[Calvin Locke]

The program analyzes images you see on the Web and presents similar products that might have lower prices.

Ah so, it also takes up cpu cycles in addition to memory...

Reminds me of a documentary on spies trying to discern what was going on with Reagan's Star Wars research.

A very anal [retentive] systems adminstrator noticed some missing cpu time, in the order of a couple hundred milliseconds (iirc), and it led to the breaking of a spy ring.

[NorthMountain]

I worked as SYSADM for a while (aeons ago).

A man’s got to know his limitations. I’m simply NOT anal retentive enough for the job. I moved on to other things ...

[DUMBGRUNT]

“The Cuckoo’s Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage”
Cliff Stoll

???

[Bob]

There was a book named “The Cukoo’s Egg” by Richard Stoll that described the whole process of discovering and eventually tracking down the hackers. While it’s been a number of years since I’ve read it, I do recall that it was a very interesting story and very well told.

[GeronL]

back then CPU time was more expensive compared to now

[Boogieman]

I think you are probably talking about this guy’s story:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo%27s_Egg

The discovery all started when they noticed 9 seconds of CPU usage hadn’t been paid for.