For the past 3 weeks, I have been slowly drawing down my daily actives at PrimeGrid. In short, life changes, and so too, must I.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the past 5 years helping out here at PrimeGrid. Going from a single search project to now more than 25 total searches has been a great experience. Along the way, many friends, colleagues, and acquaintances have been gathered. For that, I am truly grateful.

Thousands of primes and numerous records have fallen. And now PG will soon be scaling the "Mt. Everest" of primes, the World's Largest Prime. A record that has been held by the Mersenne form for the past 20 years. Actually, in the last 60 years, a non-Mersenne prime has held the record only once, 1989-1992 by The "Amdahl 6" Group : 391581*2^216193-1.

The time is ripe for the next form of the world record to be a generalized Fermat. Additionally, the top 10 primes could soon be mostly generalized Fermat primes. With the proper resources, adequate support, and attention, this could become reality relatively quick.

It's tough to leave with PG standing on the pinnacle of such a HUGE success. It's also difficult to leave with such a backlog of future prime searches and improvements waiting to be implemented not to mention the recent LLR developments that are drastically reducing primality testing times.

Many thanks goes out to everyone who has ever contributed to PrimeGrid - the crunchers without whom PrimeGrid would not/could not exist; the developers who make all the searches plausible/possible/successful; the testers who painstakingly fine-tune our advances; the forum community who lend a helping hand to those in need; to Lennart, PrimeGrid's lifeblood, who has almost single handedly kept PG running for the past 2 years, a sounding board, who has spent endless hours providing support; and to Rytis, the original architect of the PrimeGrid BOINC project.

Lennart will be absorbing many of my responsibilities...others will be dropped such as R&D, project/developer/software coordination, PSA management, and PRPNet package support until future help can be brought on board. Hopefully this can be accomplished relatively soon. I'll still be available for a little while as there are many loose ends to tie up with developer and software coordination. And when everything's complete, I'll still only be an email away (just not the usual 24 hours away). :)

I look forward to one day soon reading how the World's largest prime has fallen to the members of PrimeGrid. That will truly be a fantastic event...or even a Sophie Germain at n=666666 or a megabit twin at n=1010101. ;)

Best wishes to everyone!

I am reminded of a poem I was required to learn in high school. The last line just so happens to be our school motto as well. It seems fitting to end with this from Alfred, Lord Tennyson's "Ulysses":

Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
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John,

I'm almost speechless. To say that you will be missed is a vast understatement.

Thank you, so very much, for everything you have done, and the best of luck to you in whatever activities the future may bring your way.


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My lucky number is 75898⁵²⁴²⁸⁸+1

It was an honor to me ...

Thank you for your efforts and your support particular when I am building up the PRPNet stats. Today I would not be there, where I am ...

a german saying: see you twice in a lifetime!
I am curious ...

all good wishes to you (and to the yours)


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Sysadm@Nbg
my current lucky number: 3749*2^1555697+1
PSA-PRPNet-Stats-URL: http://u-g-f.de/PRPNet/

John, I wish you well in your life beyond primegrid and hope you have time to pop in now and then!

Best wishes to you, and your family. There is little people who has so much patience to understand, and answer to as many question as can.
Good luck ,and write sometimes something on forum! :))
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92*10^^1439761-1 NEAR-REPDIGIT PRIME :) :) :)
314187728^¹³¹⁰⁷²+1 GENERALIZED FERMAT
31*332^³⁶⁷⁵⁶⁰+1 CRUS PRIME
Proud member of team Aggie The Pew. Go Aggie!

John, great job!

John,

I cannot express enough my appreciation for what you have done for PG. Yours has always been a voice of reason and fairness. I believe that PG is among the best (if, indeed, not actually the best) run of all of the BOINC projects, and it is so in no small part due to your efforts here.

I do not know what your future holds, but for someone with your skills and patience, I can only assume that it will be something to envy. Best of luck, and if you can, do please keep in touch.



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141941*2^4299438-1 is prime!

All the best John. I'm noticing that not only are you leaving on the same date you joined, but in fact it is the same weekday :)!

John, thank you for all the energy you have dedicated over past 5 years...
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My stats
Badge score: 1*1 + 5*1 + 8*3 + 9*11 + 10*1 + 11*1 + 12*3 = 186

All the best John. I'm noticing that not only are you leaving on the same date you joined, but in fact it is the same weekday :)!

Well, talk about serendipity!!! "I had no idea." :D -trivia: name the movie the quote comes from. :)

John,

You've outdone yourself the entire time I've crunched for Primegrid.

Thanks for everything!

Neo
AtP

John, it was a great honor to me.
I wish you and your family the best for the future and thank you for the endless support!

Ronald
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Best wishes. Knowledge is power. by jjwhalen

John, you have been a beacon of wisdom, seemingly an answer for everything, a sounding board to all prime, ready with a wealth of knowledge. You have been the book cover, chapter and verse, the "face" of PrimeGrid. It 's not going to be the same without you. Thank You.

I will miss you.
NeoMetal*

P.S. My eyes teared as I started reading this, like I was losing a friend.
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Largest Primes to Date:
As Double Checker: SR5 109208*5^1816285+1 Dgts-1,269,534
As Initial Finder: SR5 243944*5^1258576-1 Dgts-879,713

I'd like to see a special "JMB" badge for you to be awarded exactly once and to no one else. Maybe it could have a "rainbow" background if such a thing is possible. Since your postings will persist on these boards even if you are absent, they deserve special "decoration".

Thank you for your immeasurable contributions and best wishes in your future endeavors. I've learned a lot here, and I hope to continue to do so!

--Gary

John, big thank you for all the time and work you have invested to help PrimeGrid becoming one of the most successful DC projects.

Best wishes for your future!

Like Mike and others posting before me, I was very surprised to come across this sad news! John leaving will be a great loss to the project, but I sincerely wish you all the best in whatever you turn your hand to next. On a personal note, one couldn't hope to have worked with a nicer chap.

Thanks John for all you've brought to PG over the last 5 years - you'll be sorely missed.

Cheers

- Iain
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Twitter: IainBethune
Proud member of team "Aggie The Pew". Go Aggie!
3073428256125*2^1290000-1 is Prime!

It's a sad day to see you move on John. I thank you personally for your promotion of PRPNet at PrimeGrid.

My Thanks for the help you've given me too John, good fortune with whatever or wherever you go John ... :)
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A final farewell!

The floors are swept, the tools put away, and the dishes cleaned. There's nothing left to do but say, "until we meet again." :) Well, there are a couple of dishes to put away, but for all sense and purposes, my tenure here is complete. My daily activities at PG have finally reached an end. ;(

I'd like to thank each and every one of you for your kind, gentle, and warm comments. They are truly a wonderful parting gift.

I wish you all the best!

p.s. Find that world record GFN. ;)
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Hello John,

I've been inactive here for a while. Just saw you are moving on from the project. It was great to work with you back when i was active (ap26 days). Always quick with a response and supporting input from volunteer developers like me. Thank you for that, and I wish you all the best for the future!

Bryan Little
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