Computer Applications

After 13 years of brute-force computer analysis examining all 500 billion billion possible board positions, researchers announced Thursday that they had solved the centuries-old game of checkers. The result? A perfect game cannot be won or lost but will inevitably end in a draw, according to the research published in the journal Science online.

In a computer lab at UCLA, the worlds of cyberspace and Medieval Europe merge. A large group of computer engineers, scholars, students and other experts at UCLA have built a virtual cathedral -- a computer re-creation of the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral as the building probably appeared when it was dedicated in northwest Spain in 1211. Projected onto a screen curving nearly a half-circle, the image looks as if it belongs in the virtual world of a video game.

What better way to pay tribute to this era of computer rankings and bowl championship series standings than pre-playing the most anticipated game in BCS history on a computer? The Times asked the people at Whatifsports.com, an Internet site that specializes in sports replays, to simulate today's Rose Bowl matchup between top-ranked USC and No. 2 Texas -- 50 times. One team won 36 of the 50 simulated games, its most representative victory recapped below.

How long does it take to get to Saturn at, say, the speed of light? With Wolfram Alpha, the online "computational knowledge engine" that launched Monday, the answer -- 75 minutes -- can be found in a fraction of a second. Web users can submit customized questions to the service, and Wolfram Alpha will try to work out the answer on the fly. The chance that a healthy 35-year-old woman will contract heart disease in the next 10 years? One in 167. The temperature in Washington, D.C.

Want to put a pillow on your relationship and smother it? Or maybe hit an extended snooze on that incessant biological clock? Grab your Apple iPhone: There's an app for that. Girlfriend Keeper Price: 99 cents What it is: For some reason, that David Lee Roth song "Just a Gigolo" from the '80s kept playing in my head when I set this one up. The app's name might be ironic. The app is either a fun, lighthearted take on flirtation or the lazy lover's crutch to communication.

Researchers using computer analysis have traced the origin of the famed Hope Diamond, concluding that it was cut from a larger stone that was once part of the crown jewels of France. A French connection had been suspected for the Hope Diamond, but the study showed how it would have fit inside the larger French Blue Diamond and how that gem was cut, Smithsonian Institution gem curator Jeffrey Post said.

Geoff Lester's two iPods can hold 20,000 songs, so he turned to the iTunes Music Store, which stocks 1.5 million online selections. But how to choose? After the 28-year-old Los Angeles resident picked a few tracks, the software algorithms powering iTunes took over, popping out song after song they calculated that he might like. He did. He estimates that he bought 500 tracks he otherwise wouldn't have over the last two years.

Digital video recording pioneer ReplayTV plans to announce today that it will start selling software next year that helps personal-computer users tune in to and record live television. The company said its software would be sold with Hauppauge Digital Inc.'s WinTV-PVR tuner-encoder card, hardware that can be added to a PC. ReplayTV, owned by D&M Holdings Inc.

Every crime fighter needs a sidekick. For Batman it was Robin. For Starsky it was Hutch. For Sherlock Holmes it was Dr. Watson. And if LAPD Assistant Chief George Gascon gets his way, Los Angeles police officers will soon have a new digital partner. Named COPLINK, it is a computer program that can do in minutes what would take an LAPD detective weeks. The system makes many police databases detailing everything from arrests to gang names to 911 calls work as one.

The kid had never been in a title bout. In fact, ChessBrain was just 3 years old and had never gone one-on-one with a human being, let alone one of Denmark's top players, ranked 53rd in the world. But there they were on a snowy night in Copenhagen, eager to engage in battle. The Jan.