Tucked away in every computer is a so-called random number generator. Some (hard-core scientists, right-wing religionists, admirers of Julia Child) believe that these little gadgets are autonomous: Your computer needs a random number, it gets a random number.

Others (Art Bell callers, lovers of trees, writers for crazed Internet magazines) suspect that these random number devices can at times be influenced by um psychic forces. Or at least, like the coins tossed for an I Ching reading, they may synchronously reflect the "reality" of a given moment.

Given the pretty rocky start that the new millennium has got off to, we thought a little cybernetically "random" advice might be helpful to our readers.

So. Another free existential service of Magellan's Log. Help yourself: