Word: pc
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...called community, or distributed, computing, and the phenomenal popularity of SETI@home has spawned something of a distributed-computing craze. This fall several Internet start-ups and not-for-profit groups have launched new initiatives in fields ranging from gene mapping to drug design, hoping to harness spare PC processing cycles and either give them away or sell them to the highest bidder...
Becoming part of a distributed-computing network is easy. You simply log onto a website and download free data-crunching software that doubles as a snazzy screensaver. Anytime you go online after that, the computer contacts a server that beams you a small packet of data for your PC to analyze. The calculations are performed whenever your computer is idle; the next time you log on, the results are beamed back to the server, where they are combined with those sent in by other PCs. Like any other screensaver, the system is utterly unobtrusive. Tap a key, touch a mouse...
Hold fast if you don't want to make tax moves. If you're sitting on cash, start looking for bargains as tax-related selling and general October angst drive stocks down further. Don't abandon tech stocks, but don't be wed to them either. Slowing PC demand is a problem. Cheaper groups such as banks, utilities and energy--even after a recent run--may serve you better. Above all, don't panic, especially if others...
...best computer toy I ever lost was a demo disc of PC viruses I came across about a decade back. The software was a sort of digital rogues' gallery, intended to "educate" the user by demonstrating how certain bugs behaved. Activate the "Cascade" demo, for instance, and letters would pop out of your text like rotten teeth and collect in a pile at the bottom of your screen. These domesticated viruses weren't infectious like their cousins in the wild. If you just removed the floppy from the PC, the mischief would cease...
Back then, such faux viruses were the only strains most PC users would encounter, since the real ones were pretty much confined to college campuses, where people swapped floppies with dewy-eyed abandon. But now, as everyone knows, genuine viruses--nasty, infectious, hard-drive-trashing ones--are far more common, thanks to e-mail-borne bugs that mutate faster than a walking catfish at Three Mile Island. So what's an e-mail magnet like...