Computers good fit for students

SPRINGFIELD - By day, they work on the computers they love.

By night, Christopher T. Walker-Ray, of Sunderland, and Ian C. Ricci, of Springfield, are still at it - working on their computers.

The two student computer wizards, one currently at Springfield Technical Community College student, the other a STCC graduate, have created computer applications, one that will solve even the most difficult of the popular Sudoku numerical puzzles, and the other spyware that can track Web site visitors for marketing purposes.

And both are available, at no cost, on the World Wide Web.

For Ricci, 25, and now a junior at the University of Massachusetts, studying computer science, tapping his fingers on a keyboard and figuring out the formulas behind the programs and applications has been a natural fit all his life.

"My first two words were 'Atari' and 'computer,'" he said with a laugh. "It's right in my baby book."

It was Ricci who last year, while a senior at STCC, devised the spyware program after a challenge by his professor, computer science program coordinator Antonio C. Silvestri.

"He wanted a program that could trace Internet users and worked on multiple platforms," Ricci said.

The program, which he calls RDNS, works like a reverse telephone directory, tracking back from the Internet protocol address to find the host name and other data from Web users.

The application can be found and used from Ricci's Web site, www.remagine.net

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