The ECCp-109 challengeis an exciting distributed computing race right now. The finish line isunknownand there isn’t even a "keyspace" to complete like with RC5. It ends when twodifferentpeople who are crunching on different "trajectories"collide. It is possible to estimate the probability of that happening, however, and there is about a 50% chance of it ending within about 100 days at present crunch rates. Now,Team Vodka Martini(TVM) was briefly on top of this race about a month ago, but their their big rivals,The Dutch Power Cows, immediately started what they called a "GigaFlush" of distinguished points (DP’s)–a total of over 1,500,000 DP’s were dumped within a week, giving them a lead of 1,557,945 (as of 2002-06-29). Both teams started a heavy recruiting campaign resulting in a growth of more than 100% for both teams! After about two weeks the dust settled and TVM started the way back up. Several distributed Ars sister teams likeTeam Lamb Chop,Team Stir FryandTeam Prime Ribparticipated in a special gauntlet to help TVM get back on the track fast. This gauntlet lasted for 2 weeks and was won byThe Rolling Stones. The Gauntlet forum thread can be foundhere. Final standings:
