Most desktop computers are idle much of the time.
Piranha allows waste cycles to be recaptured by putting them to work running parallel applications. Today's networked computer systems are very vulnerable to attack. The collision-rich hash function described here permits a secure boot across a public network with no security features. In this fanciful tale, software practitioners lose their self-belief to the forces working against them. There may be a lesson or two as we learn how they regain it.