Slashdot

Recently a distributed computing project was released with the goal of generating perfect rainbow tables. Clients are allocated portions of the table for generation that are uploaded to the server when complete for removal of duplicate and merging chains. The completed tables are not only made available for BitTorrent download but members get credits for the number of chains they have generated. These credits may be used with the novel distributed hash cracker that uses the tables to quickly crack hashes. Tables are be generated for MD5, LM and NTLM hashes. The project is off to a flying start but needs as much CPU power as possible so why not check them out at Free Rainbow Tables and donate a few idle cycles.

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/31/2256206

theodp writes "Demonstrating its commitment to high-quality U.S. patents, Microsoft has submitted a just-published patent application to the USPTO for Automatic Goodbye Messages. By automatically sending messages like 'Have a great afternoon!', 'Sorry, I have got to go!', 'Have a terrific day!', 'Ciao, Harry!', or even a simple 'Bye!' at the end of an IM session, Microsoft explains, one avoids insulting a converser with whom a conversation is ended. Hopefully the USPTO will give this one the quick buh-bye it deserves."