A friend sent me the following... interesting :)

It is a great privilege and we are excited to announce that at 13:25 GMT on
19-Oct-1997, we found the correct solution for RSA Labs' RC5-32/12/7 56-bit
secret-key challenge.  Confirmed by RSA Labs, the key 0x532B744CC20999
presented us with the plaintext message for which we have been searching
these past 250 days.

The unknown message is: It's time to move to a longer key length

In undeniably the largest distributed-computing effort ever, the Bovine RC5
Cooperative (http://www.distributed.net/), under the leadership of
distributed.net, managed to evaluate 47% of the keyspace, or 34 quadrillion
keys, before finding the winning key.  At the close of this contest our 4000
active teams were processing over 7 billion keys each second at an aggregate
computing power equivalent to more than 26 thousand Pentium 200s or over 11
thousand PowerPC 604e/200s.  Over the course of the project, we received
block submissions from over 500 thousand unique IP addresses.

The winning key was found by Peter Stuer <[log in to unmask]> with an
Intel Pentium Pro 200 running Windows NT Workstation, working for the
STARLab Bovine Team coordinated by Jo Hermans <[log in to unmask]> and
centered in the Computer Science Department (DINF) of the Vrije Universiteit
(VUB) in Brussels, Belgium.  (http://dinf.vub.ac.be/bovine.html/).  Jo's
only comments were that "$1000 will buy a lot of beer" and that he wished
that the solution had been found by a Macintosh, the platform that
represented the largest portion of his team's cracking power.
Congratulations Peter and Jo!

Of the US$10000 prize from RSA Labs, they will receive US$1000 and plan to
host an unforgettable party in celebration of our collective victory.  If
you're anywhere near Brussels, you might want to find out when the party
will be held.  US$8000, of course, is being donated to Project Gutenberg
(http://www.promo.net/pg/) to assist them in their continuing efforts in
converting literature into electronic format for the public use.  The
remaining US$1000 is being retained by distributed.net to assist in funding
future projects.

Equally important are the thanks, accolades, and congratulations due
to all who participated and contributed to the Bovine RC5-56 Effort!
The thousands of teams and tens of thousands of individuals who have
diligently tested key after key are the reason we are so successful.

The thrill of finding the key more than compensates for the sleep,
food, and free time that we've sacrificed!

Special thanks go to all the coders and developers, especially Tim Charron,
who has graciously given his time and expertise since the earliest days of
the Bovine effort.  Thanks to all the coordinators and keyserver operators:
Chris Chiapusio, Paul Chvostek, Peter Denitto, Peter Doubt, Mishari Muqbil,
Steve Sether, and Chris Yarnell.  Thanks to Andrew Meggs, Roderick Mann, and
Kevyn Shortell for showing us the true power of the Macintosh and the
strength of its users.  We'd also like to thank Dave Avery for attempting to
bridge the gap between Bovine and the other RC5 efforts.

Once again, a heartfelt clap on the back goes out to all of us who have run
the client.  Celebrations are in order.  I'd like to invite any and all to
join us on the EFNet IRC network channel #rc5 for celebrations as we regroup
and set our sights on the next task.  Now that we've proven the limitations
of a 56-bit key length, let's go one further and demonstrate the power of
distributed computing!  We are, all of us, the future of computing.  Join
the excitement as the world is forced to take notice of the power we've
harnessed.