ON a cold February afternoon this year, a wheelchair equipped with sensors and a computer rolled across the busy concourse of a railway station in Ulm, Germany, dodging passengers and piles of baggage.
When Ciarelli scored yet another scoop in late December, by predicting the arrival of a new software package and a sub-$500 computer rolled out at this week's MacWorld Conference and Expo in San Francisco, the computer maker filed a lawsuit accusing him of illegally misappropriating trade secrets.
By having a computer roll dice, hundreds or thousands of times.
An enterprising modder named Cuzza over in the TechPowerUp forums laid out $4 for the old-timey computer, rolled up his sleeves, and got to work.
They added cameras, gyros, G.P.S. modules, computers, roll bars, and an electric motor to turn the wheel.
The elevator opened and the computer accidentally rolled into it.
In that August week, operators spent less time taking calls, suggesting that despite its initial problems, the new computer interface rolled out in May was working as designed.
For example, in one study in my lab led by Paul Piff, participants played a gambling game, pressing a key on a computer that rolled a virtual dice.
The soap-opera woman was now in a courtroom, her testimony about to convict the brother she didn't know for a grave crime involving a computer disk — roll credits.
Emmanuel Dania, a tall, fit, British-educated computer consultant, rolled into the V.I.P. parking area of Redemption Camp in an air-conditioned white Toyota pickup truck, then high-fived a friend who had arrived in his own chauffeur-driven BMW.
