Link dump: 2009.10.17

From the four corners of the web:

• Wolfram Alpha's Second Act
  Following a sharp drop in interest, the "computational knowledge engine" pins hopes on API--and homework.
• The Future of Supercomputers is Optical
  An IBM researcher gives a timeline for developing the next generation of supercomputers.
• Google Profits Up 27% in Q3
  Google's quarterly profits jumped 27 percent, year over year, to $1.65 billion, marking a very strong showing in the third quarter of a tough year and outstripping analyst's predictions of results for the search and advertising giant.
• Three Google Wave Searches Worth Saving - Searches - Lifehacker
  After only a few weeks of Wave usage, my inbox is full of waves from strangers and items I don't particularly care about. Rather than archiving everything in Wave, I'm going with the flow–with the help of saved searches.