Computing

Computing

Scouring the Web

Looking for the perfect Web search engine? It probably doesn’t exist, but you can find out the strengths, weaknesses, and quirks of various Net-scouring tools at the “Search Engine Showdown” Web site, maintained by Montana State University librarian Greg R. Notess. Check out the inconsistencies report and sample tips for efficient searching. Go to: http://www.notess.com/search/

Computing

Finding networks within networks

A new mathematical procedure, or algorithm, picks out those members within a larger network—for instance, related sites on the World Wide Web—that have especially close ties.

Computing

Calculating Cartoons

Thanks to sophisticated computer simulations of the laws of physics, spectacular special effects—plus a zoo of strange but real-looking creatures—increasingly enliven movie screens and computer-game consoles.

Computing

Sneaky Calculations

The same communication system that brings you the Web page of your choice can be exploited to perform computations.

Computing

Computer paints a charged bioportrait

By employing a novel computational strategy, researchers have mapped the electrical landscape of biological molecules made up of more than 1 million atoms.

Computing

New initiatives scale up supercomputing

Several government efforts aim to give researchers access to computing power in the range of 12 trillion operations per second or more.

Computing

Web worms: Code Red to Warhol

Using an efficient infection strategy, a malicious programmer could deploy a rogue computer program far more voracious than the Code Red worm that struck on July 19.

Computing

Motif for Infection

A novel computer program pinpoints proteins of troublesome bacteria.

Computing

Automatic Professor Machine

Check out an amazing, new information-dispensing device at the Web site of technology critic Langdon Winner of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Winner’s Automatic Professor Machine delivers online doctoral degrees without the student ever having to set foot on a college campus. A spoof of the distance-learning craze, the site features a news report, radio interview […]

Computing

Making the Macintosh

Interested in computer history? Alex S. Pang of the Stanford University Library has assembled fascinating material from a variety of sources, including papers donated to the university from Apple’s corporate library, to portray the invention and emergence of the Macintosh personal computer. The evolving Web site includes sections on counterculture and computing, the early Macintosh, […]