"The originator of this type of distributed computing, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, based in Berkeley, Calif., began corralling members in May 1999, strictly for its cause."

( if you are prompted for a login/password use the following login: phulephule and password: phulephule )

I sent the following email to: 'webmaster@nytimes.com'; 'editor@nytimes.com' on June 04, 2001

In regards to the following article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/03/technology/03HARN.html

Mr. DAVID LIPSCHULTZ writes the following:

"The originator of this type of distributed computing, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, based in Berkeley, Calif., began corralling members in May 1999, strictly for its cause."

This is whole-heartedly incorrect.

distributed.net (http://www.distributed.net/) has been participating in distributed computing challenges since 1997; 2 years prior to Seti@home. You can review their history here: http://www.distributed.net/history.html

The problem with Mr. Lipschultz's article is that it's based on PR releases from the big-money backers of Seti@home (Sun, et all). The irony, of course, is that I have no proof of my hypothesis, which is why I'm using it to illustrate my point.

Thank you.

I recieved a response from a Mr. Rick Gladstone ( rickg@nytimes.com ) June 05, 2001

Dear Mr. Bernhard:

Thank you for your letter about David Lipschultz's article in the 6/3 Money & Business section, which was eventually forwarded to me. I'm the deputy editor of the section.

While distributed.net and/or others may have undertaken distributed computing tasks before the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, the magnitude and purpose of SETI's undertaking distinguished it as an originator in some important ways. SETI was the first to get members and put their network to use on a large scale. Many people in the industry seem to agree on that, and in fact most say they got the idea of their businesses from SETI.

In the context of the story, our use of the qualifying term "this type" refers to the use of such processing power for an eventual gain or project. Therefore, we don't believe a correction is warranted.

Sincerely,

Rick Gladstone

212-556-8062

My response to Mr. Gladstone. (June 15, 2001)

Mr. Gladstone,

Thank you for your response, however, given these comments, I believe even more so, that a correction is warranted.

The idea that "well, you might have been around first, but I've not heard of you" is used when reporting is very frightening.

1. If as you've said, "most say they got the idea of their businesses from SETI." then where did seti@home get their idea from? Is it just chance that David Anderson, co-founder of seti@home hired 14 persons from distributed.net to United Devices?

2. Now let's go through the highlights of the http://www.distributed.net/history.html page :

January 28, 1997
RC5-32/12/7 (56-bit) Secret Key Challenge begins

May 8, 1997 - distributed.net domain debuts
'distributed.net' is registered with InterNIC and goes online.
Project-wide DuncanStats debut.

October 22, 1997 - RC5-56 Finished
RC5-56 is cracked after 212 days. Percent of keyspace completed: 47.03%, 5.3 Gk/s average rate, estimated time to exhaust keyspace at current rate: 83 days.

December 18, 1997
distributed.net announces its intention to participate in DES-II-1.

February 23, 1998 - DES-II-1 Finished
DES-II-1 falls. Percent of keyspace completed: 88.4%, 28.1 Gk/s daily rate.

March 5, 1998
distributed.net rolls out regional support with 29 representatives serving 29 countries

July 13, 1998
DES-II-2 starts

July 17, 1998
DES-II-2 is over. The key was found by the Electronic Frontier Foundation using $250,000 worth of custom hardware.

January 18, 1999
RSA's DES Challenge III begins

January 19, 1999
distributed.net and EFF solve the DES-III challenge in a record 22 hours, 15 minutes, 4 seconds.

November 17, 1999
The CSC contest is launched. On the first day, 382650 blocks, or 0.14% of the keyspace is done at an average rate of 1.2Gk/s

January 15, 2000
CSC contest completed.

So, let us sum up. Since 1997, distributed.net has completed:
RC5-64,
DES-II-1,
DES-II-2,
DES-III, and
CSC.

The EFF (you must have heard of them) spends $250,000 building a custom machine to show, with distributed.net that DES encryption is not secure. You can buy a book from EFF on the subject.

What has seti@home completed?

What they have done is re-write history for lazy editors and reporters by getting big corporate sponsorship to be on their press releases. Who gets noticed more, distributed.net or someone with Sun Microsystems on their letterhead?

This email started off as an open dialog, in my mind, to try and show you that PR does not make fact. But by the end, I realized that it won't really matter. You already believe what you want to believe, despite the facts and no amount of pointing out your mistake will ever correct that. Maybe that's cynical, but it seems to be the norm in the news media.

Update: 07/05/01

A mirror of that article is available here: http://www.distributed.net/pressroom/mirror/nytimes-10-24-97.html.

As a result of this, I send another email to Mr. Gladstone:

I just wanted to point out that, as the editor of this particular section of the New York Times, you might want to read through some of your archives on the subject of distributed computing.

http://www.distributed.net/pressroom/mirror/nytimes-10-24-97.html

The New York Times covered distributed.net's win of the RC5-56 contest in October of 1997.