An Observatory In Every Computer As Virtual Telescope Turns To The Heavens

A free program launched recently will effectively turn every computer that downloads it into a mini-planetarium capable of displaying high-resolution images of millions of stars, planets and other celestial bodies.

Computer Games

RATCHET AND CLANK: TOOLS OF DESTRUCTION No of players: 1 RRP: $109.95 Rated: PG

Commsec Tools Go Out In A Show Of Sympathy

IT WAS a meltdown of grand proportions, and one that sent day traders into a frenzy. But the biggest one-day collapse in the Australian sharemarket in almost 20 years didn't send just the major indices into a nosedive. It also sent the computer system of CommSec - Australia's largest online share broker with 1.4 million clients - to the wall.

Play Dj On Computer

Every Windows PC comes with jukebox software, writes Helen Bradley.

The Keys To A Quick Recovery

Let me count the ways you can lose computer documents.

Be Calculating

Before signing up for a mortgage, you need to do your sums. Perrie Croshaw tracks down some tools to help you cut through the hype.

Get With The Program With Office 2007

IT IS more than 20 years since I started to use Microsoft Word, on an MS-DOS computer. It's nearly as long since I shifted from a now-forgotten spreadsheet program called Quattro Pro to Excel, and from the equally extinct Harvard Graphics to PowerPoint.

Grid Solution Gets Rsp Animated

Rising temperatures aren't just a concern for climate-change experts, computer departments have to tackle them too. By some estimates, half of today's corporate data centres won't have enough power or cooling capacity in just two years.

Help! My Computer Science Crashed

IT professionals are too good at their jobs and now no one needs them. Lia Timson looks at the future of CSci.

Time To Get With The Program, Quit Flogging That Horse

British academic Neil McBride says computer science could be a dying discipline.

Computer's Tale Makes All The Write Moves

MOST authors need a computer to write a book. Meet a computer that doesn't need an author. Dr Rafael Perez y Perez, a computer scientist at the Autonomous Metropolitan University in Mexico City, has developed a program called MEXICA that writes its own stories.

Homemade Tools Fit The Bill

The dream of a paperless office has been advanced by a family effort, Cynthia Karena reports.

A Master Of Playing The Game

Adam Turner meets a developer whose time-wasting gaming led him to work in the industry. PLAYING computer games when you should be writing your thesis doesn't sound like a recipe for success, but for David Giles it led to his big break in the fledgling games industry.

Lock The Doors And Windows

It pays to get a little more familiar with how your computer's security programs work, writes Helen Bradley.

Random Unannounced Attacks On Systems Prove A Valuable Insurance Policy

PATRICK SHEARMAN pays someone to attack the computer networks he runs for health insurer HCF Australia. The attacks by an external security consultant are random, unannounced, and one of the best ways to identify weaknesses, says Mr Shearman, HCF's general manager of information management.

Doing It For Dads. Paris? No. Power Tools? Maybe

Like many of the associated gifts, Father's Day is ingenious if not strictly necessary.

Pranks A Lot

Here are some tricks to play on gullible workmates who leave their computer unattended, writes David Whitley.

Casting A Spell

Grammar. Gotta luv it. Schloppy eg?s of cut?n corners seems to exist everywhere in our language these days, thanks to many things I suspect.

Back To Basics With Buttons

Q On my old computer I placed two very useful little buttons into the Word formatting bar (if that's the right term), such as the double underline. Now, with XP and Word 2003, I can't find them.

Art That Does Compute

A photographer's experimentation with a computer program a decade ago has resulted in an exhibition with a difference.