Karlin Lillington
If you have a task to do, find someone to share the work and you get the job done in half the time. That’s the idea behind Distributed.net, a group that co- ordinates spare computer processor power from across the Internet to solve huge mathematical tasks which otherwise would take days, weeks, and in some cases, years.
The tasks range from research projects to find large prime numbers, to cracking coded messages, to analysing radio waves emanating from space. Distributed.net offers links to download a small program which sits on volunteers’ computers. The program then downloads tiny chunks of the problem from the Distributed.net site and works on that information in the background when the computer is on but not being used.
Anyone can help, whether you have a powerful workstation in the office or a personal computer at home. Find out more at their website, .
Last week Distributed.net joined forces with the home-made supercomputer specially built by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, . They cracked an encoded message as part of a competition to underline the weakness of the standard, United States-government approved algorithm used in some encryption programs. They broke the code in less than 23 hours.
And you thought that in space no one can hear you scream. Then try listening to these recordings of William Shatner – that’s Captain James T Kirk to you – singing Mr Tambourine Man, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and It Was a Very Good Year. All these and more are there at The Captain James T Kirk Singalong Site, .
And wait, there’s more! Hear Scotty, Lieutenant Uhura, Data and Spock belt ’em out, too. It’s singing, Jim, but not as we know it. Captain Picard, however, limits himself to some tasteful storytelling.
Interested in getting a refund for not using the operating system pre- installed on your new computer? Then don’t open Windows. Apparently a little-known clause in the end-user licence agreement for Microsoft’s Windows notes that computer purchasers who refuse to agree to the agreement and never use Windows on the machine can request a refund from the PC manufacturer.
A feisty bunch of users of (but of course) Linux – the inexpensive, and often free, renegade operating system created by Linus Torvalds – is organising a Refund Day on February 15, when they hope thousands will demand their money back. .
Ever wondered where the rich and famous surf? Celebrities describe their browser bookmarks for their favourite sites at Encyclopaedia Britannica’s eBlast site.
Who’d have guessed that legal thriller writer Scott Turow could be so unbelievably boring that he’d admit to buying seven used golfballs online and to regularly looking at his wife’s homepage?