to run was a program originally written in 1999, but with mods up to 2007. It displays drill points from a Printed Circuit Board and sends plotter commands via a serial COM port to move a robot arm to drill the board. Much better than trying to juggle a high-speed piece of machinery by hand.

This is what happens under Windows 7:

But after installing DOSBox, it will run either in a window or fullscreen (just hit Alt-Enter to toggle):

The caption says “Drill by Column” but as you can see, the white line goes all over the place. This is because when the program called Windows “sort”, it failed because it was not a DOS sort. Have a look in c:\windows\system32\sort.exe and you’ll see “This program cannot be run in DOS mode.”. Luckily I had a DOS sort program from way back. I renamed it sort.com and put it in my drill folder. NOW the sorting works.

I’m using Windows 7.

It seems that this is an old problem, going back at least as far as Vista.

Apparently Windows Explorer keeps a list of all icons that have ever been used in the Notification Area and there seems to be an unstated limit to this number.

The fix is to delete a couple of Registry data entries and restart explorer.exe (or reboot). Logout/login may also be sufficient.

Here are the details:

• Back up the Registry by creating a restore point.
• Press the Windows key, type regedit, and press Enter to open the Registry Editor.
• Navigate to and select HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify.
• Delete both IconStreams and PastIconStream in the right pane.
• Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete and select Start Task Manager. Or use the (secret) combo: Ctrl-Shift-Escape.
• Select the Processes tab, choose explorer.exe, and click End Process.
• Choose the Applications tab, click New Task, enter explorer.exe in the text box, and press Enter.

Here is the Notification Area after the icons came back (especially Ditto – a free Clipboard manager):

Needless to say, I switched to a free one instead (PrimoPDF) – which works brilliantly.

[ My version of  Microsoft Word 2002 did not have a Save As PDF option, hence the problem. ]

What a nerve!

Again, “There is no detailed information available for this crash”. What a surprise.

The rest of the page tells you what to do (keep software up-to-date, run anti-virus scans etc) if you are experiencing frequent crashers! What?