I'm being lazy about the search, depending on the random distribution to keep work from overlapping too much instead of taking the time to keep track of what has been done, or implementing a systematic search of the possible combinations.

My thought is that there are so many possibilities and so few CPU cycles available to me that making random guesses is a better way to approach it. Kinda like winning the lottory, except harder.

I've started mine in erlang. I'm going to run 10 dollars worth of ec2 time and see how far I get.

I've got mine in C. I probably won't run it, just wrote it for fun. Honestly, if you were thinking of spending a cent on this competition, I think you'd get a better ROI buying a SuperLOTTO ticket.

Lotto tickets aren't nearly as much fun as coding, so what's another 10 bucks.

Personally I'd run through a thousand bucks of computer time to play around with something or test a hunch before considering a lotto ticket.

Lotto tickets are taxes for people that are not good in mathematics.

or they just play for fun

Alas, being good in mathematics spoils the fun.

Well, keep in mind that you only have to have the best score out of all the entrants, so your odds aren't that bad.