It has come to my attention (thanks to a Google search on particular
digits - isn't Google wonderful?), that I (bearnol) inadvertently
mis-credited the discovery of the 36-digit factor of (M+2)2203.
I originally found this factor using Dario Alpern's (also pretty
wonderful, but anyway...) Java ECM factorizer when I first started
investigating these numbers, and so naturally enough, gave him credit
(and a fish!) for it.
However, this applet draws on a database (managed by yet another (!),
Will Edgington) into which the factor (along with, later, other M+2
factors found as part of this project proper, incidentally) had already
been inducted. Sadly this latter database (probably for sensible
technical reasons) lacks any system of accreditation, so I remained
none the wiser as to the original discoverer of (M+2)2203's factor.
This turns out to have been Tony Forbes (back in 1999 as part of his
own investigations into something else related), so hopefully it is now
fixed on the M+2 homepage!
J